cup his jaw. “I love you too.”
Vlad wiped away the tear that dipped down her cheek, and then he lowered his mouth to hers. He kissed her lightly, lingering just long enough to let her know he meant it and couldn’t wait to start the rest of their lives.
Promise Me
“Down. Get down.”
Tony grabbed Anna and dragged her back into the ditch. They flattened against the Earth as the rumble of trucks grew louder, closer. Tony covered her with his body as he peeked above the side.
“What do you see?”
He nearly fainted in relief. He rolled onto his back. “Americans. They’re Americans.”
Tony lifted both hands in the air and slowly stood. A nervous private could still shoot his nuts off if he made too many fast moves. He approached the road, and one of the trucks slowed with a grind of the gears.
“Press,” Tony panted. “American.”
The driver tipped his cap. “What the fuck are you doing out here?”
Anna scrambled up the side of the ditch. The driver winced. “Sorry, ma’am.”
“We need a ride back,” she said. “Can you take us?”
“We can get you as far as Minsk, but after that, I don’t know.”
Anna and Tony jogged to the back of the truck. A young GI held out his hand to help Anna aboard, and Tony shot him a warning dagger with his eyes when the kid admired her too closely.
Then he accepted the outstretched hand of one of the GIs. They sank against the hard benches. Anna closed her eyes and dropped her head back, panting.
“Where you coming from?” Tony asked.
“Barth,” the captain answered. “POW camp.”
“We’re investigating the marches,” Tony said. “You find any evidence of them?”
The captain spit on the wooden floor. “Fucking bastards. Some got away. But most that ran were shot. We picked up a couple of stragglers from the sixty-third and left them at the aide station.”
Anna’s eyes flew open. “The sixty-third?”
“Yeah,” the captain said. “Why?”
Anna shot to her feet. Tony grabbed her arm. “I know what you’re thinking, but you can’t.”
She pulled her arm away. “They were in the same camp as members of the 579th,” she breathed. Jack’s squadron. “I have to talk to them.”
She stumbled as the truck lurched. “You can’t just jump off, Anna,” he said, but she was already threading her way toward the flap of the truck.
She looked back at him. “I have to.”
In his two years as a war correspondent, Tony had seen and experienced every kind of horror. But he’d never, not once, panicked the way he was panicking now. He watched her jump off the truck and hesitated a mere second before he took off after her. He landed awkwardly on his leg. “It’s too dangerous, Anna. These roads are still crawling with the enemy. I’ll be shot if we’re captured, but you—” A tortured noise cut off his words.
She kept walking. “I have to go. I have to do this. They might know where Jack is. Don’t you understand?”
“I can’t let you.”
“It is not your decision.”
“Anna.” He grabbed her arm and whipped her around, tugging her close to his body. “Don’t do this to me. Please.”
His eyes held hers before dipping to stare longingly at her lips. He lowered his mouth to hers in an almost punishing kiss. She clung to the front of his shirt and let him plunder her mouth, his thumbs digging into her jaw and his fingers pressed against the side of her head. He pulled back just enough to steal her gaze.
She stared at the long road ahead before turning back to him. “Tony,” she whispered. “I have to go.”
Anna backed away from him with shaky, stumbling steps. She walked away, taking with her the sun and the moon and the tides and the gravity that had become his life force.
“Anna,” he pleaded.
“Please, Tony. Don’t make this harder.”
“Anna, I love you.”
Her footsteps faltered.
“I love you, and you don’t have to do this. Stay with me. Stay with me.”
Suddenly, she was in his arms. “I love you too. I’ll stay with you. I’ll stay.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Look, I know things are all hot and happy in your house these days, but you can’t end the book this way.”
Vlad popped a gluten-free cracker in his mouth as he looked up from his notes the next afternoon at Colton’s. While he and the Bros plotted out the rest of the book, Elena was meeting the Loners at Alexis’s café to talk about cats and Russian tea cakes or something. Then they would join the guys to watch