Page 38 of Immaculate Corruption (Romanoff Bratva)

A pair of them shattering the pre-dawn silence.

I jump up from my nest on the floor and sprint to the door. Throwing it open, I take one step out into the cold air—and then I freeze.

The concrete is cold on my bare feet, but I barely feel it. There’s too much adrenaline pumping through my veins for me to pay attention to anything other than the two shapes in the parking lot ahead of me.

One of them is Dima. Standing tall, with a gun in his hand.

The other one, crumpled at his feet, is Ennio.

I don’t have to get close to know that I’m watching him die. I see him twitch once or twice like a fish on a boat. Blood bubbles up around his throat.

From that point forward, he doesn’t move anymore.

“Dima?” I call out to him, but he either doesn’t hear or ignores it.

He’s dead. An innocent man is dead.

I can see the truth of it in the way Dima leans over the body and then, after a second, takes a staggered step back. He runs a hand through his hair and shakes his head.

My first thought is pure anger.I told him this would happen. I told Dima this was a bad idea.

My second thought is something new for me: an impulse for action.We have to fix this.

I look around the U-shaped motel building. I can see filtered lights shining out from the windows in the houses around us. Blinds lift and fall as people too afraid to come out and investigate the clamor for themselves peek out at us.

The gunshots woke people up. The police will be coming soon. We have to get out of here.

I grab Dima’s car keys from just inside the door and run to him. He looks up at the sound of my footsteps. “Arya, I don’t know—”

“Get out of here!” I scream, pitching my voice to sound as panicked as possible. “Who are you? What have you done?”

Dima’s face is confused. Shocked, really. His mouth falls open and he blinks rapidly. “What are you talking about? He escaped and—”

“Dima, you have to go,” I whisper, slamming him in the chest again, this time pressing the keys against his shirt. His hand falls over mine, clutching at my fingers for just a second before I pull my hand away, leaving the keys. “Get out of here. I’ll make up a story, but you can’t be seen here. Go.”

All at once, he realizes it’s a ruse. Color comes back to his face. He releases a long, ragged breath. “I can’t leave you and Lukas now.”

“Go!” I order, pushing him towards the car. Then, louder, I add, “Don’t hurt me! I’m calling the police!”

Dima opens his mouth to argue, but before he can say anything else, I spin around and run back into the room.

Ernestine is awake now, June pressed tightly to her side, trembling. There’s no time to explain. No time to ease them into this situation. We’re in the thick of it and I need them to cooperate without question.

“We’re leaving. Now. Get everything and be in the car in five minutes.”

It’s almost sad how quickly June and Ernestine follow my orders. There is no hesitation, not even from the little girl. Ernestine hurries June back into the bedroom and they begin gathering the few items they’ve accumulated since we went on the run.

I can’t help but feel guilty for dragging Ernestine and June into this. No matter what, Tommy would have showed up at their door, whether I was staying with them or not. But my presence made things much more complicated.

I have to get them away from this life, too. It’s my fault they’re here. I have to fix it. I have to fix all of it.

As I pack up the room, getting rid of any trace of us, I pull out the burner phone Dima gave me earlier tonight and call the police.

“9-1-1, what is your emergency?”

“A man was just shot,” I gasp, breathing heavily into the phone. “I heard yelling, so I went outside to see what was going on. There was an old Italian man yelling at a younger man, saying all kinds of horrible things. I think it was the guy’s father. Then he shot him. It all happened so fast and—”

“What’s your address?”

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