"You're a boy and I'm a girl
But you know you can lean on me
And I don't have no fear
I'll take on any man here
Who says that's not the way it should be

I stand in front of you
I'll take the force of the blow
Protection
I stand in front of you
I'll take the force of the blow
Protection

She's a girl and you're a boy
Sometimes you look so small, look so small
You've got a baby of your own
When your baby's grown, she'll be the one
To catch you when you fall…"

Massive Attack – "Protection"

"It's okay, Sweet Pea. Don't cry."

Erik watched Hunstman handle Sydette roughly on his lap. She squirmed too much and Erik knew Huntsman would not hesitate to blast a two-year-old in the chest and toss her in the garbage like it was nothing. He'd murdered children in Kabul and South Africa without blinking an eye.

"Please don't hurt her…she's scared. Let me hold her," Yani pleaded.

Erik gave Yani a look to keep quiet. His jaw grew rigid as he watched Shipley continue to touch her breast.

"Shut up," Huntsman barked.

"Mama!"

"Sit still, Sweet Pea," Yani said.

Erik rested his Glock on his side the moment Neal had him in line with his AK-15.

"Drop it," Neal ordered.

Erik bent down and released the Glock and it clattered loudly on the floor. His eyes calculated strategy to get Yani and Sydette out of the compound alive.

"Gotta hand it to ya, bruh. You were working it out in there," Shipley said.

"We'll have a taste ourselves before we dispose of her," Neal said.

Huntsman laughed.

"Easy boys, work first then play."

Shipley's hand grabbed around Yani's waist.

"Thick bitches do feel nice," Shipley said.

"My nigga is pressed…vein throbbing on his temple. Relax your jaw, Killmonger," Neal said.

"Let the girl be with her Mom. It'll calm her down," Erik said. He kept his voice even and held his hands in front of himself.

Huntsman shoved Sydette onto the floor.

"Go to your Mum crying brat."

Sydette tumbled and hit her head on the tile. She really started wailing and Erik was ready to beat the shit out of all of them. When she raised up, Erik could see a bruise on her forehead. He clenched his fists and tried to keep his voice calm for the child.

"Go to Mama, Sweet Pea. There ya go. Stay over there."

Sydette ran to Yani and grabbed her leg. Shipley wouldn't release his hold on her mother, so Yani had to comfort Sydette verbally.

Huntsman held up a small scanner over the floor and moved around until he stood near the bar globe.

"No explosives or laser work protecting it," he mumbled.

Pushing back the globe, he typed up something on his armband computer and the loud audible click of the floor safe echoed.

Fuck.

They knew about Klaue's secret safe. Probably knew what was in it too.

His mind was dizzy with mental calculations. Klaue knew Erik was staying at the compound the extra days after everyone else left. Erik had gone through the entire security system and found no glitches or breaches in the integrity of the compound under his control. Nothing looked off or suspicious…

The dragonfly drones.

One did look a little wonky when it buzzed past earlier in the day, but he thought it was a battery problem. He'd been so preoccupied with Yani and Sydette that his normal intense scrutiny went by the wayside. And because of that, Yani and Sydette could lose their lives. All because he had become careless enjoying his blissful paradise.

"Can I pick her up? Please?" Yani begged. The strain in her voice was all too evident.

Shipley stopped pressing into her backside and allowed her to lift up the baby. Sydette touched her pajama bottoms.

"Mama I pee on myself!" Sydette cried out.

"It's okay…it's okay. Don't worry about it. Don't cry. Yuh still my big girl."

Yani comforted her daughter and her eyes stayed fixed on Erik's.

The entrance to the hidden floor safe slid open. Huntsman peeped the stairs that led to some priceless artifacts, uncut gemstones, cash, and the last traces of vibranium that Klaue had. The Holy Grail, the thing they were probably after was hidden away in Erik's duffle bag. And that bag was not inside the house. It was the only thing he had if it came down to bartering for his woman's life and the life of her child.

"Kick that over here," Neal said.

Erik nudged his Glock with his foot and slid it over to Neal's foot. Neal tucked the Glock in the band of his fatigues and walked closer to Erik. He pointed the AK-15 at his chest and his eyes dared Erik to move a muscle.

Huntsman tapped an earbud in his left ear.

"Going in," he said.

They watched him trudge down into the safe.

For what seemed like an hour, they waited and listened to Huntsman rummage through items.

"Fuck! I don't see it!"

