Page 7

“And you’re sure this is a good idea?” I asked for the hundredth time. And, again, earned a tired, frustrated growl-slash-sigh from Jayden.

Upfront, he stopped walking and turned around with his flashlight pointed directly at me. I squinted, raising my arms to shield my eyes from the bright rays. We were in an abandoned dry canal—one I didn’t know how Jayden had managed to find. Dressed in a black hoodie with a backpack slung over his shoulder, standing at the center with that annoying flashlight, he looked like a villain—a teenage ninja villain.

But it was just Jayden.

“Take that thing out of my face, please.”

I couldn’t see his face, but I knew my brother well enough to feel his vexed eye roll. He dropped the flashlight and turned his back to me, continuing his trek down the canal. Quietly, I shifted the knapsack on my backpack, following the sharp outline of his broad back as he trudged deeper into the swallowing darkness.

“No, it’s not a good idea,” his voice echoed around us, accompanied by the crunch of tiny stones under our boots. “It’s not good or great or the best. But, for the hundredth time, Serena, it’s the only option we have.”

“What if the Russians find us?”

“Oh, my fucking—”

“Jayden!” I hissed. “Language!”

We never swore at each other, or swore at all, for the matter. Growing up, he might not remember, but I did…the swear jar Daddy fixed up in the kitchen. We—rather, Jayden—lost a dollar from his allowance or gift money for every curse word he spoke, and the bulk of it was donated to charity.

He stopped walking, his voice a notch louder now. “Well, you’re not making it any easier. The plan is to get to Matteo first and make it out of the country, and then we’ll worry about hiding our identities later. Let’s just get out of here first, okay? Your incessant questions and anxiety are not what we need now.”

Begrudgingly, I held back a response, and he took my silence as an agreement, resuming his walk. How could he blame me for asking questions and being anxious when we were literally embarking on an unknown trip? I couldn’t even remember the last time we had to travel out of the state. The last family field trip was years ago and a complete disaster. It had started with Jayden whining about not wanting to spend the weekend in the woods. Then, later that night, Jay and I barely caught a wink of sleep. Mom and Dad were up, arguing from dusk till after midnight. It was heated. Hurtful words were exchanged, hearts were broken, tears were shed, and by dawn, it was no surprise when our father drove us back to the house without Mom. She’d left and never bothered to come back.

Now, my little brother, who was really not so little anymore, expected me to run away from everything—from the life we’d managed to build, my career, his education—just like that? With no questions asked?

Hours earlier, back at the house, we’d stuffed our knapsacks with everything we thought we needed to start a new, temporary life: a few clothes, snacks, IDs, money, and flashlights. I’d had tears in my eyes when we snuck out of the house after Jayden confirmed that the watchman was asleep. We were turning our backs on everything, which was ripping my heart to shreds.

“Why is he even helping us?” I voiced when we exited the canal, finally stepping into the bright white streetlights and soft noises of civilization. Around us was the vastness of rusty construction equipment on deserted land, and southward was a glimpse of buildings. We went south, tiptoeing through the back of old abandoned brick buildings, heading for a slim alley.

“It’s what friends do.”

“Jayden.” I glared at his back. “Please be serious. If this ‘friend’ of yours is helping us, then it means he knows why. Why would he risk his neck for something he’s not a part of?”

I’d done a bit of research, gathering sufficient information to better understand our adversary—the Russians. Jay hadn’t been bluffing when he described them as ruthless. Anyone willing to go up against them had to have a valid reason and be fully, one hundred percent, equipped for battle. So, it didn’t make sense that the Italian Don’s youngest son, Matteo Colombo, would be willing to stick his neck on the slaughter board, friend or not.

Jay waved a hand dismissively. “To piss them off.”

I scoffed but didn’t bother saying anything. Trust a bunch of seventeen-year-olds to embark on a dangerous mission just to “piss off” their opponent.

Shaking my head, I tried to soothe my aching heart.

This generation.

“There…!” The sound of excitement in Jay’s voice made me look ahead to what he pointed at. It was a car. Specifically, a black-tinted luxury vehicle, sitting pretty by the pavement, with its roof gleaming under one of the streetlights. “He told me to take the car by the fifth building.”

A Porsche.

Talk about being discreet.

I didn’t have to ask; that had to be Matteo. But, as much as I tried to seal it in, hiding my distaste proved difficult. “What happened to simple cars? A Honda Odyssey would have scaled through just fine.”

Jayden shot me an are-you-serious-right-now look over his shoulder, still marching forward toward the pavement.

“They don’t have Honda Odysseys,” he emphasized, like that wasn’t already obvious. “And they don’t do simple.”

Then, he halted in his tracks, allowing me to step beside his huge frame. Taking my hands in his, he let me in, permitting me to see the fear in his eyes for the first time that night.

“Look, Seri, I know this is not the life you planned for either of us. You’ll miss your kids at school, you’ll miss the house, you’ll miss everything. But none of us could have known what Dad did, the debt he owed. I promise we’ll sort out this mess after we leave. Those goons can’t know we’re gone.”

Sniffling tears, I nodded and pulled him in for a brief hug before we got to the car. Subtly, he knocked on the window three times. It was eerie, like a secret Morse code only he and the driver understood, and when the door opened and the driver walked up to us, I blinked in disbelief.

