Page 88 of A Pawn in the Game
“Too late,” I read aloud.
“It’s a message. Russians tend to leave similar ones.”
With that, we exit the dungeon. My eyes grow misty as we rush up the stairs, Luka staking every room before we enter it. He helps me into the car, shutting the door loudly behind me.
A tear rolls down my cheek and I’m barely aware of my surroundings as he hits the gas. It must be the shock. A lot of things happened in the last hour.
I’m faintly aware of Luka dialing his phone.
“Charles, I need a favor.” A pause. “I need to borrow your jet.” Another pause. “Consider your debt paid.”
“Do I want to know what that’s about?” I ask when he ends the call.
“Just a mafia unrelated buddy owning me a favor.” He shoots me a smile before making another call.
“I need you to dump my car. And don’t ask any fucking questions.”
He listens for a second, before responding with a grunt.
“What will happen to the club?” I ask.
“Ivan will take care of it.”
“So he knows the truth?”
“He won’t tell a soul.” He sneaks a reassuring glance at me.
“He’s a good guy. You know he once brought his girlfriend to keep me company?”
“Did he?” he asks, way too quickly.
“You knew?” I slap his forearm playfully. “Did you tell him to do that?”
He shrugs in response, but those butterflies start up again.
I clear my throat. “Where are we going?” The city lights are brighter now as we cruise the empty night streets.
“To get our dogs.” He grins at me.
Hope blooms in my chest, overwhelming everything else. Residential houses turn into small apartment buildings, then into skyscrapers. We turn right toward one skyscraper, entering the underground garage.
“We need to move fast,” he says, dropping his phone into the center console and stepping out of the car.
He grabs the bag with my stuff, and I follow behind. He punches the code into a keypad, making the elevator door open. His hand sneaks out to take mine, rubbing gentle circles on the back of my palm. The elevator pings and we step into his apartment.
Hades and Alan rush to greet us and my lips lift of their own accord. My heart swells with love. Alan’s frantic happiness reminds me of how he used to pee himself with excitement when he was younger. I hope it doesn’t happen again because we need to get going.
“I need to grab a few things. Can you please put collars on them?” Luka points to a wall behind me and disappears into another room.
Once again, his place stuns me. I wish I could explore more, but we don’t have time. Shaking the dog hair off my leggings, I get up from the floor. Right away, I notice the key holder holding a set of keys and a few dog collars on the wall Luka was pointing at. I make quick work of collaring both dogs, and I’m done just in time for Luka to be back. He’s sporting two gym bags and a backpack, still dressed in full tactical gear.
“Ready?” he asks, snapping me out of staring at his biceps. They’re all scratched and bloody but fuck, he looks good.
I dip my head in response, and the four of us enter the elevator. This time, he unlocks an unfamiliar car in the garage, one on the other side of it. It’s a non-descript, gray sedan. He throws our stuff in the back, helps the dogs to get in, and I rush to get inside.
“Interesting choice of a car,” I comment as he starts it.
“It’s my emergency car. This is my first time driving it, believe it or not.”