He came running up the stairs. Pushing Neal aside, he pressed his weapon under Erik's jaw. Huntsman's wild eyes reminded him of Klaue's.

"Where is it? You are only here because what we want is here. Bark guard dog or we end those two!"

Sydette hid her face in Yani's neck.

Yani did her best to appear brave, but he could see her shaking.

"What the fuck are you looking for? Just take the shit that's down there and leave."

"The attaché. The package."

"Klaue has that—"

"No. He doesn't."

"How do you know that?"

"I know."

Huntsman jammed the barrel harder against his throat.

Erik's eyes traced over to Yani's.

She stared at the gun on him then her eyes panned up to look at his face. She appeared calm and her eyes darted to her left, toward the shelves that housed Klaue's ancient drum collection. She did that twice and Erik suppressed the smile that fought to spread across his lips.

She rocked Sydette in her arms and Shipley moved his gun down toward her waist.

Erik watched Yani ease her feet away from the merc with slow unnoticeable inches. The only thing that mattered was getting her and the baby into—

Yani put Sweet Pea down and jumped away from Shipley. Dropping to her knees she grabbed for the oldest drum on the bottom left shelf. The room went dark and Erik twisted the Glock from Huntsman's hand and shot at him while scrambling after Yani and Sydette into the secret passageway that led to the panic room.

He heard the men yelling trying to get to them as the wall sealed back up.

He ran behind Yani until they were safely inside the panic room.

Turning on security cameras, Erik was able to use heat sensors to track the men above them. They didn't have time to waste. Erik snatched another Glock hanging on the wall and checked for bullets. He handed it to Yani. Scanning the room for supplies, he found two flak jackets and new sweatpants. He made Yani put on the sweats and one of the flak jackets. He put on the other.

"Put the gun there," he ordered and she stuck the Glock in a front pocket. He found a small flashlight and stuck it in another pocket for her.

"Mama—"

"Shh, don't talk," Yani told Sydette.

Yani pulled off Sydette's pajama bottoms and made her take off her wet panties. She opened a box of wet wipes sitting on a storage shelf above the panic room toilet and cleaned her up. Pulling the pajama bottoms back on her, she looked Sydette in the face.

"We have to be very quiet, okay?"

Sydette nodded.

"They are going to tear this place apart. We have to get out of here," Erik said.

"The activation of the panic room will keep the property completely dark," Yani said.

Erik scoured the panic room again found magazines for the Glocks and stuffed them into his pockets. State-of-the-art night vision goggles hung on a wall. He wrapped it around his neck.

He took a moment to hug Yani and check on Sydette's bruise.

"They woke her up and already had her in the living room. Shipley grabbed me when I came in the bedroom," Yani said.

The left side of Sydette's forehead was turning reddish-purple. Yani put a band-aide on it to make her feel better.

Erik held Yani's shoulders gently and looked her in the eye.

"Did he do anything-?"

Her eyes darted away from his and welled up.

"Yani…tell me—"

"He touched my breasts…then stuck his gun…he stuck his gun against my privates and told me to keep quiet or he would shoot me there. Then he made me go in the living room with him."

Erik squeezed his eyes shut

"They must've been planning this for a minute. Just waiting for Klaue, Limbano, and Linda to leave with me. Baby…I'm sorry I put you in the middle of this. I knew that bitch ass Huntsman was no good from day one."

Erik checked his wrist computer. Locking in on his target, he could see Klaue was still in Sweden. Glancing back at the heat sensors on the security feed, he could make out three more intruders outside the property doing sweeps around the perimeter.

He grabbed Yani's hand and eased her in front of him.

"We gotta make a break," he said.

Checking the security feed one last time, Erik used the panic room wall screen computer to try and take control of entry and exits onto the property. He couldn't override the system in a reasonable time, and even his own wrist computer couldn't even gain him access to his own dragonfly drones to have some eyes out there. Yani was right. Activating the panic room locked everyone in place and shut shit down.

Erik opened the panic room door.

"Go, go!" he said.

They slipped down the secret stairs further and Erik pushed open the heavy exit door that led them to the darkness of another side of Klaue's private beach.

The lights of military flashlights could be seen crisscrossing in the distance above them as the mercs searched for them.

Erik scanned their surroundings. The terrain had them cut off from going around the property on foot. It would be even more difficult with Sydette. And none of them had shoes on. Neal could pluck them off from a distance with his weapon. And he had no idea what the other men lurking about were carrying.