The last time I checked, Matteo did not have enviable slender feminine curves, short wavy brown hair, or piercing hazel eyes that stared right into my soul.

Jayden wore a similar expression of shock on his face as we looked up at the fierce-looking woman. Well, I looked up. She was almost at Jayden’s eye level, so he didn’t have to.

This stunning stranger looked young but had a lot of fire burning those eyes of hers that told of secrets and wild experiences I would probably never have. Striking a more daring pose and glancing between Jay and me, she extended her hands, palms up.

“Your phones,” was all she said. And even the sonorous sound of her voice had the power to command the very air we breathed.

Jay and I exchanged concerned looks, our own secret code. His brows twitched, which meant he trusted her. I would have refused with a head shake, but he had already handed his phone over to her.

Her fingers curled outward and inward, beckoning on mine. Swallowing, and very hesitant, I slid my phone into her smooth palms. Silver knuckle rings glinted under the light as she fisted our devices, plucked out our SIM cards…and broke them.

I was halfway through an unbelievable gasp when she dropped the phones to the ground and crushed them with the heels of her boots on the concrete.

“Timur’s probably tracking you guys already, and you don’t even know it. Get in the car.”

Jayden didn’t flinch. I was close to hyperventilating.

They got in the front, I shut the back door, and the engines purred. From the rearview mirror, I watched her, almost flinching at the fearlessness in her gaze when she caught my eyes.

Swiftly, I looked away.

Who was this woman who made my heart churn with a pinch of annoyance, envy, and admiration? It’d been a long time since I sighted another woman and felt the desire to possess a bit of her personality. It wasn’t only the black leather jacket, matching skinny jeans, and killer boots that caught my attention. Her daring aura and bravado reminded me of all I was not.

“Who are you?”

Drumming her fingers rhythmically on the steering wheel, she shrugged. “Just an older sister looking out for her brother.” She glanced at Jayden and went back to the road. “You can relate.”

In short, she was the Italian Don’s daughter—most likely the more rebellious one between the two. And now, as I looked closer, I spotted the resemblance, starting from the stubbornness.

She was still talking, explaining her reason for coming for us instead of Matteo. Apparently, she didn’t want her brother meddling in the Bratva’s business. Their father could have his head if he heard of such nonsense—my diluted version, because she cursed a lot . Matteo had a hard head, so he wasn’t going to back down; he was going to help his friend, upset the Russians, and then get into a truckload of trouble.

Leonara, as we learned her name was, had decided to take matters into her own hands and stick her neck into the invisible feud to keep her brother far from the mess.

“I run my own shit,” she announced, plunging the car past a red light at breakneck speed. “I’m taking you to a man. His name’s Antonio. He’ll hand you both some fake IDs, take you past some borders, and then you’re on your own. I won’t call him a friend, but you can trust him.”

I didn’t like the sound of that, but Jayden was quicker to interrupt with his own concerns. Shifting on his seat, he faced her, the trembles in his voice betraying the mask of indifference on his face.

“Take us past some borders, fake IDs…. Where exactly are we going? We have to at least know where we’re going, right? That’ll give us some sort of soft landing.”

Leonara refused to give him a hint and continued beating around the bush. But Jay, being adamant and intent on uncovering her decrypted instructions, kept on with the arguments. If my brother didn’t already know it, we’d met someone more stubborn than him and his “good friend” Matteo combined. She obviously wasn’t going to let up anytime soon. In my opinion, the sooner he kept quiet, the sooner we got to our destination without angering the Italian goddess.

Watching them bicker back and forth grew tiring. I took my eyes off them and faced the road. That’s when I saw….

“Leonara!” Her name was out of my mouth faster than I should’ve called the real legal authorities for help. “Look out!”

Thankfully, they snapped out of the heated conversation and looked fast enough to see the crazy man in a dark coat and black outfit standing in the middle of the road with his hand stretched toward us. More accurately, with a gun in hand.

We were close enough to see the faint smirk curl on his lips right before we heard a loud resounding “Bam!” A gunshot sound.

The tire burst, and the car swerved wildly. Leonara struggled to maintain control, but we all knew it was too late. The vehicle drifted, and before I knew it, we were careening off the road. The world spun around me as the car flipped to its side. My head smashed against the window, and everything blurred.

“Jay….” I was panicking, trying to move, trying to reach my brother. “Jay!”

My heart sank at the sight of the passenger seat. My baby brother was covered in blood, his face pale, and I couldn’t tell If he was breathing. “Jay! No, no, no, no!”

I screamed as loud as my pounding head allowed, but he didn’t respond. Leonara, too, lay motionless beside me.

As I struggled to process the chaos around me, how our lives had literally turned to a crumpled heap in a brief moment, the man approached, his footsteps crunching on gravel and broken glass. In the midst of grey smoke curling in the air, my vision wavered, but his face came into focus.

My blood ran cold. He looked uncannily like the man we were running away from—like Timur.

A sinister grin spread across his face, and his eyes gleamed with wicked excitement.

I heard his chilling chuckle, and the last thing I remembered was that it hadn’t rained today.

Then, everything went black.