The Runaway

Malda:
America was the land of opportunity, and God only knew I needed some help.
My body was ruined. My life was worthless, deemed so by the powers that be.
I had nothing, was no one, and my only worth was to find a place to stick me where I could be ignored.
Something I was used to after five years was being in pain, and I never thought I’d be able to leave the Bratva for a life outside it.
America. . . the wonderful place where my terrors couldn’t reach to haunt me. Where my past didn’t matter, and the future was bright.
The escape wasn’t mine to decide. My freedom was flicked at me like a tissue in the rain.
But it was an offer I couldn’t refuse, even for a second.

Jacob:
I lived a normal New Yorker life. An asshole cousin I couldn’t stand. An overbeating mom. A job I liked and an overpriced apartment.
The only thing I was missing was a good-looking girl with a great personality to complete my picture-perfect American dream.
Malda wasn’t perfect, but that was what drew me to her like a moth to a flame. She ran and ran and never stopped until she found safety from a situation I couldn’t even fathom.
Strength and poise, wariness of a woman aware, she awakened a protective instinct in me that the suburban streets of New York City had dulled.
At what point did I fall for her? It had to be the first time I saw her at the bar, just a few hours after she’d landed. Her thick accent and crappy English were endearing.
Wherever I went in this huge city, she somehow found me, and I started expecting to run into her.
Malda was unlike any woman I’d ever met, and nothing was going to stop me from exploring our bond- even her.