The explanation meant more to me than I could put into words. I’d never thought of sparrows like that, but I loved his reasons for the nickname, and that it was the same one he’d given their dad when he was a kid.
“I like that,” I said quietly, lifting my hand to stroke Walker’s head when Taras stopped beside me. “Varobushek.”
One side of Taras’s mouth tilted up at the name. “I see you’ve been telling her stories, Dad.”
“Uh, I hate to be the one to break up the cute shit, but what in the fuck is going on?” Lena asked, taking a step away from Hunter when he went to put his arm around her. “No, don’t touch me. I don’t care that we just got shot at, you don’t get to do that.”
Blowing out a breath, Dad shook his head as he looked at the wall separating us from the living room. What I was seeing didn’t initially make sense, until I realized that the bullets had gone through that wall, and then stopped when they’d hit the one where we’d been hiding.
Looking at what Dad was, Bogdan’s expression became grim. “I understand the need to discuss it, but we don’t know if there are more incoming, and we’re too open here. The safest place for the women and boys is at one of the houses, so we need to move.”
Knowing he was right, I started to go to the nursery. “I need to get their things—"
Gently grabbing my arm, Taras stopped me before I could take the first step, though. “No, malysh, we need to leave now. I have duplicates of everything at my house, and we’ll be safer there.”
A voice yelling in Russian from the front of the house made both me and Lena jump, but whatever was said had both Fedorov men hustling.
“We’ve got to go,” Bogdan said to Dad and Hunter. “They’re holding off another four vehicles two minutes away from here.”
Bursting into action, he handed Hendrix back to me as Taras gave Walker to Lena, then we were moved quickly through the living room, with their big bodies shielding us. Through the small gaps, though, I managed to see some of the devastation to my home.
I couldn’t stop to think about it. If I did, I’d break down.
As we passed the mess of my couch, I shoved a hand between Taras and Dad, to grab up the baby book I was constantly updating. I didn’t have one, and I’d have loved to have known my milestones from when I was a baby, so I was determined not to miss out on even one for the boys. And, regardless of the mess of everything else in my home, the book miraculously hadn’t been hit.
“We don’t have time, Nell,” Dad growled, carefully nudging me forward again.
“It’s all I need, I promise.”
And that wasn’t a lie. They were all safe, and I hadn’t lost the book. That was all I needed, because I had everything that was important right here.
Our movement paused as we got to the door, but then the group split into two, with Hunter leading Lena and Walker to one vehicle, and Taras taking me to the other.
“What about Walker?” I asked, feeling real panic at the prospect of being separated from him.
“We need to split ourselves into smaller targets, moye serdste. Lena has Hunter next to her, along with Dad and his men, to keep them safe. He won’t let anything happen to either of them, I promise,” Taras said as he helped me into the back of his vehicle.
Simeon and Zoran were standing guard beside it, their weapons in their hands and their focus on the surrounding area. Yakov was behind the wheel, his expression grim as I sat down.
Twisting down to make sure I was settled, he focused on the little boy in my arms. “Hold onto the baby, Penny. We don’t have time for the car seat.”
The prospect of breaking any of the rules that’d been hammered into me by the books and the nurses at the hospital made me feel sick. Babies had to be placed safely in a protective seat, regardless of how far you were driving.
“It’s okay, Nell. Yakov won’t let anything happen while he’s driving,” Taras tried to reassure me, but it fell on deaf ears.
As Simeon and Zoran got into the vehicle, one in the front and one in the back, I wrapped my arms around Hendrix and breathed him in. I’d never believed that babies had a special smell to them that wasn’t based on poop and spit-up, but my boys definitely did. And at that moment, it calmed me better than even a bottle of whiskey probably would’ve.
I was aware of Yakov saying something in the front, but I kept my eyes shut as we drove quickly through the streets, praying we wouldn’t get into an accident.