Page 64 of The Pakhan’s Hidden Heir

My hands are shaking so bad, palms sweaty, and if my heart beats any faster it will run right out of my chest. Akim cracks the door and checks the hall both ways, then jerks his head, and I follow him out silently.

We discussed it two nights ago, when he said Bastian was away from the house.

I don’t know any more if he’s here or gone. I haven’t seen him and I don’t want to.

The only thing that would do is make me change my mind. As it stands, I have made my choice to leave because having the fairy tale will never come true.

We move quickly down the hall, and thankfully Felix’s cries simmer as I start moving. Akim walks so fast I almost can’t keep up, and I have to jog a few steps to catch up to him.

At the top of the stairs a man in a black jacket meets Akim’s eyes and turns his back to us, studying the wall like we aren’t there at all. For a split second it’s almost heart-stopping.

I wonder if he’ll say anything, but it appears he and Akim have made some sort of agreement.

So we slip past him and down the stairs to the side door and out into the cold, where a car sits idling.

Every step of this seems to have been choreographed. It’s like Akim has as much power in this place as Bastian to silence men and get what he wants. Well good, he can have the entire empire because Felix is not going to ever know Bastian Dravenko is his father. He will grow up innocent and pure, and he will never know the evil in his own family lineage.

“Get in the back and stay down.” Akim opens the door for me and slides into the driver’s seat the moment I’m in. “Head below the window until we clear the gate.”

I fold myself over Felix in the footwell space, curling around him, and the car rolls forward at a crawl. The tires barely make sound on the drive; Akim has clearly done this before.

Felix has gone quiet too, lulled by the motion, though every few minutes he stutter breathes after all that wailing. At the gate the tires hit smooth pavement and Akim speeds up.

“You can sit up now,” he grumbles, looking back over his shoulder. I have no clue where he’s taking me, or where this “new life” will be. I’m nervous about that. And though he told me I can’t contact anyone, I plan to write Lada a letter as soon as I’m settled. She deserves to know. And I don’t want to do this life completely alone.

I climb onto the seat and buckle Felix into his carrier, still trembling from the adrenaline; then I buckle my own belt and try to calm myself.

Akim reaches into his jacket and drops a slim folder over his shoulder into my lap. Probably the documents he promised me. This feels so surreal.

“There’s a passport, in there. You’re Elena Marsh now, from the moment you step out of this vehicle onward. There’s a second one for the boy under a different last name, so if anyone runs the two of you together, nothing links. Your bank card’s in the sleeve, and the account has all your money in it. Believe me, that was a nightmare trying to get it transferred without being trackable.” He watches me in the mirror. “Memorize the name tonight. Say it in your sleep. You so much as hesitate when a conductor asks, and you’re finished.”

“Elena Marsh,” I whisper, turning the passport over in my hands, my thumb running across the photo of my own face under a stranger’s name. “Where am I going?” I sound so small and weak now, but this is the first time Akim has been even remotely kind to me. I don’t want to upset him, but this is a lot. I’ve never been on my own anywhere. It’s all new.

“The folder has your itinerary, moving toward Siberia. After that you pick a town and you keep your head down. It’s better if no one knows where you disappear to.”

I have no phone or way to contact anyone, and I feel desperately alone, but the whole point of this is to be anonymous.

If I start flaking now, this man really will kill me.

He went to all this trouble to get me out of that house. I have to go along with it now, no matter what second thoughts I’m having.

The train station is nearly empty this time of night. Akim pulls to the curb and cuts the engine, then turns around in his seat to look straight at me. “Hear me on this part, because I’ll only say it once.” There is that wicked tone I’m used to. He’s so cold and threatening; it makes me shudder as he continues. “You don’t come back—not ever. If you ever set foot in this city again, I’ll put you both in the ground myself the moment I know you’re here. You won’t get within a mile of his door. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

Swallowing hard, I avoid eye contact and turn to Felix, unbuckling his car carrier. “I hear you. You can safely hate me from a distance; I’m not coming back.”

He shoves a train ticket into my hand. “One more thing. You do not contact a single person from your old life. If you do, Bastian will find out. He’s more powerful than you can imagine. And if he finds you, you’ll regret the day you agreed to be his baby momma.”

He gets out, comes around, and opens my door. I climb out with Felix and the duffel, and Akim steps aside, glowering at me. “Go,” he says. “Platform’s straight ahead. Train leaves in six minutes.”

My body feels like lead, so heavy I don’t want to move. This is my last chance to undo this and go back. My heart physically hurts. I don’t want to run from Bastian the rest of my life, but I don’t really have a choice. I love him, but he doesn’t love me back. Right now, that equates to me being lonely and depressed.

But soon it could be more painful—when he brings home other women, when he pushes me away and starts teaching my son to be a killer like him. I don’t want to live through that. I can’t take it.

“Goodbye, Akim,” I say coldly, then lugging the bag in one arm and the carrier with Felix in the other, I start toward the train platform.

Alone and safe is better than being locked in that home with a man who doesn’t love me watching my son be demoralized every day for the rest of my life. And it’s safer too.

I’ve seen what his enemies are willing to do. Putting space between me and him is the only way. The safe way.