Page 28 of Fall into Savagery

“Is this really me?”

I blinked and cleared my throat. “Yeah. Don’t you recognize yourself?”

He shrugged.

“I’m going to take you guys home with me, okay?”

Dmitriy looked at me. “Mom said we’re not supposed to leave this place.”

“Did your mom tell you where she went?”

He shrugged. “With the man with the bike. She’s always leaving with another man, but she always comes back, and she would be very angry if we leave.”

“Does she get angry a lot?” I asked, my voice set in whispers.

Dmitriy didn’t answer me, but Konstantin nodded before he put his thumb in his mouth. I didn’t know if this was a little late for him to do that, but who was I to tell him to stop doing something if it comforted him?

“It’s okay if she gets mad,” I said on a swallow. I didn’t want to imagine what she did to them in anger. “I’ll protect you from her.”

“You will?” Konstantin asked.

“I will protect you from everyone and everything,” I replied firmly. “You’re safe in my arms,moyo solnyshko—” I looked at Dmitriy, then Konstantin. “Lubov moya.”

My sun. My love.

They looked at each other.

“Would you like to come home with me? I have a room prepared for you guys, and the house we’re living in is much nicer than this one. With lots of toys,” I added. I wasn’t above bribing them.

I held my breath when they didn’t say anything. A part of me thought I might have to drug them and bring them back to New York with me. But something about drugging my own kids didn’t feel right. Yet, I didn’t want to have to use force to get them out of here. I didn’t want my sons to fear me.

But then Dmitriy came out of the closet first. I held out my hand, and slowly, he placed his small one in mine. I gently pulled him out. Gabriel shifted behind me. I almost forgot he was there, and when I turned to him, there was something bright about his eyes. He smiled.

I nodded and held out my other hand for Konstantin.

Then I carried both of them in my arms. They were light.

Too light to be nine years old.

I stepped forward to get out of there when I felt arms wrap around my neck. I paused, taking them in.

Fuck me.

They both looked at me with complete trust in their eyes.

And I would never break that, I vowed.

I blinked away the burning in my eyes and made my expression harden as I stepped out of the door. They rested their heads on my shoulders. I tightened my arms marginally around their small bodies.

No one dared stop me, though the bodyguard out front watched me with a look in his eyes that I didn’t like very much.

I would have a man stationed out front and wait for Alina to return.

Call it a consideration. Not that she deserved one from me, but I was going to have a message sent out to her that I was never giving the boys back.

They belonged to me.

Fuck, I didn’t even know why she took them when it was obvious from the beginning that she didn’t want to be a mom.

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