I slam my foot on the accelerator and speed away, my eyes locked on the rearview mirror to see if Danil’s men are following us, but they aren’t.
When I’m sure we aren’t being trailed, I focus fully on the road ahead. I want to get Sasha safely off the roads before anything else happens.
I came so close to losing my grip on her today.
Everything I’d done to get to that point would have been for nothing, all because I wasn’t paying attention.
She is sitting in the passenger seat with her eyes constantly scanning out of the window. She is also searching for the attackers, keeping a watchful eye out for her father’s men.
Searching as though she doesn’t want to see them again.
I shake my head. I don’t understand.
I don’t understand what happened between us at the mall, and I don’t understand why she would risk her own life, using her body as a shield, to save mine.
She could’ve gone home. She could’ve gotten away so easily.
“Sasha," I say, glancing over to her.
“Just get us home,” she says abruptly. Her eyes are thick with fear when they catch mine, her cheeks pale. She looks terrified.
“Okay.”
Chapter 16 - Sasha
Leon is driving fast, his attention fully focused on the road ahead of us. I am so terrified that my father's men will come around every corner and try and take me again.
My hands are knotting and unknotting in my lap. I try my best to focus on my breathing, to stay calm, to not let fear completely overwhelm me—but the truth is that seeing my father’s men today reminded me of everything about him, and everything about my life living with him.
I am absolutely terrified of having to go back there.
Leon turns off the main road and drives through an area of the city I don’t know. Then he stops outside a black garage and punches a code into a panel next to the driver’s window.
The garage door opens, and he drives inside.
“Where are we?”
“A safe house. Home is too far away. I wanted to get us off the road as soon as possible.”
“What if they find us?”
“Trust me, they can’t find us here. No one knows about this place, and we came here in an unknown car. No one is going to be able to track us down here.”
I sit in the car, hesitant to get out. Hesitant to leave the imagined safety of something I know and move into a space I don’t.
“I promise you, this place is safe,” he says, pushing his own door open and sighing loudly. “That was one hell of a car roll.”
By the time he’s walked around the car towards the entrance, he notices that I am still sitting nervously in the passenger seat. He pulls my door open. “Out. Now,” he demands. “Please hurry, I want to get us into the safe house as quickly as possible.”
I climb out reluctantly and follow nervously behind him as he punches in a security code that unlocks the door.
Behind that door is another door, and another, each with its own code.
Finally, when we are in the main area of the house, I have witnessed how much security he has, and I believe him when he says that no one will be able to get to us here.
Leon sits down heavily on the couch. He groans loudly and holds onto his side, letting out a heavy breath of air. “That was—what was that?”
I am pacing around the living room, filled with nervous energy. I hardly hear his question.