Page 46 of Echoes of Sin

She shrugged. “If he kills me, then you kill him. Ilya, promise me. If anything happens to me, you take care of our daughter. Promise.”

I couldn’t promise that, because I wouldn’t allow it to happen. “I won’t let him kill you, Brooke.”

“If it comes down to me or Karina, choose her. Always choose her.” She was beautiful in her ferocity, and I never wanted her more. “Promise me.”

There was no fucking way I would let her sacrifice herself, but we didn’t have time to argue. “Yes. Sure. Fine, I promise.”

“I don’t believe you,” she said after a long pause, her shoulders low. “But right now we don’t have time to argue. We need to get to Karina. Now!”

She was right. We needed to get to our daughter.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Brooke

We raced towards Winter Valley in total silence, Ilya gripping the steering wheel like it was his enemy’s throat. Both of us were a bundle of nerves as the city raced by and gave way to the wider, tree-lined streets of my hometown.

When Ilya’s phone rang my heart nearly jumped into my mouth.

“Yes,” he barked.

The phone was on handsfree speaker mode, and a masculine voice muttered something in Russian. Whatever it was, didn’t make Ilya happy as he grumbled some response and disconnected.

“What? What’s happened?” I asked.

“Your friend came to collect your daughter, apparently she needs her leotard for dance practice tomorrow, so Lara is taking her to your home to collect some things.”

Damn it! I thought Lara would be away until midweek, I was counting on Karina being safe with Ryan, “Are they okay?”

“Dmitri is following them, he’ll keep watch from outside. Don’t worry, if anything happens, he’ll be there in a flash. He never travels anywhere unarmed.”

I wasn’t sure if that reassured me or scared me more. Thinking that my poor daughter and best friend were getting caught up in mafia business was terrifying. “We need to have a plan.”

“A plan?”

“We can’t tell Karina who you are, not yet, not with all of this drama going on. And no, it’s not a delay tactic.” Though I couldn’t blame him for thinking it was. “I promise. I just don’t want to scare her until we know what’s happening. Plus, wouldn’t she be in more danger if Oleg knew she was yours?”

“For now. Sure.” His jaw clenched and his grip tightened on the steering wheel.

“I’m serious. You don’t want it like this. Trust me. Despite what you might believe, I want Karina to have her father in her life if that’s what you want. I want you to be there for her, to be a present and stable presence in her life. This situation isn’t good for her or for you.”

He nodded and focused on driving.

“We need a plan,” I repeated after a few minutes. “What if your uncle has sent someone and they are already there, waiting at my home?”

The words barely left my mouth and Ilya was already making the call to Dmitri. The phone rang out, before going to voicemail.

“That isn’t good,” I said.

“No,” Ilya replied tersely. He tried making another call, and once more it went to voicemail.

I was getting really panicked now, “What should we do?”

Ilya glanced down at his phone again, then said, “You should go in through the front, be as natural as possible and I’ll make a surprise entrance through the back.”

“You think your uncle might have someone waiting already?”

He didn’t answer me, but from his silence, it was clear that we were both thinking the same thing. I didn’t like it. There were too many opportunities for things to go wrong, but it was all we had at the moment. “And you’ll keep Karina safe no matter what?”

---