Page 58 of Killer Love

Terror grips my chest as I wonder how my life will change this time.

“Sofia…”

I push the door open. I feel a presence in the room, just like before. It’s too dark, so I search for the string hanging down somewhere in the center.

I flick the light on and there she is, kneeling on the floor with Lucian in her arms.

He’s not crying anymore, but she is. She cradles him close, whispering in his ear as he gazes up at me with those silver eyes.

“Where’s Gio?” I ask.

Sofia shakes her head. “He dropped him and ran.”

Shouting voices echo behind us, accompanied by feet racing toward us, and my heart stands still.

It was the ultimate trap. Use Lucian as bait to lure us out here with nowhere to go but up against a fucking wall.

Beep beep beep.

My ears twitch and I step back outside to find Fox kneeling by the wall, laying something on the ground in front of it.

He rushes over to me and ducks behind the shed.

“You might want to get down…” he says.

He reaches into his vest and pulls out a small, black device. It fits snug in his palm and he lays his thumb against a smooth, round button at its tip.

A detonator.

I fall to my knees beside Sofia and Lucian to shield them as Fox pushes the button.

The bomb explodes, shaking the earth and the shed nearly topples around us. Sofia screams, completely caught off-guard by it. I hold her even tighter as Lucian cries in her arms.

Fox stands and runs to the hole to jump through it first. I pull Sofia up and we follow closely behind him, squinting through the dust and debris as it settles to the earth.

Then, she stops.

“Sofia, come on…” I extend my hand to her, eager to get her and Lucian as far away from this place as possible.

Her gaze falls to my fingers and for a moment, she smiles.

She takes my hand and we run together, leaving the confused shouts of Gio’s men far behind us.

Chapter 18

Sofia

I’ve never been on a plane before.

Twenty years on this earth and I’ve never had both feet off the ground at the same time. It’s scarier than I thought it’d be, especially in a plane this small. Every gust of wind, every shift in pressure. I feel it all with closed eyes, counting the moments until it’s all over. When we finally land, I won’t be in Italy anymore.

I’ll be in Russia.

I sit in my seat with a white-knuckle grip on the armrests. Lucian lays beside me, curled up in Luka’s jacket, sleeping as if he didn’t have a care in the world, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. If only I could be as calm as he is. If only I could forget about all of this and grow up without any memory of tonight or where I came from.

“Sofia?”

Luka appears beside me in the thin aisle. He extends his hand to me, but I hesitate to move.

---