Page 185 of Wicked Refusal

It breaks me to hear it. To hear my five-year-old kid beg his biological father to spare his life. It would break anyone with a heart—anyone at all.

Turns out, it breaks Brad, too.

Slowly, he lowers his gun. It’s still shaking, but it’s pointed at the ground now, not Eli.

“Go,” he rasps.

Eli doesn’t need to hear it twice. He runs into my arms. “Mommy!”

I wrap myself around him, squeeze him tight against me. “I’ve got you, baby,” I whimper. “Mommy’s got you.”

We’re both crying, a mess of tears and snot, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing else matters—just this.

I lock eyes with Brad behind Eli’s back. “Thank you,” I mouth.

He nods once.

Then a gunshot rings out.

I see it happen in slow motion. Brad’s shaking fingers, pulling the trigger by mistake. A bullet flying from his gun.

Another bullet, flying towardshim.

And then smoke, rising from Yulian’s gun.

64

MIA

Brad’s body lurches back, as if thrown by an invisible hand. His back hits the ground with athump.Dread rises within me, my heart still pumping with adrenaline from everything that just happened.

I keep both hands firmly over Eli’s ears. “It’s okay,” I croon, calming him down as he shakes. “We’re okay.”

But Brad is not.

I can still see the smoke rising from Yulian’s gun. He’s standing next to us, impassive, the cold eyes of a general on the battlefield.

My gaze darts to Brad’s body, lying face-up on the ground.

“I’ve got him,” Nik urges, scooping Eli in her arms. “Go.”

Slowly, I walk up to the body. Yulian falls into step with me, pocketing Brad’s gun on the way over.

Then I see it.

A bullet hole?—

In Brad’sshoulder.

I slump with relief. “You didn’t…”

“No, I didn’t kill him.” Going by Yulian’s tone, it cost him a great deal of restraint. “I knew you wouldn’t want it.”

My heart fills with warmth. Because he listened to me, because he put my needs for peace before his thirst for blood. Because he putmy son’sneeds above everything else.

“Thank you,” I murmur.

But my gratitude is short-lived. Soon, another feeling overtakes it. Something I’ve been smothering for Eli’s sake, so I could save him and comfort him. As I watch Brad writhe on the concrete, that feeling leaps to the forefront, and suddenly, I remember its name.