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A wobbly, slightly watery smile practically beaming from her beautiful face, she peppered my cheeks in kisses, saying, "I love you too, Pavel, so much, and I can't wait for us to meet our chi?—"

Blinding white light exploded through the windshield, turning the world into a glaring nightmare.

Another set of headlights blazed to life behind us, filling the rearview mirror and effectively blinding us.

My chest tightened.

This wasn’t random.

This was a coordinated attack.

"Get down!" I roared, throwing the Range Rover into Drive.

The engine screamed as I floored the accelerator, but we were boxed in, with nowhere to run. Trees and guardrails on both sides, death closing in from the front and back.

In the driver's side mirror, I caught the silhouette of assault rifles being raised.

"Pavel!" Alina's terrified scream cut through the chaos.

The first shots shattered our rear window.

They weren't trying to capture us.

They were here to kill my wife and my unborn child.

Over my dead fucking body.

Metal shrieked against metal as we collided with the barrier.

The other car didn't stop—it pushed harder, grinding against us until our Range Rover flipped over the railing.

Glass erupted in a thousand deadly fragments as we tumbled off the elevated road into the dense forest below.

The world became a chaos of spinning metal, shattering glass, exploding airbags, and the sickening crunch of trees splintering against our car.

Then nothing but cold, horrifying darkness.

CHAPTER 35

ALINA

Blood. Smoke. Silence.

Unfamiliar voices drifted through the haze—flowing, melodic words I couldn't understand. Italian, maybe Spanish.

The sharp ringing in my ears made it hard to focus, competing with the insistent dinging from the dashboard.

Every breath brought the acrid taste of blood, gasoline, and burnt rubber, burning my lungs and making me cough.

Each movement sent lightning bolts of agony through my skull.

Sirens wailed in the distance, but I couldn't tell how far away they were—or even if they were for us. The sound warped and twisted as I fought to open my eyes and take stock of the wreckage.

What the hell had just happened?

My vision swam as I reached toward the driver's side, desperate to touch my husband. I needed to know Pavel was okay.

My hand found his shoulder, then his neck, feeling for his pulse. Strong and steady.