“I’m scared. I have this terrible feeling I’m never going to see you again,” I blurted as he turned from me. I clung to his hoodie, trailing after him.
He stopped at the door and pulled me close. Leaning back, he slid a hand around my jaw and cupped my face, stroking his thumb across the apple of my cheek. It was a testament to how jumbled my thoughts were. I couldn’t quite understand everything he was saying, but I clung to him, nonetheless.
“You’re mine, Molly. Only mine. And I’m yours. We are two parts of a whole. No power in this world can change that.” His lips touched mine, and I clung desperately to him as he kissed me.
It wasn’t pretty, and it certainly wouldn’t make its way into any romantic movies. Our noses bumped, and our teeth clashed. I swayed against him and lost my balance. He caught me deftly, and I realized it was what he always did. I wobbled, and he was there to catch me.
His tongue slid between my lips and stroked mine tentatively, setting my body on fire. I shivered in his arms as he latched onto my fuller bottom lip and sucked it into his mouth. The gentle sucking made me gasp, and I pressed my body against him, rubbing my growing breasts against his hard chest, wanting more friction. Wanting more of everything.
He pulled back with a growl as though parting was painful. I understood how he felt—trying to separate two magnets that wanted to snap together. I was breathing hard, and my tears were lines of dried salt against my cheeks as my heart pounded in my chest.
Kirill stroked my back, and I knew I’d never forget the look on his face. It was tender and protective. It was love, and I knew I looked the same. All the broken and scarred pieces of my heart fit perfectly into the missing pieces of his. A puzzle finally made whole only when we were together.
Kirill sighed, a long, sad sound, and leaned his lips against my forehead.“I am going to take care of you, Molly, but you need to let me.”
I nodded.“What should I do?” I needed to help somehow, however small.
“You don’t need to do anything. Wait with your mother and comfort her. She’ll know something is wrong. I’ll take care of everything. Just wait for me,” he said gruffly, pressing a kiss to my forehead again, though this time, the sensation sent sparks of pleasure sinking into my skin. “Just wait for me.”
* * *
I was grippingmy mother’s hand and staring at my phone when Henry barged into the room. He was white-faced and sweating, and his eyes were wide like a wild man’s.
“Pack some stuff. We’re getting out of here,” he grunted, grabbing a bag from under my mother’s bed and shoving things into it.
“What do you mean, getting out of here? I told you Kirill was getting the money,” I protested.
“Right, and I’m going to put my fate in the hands of some punk. All he’s done is buy us time while they beat him. Get your stuff or stay here and wait for them to come and take you,” he snarled at me.
I watched him whirl around the room, shoving Maura’s medications into a bag. Everything else spiraled away from me. Hurt Kirill? I felt sick to my stomach.
“I won’t go,” I said firmly.
Henry crossed to me in a flash and grabbed my phone out of my hand as I swiped it open. He turned and dropped it into a vase full of water. It sank around the rose stems. I gaped at it before reaching in and grabbing it. As I turned it in my hand, going for the card inside, he snatched it out of my hands again, and it clattered to the floor.
“No calls, no warning anyone. We go now,” my father said flatly.
“I won’t leave before I speak to him,” I insisted, going to pick up the phone again.
My father brought his heel down on the glass repeatedly, viciously smashing it into pieces.
“No!” I cried as I pulled his foot away and grabbed it.
The shards of glass dug in a long line down my palm as my father put his foot on my hand, crushing it mercilessly into the floor.
I cried out as he pulled me up, and I dropped the ruined handset from my bleeding hand. “You’ve lost your mind!”
The first slap stung. The second hit my ear, and the sounds in the room felt far away. I was no stranger to my father’s fists, so I recovered quickly. I heard my mother’s strangled yelp and turned to see my father ripping her out of her wheelchair.
“What are you doing?” My voice was hysterical as I scrambled after them.
He carried her down the long sweeping staircase and out to a waiting car. “I’m not waiting around here to be cut up and murdered. Stay if you want, but say goodbye to your mother,” Henry barked at me, rounding the car to the driver’s side.
My mother was crying. Tears tracked down her cheeks as she reached for me, her weak hands grasping in the air. My tears joined hers as the shock wore off. Everything was suddenly too real. I couldn’t stand it. And I couldn’t leave her with my father. I couldn’t leave her alone.
As soon as I got in the car, my father floored the gas, and we shot off down the gravel drive. I twisted in my seat and stared back at my house. The only home I’d ever known. The lights were all on, and the door sat ajar. Everything I owned was inside. Everything I knew.
My mother grasped my hand and gave it a weak squeeze. I turned to look at her, my heart breaking at the terror on her face. I wrapped my arm around her fragile shoulders and pulled her into me, comforting her with the only thing I had left.