Page 180 of Sexting the Pakhan

“I came here faster.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“It’s the one I have.”

She takes one step closer. “You left my apartment with armed men inside it and thought the best plan was to limp to my daughters’ school?”

“Yes.”

She laughs once, sharp and disbelieving. “You are unbelievable.”

In the back seat, Mila knocks on the window. “Mama?”

Zoya turns immediately and opens the rear door.

Mila looks up at her. “Are we in trouble?”

“No.”

Nadia asks, “Did bad people go to our house?”

Zoya pauses.

That pause is enough.

Nadia’s face changes. Mila goes still.

Zoya crouches slightly so she’s at eye level with both of them. “Listen to me. We’re not going home right now. That’s all. We’re just changing plans.”

Mila frowns. “But my frog pajamas are there.”

“I know.”

“And my green toothbrush.”

“I know.”

Nadia says, “Is this because of him?”

Zoya closes her eyes for half a second, then opens them again. “Get your seat belts on properly.”

They do.

Of course they do. Even frightened, they do exactly what she says.

She closes the back door and turns back to me. “Start talking,” she says.

So I do. I give her all the details I have.

She groans. “There goes my deposit.”

“I’ll reimburse you,” I say.

She scowls at me. “Did they follow you?”

“No.”

“You don’t know that.”