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“You can leave now,” I tell him.
“What about the Pakhan?” he says, meaning ten-year-old Drake.
“I’m taking care of my woman and her brother,” I snap. “So either step aside, or we’ll settle it like men.”
After a moment, Oleg swallows and steps aside.
“And Oleg,” I say before he leaves. “If Mila, Drake, and I decide to take a trip to escape all this madness, don’t follow us.”
Then he sighs and walks down the hallway, shaking his head. I knock on the door. Mila calls, “Yes?”
I smile, taking a moment to savor the sound of her voice. She’s been so stressed and tense ever since this started, but there’s something different in her tone now.
“It’s me,” I say.
“Come in. There’s someone who wants to meet you.”
I take another moment to compose myself. I don’t want to scare the kid. I try to remember the man I was before this all started, and I laid eyes on my woman, but it’s impossible. It’s like the world didn’t exist before her.
After everything that’s happened, the last thing I want to do is scare an innocent child. As I push the door open, something changes in me when I see Mila standing there with one hand on her brother’s shoulder. She looks so different, flooded with fresh energy. She looks like how she does when she’s absorbedin her programming, her attention completely fixated on it and nothing else.
“Drake,” she says. “This is Mikhail, my … boyfriend?”
She makes it a question, but I smile and shake my head, and then she repeats it with more confidence. “Mikhail is my boyfriend.”
“Whoa,” Drake says, looking up at me as I approach. “You’re really big.”
I grin, somehow forgetting what I just did to this boy’s father, but that’s what this world is. As much as I’d prefer it to be as clean-cut as lines of code, that will never be the case. There are always going to be tradeoffs, ugliness, and evil. However, I can make the world better and brighter for these two people.
“Just wait until your growth spurt hits,” I tell him. “You’ll be towering over me.”
He beams up at me.
CHAPTER 23
MILA
Istand on the back porch of the safe house, a mug of coffee cradled in my hands as I look out the window and watch Mikhail and Drake wrestling in the grass. After Mikhail took us from the party, he said,“I’ve already told Oleg, and now I’m telling Dimitri. I’m taking some time away like I promised—Drake, you, and me.”
Warm tingles whispering about the future touch me as Drake springs on top—Mikhail is very nice—and starts pinning Mikhail down. It took us almost half an entire day to drive to somewhere with seasons, with trees and the sun bouncing off the lake just beyond them.
Now, it’s like I can finally start letting go of the dread that’s been clinging to me, the evilness that’s been telling me Drake is going to die, and it will all be my fault. This isn’t a fairy tale, though. Maybe we’re happy and have a future, but it came at a cost.
Last night, Mikhail and I held each other as he drifted to sleep. Then he jolted almost instantly, his touch firm on me as he held me close.
“It’s okay,” I whispered. “I’m here.”
I don’t think he was fully awake. His voice was hoarse. He held me tighter and passionately said, “I’m never letting anybody take you. Nobody can touch my wife.Nobody.”
Mikhail and Drake stand up, heading for the house. I wonder if Mikhail remembers what he said when he was half asleep—wife.
“Hey,” Drake says, grinning as he skips into the house and over to the fridge.
Mikhail leans down and sweeps me into his arms. I cling to him tightly, a big smile on my face. I press my face against his chest and whisper, “Should I feel bad for smiling? I?—”
“Hush,” he whispers. “We’ve been forced to exist in their world, Mila. I’ll always be part of it and Dimitri’s second, but we don’t have tolivein it. We don’t have to dwell on it. With your father gone, life will get better. No wars. No bloodshed. No fear.”
“What do you think I should tell Drake?” I ask.
