Page 326 of The Life of Anna-Tenth Anniversary Edition: Act 2

Alex rolled onto his back and ran his hands through his hair. The thought of leaving her didn’t sit well with him, either. He knew she’d be a mess with him gone. But what could he do?

“Anna, even if I take you to San Francisco, I still have to go to Boston.” He sighed. “I don’t want you seeing what I do.”

“It’s okay if I know, but not okay if I see?” She sat up on her elbow and frowned. “Devin killed Ben in front of me. Tyler is as cruel as Devin. Oscar nearly killed me. Rylan raped me so many times I can hardly count. Seeing you work can’t be any worse than that.”

He grimaced at the truth of her words, but he still couldn’t take her with him. “You have to dance while I’m in Boston. I can’t take you away from that.”

“Change the date.”

“I can’t do that. We’ve worked out all the details. I can’t just call my father and tell him I’m pushing off the job. You don’t do that to Elders.”

“Fine.” She rolled to the edge of the bed and stood. “I’ll call him.”

She walked away, and Alex jumped up and grabbed her hand. “You can’t??—‍”

“Stop telling me what I can’t do!” She spun around. “Why are they making you leave me? Don’t they know what that will do to me?”

“I’m doing this for you.” Alex grabbed her shoulders. “I know your country will be better off without these men, but the only thought that will be going through my head as I pull the trigger is how much they hurt you.”

She began to shake and Alex worried that she would rage again. He hadn’t told her about the previous night yet. He studied her eyes, but there was no anger. Only what could be described as insane grief.

She dropped to her knees and hugged his legs. “Please, Alex. I can’t lose you again. I can’t. I won’t survive.”

“Nothing’s going to happen to me, Schatzi.” He bent down to pull her arms from around his legs before crouching down next to her and hugging her tightly.

“That’s what you said the last time.” She sobbed into his shoulder.

He stared out the window behind her as he stroked her hair. “I will talk to Vati. If he believes it is a possibility, I will approach Tom and Vlad.” He pulled her away and cupped her cheek. “But we must obey our Elders, Anna. I cannot go against their wishes.”

Anna nodded and sniffed. “Okay.” She gave him a brave smile through her tears.

Alex hoped Vati had a solution for this. He had no idea what to do.

Chapter 162

“What was it like?”

Alex looked up from his lunch. “What was what like?”

“Being in Russia.” Anna’s fork was halfway to her mouth. They sat together upstairs, in the windowed conservatory that overlooked his terrace and Central Park.

Alex thought for a moment and then gave a half-smile. “Boring.”

“Boring?”

He shrugged. “There wasn’t much to do. After we realized there was no chance of escape, we just... accepted it.”

Anna hugged her legs to her chest. “Were you scared?”

Alex chewed his lip and then sighed. “Not scared, per se.” He winced. “Once we understood what the rules were, we did our best to follow them.”

“He had rules?”

“Only one, really. ‘Don’t try to escape.’”

“Did you?”

He thought back to those first few months, the feeling of being trapped nearly closing his throat. His eyes closed and he saw Michael and Jesse hanging from the tree, their bodies swinging round and round as Vitaly’s men beat them with metal poles while they bled out from their gunshot wounds.

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