His eyes fell upon the water.

"You'll have to swim with the baby, Yani."

"You're coming with us!"

Yani grabbed his arm and it upset Sydette whose small face crumpled.

"I can't. I have to stay back and handle them. They are going to kill you both. They will find where you live and take you both out. They don't fucking care. You are a liability. You can finger them for Klaue."

"When you…when you handle them, you'll come to us, right? I'll go to Twyla's, or I can go to the hotel you like…Erik…."

He shook his head. He felt his eyes water and Yani stood watching him in the waning sliver of moonlight.

Her head dropped down and she burst into tears.

This was it.

The realization overwhelmed her.

Sydette clung to her neck, the frightened look in her eyes escalating as she watched her mother cry.

"Baby…you have to swim for your life."

Yani flung her free arm around him and wept into his shoulder.

"Don't leave us! Please…they'll kill you. Too many of them—"

"You have to go…now!"

"Baba!"

Erik squeezed his eyes shut.

"Sweet Pea. My baby girl."

He kissed her forehead and rested his hand on her hair.

"We are going to play Hide and Seek. You go hide with Mama, and I will come find you."

"Erik don't…"

"It will be fun. You'll go hide in the water, okay?"

Sydette nodded her head, but fresh little tears sprung from her eyes. She was terrified. So was Yani.

"Be a big girl like Mama for me. Can you do that for Baba?"

"Yes."

"Yani, you have to move now. Email my burner account when you make it there safe. Do not come back here ever again. No one from your family. This is dead space now. You understand? Don't come here looking for me or asking questions about me. It's done."

Yani pressed her face into his neck and he bent down to kiss her.

Their lips touched and he let her tongue explore his mouth before he took over. He released her and pressed his forehead against hers. It was too much.

"You finish school. Become a doctor. Don't let anything hold you back."

Pulling away, he kissed Sydette on her cheek.

"Love you short stuff," he said.

Sydette reached for him and he held her by himself giving her the biggest hug he could muster.

"Ready to go hide?" he asked.

She nodded her head but there were still tears sitting on her cheeks.

"Yani…"

"I know. Come on Sweet Pea. We need to hide from Baba-"

Yani's eyes looked past him and before Erik could move with the baby, Yani yanked the Glock from her flak jacket and shot over his shoulder three times.

The large body of a white man in military fatigues fell against Erik's heels knocking him off balance for a second.

Sydette screamed from the gunshots and her sharp cries forced Erik to cover her mouth roughly. Yani secured her weapon and stuck it back in her flak jacket. She held her arms out for Sydette.

"Give her to me, I can—"

It only took a split second.

A bullet struck her head and she fell back onto the soft spray of water and sand.

"Yani!"

Erik dropped to his knees and shielded Sydette with his body as he pulled Yani's leg to move her closer to him and closer to the rock terrain to hide. Erik's heart was in his throat and a sea of red rage blinded his eyes.

"Yani…"

He couldn't contain Sydette's wailing and he waited with dread for more bullets to rain down and take them out too.

"Sweet Pea…shhhh…." Yani whispered.

Yani's voice made Erik gasp. Her hand went up to the side of her head and touched the blood that ran fast and hot. Erik touched her wound.

The bullet had only grazed her scalp.

She was still alive.

Blood ran down her face clouding her left eye.

She pulled Sydette from his arms and crawled into the water with her. Erik helped her until she was waist deep and sticking close to the rocks. Glock gripped in his right hand, he glanced back with the night vision goggles. The sound of the bullets and Sydette's cries would bring more men soon. Whoever shot at Yani wasn't far off. He lifted the goggles up. The water became deeper and pushed against Yani's chest.

"Hold my neck," Yani told Sydette.

"Bleeding…Mama…"

"I'm okay. Just hold on. Don't let me go."

Sweet Pea moved to Yani's back and wrapped her arms around her mother. Water popped up into her mouth and she coughed.

"You're okay, baby. Mama's got you," Yani said.

Erik could see Yani's left eye squinting from the blood flow. Head wounds always bled worse than other wounds, and he could tell it was freaking Sydette out a bit, and Yani was in pain.

Sydette's eyes sought out Erik's. He tried to make his face look happy for her. Tried to calm her rapid breathing as the tidewater brushed past them.

There was so little time.

"I love you both…" he said.

"I know…we love you too…"

"Get out of here."

"Find us, Baba."

