did you know how to reach me?” he asked softly, most likely trying to distract me.
“You used my phone to call someone. I thought you were handsome and I was supposed to go to the U.S. this summer on holiday…so I saved the number you called, thinking maybe I could reach you, see you while I was in the U.S. If you were interested.” I sniffled. “Then I saw you on television, with Princess Elen, and realized who you were, that you weren’t really an American tourist who’d been mugged. So of course I didn’t call, but… but I saved the number because…I was afraid I might need a favor someday. Not for myself, but for my family.”
“Okay, Axel is there, outside. You just sit tight and wait until I tell you it’s okay to move.”
“M-my mother went to get help, but the police are as afraid of them as we are.”
“I know. It’s okay.”
There was another crash and this time some yelling. Then there were gunshots that made me jump just as everything went quiet. I heard footsteps on the stairs and started to shake again.
“Solange?” A deep male voice—distinctly American—was calling my name.
“It’s okay,” Xander said in my ear. “That’s Axel. You can trust him.”
I got to my feet and slowly opened the door, stepping out into the hallway just as the biggest man I’d ever seen came around the corner with a gun in his hand. I shrieked and threw myself back inside the closet.
“Solange, it’s okay.” His voice was deep but somehow soothing. “Xander sent me.” He stood in the doorway of the closet, peering at me with a look so gentle I burst into tears all over again.
“You’re in safe hands with Axel,” Xander said quietly, “and I’m on the way. We’ve called for the helicopter and I’ll be there in less than an hour. Axel is handling everything, I promise.”
“Th-thank you.”
“I owed you one.” Xander disconnected.
“You’re going to need to call for an ambulance,” Axel said as I joined him in the hallway. “Your brother’s in rough shape and your father has some bruises.”
“Oh no.” I ran down the stairs before he could stop me and the scene before me made my knees give out. What had been a functioning, busy café just two hours ago was now…akin to the wreckage of a plane crash. There was nothing left except the furniture built into the foundation. Every table, chair, dish, and glass had been destroyed. Countertops smashed. Cash register demolished into nothing but pieces of plastic on the floor. Even the glass windows shattered. And in the middle of it all was my brother. Covered in blood.
“Kostya.” I whispered his name but couldn’t move. Axel had caught me when I nearly dropped to my knees, and now he gently guided me to my unconscious brother. “Oh, god, is he alive?”
“He’s breathing, but it’s bad. He needs a hospital.”
“There’s but one ambulance here,” I said. “I don’t know if…”
“I’ll drive him.”
“Solange…” My father’s voice got my attention and I turned.
“Papa!” He was tied to a chair, his face bloody but not as bad as Kostya, and I rushed over to him as Axel picked up my brother. Kostya wasn’t small, but Axel was…huge. Had he not just saved our lives, I would have been terrified of him.
“My SUV is outside,” he called over his shoulder. “Are you coming to the hospital with us?”
“Yes, go,” Papa said as I untied him. “I will be okay.”
I found my purse beneath the rubble of the front counter and threw it over my shoulder as I followed Axel outside. I could only deal with one issue at a time in my current state, and Kostya was my priority. I jumped into the back seat of Axel’s SUV and he put Kostya across the seat, his head in my lap. He handed me some paper towels and I dabbed at the blood as we headed toward the hospital.
Kostya was deathly still, his breathing so shallow I wouldn’t have been able to hear it if I didn’t lean over. His face was almost unrecognizable and I gently stroked his hair. He’d valiantly tried to protect our family, but there had been four of them and they’d been heavily armed. From what I’d seen, though I’d averted my eyes, they were all either dead or badly injured now. I shuddered a little to think about what fresh hell I might have brought upon my family by calling Xander, because even though he