Page 1 of Hearts of Resistance
PROLOGUE
FRANCE
1944
‘Run!’ Rose hissed as the deafening bang of the explosion fired behind them.
Sophia gasped as Hazel roughly snatched her hand, pulling her along. She stifled a scream as her ankle collapsed, twisting on something that snared from the ground, but she didn’t slow down. They had to move fast.
They were surrounded by the enemy. If they didn’t find their way to safety soon, they were as good as dead.
‘It’ll take time for them to regroup,’ Sophia managed, panting as she whispered. ‘We’ll be gone before they even start searching for us.’
The silence from the other two women told her they weren’t so optimistic, but Sophia refused to be anything other than certain of their survival. She’d faced worse odds before – they all had – and there was a reason they were all still alive when so many others weren’t. They’d have dogs sent to find them soon though, men scouring every blade of grass for them, so they didn’t have long.
‘Hazel—’
‘No!’ screamed Rose, leaping in front of Sophia and pushing her back.
The Nazi had appeared from nowhere, pistol raised, the barrel pointed skyward now as Rose fought against him, pushing him away. As Sophia staggered to her feet, the gun went off, the blast making her ears ring, making everything silent around her as she watched Hazel move behind the soldier. The silver of Hazel’s blade shone brightly.
They’d talked about death, about whether they were capable of killing a man with their bare hands the way they’d been trained to do. Sophia swallowed the bile rising in her throat as she watched Hazel’s hand tremble.
It was kill or be killed.
PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE
SOPHIA
BERLIN, GERMANY
LATE1942
Sophia watched Alex from across the room of her apartment. He was stretched out over her chair, one foot resting over the arm of it, the other on the zebra-skin rug. She’d always hated that particular furnishing – a gift from her father that she knew better than to dispose of – but the way Alex was rubbing his toes across it, she was starting to think he might wear a hole into it if she didn’t get him out of her apartment soon.
She stifled a laugh when he scrunched up a piece of paper and threw it at her, watching a smile touch his lips as he returned her stare. She had no idea how the poor man could still be so jovial after being cooped up in her apartment for so long, seeing only her, day in and day out. He didn’t seem to mind terribly, or else he was the world’s greatest actor.
It seemed a long time ago that she’d crept in through his window in the dead of night, begging him to flee Berlin. She’d known what was coming and had desperately tried to warn all of her Jewish friends and their families, but Alex’s father had been stubborn and refused to leave the city he loved. She swallowed, blinking away the familiar sting of tears whenever she thought about that night. If only she’d fought harder, maybe they would have listened. She wouldn’t have Alex with her now, but at least his family might still be safe and alive.
He threw another balled-up piece of paper at her, and she set down the glass she’d been holding and crossed the room to join him. He did it again, only this time she was fast enough to catch it and throw it back at him.
‘Stop it,’ she said, glaring at him and trying to appear angry.
‘I’m too bored to stop,’ Alex said. ‘Besides, you’re beautiful when you’re angry with me.’
Sophia sighed and stood, hands on her hips. ‘I know how hard this is for you,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘But...’
‘Don’t,’ he said gently, rising from the sofa and holding out his hands to her. ‘We don’t talk about the past, remember?’
She took them willingly, never needing any encouragement when it came to touching Alex. She’d been in love with him since she was a young girl visiting his father’s shop with her mother and she’d grown into a young woman who loved him more fiercely with each passing day. Sophia let him pull her close and press a warm kiss to her lips, his hands sliding down her body and up again before stopping to rest on her shoulders.
‘I am so lucky to have you,’ he murmured, then kissed her again. ‘Every single day that I’m here, alive and safe, is a good day. Don’t you ever go feeling sorry for me, Sophia.’
Sophia stroked his cheek, looking into brown eyes flecked with green. ‘How do you stay so positive all the time? When so many terrible things have happened to the people you love?’
It was something she thought about constantly, wondering all the time how he managed to keep smiling, to stay so strong when he’d lost so much. When his family had finally realised it was time to leave the city, it had been too late. The Rubensteins had tried to flee, but their shop had already been destroyed and when the Nazis had come looking for Alex’s father, he’d been beaten and dragged away, trying to protect his wife and daughters. Alex had arrived back home to see them being taken, had seen his mother mouth the wordGoto him as they’d been hauled away. And so he’d run, hiding in the shadows until he’d managed to make his way to Sophia’s apartment – and he’d never left.
