26
JESSA
Everything hurts.
Smoke stings my eyes, my head throbs, and my skin feels hot and prickly. It feels like there is fiberglass in my lungs.
“Oh my God,” I whisper over and over again. “Did that really just happen?”
I feel someone pulling me along, and I look up and see his gray eyes. They seem emotionless on the surface, but I’ve known him long enough to know that he’s furious. Seething, in fact.
“Anton?”
“Are you okay?” he asks, twisting me around so that my back is to the building. So I can’t see my burning apartment.
I can hear sirens in the distance closing in. Then I feel moisture on my cheek. For a second, I think it’s raining. Then I realize it’s a tear.
“Anton,” I say again, even though I have no idea what I’m trying to get out.
“Jessa. Breathe,” he tells me.
He pushes something into my hand. I look down dumbly to see it’s a bottle of water. Where did he even get that from?
“Drink,” he tells me.
I just stand there, too stunned to move. “My apartment…”
“Your apartment is gone now.”
“What about the others?” I ask as the enormity of what has happened sinks in. “My neighbors. Oh my god, Mrs. Harrison. And there’s a couple on the second floor. They have a baby.”
“Look at the building, Jessa,” Anton says, twisting me around again. There’s smoke surrounding the building, pouring into the sky. But it all seems to be coming from one apartment. “Your apartment is the only one that exploded. The others are intact. This was an assassination attempt.”
“Marina,” I whisper.
“Fucking Marina.”
Realization dawns, and I grab Anton’s arm. “If you hadn’t pulled over when I felt nauseous… we’d have been in there when the explosion went off.”
“The timing…” he says under his breath. “She’s watching us. Even now.”
What little sense of calm I managed to find on the drive is completely shattered, along with my hope that this is going to end soon.
We’ve all underestimated Marina and her violent ambitions.
“Let’s go.”
“Let’s go?” I repeat stupidly. “I’m not leaving my apart—”
“Jessa, there’s nothing you can do here. There’s nothing either of us can do. We need to go.”
“Your wife is trying to kill your child,” I whisper as my thoughts turn morbid. “One of these days, she’s going to succeed.”
Suddenly, Anton wraps his arm around my waist and whisks me away from the road towards a row of hedges nearby. He grabs my chin and forces my eyes up to his.
“Listen to me,” he says fiercely. “I know you’re in shock. I know you’re panicking now. But believe me when I tell you that she will not fucking succeed. I will kill that bitch before she ever hurts you.”
“She’s dangerous, Anton.”