My jaw dropped. His car pulled up and stopped across the street! How the hell did he find me? I'd hauled ass over more than a mile, skirting between buildings and over the quad.
He stepped out into the drizzle, scanning for a moment before his gaze settled on me. From his vantage, he could see into my second-story classroom. Could see me under bright fluorescent lights.
What must he be thinking about this? Would he bust in? Or would he hang out while I took my test?
He took out his phone and texted someone. A instant later, a chime sounded. I stilled.
That was my text chime. From my bag.
I opened the pack and fished it out. He'd slipped the phone in so he could track me! Maybe when I'd been looking out the window on the bus? Sneaky Russian!
He was giving me a brows-drawn look. I must like pain in all its forms, because I pulled up the message.
M Sevastyan: I don't know what you're doing. I hope you do well. I would never be unfaithful to you.
Damn him! Did I dare believe him? Maybe he'd booked Ivanna to get information on me. But why hadn't she called me back? I checked the rest of my messages. Several were from her number, not two hours after I'd ditched the phone. Mierda!
Despite her long red nails, she'd attempted to text: takked ti Sev!!1 U lnded hom!
Landed him? Even if he hadn't been with Ivanna, Sevastyan and I still weren't good. Not in any way. He'd been horrible to me. Because of him, I'd nearly lost my mind last night--and today.
I texted him back: you broke my heart yesterday
When he read the message, his head jerked up, disbelief in his expression. Without looking away from me, he replied: let. me. mend. it.
We stared at each other as my chest twisted and twisted.
"Hi, Cat, are you ready?" Ms. Gillespie said as she breezed into the room.
I turned from the window. "Ready as ever."
"You'll have forty-five minutes." She handed me the exam.
I settled into a desk. I could do this! Yet as I stared down at the page, the text swam before my eyes. Were my eyes watering again? I never cried in front of other people.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"I-I'm fine." Get it together! "Ready to get started." My gaze slid to the window again. Sevastyan was still out there, watching me. Hey, no pressure. If he caused me to tank my grade, I would have to murder him.
I read, "Question number one," and I thought Rule number one. I was at the end of my odyssey. Would I choke at the finish line . . . ?
Forty-five minutes later, Ms. Gillespie said, "Time's up."
I gathered my stuff, then trudged up to her. I couldn't remember my answers. I wanted to go back over the test--and make sure I hadn't written MURDER over and over--but she looked expectantly at me.
"This is your last class, right?" When I nodded, she said, "I could grade the exam now, if you'd like."
"That'd be great." As she began to read my answers, I peered out the window. Sevastyan leaned against his car, phone at his ear.
Again, I wondered what I would have done if I'd heard him groan a woman's name--after overhearing him tell a friend, "I'm involved with another woman."
"This looks wonderful, Cat," Ms. Gillespie said, drawing my gaze. "An A. Congratulations on completing your courses!"
I'd finished.
I'd atoned and kept my promise.
One day, I would transfer all these credits to get my degree.
One day, it would say summa cum laude on it.
All this time, all this work, and I'd done it! When I'd first started college, I'd pictured myself celebrating with friends upon graduating. What would I do now? My eyes only wanted to look at Maxim. He'd said he loved me, but could I believe that? Should I give my flawed mobster another shot?
Maybe. Since he'd kind of ended up being the love of my life and all.
Our relationship wasn't pretty. The heavy lifting still needed to be done. But the foundation was there. "I really appreciate the makeup, Ms. Gillespie."
"I had something else I wanted to talk to you about. Last week, there was a man looking for you. But he wasn't from around here."
I gasped out, "What did you tell him?"
"Though I knew this was your last class, I told him you'd be here when the spring term started."
Next week. I still had time. "Why would you lie for me?"
"I didn't like the looks of him. It's none of my business, but he seemed . . . unwell."
Deranged. "Th-thank you so much, Ms. Gillespie."
I was crying before I made it down the hall. Edward had already been called down upon me. Ready to break every rule and swallow all my pride, I rang Sevastyan. "Ruso?"
"Katya, what's wrong?"
I hurried down the stairs. "I need"--my voice broke on a sob--"help."
"Anything. Name anything."
