Page 6 of Immaculate Corruption (Romanoff Bratva)

But the headlights stay right where they are. Almost like they’re watching me.

That creepy, tingly feeling on the back of my neck picks up more and more with every passing second. What if I’m wrong? What if thatisDima? Or worse, what if it’s someone else?

Zotov? The Albanians?

Too many possibilities. Each one worse than the last.

I shudder and cast my eyes down. Looking at Lukas’s little toes, I start to count out loud under my breath. “One little piggy... Two little piggies… Three little piggies…”

It’s stupid and silly, but weirdly, it calms me down. I do it ten times through, slowly. Then I pick my gaze up again.

The headlights are still there.

When the motel room door creaks open behind me, I almost scream. I twist around in my seat to see June shuffling out. Her eyes are bleary and there’s a blanket clutched tight around her shoulders.

“June, honey, what’re you doing awake?” I ask. My heartbeat is pounding a million miles an hour in my eardrums.

“Couldn’t sleep,” she mumbles. She comes over and rests her head against my shoulder. Her free hand reaches out to stroke Lucas’s fine, dark hair.

“Bad dreams?”

She nods. “I miss Mommy.”

My heart clenches. I pull her in close with one arm. “Me too, darling. I miss your mommy every single day.”

June turns her eyes up to meet mine. “Are we going to be okay?” she asks.

“Of course,” I answer fiercely at once—even though I have no way of knowing if that’s true. “Why would you even ask such a thing?”

“I hear you crying sometimes. Mommy used to cry a lot, too.”

I shudder. June has taken to me as a sort of surrogate mother since we reunited. She needs it, too. Someone to tell her that the world isn’t such a harsh and ugly place. That there’s room for love. There’s hope for a happy ending.

But how can I tell her those things if I don’t even believe them myself?

I had a happy ending there for the taking—and then it slipped right between my fingers.

“Sometimes, we have to cry. And it’s okay. Because it means that happiness is right around the corner.”

It’s cheesy enough to belong on a fortune cookie or in a Hallmark movie. But it’s all I’ve got right now. I sure as hell can’t burden this poor little girl with all the real questions churning around in my head.

Questions like,Where can we run? How can we hide? What will I do if he finds us?

“Okay,” June says simply. As if that lame answer was good enough.

She’s so trusting. So pure. It’s my job now to keep her safe. Which is why, after I say, “Let’s go to bed now, okay?” and follow her back to the motel room door, I check over my shoulder one more time to make sure the world is safe for her.

But the headlights are still there.

Watching.

Waiting.

Arya

I make a decision when I wake up the next morning—we have to run.

And not just run the way we’ve been running. Circling from motel room to motel room in the same general area, buying Poptarts in bulk from Wal-Mart and making them last as long as possible so we don’t have to show our faces in any of the local restaurants.

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