Page 91 of Luka

But I have to try.

“You came for me,” I say, his blood smearing my arm.

It was him.

It was never Papá. It was Luka who came. Luka who found me.

“I love you, Lucia,” he says to me as Mendoza approaches. I look in his eyes as he pushes my hair back from my face.

I love you, too.

The bullet fires before I get a chance to speak the words. I scream while clinging to Luka, but Mendoza’s shouted curse makes me jerk my head his way.

He falls to one knee as blood stains his white pants. I turn back to Luka and check him as if this is some kind of mistake. But Luka looks fine.

We both turn to the door as Vitaly enters, his gun raised, eyes pointed at the couch. When Mario raises his gun, Vitaly fires. The gun knocks from Mario’s hand as the bullet rips it apart, and his screech overpowers us all.

“Who else?” Vitaly asks. He doesn’t look at me, but I imagine it’s me he’s speaking to. His eyes scan the room.

“Th-that’s all.”

“I thought you were staying outside,” Luka says to him, his voice so even he almost sounds disinterested. But I know him well enough to know it’s because he’s overwhelmed. The less Luka shows, the more he feels.

Vitaly kicks the gun away from Mendoza then drags Mario to kneel next to him.

“I got bored,” Vitaly says, extending his hand to Luka.

Luka closes his eyes for a few moments, as if taking this in. We’re safe.All of us.

We’re okay.

He loves me.

He loves me.

I stand as Vitaly helps Luka up. Luka sighs with relief and asks if I’m okay, but Vitaly grasps his uninjured shoulder before I answer.

“They’re here,” Vitaly says.

They?

“Who’s they?” I ask Luka, but he doesn’t answer. He stares forward, color draining from his face as he slowly nods. When heturns to me, he kisses my forehead and says no more. Because he can’t. Because this is something serious.

Luka turns and trudges from the room, ignoring me when I call his name.

I turn to Vitaly for an explanation.

“Your father is outside,” he says.

My father.

My stomach lifts into my throat. I divert my eyes, as if I’m ashamed. It’s too ironic that all I wanted a half hour ago was for Papá to arrive, but now it feels like the worst-case scenario.

I shake my head and force my eyes back to Vitaly. “You need to get Luka out of here,” I say, my voice strong and firm. Far more confident than I feel. “They don’t know about his involvement with me, but Vitaly, even if my father finds out the minor details, he’ll kill him. I was supposed to be a virgin. I’m not allowed to?—”

“He already knows.”

He already knows.

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