"I will. Big girl, right?"

Sweet Pea nodded but her lips trembled.

He couldn't say anything else to Yani. They regarded one another for one last time. There was ambivalence on her face. He touched her cheek and a fast stream of blood ran onto his hand. She would need stitches. Her eyes closed briefly as she inhaled a deep breath then reached up and touched his hand.

Yani let Erik go and moved Sydette further into deep waters and away from him.

"It's cold, Mama."

Sydette's shuddery voice shattered his resolve and he allowed his tears to flow as he watched Yani swim out with her child clinging to her neck. They'd have to move around craggy rocks until the open water freed them from the property. He waded in a bit further to keep his eyes on them and when they were gone from his direct line of vision, Erik pounded the water. It wasn't supposed to end like this. Not in fear and terror.

His baby girl would only remember a horrible night with killers holding her at gunpoint. His woman would have to live with that memory too as well as her own physical assault and wound.

He stared up at the sky and gave thanks that the waters were calm. Cold, but calm.

They were both mermaids. They'd make it. They had to.

Now he had to go put some bodies down.

###

Erik created a diversion by shooting bullets toward the compound. Whoever else was out there would scramble to find the source of the sound. He didn't expect them to kill him right away. They would wound him to capture him, torture a confession of his hiding place for the attaché, find the goods, and then murder him.

The night vision goggles gave Erik the upper hand. They were not expecting him to be there so they were not prepared to go into close-quarters combat with someone who knew how they moved. They were also locked out of the gun range equipment because of the compound lockdown and unable to grab night vision gear for themselves.

One thing Erik was a master of from his Special Ops training was close-quarters combat. His superior tactical skills earned him the nickname "Killmonger" before he even made it out onto the real battlefield. His superior officers often used him for training other military units. He swept in fast, fierce, and precise.

"Boy, you are a killing machine," his unit leader said to him after his first training round through a kill house.

An officer who hated him because of his uppity attitude quipped out of the side of his mouth trying to be greasy, "Hell, forget warmongering. This soldier is a killmonger!"

Erik still remembered the guffaws that followed, and the teasing he got from his unit with that unasked for nickname. Shit wasn't funny no more when he started racking up serious body counts in Iraq and Afghanistan or when he started carving up his flesh. Nah. Shit got real quiet. All that rah rah shut down. They grew frightened of him. But most wanted to be him.

Head on swivel, Erik moved swiftly and focused his mind on reading and reacting to what was in front of him. The immediate threat was not being caught by the others. He had to kill and move to make it out of the compound. He willed himself not to lose focus by worrying about Yani and Sydette. A cloud had covered the slim piece of the moon still in the sky, and he hoped Yani could see well enough to make it to a safe piece of land to walk out onto.

Three men were in the house, and three, now two were outside on the premises. At least that was what he saw with his own eyes. He had the Glock in his hand, the one he took from Yani, and also the weapon he stripped from the dead man. Yani blasted him in the forehead, throat, and chest. A clean line down the man's body.

He felt an anxiety chill run through his body and he took a moment to breathe as he relived watching Yani fall back in his mind. He almost blacked out when he thought she was dead. Death had a way of following him to the point that Erik thought they were kin. He pushed through the physical reaction and shelved the mental reaction. He had to keep moving.

Slight movement to his left.

He had made stealth moves to the gun range to hit up a secret path Yani showed him to get around the middle house. He wanted to get to the top and sweep them all down to the water.

Pressing himself between the grouping of trees, Erik was able to find Neal and another merc heading back down to the range. He shot the unknown merc and Neal in the back of the head and quickly snatched up the AK-15 Neal carried. He dug in Neal's ear and pulled out an earbud that he inserted into the shell of his own.

"Where the fuck is he?"

Huntsman's voice was loud and clear.

"He knows this place better than us," Shipley replied.

Erik eased into the shadow of the trees when he heard the other nameless merc approach the bodies on the ground.

"Shit, Neal and Walberg were picked off," the burly man whispered.

"Where are you?"

"Gun range. Landis is dead too. Down by the beach…"

The merc looked around nervously.

"We have to find him and get that attaché fast. If Klaue gets wind of this we're fucked. The shit has got to be hidden outside and that's where he'll go," Huntsman said.

"Can't you get Linda to hack back in and override the system again? Get the security cameras back up?" Shipley asked.

Linda.

Fucking Linda.

Erik stepped out from the trees and shot the merc in the face.

