Promise to Keep (Vow To Protect 2)

Once the cut is cleaned up and I’m bandaged, I slip off my shoes and lie down on the bed. The practical jeans I put on earlier feel too tight. My black blouse grates against my skin as my arm throbs in time with my erratic heartbeat.

I hate this so much. For once in my life, I was happy and finally starting to believe that maybe, just maybe, someone would keep a promise to me...and I’d be safe.

The phone beside the bed rings out in a sharp blare so loud it startles me, and I scramble over the side of the bed to hide between the bed and the wall.

It continues to ring, and my mind spins. Has he found me already? Did he follow me? Did I take too long to get rid of the tracker?

What do I do? I wrap my arms around my body and hunker down, praying that when someone shows up, maybe they won’t see me. I’m small and easily missed in most cases.

The phone stops ringing, and suddenly, I can hear my breathing sawing in and out of me in ragged pants. I take a few deep breaths, trying to calm myself and my heart.

The temporary safety I thought I found is fractured, broken, just like that photo of Adrian and his mother I dropped.

I grab the pillow and blanket off the bed, check all the locks on the door, unplug the cord from the phone, and then slide the closet door open to step inside.

Once I make myself a little pallet and fold myself up in the dark, I close my eyes. It’s not Adrian’s face that comes to mind first, but Rose’s. She’d know what to do right now. Without a doubt, we’d have already crossed into Canada on our way to the nearest bar for a celebratory drink to ring in our escape.

But she’s gone, and it’s just me now. I have to learn how to keep myself safe. For so long, I failed…

I failed myself.

I failed Rose.

Hell, in the end, I failed Adrian too.

It led me to this moment. I’ll be the mother neither of us had, and I won’t fail our child. As long as I’m still breathing, I’ll do whatever I have to in order to protect them. If only I could explain that to him. Maybe he’ll understand and see reason? Knowing him, though, he won’t stop looking for me, not for one single second until I’m back in his clutches. If only that isn’t where I want to be too.

Now his face comes to mind, the soft press of his lips against my neck, right below my ear. He always knows just where to kiss me to make me shiver. Then I hear him whisper, “Angel,” and it’s enough to let me fall asleep.

2

ADRIAN

I don’t regret killing Sal. If anyone deserved to be gutted, it was that bastard. What I do hate is being in society’s crosshairs. I hate that my people are suffering because of my actions. I fucking hate that Andrea will never be the same because I failed to keep her safe.

The leather of my seat creaks while I shift, and the seat belt cuts uncomfortably across my neck until I yank it down in disgust. I spent the better part of the day listening to assholes questioning and berating me. My father would have never stood for it, yet I endured, all in hopes of ensuring Valentina’s safety in the end. If I give them a reason to dig, they’ll find her, and maybe, if I’m not strong enough to keep her safe too, they’ll take her away.

I’ll have nothing left to live for.

Michail—solid, immovable Michail—drives faster, sensing my restlessness without me having to say a word. His black curls are disheveled, making him look younger than his twenty-eight years. He grips the steering wheel with white knuckles, and I draw in a slow and steady breath.

“If you have something to say, then say it.”

He carefully shifts his hands on the wheel, sliding them around the leather to cup the circle from the bottom. His shoulders stay tight despite the casual posture, his black suit jacket bunching along the top. “I didn’t like that. I don’t like them watching you so closely.”

His silky soft voice, threaded with steel, breaks the tension a bit. Of course he’d be worried about me. All my men worry about me. It’s the only reason I trust them so implicitly.

I settle in the seat again and reach up to grab the handlebar to stretch out my stiff shoulder. It always aches when it’s about to rain, ever since my fighting days. “I don’t like it either, but it won’t be for long. Once they figure out there’s no body, and they have no proof, there’s nothing they can do to me or any of us.”