Page 92 of The One Who Won’t Get Away
Chapter 38
Nadya
Four months later
THE SNOW STARTED BEFOREdusk, and by the time I let myself out the back door, a thin blanket covered the ground.Each flake was huge and fluffy as dandelion seeds, and the air was thick enough to muffle the sounds of the busy Brooklyn neighborhood where Dan had bought a house.
I stood with my face tipped up, letting the flakes dissolve against my cheeks until my eyebrows were full of frost.I tried to match the quiet, but my insides were vibrating with anticipation.
I’d been officially out of protective custody for all of twelve hours, and my entire body still expected men with tear tattoos to come through the back gate and haul me off.
Behind me, the “porch bedroom” gave off a night-light glow through the frost-rimmed windows.If you wanted proof the universe loved Ljuba, you could just look at the way Dan had converted the old porch for her.She could still breathe the night air even with every door locked and alarmed.The windows were never closed all the way, no matter how cold it got, so the whole place was an incubator for draft and chill, and it helped Ljuba sleep.She needed to know the outside was always there—just glass and screen away.
Every trauma needed a hack.This was Ljuba’s.
I checked my phone for the third time in a minute.No new messages.No missed calls from Nick, who’d promised to be back by dark.I was being dramatic, but I needed to see his name pop up on my screen, just to make it real, to know he was out there and still cared about me.
After not seeing him for four months, I missed him so bad it hurt.In all the years of running from men and memories, I’d never once thought I’d end up the kind of girl who stood in the snow like a lovesick statue, waiting for her boyfriend to come home.
A light flared on the side of the house, and the big gate rattled open.I heard him before I saw him, boots crunching deliberately.His hair was a mess, and there were faint blue shadows under his eyes.A day in the trenches, with an extra hour or two of paperwork hell, just so he could walk back through that gate and straight into my arms.
Nick saw me, and for a second I wondered if he’d say anything or just stand there like I was an animal he didn’t want to spook.But he strode across the yard and didn’t stop until he had me wrapped up, hands on my face, mouth crushing into mine with a kind of wild hunger that made me forget about the snow or the cold.I let him.I let him kiss me like it was the last oxygen on the planet, and I didn’t care that my lips were cold or that his nose was freezing or that I probably looked like a raccoon who’d just lost a fight.
He didn’t say my name, or anything at all.He just held me for a minute, his hands gentle and his body pressed to mine.When he finally pulled away, his breath steamed between us, and he leaned his forehead against mine, eyes closed.
“You’re safe now,” he whispered, voice so low it felt like a secret.“It’s over.”
Was it?What if they hadn't gotten all the bad guys?What if someone escaped?But they’d probably go into hiding, hoping the feds would stop looking.
The undercover op resulted in twenty-seven arrests all across the country.Thirty-two victims were rescued.Nothing to emphasize the importance of Nick's jobs like those kinds of results.It was numbers like those that made up for the other kinds of statistics his job brought in.
When he stepped back, his hands stayed on my waist.“You ready to get out of here?”
“Where are we going?”I asked, more because I liked the way he said “we” than because I cared about the destination.
He grinned, and the years fell off his face for a second.“Anywhere that isn’t your sister’s yard.Or a police station.Or the FBI office.”
“I don’t know,” I said, looking down at myself.“I’m not exactly dressed for a night out.I was just going to walk around the block and maybe scare some squirrels.”
Nick looked at my outfit—faded jeans, battered boots, oversized hoodie under my old parka—and shrugged.“You look perfect.If you want to change, you can, and I promise not to judge.”
I laughed.“You’re the one in the suit, hotshot.Maybe you’re the one who should change.”
He leaned in close and kissed the tip of my nose.“Then let’s both go as we are.”
I didn’t argue.We might be an odd pair, but we worked, and that's all that mattered.
