Page 59 of The Devil's Wrath

He roared in pain, releasing his grip. Blood trickled down his temple and my palm from where the glass had shattered against hisskull. I didn’t wait for him to recover. I bolted for the door, adrenaline pumping through my veins.

I burst out of the bar into the chilly air, gasping for breath. My car was parked at the far end of the lot, and I stumbled toward it on unsteady legs. The alcohol and adrenaline coursing through my system made it hard to think straight.

Behind me, I heard the bar door slam open. Heavy footsteps pounded on the pavement, getting closer with each passing second.

“You shouldn’t have done that,malen’kaya ptichka,” Igor shouted, his voice laced with fury and something far more sinister.

Panic seized my chest as I fumbled with my keys, my hands shaking so badly that I could barely get it into the lock. Just as I managed to wrench the door open, a large hand clamped down on my shoulder, spinning me around. I didn’t think; I just fought, and that meant throwing my fist out as hard as I could, hitting the face of my assailant.

“Oh fuck! Wren, it’s me,” Theo cried out, holding his hand to his mouth.

I blinked in confusion, my alcohol-and-fear-addled brain struggling to process the sight of Theo standing before me, blood dripping from his busted lip where my fist had connected.

“Theo? What the fuck are you doing here?” I asked him while I scanned the parking lot, but Igor was nowhere in sight.

He winced, gingerly touching his lip. “I tracked you because you didn’t go home.”

“What? How?”

“GPS tag in your purse.” He recoiled, protecting his face in case I punched him again.

I stared at him in disbelief. “You put a tracking device in my purse? What the actual fuck, Theo?”

He held up his hands defensively. “I know. It sounds bad when I say it out loud. I just wanted to keep you safe.”

I scoffed. “Safe? You’ve been spying on me, violating my privacy in the most intimate ways possible, and now you’re stalking me? That’s not keeping me safe, Theo. That’s psycho behavior.”

He took a step toward me, his eyes pleading. “Baby, please. I knowI fucked up. I never meant to hurt you or make you feel violated. I just . . . I care about you so much. The thought of anything happening to you terrifies me.”

I shook my head, tears burning in my eyes. “If you cared about me, you would have respected my privacy and my boundaries. You would have trusted me to take care of myself.”

“I do trust you. But there are dangerous people out there, people who would hurt you to get to me. I was trying to protect you from them.”

I laughed bitterly. “Like the guy in the bar just now? The one who grabbed me and threatened me? Where were you and your cameras then?”

His eyes widened in alarm. “What guy? What happened in there?”

I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly feeling vulnerable and exposed. “Some Russian creep. He was hitting on me, but there was something off about him. When I tried to leave, he grabbed me and threatened me.”

Theo’s face darkened with anger. “Did he hurt you? I swear to god if he laid a hand on you . . .”

I shook my head. “No, I managed to get away. Smashed a glass against his head and ran like hell. But I recognized him from somewhere. I just can’t place it.”

Theo’s brow furrowed in concern. “What did he look like?”

I described Igor to him—mid-forties with dark hair, ice-blue eyes, and a Russian accent.

“He called me . . .my-lenkai teech-kuhor something like that when I hit him. It was like he knew who I was.”

Theo’s eyes widened. “Malen’kaya ptichka?”

“Yeah, that’s it. What does it mean?”

“Little bird,” he responded quietly, lost in his thoughts.

“Are you oka—” I began to ask but then realized what he had said. “Little bird? The nickname you gave me? Why would he call me the name you call me, Theo?”

He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.

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