Page 20 of Lethal Hearts

Mikhail:Rolf texted me. If you’re not feeling well tonight, we can postpone dinner.

Harper:No, I’m feeling better after taking some pills.

Mikhail:Then I’m looking forward to dinner.

Harper set her phone down. She looked at the pregnancy kit and decided to hell with it. Harper might as well get over this.

She picked up the box and headed to the bathroom. Tonight, she would either have good news for her husband or no news at all.

****

In the car, Harper fidgeted with the hem of her dress. She wore Mikhail’s favorite strapless black dress for their dinner date. Harper pulled out her phone.

There were no new messages from Mikhail, apart from the last one, which he sent ten minutes ago, telling her his meeting would be done in fifteen minutes or so. Harper looked out the car window, feeling nervous.

The traffic was slow-moving—no surprise given the workday had just ended. She used her phone camera to check her appearance, because she had nothing better to do.

“Don’t worry. You look great,” Rolf said, glancing at her through the rearview mirror. Once again, Rolf was her designated driver and bodyguard.

“Thanks, I think,” she said.

“Are you okay? You look a little pale,” Rolf remarked.

“Just nervous about how Mikhail will take the news,” Harper said. When she got in the car earlier, Rolf asked her how she was feeling. Harper ended up blurting the news to him, because she needed someone to talk to at that moment.

“Are you kidding? The boss will be elated,” Rolf told her.

I wish I had Rolf’s confidence, Harper thought. Traffic soon eased and Rolf soon found a parking spot in front of Konstantin Towers.

This building was the main headquarters for Mikhail’s legal businesses. As she climbed out of the car, instinct made Harper check out her surroundings. Her heart froze for a fraction of a second.

Her gaze lingered on the car rolling down the street. That couldn’t be the same green BMW she saw at the pharmacy earlier, could it? Harper tried to recall the plates but her mind came up with a complete blank.

She couldn’t make out the driver, because the windows were tainted. Harper thought she spied two figures in the car. Were they waiting for something or someone?

The car passed her and she let out a sigh of relief. Maybe it was her imagination going on overdrive. Finding out she was pregnant had ramped up her stress levels, and now she was hallucinating, overthinking things. That must be it.

“The boss man is here,” Rolf told her.

He’d gotten out of the car as well. Before she could tell him about the BMW, she caught sight of her husband strolling toward her.

The handsome sight of him momentarily made her forget about her paranoia and the car. Harper started for him. Mikhail suddenly dropped his smile when Harper was a foot away from him.

She looked over her shoulder and saw the same BMW driving toward them. Time crawled. Fear gripped her captive. Harper couldn’t move, let alone scream.

One of the windows rolled down, revealing the barrel of a shotgun. Her breath hitched. Was this it? Mikhail and her final moments on this earth?

It all seemed so unfair. Mikhail and she had just gotten married and Harper was just coming to the realization that he was the man she needed, the man she might actually love. She never even said those three important words to him yet:I love you.

Her body might be paralyzed but her mind worked just fine. There were three people inside, she thought absentmindedly. The driver, the shooter, and a passenger seated at the back.

That bulky profile looked somehow familiar but at the moment, Harper couldn’t identify him. It was definitely a male.

“Get down!” Mikhail yelled.

He tackled her to the ground just as gunshots erupted. Yelling ensued. Harper looked up and saw Rolf with his gun out.

Rolf started shooting at the green BMW. Something clicked into place. Harper knew the identity of the passenger in the back of the car.

---