I never thought that would be the case. But I think I care about him.
Ripping my eyes away, I motion for Mila and Vik to hurry downstairs. They keep their steps light as they hold the suitcases up from banging on the steps.
Then, we walk right through the front door without anyone stopping us.
A guard is stationed at the end of the hall—one of Mikhail’s men. Shoot. I didn’t think about that.
He glances at us as we walk past. “Do you need assistance, Mrs. Ivanov?” he asks.
“No. My sisters and I are just going out for coffee. We’ll be right across the street.”
“I’ll let Mr. Ivanov know.” He pulls out his phone.
“My husband already knows. But you can call him. We’ll be going now.”
“I should go with,” he says. “You’ll need protection.”
“It’s just coffee.”
His eyes narrow slightly. “It’s my job, miss.”
“Ok,” I say, forcing my tone to be cheerful. “Let’s go get coffee.”
“Why do you have your suitcase?” he asks as we leave the building.
“It’s more convenient than carrying a purse.”
“Yeah,” Vik adds. “More room for tampons and pads.”
That makes the guard go red in the face, and he coughs and looks away. “Understood.”
One perk of being a woman—we can always use the tampon excuse to freak men out.
We head across the street to the same café Irina works at and settle down at a table while the guard remains outside. Unfortunately, he has a clear view of us through the large windows out front.
“What are we going to do?” Vik whispers.
“We need to sneak past him,” I respond. I look around the café, and my eyes land on Irina, leaving the back room. I get up and approach her. “I need your help.”
She eyes me over dubiously. “With what?”
“I need to escape out your back door. Can you go outside and distract that man?” I subtly point to the guard.
“Finally had enough of your husband?” she asks.
“You can have him to yourself again if you help me.”
Irina looks me over before sighing. “Fine. You can use the back door.” She heads outside and approaches the guard. I’m not sure what she says to him, but his attention is riveted to her.
I motion for my sisters to follow me. We hurry through the back entrance and out into an alleyway. We deliberately go in the other direction to avoid the guard.
“We need a taxi,” Vik grumbles, limping behind with her cast.
When we reach the main road, I flag down the nearest taxi. It takes a few minutes to do so, and every minute that passes fills me more and more with worry.
A tax starts making its way toward us, but then a black SUV pulls ahead and parks directly in front of us. The window rolls down, revealing Andrei behind the wheel.
I stumble back. “How …”
His smile is wicked. Pure evil. “You didn’t think you could escape, could you?”
“We’ve only been gone minutes,” Vik says.
“And Mikhail has already sent word to his men to keep an eye out for you three. Well, mostly his wife. He doesn’t really care what happens to you two.” He looks directly at Mila and Vik.
“You’re going to take us back to Mikhail?” I ask.
“Yes. Get in. And remember, you can try to run, but you won’t make it far.” He’s right. Vik can’t run with her cast, and I can’t let her or Mila get hurt because Mikhail wants me.
“Fine,” I say, feeling my every ounce of freedom leave my body.
Andrei gets out and opens the back door for us.
“So much for escape,” Vik mutters, getting into the car, followed by Mila. When I try to get in, Andrei stops me.
“You’ll sit up front with me,” he says, opening the passenger door. Without meeting his eyes, I get into the car. The slam of the door shutting makes me jump. Andrei gets back behind the wheel and takes off.
We’re only minutes from Mikhail’s apartment, but Andrei doesn’t take us there. It becomes obvious when we pass Mikhail’s apartment and keep on driving.
