Page 53 of Unleashed

A car races toward us at breakneck speed, tires squealing on pavement . Rafail leaps to his feet, heavy boots planted as he stands facing the oncoming car head-on, gun blazing. Fire spits from his weapon. Windows shatter. A tire explodes. I’m frozen in place, my heart racing, when it dawns on me with crystal clarity:they're going to hit us.In that moment—with the vehicle hurtling toward us and the knowledge that I'm going to be hit—a memory flashes in front of me.

I'm running. Running away from a nameless captor who's going to hurt me, running away from… Rafail? I can see the dark intensity of his gaze, even feel the heat of his fingers on me, but… he’s a stranger to me. He isn’t myhusband.

The memory of the accident comes back with brutal clarity. All of it. The screech of tires. The impact that shook my bones and rattled me into unconsciousness. His bellow of rage from behind me. Vague voices over me.

Another deafening boom rattles the ground beneath me. Then another. The car in front of us explodes as Rafail hits the ground and covers me.

“That’s it, Rodion,” Rafail says with dark approval. “Atta boy.”

Metal and glass fly over us. In an instant, Rafail presses me beneath him, shielding me with his body.

Bloodcurdling screams.

Boom.

Then… nothing.

Nothing but eerie silence.

I close my eyes, assaulted by memory after memory.

My mother.

My home.

I am Russian, and I…

It’s on the cusp of my consciousness, so close I cry out loud and reach for the air in front of me just before I collapse against Rafail, and my world fades to emptiness.

Chapter 15

RAFAIL

The heavy silenceafter the gunfire weighs on me like bricks on my chest.

"They're gone," Semyon says from my phone. “We got them.”

I need answers.

I need her safe.

I need names.

My ears ring with the silence as I glance down at my wife. Panic sweeps over me when I realize her eyes are closed.

“Anissa!” I lift her slender shoulders and shake her. At first, she doesn’t answer, but after another shake, she blinks up at me, her eyes clouded with confusion and fear. Her chest rises and falls too quickly. It's too much.

Can I break my brain?She had asked.

Am I losing my mind?

Did she?

She's shaking, but she's okay, I reassure myself as I run my hands around her body. "Are you all right?" I ask, my heart pounding.

I feel helpless, afraid. It drags me back to years ago, back when I was barely old enough to understand what it meant to be in charge. I’d lost track of my brothers and sisters, and a cold dread settled in as the hours ticked by with no sign of them. They were supposed to be home, and with every minute they were missing, the fear clawed deeper. When I finally found them, swinging like idiots on a rope over the ravine, I was raw with fury. Zoya was soaked and shivering, the others laughing, oblivious to the hours that had passed.

I’d promised myself that when I found them, there’d be hell to pay. They’d know the consequences of making me think I’d lost them. But when I finally reached them, rage left me in a rush. All I could do was fall to my knees and pull the smallest ones close—Zoya in one arm, Rodion in the other—and make them swear to me, my voice hoarse with worry, they’d never do anything like that again.

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