Chapter 67

Layla

“Mommy, I’m scared,” Eli whispered, his voice ragged in the dimness of the warehouse. My hand still wrapped around his as we crept through the shadows around the perimeter of the open room.

A few hundred feet away, the door to the warehouse creaked open. I crouched lower, praying the shadows would hide us. Praying they hadn’t spotted us or heard us.

“I know, baby,” I murmured, tugging him with me behind a large piece of what looked like landscaping equipment. They hadn’t spotted us. Here, I could hide. Here, I could make a stand. “But you’re my brave boy.”

“Like Daddy?” Eli asked, and I thought maybe the faintest thread of hope wove through those two tiny words.

“Yeah.” I nudged him further behind the tractor. Out of sight. Safe. “Just like Daddy. You’re so much like your father.”

Footsteps echoed against the concrete flooring. Growing closer. I rose to a low crouch to peer between slats of metal. Three men had entered the warehouse.

My fingers wrapped around the grip of my handgun.

Three shots. I could do that. I could take them out, fast, before they found us. This new version of me, this badass Layla … She could do this.

I exhaled in a long, slow sigh. Readying myself.

“Stay behind me, okay?” I whispered to Eli, my eyes still on the three shapes shifting through the shadows. “And stay down. No matter what. Okay?”

He nodded, blue eyes wide in his pale face.

“Close your eyes, baby.” I didn’t look to see if he’d followed my instructions; I had eyes only for the three men across the room. Slowly, I raised my pistol.

Took aim.

My finger wrapped around the trigger—

A shot cracked the stillness before I could squeeze, and one of the men dropped to the ground. The other two turned—

Two more shots cracked the silence.

Both men fell.

“Layla!” Heavy footfalls followed the sound of that familiar voice. Relief flooded me in a wave so strong, my knees nearly collapsed out from under me. I tucked my pistol away.

“Aldo!” Still, I didn’t dare move out from behind that tractor. Not until I was certain it was safe. I knelt down beside Eli, wrapped my arms around him. “I’ve got you, baby.”

“Layla!” Aldo called again, and when I glanced up, I caught the familiar breadth of his silhouette between the slats of the tractor. “Where are you?”

Slowly, I helped Eli to his feet. And even more slowly, we slid out from behind the tractor. Aldo raced towards us, and the sight of his face, limned in the warehouse’s soft light, made me want to cry with relief.

My knees still felt wobbly, and my head spun slightly. “We’re here. We’re okay.”

Aldo’s dark eyes scanned up and down each of us, searching out signs of injury. But there were none. We were safe. Whole. Unharmed.

“Everybody okay?” Carlo appeared behind Aldo, his gun still in hand but lowered towards the floor. “None of the men were hurt.”

“We’re okay,” I said again. My voice trembled, just like my hands trembled, like my legs trembled. “But that was close. Too close.”

If even the tiniest thing had gone wrong, had gone differently … I swallowed down a sob. This could have ended so very differently. For me, or for Eli.

Aldo knelt down in front of Eli. Didn’t reach out to touch him—they hadn’t developed that kind of relationship just yet—but his eyes never left Eli’s face. “Are you all right, Eli?”

“I was brave,” Eli replied, his voice steady, strong. His blue eyes fixed on Aldo’s dark ones. “Just like my father.”

Aldo’s brows shot towards his hairline, and I thought that slight twitch in the corner of his mouth might have been the beginnings of a smile. “Good boy.”

He stood, reached out to ruffle Eli’s hair. And then, in a move that likely shocked all three of us, he pulled Eli in close to his side. “You’ve made your father proud. You always make your father proud.”

I found myself suddenly blinking away tears. Why was the sight of the two of them, together like that, the most endearing and heartbreaking thing I’d ever seen?

“Your mother made me proud, too.” Aldo, suddenly, was looking at me. An unreadable emotion filled his dark eyes. I couldn’t have named it, but whatever it was, it dug through me. Held me tight and didn’t let me go.

“I did what anyone would’ve done,” I replied, trying to keep my tone light, almost scoffing. “I ran.”

“You protected yourself and your son.” Aldo stepped closer, pulling Eli with him. He was so close, the heat of his body was a caress against mine.“You saved his life. You thought quick and acted quicker.”

I breathed in the soft, sweet musk of his cologne. It smelled like safety, like home. “I guess I’m getting used to that now, huh?”

Something flashed across Aldo’s face, something that replaced the softness in his eyes. This was hard and cold.

Anger.

Anger, but something more. Something, I feared, I wasn’t going to like. “Aldo?”

“You could have been killed,” he said, his voice flat, cold. “Again. I’m so tired of this—of coming into a scene of carnage where my wife and son barely escape with their lives.”

“Trust me,” I murmured. “I know the feeling. But we’re okay today, and that’s what matters right now. Right?”

“But that’s not the point.” Aldo pushed suddenly away. Leaving me cold and breathless in the wake of his warmth and safety. “Every time, they get a little closer.”

“Maybe,” I said, meeting and holding his gaze. Keeping a firm determination in my words. “But right now, all that matters is we’re alive. We escaped. Let’s not worry about what tomorrow will bring.”

Aldo studied me, his chest rising and falling too heavily, too quickly. I could almost taste the emotion coming off of him, but I couldn’t name it.

What was he feeling? What was he thinking?

“Can we do that?” I asked, my voice soft, little more than a whisper. “Can we just be grateful for today? For this moment we have together?”

I was begging him. Begging him to share this moment with me, with our family.

That was what my life had become as of late. A collection of cherished moments. And a bold gratitude that I’d gotten them at all. And maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t the worst thing, to live life for the moment.

Aldo looked away, still breathing too heavily. Weighing my words, perhaps, against his own thoughts. But when he turned back to me, something in him had softened.

He stepped closer, and when he reached out, his fingers trembled against my cheek. “I will always be grateful for every moment I spend with you, Layla.”

His arms wrapped around me, and he pulled me in close. Pulled Eli in close beside me. So the three of us huddled together—a family, against all the adversity of his cruel world.

I closed my eyes to savor the warmth of his fingers, the rough callus against my skin. To breathe in his scents of safety and home. And I thanked every lucky star in the sky for this moment.

Tears spilled from my eyes, tracked down my cheeks in trails, but I didn’t let myself sob.