Page 8 of Reluctant Surrender

I ignored the warning of his words and maneuvered my way through the crush of the club toward the girls. All of which were staring at me with their jaws laying on the table.

“What are you doing over here?” Carol latched onto my arm the moment I reached them. “Why did you walk away from that guy? He was gorgeous!”

I put my drink on the table and glanced back to where Lukas had been standing. He’d disappeared into the crowd. Probably upstairs, but I wouldn’t look for him. If I did, and he saw me checking for him, he’d know I was looking.

“Did you know him?” Carol kept up her questions. “He looked like he knew you.”

“I know him, yeah,” I sighed. “He owns this club.” Which is why I should have avoided joining the girls.

“And?” she prodded, her grin getting bigger.

I lifted a shoulder. “He’s nobody, Carol.” I threw down the rest of my drink and grabbed her arm. “Forget him. Let’s dance!”

But no woman had ever successfully forgotten Lukas Kaczmarek.

Chapter 5

Lukas

Idouble checked the address on my phone against the number on the building I stood in front of. It was the right place.

I glared down the building as though that would somehow magically repair the broken window on the first floor, or the lock on the front door that had three numbers missing from the keyless entry pad. How the fuck could Maggie Dudek be living in such a rundown piece of shit building?

My blood heated thinking about what her actual apartment must look like.

This wasn’t the place she lived in the last time I’d taken her home. She’d been living in a studio apartment six blocks from the lake. Hell, you could see the beach from her rooftop. How did she go from living there to this place on the west side of the city? And why the hell hadn’t she said something?

Lots of questions for the girl to answer, but first we’d deal with her disappearing act the night before. I’d told her to let me know when she was ready to go home. I had been crystal fucking clear. And yet, at one in the morning when I went looking for her, she’d already been gone. When I asked Jimmy, the bartender, when he’d last served her, he said sometime around eleven.

“Hey. You got business here or you just gonna stare at the door like a weirdo?” a woman, old enough to be my grandmother, shouted at me through the window on the second floor.

I shielded my eyes from the morning sun and looked up at her.

I wasn’t going to shout my business up at her, on the off-chance Maggie was awake and listening. After flashing her a smile and a little wave, I jogged up the short set of stairs and easily pushed through the door.

No fucking security.

I ground my teeth as I shut the door behind me. The elevator had a red X painted over the doors. Enough of a warning for me. I hit the stairs, taking them two at a time until I reached the third floor.

Maggie’s apartment was at the end of the hall. I listened against the door for a minute, checking to see if I could hear her rustling around. It was only seven in the morning; she could still be asleep.

I knocked on the door at the same time as I hit the dial button on my phone to call her. If she was sleeping, she probably wouldn’t hear my knocking, and by the looks of the place I wasn’t confident about touching the doorbell.

After two rings the call dropped into her voicemail.

She’d declined my call.

I grinned to myself. The girl was just looking for trouble. I knocked on the door again. Harder this time.

Still no sounds from inside.

I shot her a quick text.

Open the door,Maggie.

I let moretime pass and then knocked again, pounding the side of my fist against the door.

I sent another text, a warning.

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