“On it.” Her eyes widen as she pulls out her phone and calls her superior.
“Is the guy still in there?”
Evgeny frowns. “No. He's gone.”
Evgeny and I exchange a look because we both know exactly what happened.
“We have to go.Now.” I straighten, ignoring the screaming pain in my side.
“Sir,” the paramedic tries one more time, gesturing to her partner for help. “I have to look at you. It isn't safe for you?—”
I ignore her and her partner yet again, as well as the police swarming the scene, managing a slow, painful walk to Evgeny's SUV.
“Tell the other officers to talk with your captain. He'll have the answers they're looking for,” I tell Kelly as Evgeny opens the door for me.
“What the ever-loving fuck is going on?” Kelly demands. “Don't you dare leave without me. I'm coming with you.”
Evgeny and Iexchangeanother look. “No. You don't want to be a part of any of this.”
“Like hell I don't.” Kelly's eyes burn with anger, her face set with determination. It's a look that reminds me too much of Sonya—both women have indomitable spirits. “Don't you two assholesdare leave without me. I'll be right back.” Kelly addresses us both, throwing a second look at Evgeny before jogging offtospeak with an officer who appears to be in charge.
I get into the car, gripping the handhold as I ease myself down into the seat. I taste blood as I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from groaning in pain.
Evgeny shuts my door, then walks around and slides into the driver's seat. “Where are we going?”
I lean back against the headrest, closing my eyes against the way the world is spinning while trying to organize my thoughts through the pain and panic.
I'm about to tell Evgeny to find Kelly when she yanks open the door and jumps into the back seat. “Captain Quinn is going to call me with more information, but he said to start at the place you last saw the car. Let’s go.”
“Are you sure you want to do this? I think you know what we're going to do and what's about to happen. And nothing about it is going to be legal.”
Kelly's response is a statement. “I'm going to do whatever I have to do to get my sister back.”
“Okay.” I have to accept her decision; there’s no more time to argue. “Evgeny, go.”
I look back as Evgeny peels out from the accident scene. The twisted metal, the shattered glass, the sounds of the accident, and Sonya'sscreamsstill ringing in my ears.
Like Kelly, I'm also going to do whatever it takes to getSonya and our childrenhome safely. I don't care if I have to wade through a sea of blood and bodies.
Iwillbring them all home.
29
SONYA
“Itold you to be careful, Dylan.” The coldness inhervoice is just as frightening as the dead look in her eyes before she turned away from me.
A man stands across the room, shoulders folded in as though he’s trying to make himself smaller. He rammed his car into Matvei and me. On purpose. On Genevieve’s orders. I know this because he told me on the drive here. Wherever ‘here’ is, some place hours from Chicago.
I’m restrained in a bed in a room that is outrageously opulent for the circumstances.
“I did my best,” he whines. He’s thin and wiry, pale and dark-haired, with a scraggly mustache. He’s wearing a faded t-shirt and jeans. A ragged baseball cap is being twisted between his hands. “It wouldn’t have doneanygood if he were still conscious. And there was ice?—”
Matvei.
Matvei was unconscious, slumped and unmoving overtheairbag, when the men in black balaclavas and blacktactical gear pulled me from the car. I can still see the blood trickling from his head and down the white nylon, turning the black leather and shards of broken glass shiny and wet.
I tried to wake him, calling for help once the car came to a rest from its deadly spin. It took me a few moments to realize we weren’t dead. Well, I knewIwasn’t dead. The car had been struck ontheleft, just behind thedriver’sseat. I’d tried desperately to reach Matvei, to check to see if he was still alive.