the knife from behind my back and stabbed at him, not even sure where I was hitting since his hands flew up to protect his masked-covered face.
He reeled back with a roar, his hands cupping his mask with blood staining his fingers.
Now that I was no longer pinned to the wall, my eyes shot around, desperate for a way out. His partner blocked the doorway holding his chest as a pool of blood spread beneath his hand. I jumped over my bed toward the open window. I was on the second floor but I’d jump. It was my only option.
Just then, a barrage of footsteps in the distance manifested and shouting in French warned that the police were coming.
The man I’d stabbed rushed to his partner. He held his face with one hand and grabbed his partner under the arm with the other. He turned to me. “This isn’t over, le fou de fortune.”
And just like that, they disappeared out my bedroom door.
After the initial shock wore off, I scrambled unsteadily to the door to check that they were indeed gone. My apartment was empty but the front door was wide open. Andre sat on the floor with his back against the wall and blood soaking through the front of his white shirt. His eyes were barely open and his gun lay in his lap.
“Andre!” I screamed, dropping the bloody knife to the floor with a clatter as I rushed over to him.
Four police officers burst through the open front door.
“We need an ambulance!” I yelled.
“Who did this?” one of them asked.
“They just ran out!” Tears poured from my eyes, relieved the cavalry had arrived but so shaken up I could no longer hold it together.
The officers spread out, two searching around my apartment while the others disappeared back into the hallway.
I wrapped my arms around Andre. He’d been like a father to me for the past two and a half years while I’d been studying abroad—not to mention the years prior as my security as a kid. But not until tonight had he ever taken a bullet for me. “You’re gonna be okay,” I assured him, having absolutely no idea if that was the truth.
“I know, Kresley,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t stop them.”
“You saved me,” I assured him, gently cupping his paling cheek. “They would have gotten me if you didn’t shoot that man.”
“I was caught off guard. They avoided the cameras. When they burst through the door, I wasn’t armed.”
“Shhh, Andre.” I ran my hand over his gray hair. “It’s okay. I’m okay.”
But I wasn’t okay. I was far from it. But all that mattered in that moment was that Andre lived.
I was no one.
He couldn’t die protecting no one.
CHAPTER ONE
Six Months Later
Kresley
I stood in the center of my new dorm room at Remington University in my home state of California. My eyes took in the cinderblock walls, small desk, and bare mattress.
“Well, at least they gave you a single,” my mother offered, taking in the small size of the room.
I swear I wasn’t a snob, but this room was smaller than my walk-in closet at home. “There’s that.”
“You know this is the only way to ensure your safety. Getting you that apartment was a huge mistake. If you’d been immersed with the other students, they wouldn’t have been able to…” Her voice drifted off. I wasn’t the only one who hated to think about what happened in France.
“It’s no one’s fault, Mom,” I said, not wanting to discuss the nightmare I’d lived through.
She sighed. “I just wish you’d stay at home, that’s all. I finally had you back and now you’re leaving again. I can’t keep you safe if you’re here.”
I dropped down onto the bare mattress as rap music from a nearby room echoed in the hallway. “I need to do this.”
She understood. She knew I needed to keep going in order to move on. I wouldn’t let those men win. I couldn’t. “At least Santa Barbara is a beautiful place.”
“I’d still feel a lot better if Andre was with me,” I said.
She tipped her head. “Honey, you know the deal. You’re only here if you have more precautions in place. Andre was getting too old to protect you.”
She was right. He was getting old. And slow. And distracted. But I needed him for more than just protection. He had been the closest person to me while I explored an unfamiliar country on my own for the first time in my life. He’d