Page 103 of Silent Heart

They exchanged a skeptical look.

“I’m going to go park and call my friend.” I pointed ahead where a gas station sat on the corner of the campus.

Seeming to be satisfied, the strangers waited a few moments more before taking off to their classes.

I managed to move the truck before throwing it into park. The phone rang through the cab on the Bluetooth speaker.

“What happened?” Dimitri clipped from the other end of the line.

“I need you to shoot me.”

Silence ticked by. I couldn’t even hear Dimi breathe.

Outside, other vehicles came and went. Doors slammed as drivers jumped out to fill their tanks or ran inside for a convenient stop. Overhead, advertisements played on the speakers in a prerecorded loop.

I inhaled deeply, gasoline and windshield wiper fluid strong enough smells to revive and ground me.

“You’re going to need to explain that one, but—” my cousin raised his voice “—there are very few scenarios where I would shoot you, Kolya, and I can’t imagine this being one of them.”

The exhale didn’t shake as it left my lungs. “If I have an episode, and Harley is in any danger, I need you to promise me that you’ll shoot me before anything can happen to her.”

“Ah,” Dimitri hummed. “I see.”

I steeled myself for his arguments.

“Let me tell you why that will never happen,” Dimi began.

My protest started as a wordless burst of outrage that he was dismissing me so casually.

But he spoke over me. “You’re not going to hurt her.”

“Dimitri! I’ve killed people before!”

The sounds of the gas station faded. Walls closed around my ears. I couldn’t breathe again.

“Do you know what you did last night?” Dimitri asked, voice light and airy, completely at odds with how I felt as if he didn’t care I was suffocating.

My silence was the result of my inability to form words, to exist through the rising panic attack.

“You stepped between us, Kolya.”

I blinked. It was the one motor skill still in my control.

“You saw Luka and I as threats, and you put yourselfbetweenher and us.”

A shudder rumbled down my whole body.

I protected her. “You’re sure?”

“Positive.”

My voice was hoarse. “I can’t let anything happen to her.”

“You won’t.”

A ragged breath left my lungs. “Thanks, Dimi.”

“Anytime.” The phone clicked off.

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