Page 25 of Till Death Do Us Part

She looked down, clasping her hands at her waist. “I would love to… I just don’t want to cause Elaine any problems.”

“Well, we’re going to be late,” Vera said. “I’m going to take you to the car.”

“Ah—what? Right now? I haven’t showered or anything. I need my stuff.”

“We’ll swing back for your stuff later.” Vera scooped up Caitlyn in one arm, and Caitlyn squealed in surprise. “Stay right here,” Vera whispered to me. “Out of sight of the windows. Don’t move anywhere without me. I’m handing off Caitlyn to Petra so we can go separately and avoid getting tailed.”

“Petra’s here?”

“She’s a damn good set of wheels. Compensates for her other shortcomings. She just arrived.”

I nodded, and I stayed around the corner, behind the pantry, out of view of the window. Vera took Caitlyn and slipped off through the front of the house, and I pressed myself back up against the wall, breathing hard while I listened for every movement in the surroundings.

Just stay still. Stay out of sight.

Just stay still…

My heart dropped at a sound—not from the windows, not from the outside.

From the pantry.

The draft.

The pantry had always been drafty below the floorboards. An opening in the foundation.

I whirled back just as the pantry door flung open, and I jumped out of the way of a gleam of metal—a blade, carving through the air where my throat had been just a second ago.

“Well,” the figure said, a woman with long hair so pale it was almost white and an ink-black eye mask, an ornate dagger in her hand. “It would seem Vera taught you a trick or two.”

“Yulia,” I whispered. Her lips, cherry-red, spread into a smile.

“A wiser woman would have screamed.”

“There’s no use killing me.” Even through the gut-wrenching panic, I held up my hand, flashing the ring. Yulia hesitated, clutching the dagger tighter.

“So… you’re with them.”

“Vera will protect me.”

“You’re bluffing,” she said. “There’s no chance you married her so quickly.”

“Vera is very fast when she wants to get something done.”

She scoffed, and she took a step closer, dagger gleaming in the light that filtered in through the curtains. I didn’t back away. “What did she offer you?”

Fear coursed through me like a hot liquid. But I couldn’t let it show. If I wanted her to believe we really were married, that Yulia truly would have no reason to kill me, then I couldn’t let her see the smallest sliver of fear. I smiled. “She’s my wife,” I said. “That’s enough, isn’t it?”

Yulia snorted, lowering her dagger just an inch. I could tell she was sizing me up, trying to tell if I was telling the truth. “You would do well not to take up with her. She is a twisted, broken psychopath with nothing but ruthless efficiency where her heart once lay. Nothing but bloodlust where love should have been.”

“She was a child who was hurt,” I said quietly. “Nobody is beyond repair, Yulia. It’s never too late to heal. There’s a woman beyond the pain. And she’s beautiful.”

She snorted, gripping her dagger tighter, eyes gleaming.

And then she lunged.

It all happened in an instant, Yulia darting in, dagger flashing in the light, and it struck with a metallic clang against another blade—a knife gleaming next to my face, sparks flying on impact.

Vera.