Page 65 of Lukas

“Reina, are you there, princess? Open the door.”

When she didn’t answer after a few more minutes—not caring that it was excessive—he used his shoulder to knock the door off its hinges. She wouldn’t be living here anymore anyway.

But a quick sweep through the rooms proved she wasn’t here either.

Fuck.

Where else would she go? He knew she didn’t have any friends she kept in touch with here in the city. Surely, she wouldn’t have tried to leave town in her emotional state?

Maybe she went to her mother and Peter’s house. The software she planted had something to do with him anyway. Lukas tried her phone again on the way over to their house. Still nothing.

Peter Torres opened the door at Lukas’s knock, leaning hard on the frame with a glass of amber liquid in his hand. He didn’t seem surprised to see Lukas.

“You here to kill me, Rinaldi?” The words were slurred. The older man turned away from the door and walked back inside. “You going to do it in cold blood? Right in front of my wife?”

Reina’s mother was sitting on the couch, face pale, tears trickling down her cheeks.

“What the hell is going on Peter?” Lukas asked. “Why would I be here to kill you? Do you know where Reina is?”

“Since my bitch of a niece decided to prove I was st—”

Lukas’s phone ringing cut him off. It was a video call from an unknown number, but he answered it anyway. There were too many unknowns happening right now to ignore it.

Reina’s face came into view. “Lukas?”

“Reina. Thank God. Where are you, princess?”

“I tried to tell them we were done, but they didn’t believe me.” Her face was pasty white, voice shaking. “They said they were going to… going to…”

Fear gripped his heart like a clamp. “Who, baby? Where are you?”

Reina’s face was pushed out of the screen as a man came on. Young. Long black hair flipping over one eye. “Your woman seems a little too upset to talk right now, Rinaldi.”

“Who the fuck are you?”

“I’m Simon. You met my cousin during your recent trip to Baton Rouge, I believe. Put him in the hospital. I’m sure you don’t give a shit that he’s never going to be able to walk without a limp again.”

“Your cousin stole from my family, Simon.” Lukas all but spat the name. “Killed some of my people. What I did to him, he had coming.”

“That’s not how I hear it.” Simon gave a bitter laugh. “I hear you went back on a deal and stabbed him in the back, literally and figuratively. So now I feel like doing a little stabbing of my own.”

Reina’s mother began crying softly. Lukas held out a hand towards her, signaling for her to keep quiet. He turned as subtly as he could so no one but him could be seen by Simon.

Simon dragged Reina back into the shot by the hair. “Your girl here seemed pretty convinced you guys were broken up and you wouldn’t come for her. Seemed a little upset when we told her if you didn’t we’d mail her to you in pieces.”

Reina’s face filled the screen, trying to keep it together, to not cry.

“If you hurt her…” Lukas’s rage rose over him like a black wave.

“Save the threat, Rinaldi. It’s not her we want to hurt. It’s you.” He pushed her away again. “Don’t get me wrong, we will if you don’t show up. We want to talk terms of an agreement for our turf.”

“Fine. Where do you want to meet?”

Simon gave him an address across town. “You’ve got fifteen minutes to get here before we start cutting her.”

Shit. That would be tight. “Fine.”

“And to make sure you come alone—that you don’t try to get any of your considerable rescue squad behind you—you’re going to stay on this call with me the whole way.”

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