Page 48 of Rebellion

“Papa? Papa, where are you?” She needed Papa. She was hungry and she required the toilet.

Pushing back the blanket, she climbed out of the car. “Papa?”

Where was she? She didn’t recognize this area. Fear filled her as she stumbled through the trees and bush around her.

She thought she heard voices in the distance.

But they sounded angry. Was it one of Papa’s meetings? He wouldn’t like her to interrupt him.

No, he got angry when she did that.

She moved closer, but she was quiet. Sneaky, like a mouse.

Things started to blur. She thought she saw Papa, but she wasn’t sure. She fell.

Smash!

Suddenly, she was an adult again. And she’d just slammed the bat down against Dima’s head right before he fell to theground. But instead of standing over him, she was suddenly lying beside him. Staring into his dead brown eyes.

But wait . . . Dima had blue eyes.

This wasn’t Dima.

This was someone else. Then she saw it. The image. It was on the dead man’s arm.

Crack!

The noise sounded like a bullet being fired, not the smash of a bat against the head.

What was happening?

“Sofia!”

She’d killed Dima!

He was dead!

But who was who?

“Sofia!”

Something shook her and she opened her eyes with a gasp, sitting up.

“What? What is it?” She stared up in shock into Viktor’s face, which was tense. And was that, wait—was that blood on his shirt?

Oh. God.

“Sacha!” she cried.

Viktor nodded grimly. “He’s been shot. We had to take him to the hospital. They want you there as next of kin. Get dressed. We leave in five.”

Sofia stood,staring down at Aleksandr and willing him to wake up.

The doctor had been optimistic that he’d come through the surgery just fine. His vitals were good, and while the bullet had torn through a lot of muscle, it hadn’t hit anything major.

There had been a lot of blood loss, though.

She’d already donated some blood and was feeling kind of lightheaded. The woman who’d taken the blood had tried to get her to sit down and sip some juice. But she’d just wanted to get back here.

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