Page 112 of Silent Heart

The moment the firing paused, Daniella shot to her feet, a small handgun in her tiny grasp. She fired three times before dropping back down.

“Thank heaven I left the babies napping with nonna!” she wheezed. “I wouldn’t think straight if they were here.”

“Who is it?” Brittany rasped, phone pressed to her ear.

“You’re not calling the cops, are you?” I choked. “They’ll never make it in time.”

“That’s why I carry this.” Daniella held up her gun. “Whoever it is, they’re gone. Which means we need to get the hell out of here.”

I nodded.

Brittany winced, holding the phone away from her ear. “You talk to them.”

But Daniella already disappeared into the back. Her fingers frantically scrambled across a computer keyboard. At the front of the store, the screeching shopkeeper and stylist hyperventilated behind the counter.

“Should we go to help them?” I breathed, peering back into the boutique.

“No!” Daniella barked. “The gunmen are here for us. They’re safe behind that marble desk.”

“Give me that, chicken brains,” Cami said to her sister. Into the phone, she snapped, “Kazimir, shut the hell up. We’re heading out of the store. Cops will be here in minutes.”

“Get out the back, but take cover,” Dani instructed, furiously clicking the mouse.

“There’s already sirens,” I added, hearing them over the chaos outside on the windy street.

“No!” Cami Joe said angrily into the phone. “You won’t let me have a gun, so your bride is the only one prepared!”

I shepherded the girls to the thick metal back doors but waited for Daniella to finish up in the office.That’s it. I’m carrying a pistol from now on.Life was going to be far more interesting now that I was a mobster’s girl. But…I was going to need lessons on handling situations like this. Thankfully, I knew just the guy.

Chapter 46 – Harley

After a frantic Kazimir picked us up with a handful of armed guards, Daniella and her husband rapidly communicated in fiery back and forth. They thought it had to do with whatever hornet nest the guys raided the other night. I kept quiet, avoiding looking at them or Cami.

Instead of going to the fortress, we headed into the sea of skyscrapers. As we reached the top floor of a parking ramp, one that was nearly empty, Kazimir’s phone rang.

Daniella turned in her seat to look back at us. “This is one of our businesses, Harley. I need to run scans on the visual files I snatched. You can wait with the girls in the executive lounge,” she offered kindly as her husband exited the vehicle, barking gruffly in Russian into his cell.

“Thanks,” I breathed.

“For you.” Kazimir stuck the phone in my hand, turned abruptly, and caught his wife along the side of the vehicle. Daniella let out a little squeak of surprise as she was crushed to her gigantic husband.

“Get a room,” Brittany muttered, to which her sister chuckled.

Shaking myself, I cleared my throat and put the phone to my ear. “Hello?”

“Harley.” My name was a breath of relief.

“I’m okay,” I promised, to which Kolya let out a rough barking laugh.

“I’ll be there soon.”

“Good.”We need to talk.

The line disconnected. The walk to the executive’s lounge took less than ten minutes, but the journey from the parking ramp through skyways and rides on elevators lost all meaning. Kazimir kept his arm wrapped tightly around his wife. I tried not to stare, but I couldn’t help seeing it every time they moved.

Lost in a box of pastries and quality espresso, Cami and I strategized about our upcoming final projects. The semester exams would be the second week of December, and the sooner we finished projects, the sooner we could study and prep for those.

The door banged open. The thunderous sound sent my heart shooting against my ribs.

---