"I-I'm in trouble." When I reached the quad, I spotted him in the distance.
He'd already started across the street to come for me. "Whatever it is, we'll figure it out." The skies opened up even more and rain poured. Winds gusted, palm fronds battering each other. Lightning jagged across the sky.
Comprehension struck with the intensity of the bolts above. He is in love with me. He'd said he wanted to protect me. If there were ever a time I would need him to . . . "The dream I had on the plane was a--"
An arm snaked around me. Searing pain exploded.
I stared down in horror. At the blade jutting from my chest.
Blackness.
CHAPTER 37
A guttural bellow woke me. Sevastyan's? My eyes crept open.
Edward had stabbed me. He'd actually done it.
I lay on the ground. The bastard had my head in his lap, his pale, haggard face above me. The knife hilt was rising and falling with my wheezing breaths. The pain . . . every inhalation was a new anguish. My fingers clawed at the grass, my legs uncontrollably writhing. Dots swarmed my vision.
I didn't want to die by his hand. I wanted out of his repulsive arms--
He tore the knife from my chest; I needed to scream, but I couldn't.
The ugly sounds were now mine.
"And who are those men, wife?" Edward put the knife to my throat, but he wasn't looking at me. His crazed eyes were focused on Sevastyan as he ran for me, Vasili in the distance behind him, gun raised.
"Stop where you are," Edward yelled over the rain, pressing the knife harder.
Maxim and Vasili went motionless.
"Your man needs to drop his gun," Edward called. "Then you both back away. Or I'll show you my wife's throat from the inside."
If Sevastyan was shocked to hear him call me wife, he didn't reveal it. He'd probably put so much together. "Release--her--now." He looked lethal, his big body tensed to attack. Rage blazed from him, his eyes filled with it. His wet hair whipped over his face in the wind, his fists clenched.
Edward had no idea who he was dealing with. "This doesn't concern you, stranger."
Maxim told Vasili something in Russian. Vasili put his gun down, backing from it by a step.
Never looking away from Sevastyan, Edward told me, "I didn't expect you to make friends, Ana-Lucia. You never did before, not in any of the six cities you hid from me. It would've made finding you so much easier. Not that I would ever have stopped. I will get revenge for Julia, and I'm prepared to die for it."
He'd been to all the places I'd lived? Between wet coughs, I bit out, "H-how?"
"I overheard your vow to your mother to finish your degree. For three years, I spent your money to comb every school in the country. You used family names--your first and only mistake." His chin and jaw were slack between words. "I hunted you here. When I suspected your bitch of a teacher was lying for you, I knew I had you trapped."
Maxim grated, "Get the fuck away from her, Edward. This is my last warning."
"You almost won, Ana-Lucia. You almost got the best of me. For someone like you to rob me of Julia . . . it seethes inside me every second of every day. Bec
ause of you, I had to bury her like trash in some fetid marsh--"
Maxim told Vasili something else in Russian, then started forward.
Edward jerked his head up. "What are you doing, stranger? I'll kill her if you come closer!"
Maxim kept coming, six foot four inches of towering, enraged Russian. "She'll bleed out if I don't."
"I didn't expect her to have friends, but I wasn't unprepared." Edward dropped the knife, pulling a gun from a holster under his coat. "Now you and the other man leave us, or I will shoot you down."
He was going to kill Maxim! "Don't." There was nothing I could do to stop him! Frustration welled inside me.
Maxim was fearless. "I know gunmen. You're not one."
Edward cocked his weapon. "I will shoot!" This close, he couldn't miss.
"And when you do, my man will retrieve his gun and take you out." Maxim was planning to get shot? For me? "There is no scenario where she doesn't live."
Need to help him. Gritting my teeth, I patted the ground for Edward's blade. So dizzy. Stay awake or Maxim dies. For all these years, I'd wanted to be brave. Now was my chance.
There! The knife. I curled my fingers around the hilt.
"Stop where you are!" Edward squinted one eye--to take the shot!
No, no, no! I lifted the knife. With the last of my strength, I screamed and struck, stabbing his arm. But the gun was going off! The deafening blast boomed beside my ear.
Maxim's shoulder jerked back. Edward yelled, "You bitch--"