Page 181 of Sexting the Pakhan

“No,” I say. “I don’t.”

She looks past me, down the street, then back at the school. She’s calculating now. I can see it. Home is gone. Parents are too risky. Karina is too obvious if anyone knows about her. She’s doing the work of survival in real time, and I know that look because I taught it to too many people.

I say, “You can’t go back there.”

She gives me a look that could skin a man. “Don’t tell me the obvious like it’s useful.”

“That apartment is done,” I say. “If they came once, they can come again.”

“I know.”

“No, you know it. I need you to understand it,” I say.

“You’re the one who brought danger to my door. Now don’t stand there, lecturing me.”

From the back seat, Nadia lowers the window an inch. “Mama?”

Zoya turns. “Window up.”

“Where are we going?” Nadia asks.

Mila says, “Can we at least get snacks if we’re fleeing?”

Zoya presses one hand to her forehead. “Get in the car,” she says, “We’ll figure something out.”

I hesitate. I didn’t plan this part. “I don’t want to endanger you.”

“Ruslan, you’re injured. I don’t—” Her voice cracks. “I can’t leave you here.”

I search her face. There’s something about the way she says it, as if that’s not the only thing she wants to say to me. And I feel the same.

I hobble to the side and get inside.

By the time we leave the school behind, I know three things.

First, the apartment is gone.

Second, the girls can’t go back to their normal routine, not tonight and not tomorrow.

Third, if I make one wrong move now, I don’t just lose Zoya again. I lose all three of them.

Zoya drives with both hands tight on the wheel. Mila has gone quiet in the back, which is worse than crying. Nadia is watching the road in the mirror like she’s trying to memorize every turn in case she has to explain this later to herself.

I keep my voice even. “Take the ring road, then cut west.”

Zoya doesn’t look at me. “Where?”

“Not somewhere tied to me directly.”

“That inspires confidence.”

“It should.”

She laughs once, bitter and tired. “Nothing about you inspires confidence.”

“There’s a cottage outside Blackwater,” I say.

Zoya turns her head sharply. “No.”