"You get him? Graham? Graham? You there? Fuck!"

Shipley's voice cracked with nerves.

"Let's just get the shit from under the floor and go! Linda fucked us!"

They went silent and Erik headed back to the main house holding the AK-15.

Hidden near the main house, Erik watched the approach of their heat signatures as they backed one another up while creeping around darkness-challenged.

Erik shot off several rounds over their heads and the men shot back blindly.

"You fucker!" Hunstman screamed and Erik shot him in both legs.

Huntsman fell forward and Shipley tried to pull him to the cover of the wrap around porch, but Erik shot him in the legs too.

"Throw your guns far before I blast you dead right where you dropped," Erik shouted.

Shipley aimed his Glock at the sky and shot wildly.

"Nigga, really?" Erik said and shot him through his shoulder.

"Throw the guns. Don't be stupid."

Huntsman threw his weapon, but Shipley was pushing it. Erik shot him again in the other shoulder.

"I can crucify you with these bullets. I got time."

Erik heard both men panting, their bodies overexerting themselves trying to crawl away under the house. He emerged from the shadows and snatched Shipley's gun from his hand.

"Bitch ass," Erik said and punched him in his mouth.

###

It took him time, but Erik dragged the dead bodies and the living Hunstman and Shipley down to Klaue's private beach. He was able to get the power back on to the rest of the compound and carried a bag filled with items that belonged to Yani and Sydette.

He adjusted the headlamp he used to see and was happy to be wearing his merc gear instead of the thin loungers and random flak vest he ran around in.

Huntsman and Shipley, bleeding and tied by their arms with packing rope eyed Erik with surly eyes.

"Linda got you in here?" he asked.

"Yeah. She discovered the floor safe," Shipley said, "I thought you two were tight. Why didn't she cut you in?"

"Fuck I care, man?"

"She didn't even know he was here. She was surprised when I told her he was hunkered down with his little bed wench. Bitch didn't even care there was a baby here." Shipley said.

"You told her about Yani?"

"Unexpected complications. What she planned as a simple extraction under Klaue's nose became a disposal unit too," Hunstman said.

Erik's eyes blinked. Mercs were ruthless, and Erik didn't have a problem with being seen as expendable. It was like that in their world sometimes. But that bitch green-lit Yani and Sweet Pea being taken out too?

He squeezed his eyes shut. He hoped they were okay. The temperature had dropped and they were dressed in flimsy coverage. And Yani's head wound…

His eyes gazed down at Shipley. Erik dropped to his haunches to get closer to his face.

"You put your hands on her," Erik said.

The icy tone in his voice made Shipley press his lips together in tight defiance.

"If you can fuck that slut then she's good for the rest of us—"

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

"FUCKING SHIT….JESUS!"

Erik shot three times into Shipley's penis. The man's body jerked up and a rush of blood stained his groin matching the other bloody wounds in his body. Huntsman yelled and shrank into himself.

"You fucked up Shipley. Threatened her. A woman with a child who did nothing but cook and clean for you just to make a living. My woman—"

"Fucking bastard! I'll kill you!"

"Yeah…right."

Erik pulled the Glock away from the flood of crimson spilling the man's lifeblood away and turned his attention to Huntsman. The man's eyes were bugged out and they both heard the ragged whimpering of Shipley bludgeoning their eardrums with his cries of pain.

"This was business—"

Huntsman's words were ignored as Erik grabbed him by his hair and dragged him onto his stomach.

"You pushed my baby girl down. Scared the piss out of a two-year-old and bruised her face you piece of shit."

Erik slammed Huntsman's face into the rough sand of Klaue's beach. There were more shells and pebbles there than Yani's cove and the abrasive sand tore up Huntsman's face until it was a bloody pulp. The man looked like raw ground meat by the time Erik was through with him and tossed him on his back.

"End of the road fellas."

Erik stood up and holstered his weapon. Grabbing a gas can near his foot, he poured gasoline all over the bodies that he had in a nice pile next to Shipley and Huntsman. Shipley was too weak to holler so much, but Huntsman was begging his ass off despite not having a recognizable face anymore.

Erik grabbed Shipley by the scruff of his flak vest and pants and tossed him on top of the dead men. He did the same to Huntsman.

Standing back, he lit up a cigar and smoked it. One of Klaue's best from the main house.

"You stinkin' Kaffir!" Huntsman blurted out.

Erik laughed.

"That's supposed to be your brilliant exit line? Huh?"

