Page 32 of Lethal Alliance

Darya wasn’t just running this time.

She was disappearing.

In only a day or two more, she would have been gone entirely, across a border, somewhere harder for me to follow.

I could have lost her forever.

The impact of that thought hits me hard. It’s a different shock to what I felt after the bomb and the girls’ disappearance. That shock was visceral, an all-encompassing horror that still permeates every cell of my body, and will until I have my daughters home and justice for their suffering.

But the thought of Darya simply vanishing into a vast, anonymous sea of humanity in which she might so easily become invisible chills me to the bone in a different way.

That chill is a loneliness deep in my soul.

It’s the sudden realization that I would never have been able to stop looking for her.

I’d have searched every crowd for her face for the rest of my life, always hoping against hope that I would find her again.

In those simple words,I burned anything important,that alternative future is revealed to me with devastating clarity. And I know, with every fiber of my being, that I don’t want to be the shell of a man I see in that vision.

Whatever life brings to me, I need Darya by my side to face it.

Without her, I am not truly myself.

That truth is like an optical illusion, a hidden image inside a picture. Once seen, the picture can never look the same again.

I cannot be without Darya.

In a week of devastating realizations, this one is the most unexpected—and the one I am least able to articulate. Particularly now, when so much else is at stake. I tuck it away inside myself and force my rational mind to refocus.

The restaurant is twenty paces away, and with it, all that Mickey has discovered with his DNA testing. All that Darya doesn’t know.

I momentarily wrestle with myself, torn between my desire to prepare her for what is coming and the knowledge that we don’t have time to waste. “Wait.” I slow my pace.

“For what?” She gives me an impatient look.

“There are some things you should know.” But I never get a chance to finish. Mickey must have been watching for us, because he is already out the door and striding toward us, his lean face animated with relief. Darya breaks away from me with a small cry, racing toward him. They meet in the middle of a cobblestoned plaza, Darya enfolding Mickey in a tight, wordless embrace, her hand on his head as she presses her lips to his temple. Mickey clings to her, his tall body taut with relief.

“Thank God,” she whispers when she finally pulls away, tears streaming down her face as she presses his arms, as if reassuring herself that he is whole. “Thank God you’re alive.”

Mickey nods, trying to smile, but his lips are pressed firmly together, and I can tell he doesn’t trust himself to speak.

“Come on.” I put an arm around his angular shoulders, aware of the curious looks our little reunion is attracting. “We can talk in the car.”

Mickey gives me a rather hard look, and I sigh inwardly. I know there’s no chance in hell he will hold back from telling Darya the truth.

Christ.

It’s going to be a hell of a fucking drive back.

Mickey doesn’t wasteany time. We’ve barely hit the highway when he drops the DNA bombshells.

“Wait.” Darya turns sideways in the passenger seat so she can look directly at me. Even with my eyes on the road, her shock is palpable. “Ofelia is yourdaughter? And Vilnus Orlov is Masha’s father?”

“Takes a bit to get your head around, huh.” I keep my eyes firmly on the road, not least because of my desire to wring Mickey’s neck. But even if it had been left up to me, I know it’s impossible to withhold the truth now, under the circumstances. I also know there’s no point in ordering Mickey to do so.

That should piss me off. I’ve always demanded utter obedience.

If I’m honest, though, I feel an odd touch of pride. Young he might be, but Mickey is already his own man. Something he will need to be if he intends to make our world his life. And whether I like it or not, I don’t think he can escape our life.

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