Page 45 of Luka

Useless. Alluseless.

Arseni thrusts hard, and I gasp and cringe, digging my forehead into the bed. He pauses when I squeeze my thighs together without realizing I’m doing it.

“Spread,” he says, slapping my rear.

“No.”

“No?” Anger filters into his tone and saturates the air. It’s infused into his palm when he grabs my shoulder and flips me over, his hand circling my already bruised neck as I stare up at his hardened face.

“Is this why my friend did this to you?” he asks, pressing his thumb into a bruise on my neck. I close my eyes against the pain. “Because you were a little bitch to him?”

I would think he was mocking me if the defense in his voice wasn’t so obvious. Like I’ve actually done something to him. Or, more likely, to Tall.

Fear crawls up my spine, and I can’t even bring myself to glare.

“Do you know how hard it is to rattle Luka?” he asks, lowering his face to mine. I try to pull myself into the mattress as if I’m distancing myself from a snake.

“Luka didn’t do it,” I whisper, like I’m afraid Arseni will strike as soon as my mouth opens.

Arseni scoffs like he doesn’t believe me and pulls the gag back up to rest in my mouth. His red face and clenched jaw still me.

“I don’t know what you said or what you did… But you will not have the opportunity to do the same to me. And I do not take kindly to girls who bother my friends.” The heat in Arseni’s voice is a stark contrast to the coldness of Tall’s. Tall shows very little of what he feels. Arseni shows everything.

He’s offended. Not for himself, but for his friend.

What the hell is this about?

Arseni must be finished talking because he yanks my dress up past my stomach and forces my legs apart. He takes himself in his hands, and when his eyes lower between us, he pauses.

I know what he’s looking at. First, there’s a curiosity that takes shape, as it had with Tall, but as the oxygen leaves the room, I know I’m not so lucky this time. Tall didn’t recognize my family’s emblem.

But Arseni does.

He scrambles down my body so his face is at the scar, as if his eyeballs touching it is the only way to confirm it’s what he suspects.

He gasps as he shoots up, his eyes wide with fear as he looks at me likeIam the monster now. “What the?—”

I don’t let him finish the thought. He’s naked, straddling my legs, and full of shock. I’ve never seen a better opportunity for anything in my life.

I pull my knee up and shove my heel into his crotch as hard as I possibly can. He wheezes in a breath, his eyes still wide with disbelief, but he’s too slow to cover his junk before I land a punch there next, putting so much force into it that I roar.

Arseni falls over onto the bed, cupping himself in agony while I jump up and sprint for his pants that he left his car keys in. I don’t even stop to pull the keys out or to take the gag out of my mouth. I scoop up the pants and go for the door, prepared for the lone chain I have to unhook before I find freedom. The closest thing to freedom I’ll ever have.

Arseni is at my back, hunched over and stumbling out the door comically naked and pained, but I’m too prepared for him. I slip into his car with ease and lock the door before he can start yanking on the handle.

I yelp when he punches the glass, but the engine starts with a turn of the key, and I put the car in reverse. A third punch shatters the window, throwing glass pieces all over me, but Arseni’s hand only grazes me before the car lurches backward all the way out of the parking lot onto the lonely, dark road. I’m peeling away before Arseni can reach me.

And thanks to Leo, I know where to go. All that’s left to do is figure out how to get there.

13

LUKA

My legs dangle over the cliff as I stare up at the stars so bright, they make me hate the city that hides them.

It’s beautiful out here by the lake. Tranquil. The only place that gives me even a glimpse of home, though I deeply miss the snow. The way the pond would freeze in the winter. Clumsily skating around with a hockey stick tight in my small hands is one of my fondest and earlier memories.

I can’t remember exactly how I found this spot. I was too drunk to be driving, and too solemn to be standing so close to a cliff, but the moment I saw the narrow path jutting off the back road, I knew I was meant to take it. I drove the path up to this spot and felt as if I’d found the first place my mind could quiet since leaving Russia.

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