Cruel Paradise - A Mafia Romance Chapter 103

“I couldn’t exactly leave them in the Walmart parking lot.” Before I can rip into her about putting herself in this situation in the first place, Emma gasps. “I see them! The black car with the dirty windows! They just turned down toward the interstate.”

I veer between cars and catch sight of the target. No license plate. Bingo. “I see them.”

“Ruslan—get him back,” Emma begs. “I just want him back safe.”

“Kirill,” I growl, hitting the accelerator. “Hang up.”

The line goes dead and the lights turn red. I come up next to the black sedan, staying far enough behind them that the front of my SUV is in line with the back of their car. The kidnappers have no idea that I’m right beside them.

But Josh does.

His eyes go wide when he catches sight of me. I put a finger to my lips and he nods.

Smart kid.

I tap at my own seatbelt, indicating to Josh to put his on. He nods once and, immediately afterward, the light changes and the sedan speeds off.

I pursue. Kirill’s eyes veer towards me. “Do you have a plan?”

“I always have a plan. This one just happens to be somewhat unconventional.

“Fuck me.” Kirill leans towards the dash. “He just picked up speed. I think they know they’re being followed.”

Clenching my jaw, I steer into a bylane that I know connects back up with the main road. Kirill grabs the edges of his seat as I commit a dozen different traffic violations to make this little detour.

“Yup,” Kirill confirms. “They definitely know we’re on their tail.”

I swipe the side mirrors as I cram the SUV down a narrow alley that’s definitely not meant for cars this big. By my calculation, the black sedan will be coming up soon. Which means I have roughly a two-second window to make my move. The timing has to be perfect. A millisecond too late and I could be crashing into the back of the car where Josh is.

“Are you going to do what I think you’re going to do?”

I don’t answer; I’m too busy stomping on the gas. Kirill braces himself. The sedan should be whizzing by right about—

“Fucking HELL!” Kirill yells as I explode out of the mouth of the alleyway and right into the sedan.

The driver turns to me a second before the nose of my SUV makes contact with the side of his door. His eyes are wide with terror—and the knowledge that there’s not a single fucking thing he can do but get hit.

Glass explodes inward and the shriek of twisting metal tears through the air. The sedan spins out of control until it’s stopped by a stubborn fire hydrant that rips off half of the hood, leaving engine parts spilling out like guts and leaking oil like blood.

Smoke billows softly as Kirill and I jump out of the SUV and run to the sedan. “Secure those fuckers,” I order Kirill. “I’ll get Josh.”

I’m halfway there when I notice someone else running towards the wreck, her long curtain of hair transporting me, for just a split moment, to a time when I was actually happy.

Emma.

“Josh!” she screams in unadulterated panic. “JOSH!” I grab her before she can get to the wreck but she looks right through me. “No! Let me go. You crashed into them!”

I twist her around by her shoulders so that she can’t see the wreck. “I will make sure he’s okay. But right now, it’s not safe for you to leave the girls. Go!”

It’s annoying that, even now, my first instinct is to protect her. Mine, the beast inside me roars.

No. Fucking no. She’s not mine anymore.

She never truly was.

I give her a light shove backwards and race to the sedan. When I pull open the back passenger door, Josh has curled himself into an upright ball, the seatbelt strapped over his chest.

Instant relief.

“Ruslan!” he cries.

He thrashes against the destroyed seatbelt. I lean in, unsheathe my pocketknife, and saw at it until it pops free. When I pull him out of the wreckage, he clings to me, shivering uncontrollably.

“I knew you would come,” he whispers in my ear. “I knew it. I just knew it.”

I carry him around the car where Kirill is zip-tying the two kidnappers. A swarm of my soldiers surround them so there’s no chance of escape. I don’t recognize either man. But I don’t plan on forgetting them anytime soon. Not until they’ve been punished for what they’ve done.

“Breathe,” I tell the boy, running my hand down Josh’s back as I walk him towards the beatdown Chevy that Emma is not supposed to be driving.

She’s standing by the open door of the back seat, cooing softly in an effort to calm the girls down. She’s wearing long pants and a long-sleeved shirt but I can still see the bandages under her cuffs. Not to mention the scrapes and bruises on her face.

My instant reaction is rage.

Someone is gonna fucking die for this.

I try to quell the beast in my chest, but it is not so easily silenced. I set Josh down and he scampers towards Emma, who snatches him up and holds him tight. That right there—the strength in her arms, the relief in her face—is the whole reason I wanted her to be the mother of my children.

Who wouldn’t want a mother like that for their kids?

She’s got his face cupped between her hands now and she’s talking to him in a low voice. Those blue eyes of hers are intense, bright with unshed tears. Then she kisses the top of his head. “Go hug your sisters,” she murmurs. “They need to know that you’re alright.”

He nods and climbs into the back of the Chevy.

Which leaves Emma and me.

She takes a tentative step toward me, dragging her feet forward like she’s being forced to the chopping block. “Ruslan…” Her voice is not its usual self. It’s reserved. Purposefully distant. “Thank you.”

“I’m going to make sure nothing like that ever happens again.”

“How can you make that kind of promise?” she scoffs. “You can’t predict everyone and everything.”

My jaw clenches despite my best efforts. “No, you’re right. Even the ones closest to you can surprise you.”

The vein in her forehead pops. It’s barely visible, though, concealed by her bandage and a bruise. “Or disappoint you.”

Her lips are turned down. And even though it pisses me off, even though I don’t deserve it…

Her heartbreak is still a thorn under my skin.