There was no urgency in me, those dark tendrils of frantic need, of constantly having to keep going, to go harder, to do more, no longer running through my bloodstream.
And it was because of my soft, sweet girl right beside me.
She was the antidote to the poison in my veins.
And I knew she’d ask to go back to the city, but I couldn’t let her go. I couldn’t give her up. Not when she made me feel like this.
I scrubbed a hand over my face, opened my eyes, and looked at Anastasia. I didn’t know how long I stared at her, watching her sleep, but I felt this tightening in my body, the hairs on the back of my neck prickling.
I didn’t waste any time as I slowly slipped out of bed, quietly put on some clothes, and grabbed the gun that I kept underneath my pillow.
And then I walked into the kitchen, grabbed my cell phone that wasn’t the burner, and brought up the security app. I brought up all the cameras stationed around the property.
At first I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. But my body was telling me something was off. I’d been trained for this situation and knew when I wasn’t alone.
And that was when I saw the shadows keeping close to the tree line.
I made quick work of slipping the phone in my back pocket and walking over to my duffel to grab a couple more guns. My body was the only weapon I needed to kill a man, but I wouldn’t take any risks with her.
Then I was heading to the bedroom.
I knew they’d come for her. I didn’t know how they got here, or how Vladimir found me.
I racked my brain on how they’d gotten here, then it clicked into place. The shit I’d gotten from her apartment, the clothes and items that I took to make her feel more at ease. Fuck. I’d checked everything for a tracking device, knowing Vladimir wasn’t above doing shit like knowing where Anastasia was at all times.
But I had to have missed something, and as I retraced in my mind what I’d taken, I looked back at her sleeping form, the moonlight catching the silver chain and locket hanging around her throat.
I was beside her in seconds, reaching out and lifting the locket. She stirred as I turned it over, then opened it. I stared at the picture of the two of us, then popped them out.
Motherfucker.
Right there, the tiniest, state-of-the-art fucking tracker.
I heard them come onto the porch and gritted my teeth as that familiar rage rose in me. But it was even more intense, more primal. It was my anger mixed with the need to protect what was mine. Anastasia.
I could run with her, but I wasn’t a coward.
I was the one they ran from.
I was the predator and they were my prey.
Chapter
Twenty-Four
Anastasia
“Anastasia, baby, you gotta get up.”
It wasn’t the words or the deep tenor of Kostya’s voice that had woken me. It was his tone.
Fierce. Urgent.
I roused just as I felt him move the long fall of my hair away from my face. I was still half asleep when I pushed up on my elbows to blink open my eyes fully.
But when I felt something very heavy and cold pressed to my hand, I woke up really damn fast.
“What’s wrong? What’s going on?” As I stared into Kostya’s face and saw the severity and ruthlessness of his expression, my blood ran cold.
“They’re here, milaya moyna.”
I looked down at the gun. God, it was heavy.
I heard metal on metal and glanced at Kostya to see him pulling out the magazine of his gun, checking to make sure it was full before putting it back in with a resounding click.
And then I heard the sound of creaking out on the porch. Someone was right outside. That was the only warning we got before the front door crashed inward.
A startled scream left me before I knew what was happening. Kostya had me off the bed and pushed down to the ground a second later.
I could hear disjointed Russian being spit out toward the front of the house, but all I heard clearly was the rushing of blood through my ears and the sound of my pulse beating drastically.
I was vaguely aware of Kostya telling me to stay down and to shoot anyone who came at me. I had no idea what the danger was, and it was too dark in the house to see much of anything. I lifted my head and looked over the bed to glance out in the hallway. But all I saw were shadows.
But then I heard something far too familiar. My father’s voice as he cursed out Kostya.
Oh, God.
I heard the rapid succession of a gun going off.
Poppoppop.
My heart was racing, and I was glad I at least had the common sense to put on a shirt when I’d gotten up earlier.