A groan of pain roared from Huntsman's mouth.

"Shut the fuck up," Erik said bending down to the bottom body and setting Neal's pants on fire with his lighter. The accelerant he used blazed the fire up quickly.

Erik stood back and watched the human bonfire grow higher. The stench was horrific.

When he grew weary of hearing Huntsman and Shipley screaming in agony, he shot them both in the head.

Erik stood for a long time watching, his eyes still heated and angry. He reached into his flak vest and pulled out Yani's cell phone and his own. He broke them apart and tossed them into the fire along with the bag of their belongings they had brought to the house. Clothes, hairbrushes, and make-up that could easily be replaced. Even Sydette's potty chair.

He would keep the fire going all night and then smash up the remains and bury them around the compound for fertilizer. He wasn't worried about Klaue coming home and being upset about it.

Klaue was never coming there again.

He'd be in a body bag soon enough.

###

"Mama…Mama…wake up…."

Yani's head still felt groggy and hurt like hell.

Her eyes opened to the sound of cars driving in the distance and Sydette staring down at her, her hands rubbing Yani's face.

The sun was overhead and Yani raised up her aching body.

Somehow, she was able to get her and Sydette away from the property line of Klaue's compound in the water and make it far enough away that she was able to crawl out from the sea and carry Sydette up the side of a steep hill until she collapsed from exhaustion near the top.

She was so grateful that her daughter had the good sense to stay next to her and not wander of.

"Hey Sweet Pea, I'm up…I'm up."

She cradled her head and still felt the wet painful opening of her bullet grazing.

"Baba didn't find us," her daughter lamented.

Sydette's bright black eyes looked so disappointed and Yani hugged her tight.

"I know baby. We hid so good he couldn't find us."

"The bad man come?"

"No. No bad man is coming."

At least she hoped not.

"It hurt?"

Sydette touched her wound and Yani hissed.

"Yes. It hurts."

Yani felt dizzy and laid back on the ground.

"Lay here with me Sweet Pea."

Sydette curled up next to her arm, but she wouldn't lay down. Her eyes darted around. She was looking for him. Or those men.

"It's okay, baby. We're okay."

Closing her eyes, she kept one arm wrapped around Sydette and her other arm flung over her eyes.

It was a nightmare. Truly a nightmare.

After what seemed like an hour, and once Sydette had fallen asleep herself, Yani stood up and carried her daughter to the top of the hill and found herself near a road that they could walk without attracting too much attention. They almost looked normal except for their bare feet.

Yani walked for about a mile until an older Black woman pulled over in a RAV4 and rolled down her window.

"Are you okay?"

The concern on the woman's face made Yani cry.

"Get in, get in," the woman said.

"Thank you," Yani said.

"What happened to you?"

"The bad man hurt my Mama—"

Yani put her hand up to Sydette's mouth and shushed her.

The woman didn't ask for any more detail once she heard Sweet Pea.

"That looks bad," the woman said looking at Yani's scalp.

"Could you please give us a ride to my house?"

"I should take you to a hospital—"

"No, it's okay. I can fix it at home—"

"We go get, Baba—"

"Sydette, hush now."

"Where do you live?"

Yani gave her address and the woman took her there with no more questions.

###

Nannette was shocked to see the state Yani was in, but she took the opportunity to practice her nursing skills and used her stitch kit from class. She sealed Yani's wound with the help of Rum and Yani's shouts to God for the pain.

Nanette truly was a good friend because she didn't ask why the so-called rock that supposedly hit Yani looked like a bullet grazing.

"I'll probably have a bald spot there now," Yani said when she looked in the bathroom mirror.

She bathed Sydette and fed her before instructing her daughter to sleep and keep her mouth shut.

When she herself was alone in her bedroom, she was finally able to decompress and cry.

Her laptop fired up quickly and she went to Erik's burner email address.

"We made it home safe. Are you okay? Is everything okay?"

She waited, watching her email inbox, and every ten minutes she refreshed. An hour went by. Two.

Her heart rate increased and she began to sweat. He didn't make it. They got him—

"Everything was handled. I'm proud of you. Kiss Sweet Pea for me. Tell her Baba is sorry. I'm sorry, Yani."

There was a heart emoji at the end and a rush of intense emotion swam through her.

"We love you."

Her second email to him bounced back. She tried writing to him again. Another error message popped up letting her know the account was gone.

He was gone.

Forever.