Page 19 of Possessive Vows

My niece woke me from a slow death.

I read the man’s name tag and assure him I will forward his message to Giorgio.

Dimitri ushers me away from the man without a word, and despite sizing each other up, neither gives the other hostile vibes.

With the sidewalk narrower but the street busier, I shift closer to the fence as my angel of death insists on walking between me and the road. Despite my apprehension, I force my shoulders to relax and don’t shy away every time his arm brushes against mine.

After strolling along the facility’s border for a few minutes, he turns us into a neighborhood with quaint little cookie-cutter townhouses.

The sun warms my scalp as we pass in between the trees. With less foliage for an attacker to hide behind, the coil of dread wrapped around my chest loosens, and when Dimitri gestures for me to stay by his side as he approaches a black sedan, I don’t balk.

He reaches under the bumper and pulls out the key fob, flips it in his palm, and keeps his body between me and the vehicle as we take a full circle around it.

After ensuring no one is inside and the undercarriage is clear, he unlocks the car, opens the driver’s door, and offers me the keys.

I step back. Vomit climbs up my throat as the squealing of tires and crunching of metal echoes in my ears. A single glimpse of the wheel transports me back to the worst night of my life.

I close my eyes, turn around, and search for oxygen. No matter how much I fill my lungs, I can’t breathe.

“Open your eyes,so´lnyshka.”

Deep. Smooth. Comforting.

Dimitri’s thick accent pulls me from my spiral.

I instinctually follow his command and open my eyes. A few cars drive past in either direction as I gather myself, some with their windows down and music blasting from their speakers while others roll by with barely a sound.

I am safe. I am alive. I am loved. I am healing.

When the sound of my gasping breaths no longer grates my ears, I run a hand over my hair and force myself to inhale long and slow.

“What does that word mean?So´lnyshka?”

My wayward tongue forms the abstract thought before I can stop it, and I cringe as I butcher the pronunciation.

When he takes longer to answer than I expect, I shift and look over my shoulder at him.

“It is hard to translate the full meaning, but something like a little ray of sunshine,” he says.

I shake my head.

No one in their right mind would compare me to sunshine. I’m a dark and stormy night sky on the best of days.

“Yes, Camilla. No darkness will snuff your light,” he says.

I scoff, meet his eyes, and turn to square my shoulders with his. With a jab of my finger toward the seat revealed by the open car door, I stare deeper into his eyes.

“Thissnuffs my light. I can’t get behind the wheel again. I’m trapped in the darkest hell known to womankind and I’m not strong enough to break free.”

An odd tingling begins at the back of my skull, and I realize too late I’m on the edge of a mental breakdown.

His expression hardens. He opens his mouth, but I can’t handle more, so I yank open the back door, plop inside, and slam it closed before he speaks.

Needing a moment to fight off the tingling, I buckle in, close my eyes, and lean my head back on the headrest.

After several tense seconds, the entire car shifts as he lowers his weight into the driver’s seat. When he starts the engine and backs out of the drive without adjusting the settings, I realize he drove the car here.

He offered me the keys as a courtesy.

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