Page 186 of Emerald Malice

She’d been willing to uproot her entire life and follow me out of the state to raise the baby when she first found out I was pregnant. Now, though, the circumstances have changed.

Everything has changed.

“You have Shura now. I know you can’t come with me. I never expected you to.”

She gives me a watery smile. “I wish I didn’t… but?—”

“You love him.”

She nods. Then a disbelieving laugh bursts through her lips and she swipes away her tears. “God, that’s embarrassing. What’s happening to me?”

“He’s a good man, Kat. I’m happy for you. I’m happy for both of you.” I look at Mila over Kat’s shoulder. “Leonty and Shura are lucky.”

Mila’s face crumples. “This feels like a goodbye. And it’s not! It can’t be.”

“It’s not goodbye.” I think of all the preparations I need to make. I can’t just waltz through the front door. Andrey would never let me go. I have to bide my time, wait for an opportunity to present itself. “Not yet, anyway.”

“Hey!” Mila offers weakly. “Maybe in the meantime, Andrey will finish off Slavik and Nikolai and then you won’t have to leave at all.”

Katya nods along, but my hope died when I was looking into Nikolai’s eyes, the bomb counting down to our deaths.

In that moment, I knew I was going to die and take Andrey and our babies with me.

That’s where love was going to land us.

Still, I nod. “Yeah. Maybe.”

“Everything is going to be fine. You aren’t going anywhere,” Katya says with forced cheer.

“But please don’t say a word to?—”

“We won’t breathe a word of this to Andrey,” Mila swears, cutting me off at the pass. “I promised no more spying.”

I give her a thin smile.

“To anyone,” Katya adds. “That includes Shura and Leonty.”

I take their hands, holding them close for what might be the very last time. Neither of them looks happy, but they squeeze right back.

We all have hard choices to make.

I can only hope they’re the right ones.

67

ANDREY

“Congratulations. The bullet missed all your major organs.” Alexei dips his bloody hands into the bucket of water beside him to rinse them clean.

“I could have told you that. Actually, I did tell you that,” I growl. “Just get the damn bandages on. I need to go check on Natalia.”

Something is wrong with her. I saw it in the flickering of her eyes, the way she wouldn’t hold my gaze for longer than a second or two.

Shura’s not back yet, either. Between the two of them, my stomach is a mass of churning nerves.

Alexei is just finishing with the bandages when Shura finally walks into the dining room we’re using as a makeshift infirmary.

“What’s going on?” I push off the table and dismiss Alexei with a jerk of my chin.

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