Page 24 of Married to the Don (Kornilov Bratva Duet 1)

Molly

The knocking invades my dreams before I finally rouse. It has been so long since I’ve been in a truly deep sleep that I’m confused for a minute. Sleeping in the shelters means waking once an hour to someone coughing, going to the bathroom, or begging their kids to stay in bed. It has rarely ever been so quiet.

The knocks happen again, propelling me out of bed. They are soft, not violent or threatening, but my adrenaline spikes, and I fling an arm out across the bed to hide Theo.

If Viktor knows about my connection to Fedor, he might be here to claim his family. Men like him are all about their family. He won’t want his flesh and blood living on the streets with a waitress. They’ll take Theo away, raise him away from me, and I won’t have any means of stopping them. No one will listen to the cries of a homeless woman who lost her child. They’ll probably rejoice that he’s finally being taken care of.

Except, when I reach out across the bed, the small lump I expect to find there is missing. Instead, the covers have been thrown back haphazardly, leaving the bed cold.

Dread drops into my stomach like an anchor, nearly bringing me to my knees.

Theo is gone.

There is more knocking on the door, but I barely even hear it over the sound of blood pumping in my ears. Theo is gone, and I have no idea where he is, and oh my God, I think I might die.

One time when Theo was two, he ducked underneath a clothing rack in a thrift store and disappeared. When I ran to the other side of the aisle, I couldn’t find him. He was out of my sight for maybe a total of forty-five seconds, but it felt like an hour of running from aisle to aisle, trying to find him, looking for his little dark-haired head. Another shopper caught him when she saw me frantically looking and brought him back to me, but the feeling of him being out of my sight—being lost—never left me. And now I’m feeling it again but a thousand times worse.

We are in a hotel owned by the family of his father—the family of the man who attacked me. And they know. Maybe they’ve taken him. They could have drugged me just like Fedor did all those years ago. What time is it? I can’t find the alarm clock in my panic.

This time, I register the knocking, and I stumble to the door in a blind panic, my vision blurry as tears begin to crowd in.

As soon as I throw it open, I see there is a man there, but before I know who, my eyes snag on the little head at his side. Theo is smiling up at me kind of lazily, like this reunion isn’t special. Like I should have known he’d be right back.

A relieved sob bursts out of me, and I hold out my arms to grab him before I remember the man next to him. I look over and every despicable theory floating around in my head is confirmed. Viktor.

I reach out and grab Theo’s hand. He jerks forward with a groan of annoyance and as soon as he’s out of Viktor’s grip, I draw my leg back and then lunge forward, driving my knee up as hard as I can—directly into Viktor’s groin.

His eyes go wide, and then he doubles over, letting out a string of curses not at all suitable for Theo’s ears. Though, seeing his mother knee a man in the crotch also isn’t very suitable.

Before Viktor can rally, I squeeze Theo’s hand and drag him down the hallway behind me.

Theo is crying, I’m barefoot, and neither of us has our coats, but I know this is a matter of life and death. If we stay in this motel, Viktor will have us killed. The only reason I got the best of him this time is because he didn’t know I’d figured it out. But I have, and I won’t go back into that room willingly.

“Molly, wait,” Viktor wheezes behind me, but I ignore him as I sprint past the elevator and take the stairs. Theo is still fighting, trying to pry his fingers from my grip, so I scoop him up in my arms more deftly than I’ve ever done before and keep running.

A plan is formulating in my mind. We aren’t far from the shelter. There may not be a place to sleep, but they can’t turn me away if they know I’ll freeze to death on the streets. They’ll have to give me a pair of shoes and give us both coats or blankets, at least. Then I’ll use the ten-dollar bill in my back pocket to take the bus to a box store somewhere. It was my last choice earlier in the night, but now, it will be our salvation.

I burst through the door into the lobby more ferociously than intended and between my panting and Theo’s crying, we draw some attention. The kid who delivered my food looks up from his laptop and frowns.

“Is everything okay?”

I try to calm my breathing and nod, moving towards the door.

“Do you need something?” he asks.

I shake my head, still too out of breath to speak. I don’t want him to know I’m running away. He seems nice, but he could be in on the plan with Viktor. He might try to stop me from leaving if he knows that’s what I’m doing. I’m not safe until I get away from the motel.

I’m halfway across the lobby when a distant roar winds its way down the stairwell and into the lobby. The kid perks up and tilts his head to the door, and I walk faster, trying to pretend I didn’t hear it.

“What is going on?” he asks just as Viktor’s voice becomes clearer.

“She grabbed the kid and ran. I don’t know where she’s going, but she doesn’t even have shoes on.”

His voice is as clear as though it was in the room.

No time for playing it cool. I have to run. Now.

Theo is limp in my arms and getting heavier by the second, but I hug him to me and lower my head to make a break for it… when suddenly, there is a dark shadow in front of me. I look up to see the human equivalent of a brick wall. He is tall, dark, and solid. He lays a hand on my shoulder and pins me in place with the sheer weight of it.

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