Page 22 of Luka

“Don’t you have his phone number?” someone asked.

“No. Didn’t think I needed to get it. I made it perfectly clear for him to meet me here when he got off work.”

So that was the guy who’d slugged Spencer. Luka was going to end the son of a bitch. He peeked around the corner to see who had been talking, a big, bulky vampire with his back to Luka. If he’d punched Spencer with his full strength, Luka’s mate would have died.

But the vampire hadn’t, because how would Spencer fork over his hard-earned money if he was dead?

With the swiftness of a striking snake, Luka moved in behind the large vampire and slit his throat from behind. The guy fell to the floor before anyone had a clue what was going on.

The remaining vampires swirled and hissed at him.

“So cliché,” Luka said as he wiped the blade off on the fallen vampire’s shirt. “Hissing?”

“Who are you?” the female asked.

“Your worst nightmare,” Luka replied. “Who do you work for?”

The other male lunged at Luka, but Luka was ready for the move.

He swiped the blade across the vampire’s neck and let him fall to the floor. He hadn’t wanted to kill them so quickly, but the second one had forced his hand. The first vampire had died for touching Spencer, and the female would join them if she didn’t give him answers.

“Now, I’ll ask you again. Who do you work for?” Luka asked the female.

She hesitated, backing up, probably realizing how screwed she was. Luka stood to his full height, six-four, and glared at her. “Start talking or start losing body parts. I don’t normally hurt females, but I’ll make an exception for you.”

“Go to hell,” she spat as she bared her fangs at him.

He walked toward her slowly, the hilt of the knife curled tightly in his hand. “Who do you work for?”

“If I tell you, you’ll kill me,” she said, her back hitting the wall as her gaze slid to her fallen brethren before she looked back at Luka. “Give me your word you won’t kill me and I’ll tell you.”

He grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off her feet. She struggled against him, and it truly bothered him that he was choking out a female. His mama had raised him better than that.

But he kept reminding himself that she would have done a lot worse to Spencer if he’d come upstairs alone. She would have toyed with him, taunted him, and even drank from him.

He touched the tip of the blade against her chest, right over her heart. “Who do you work for?” he growled.

She hissed at him, her gaze full of hatred as she spat out the name. “Lazarus!”

Luka had never heard that name before. “Last name?”

When she wouldn’t answer him, he pressed the blade a little harder into her chest.

If looks could kill, Luka would have caught fire. “Webb.”

“Find another line of work.” He dropped her.

She scrambled to her feet and fled the apartment. In his gut, Luka felt as if he’d made a mistake letting her go, but he hadn’t been able to bring himself to kill her. In truth, she’d looked a lot like his sister, Lizzy.

Luka looked at the two dead vampires. He normally left the dead for cleanup by whoever had paid him. It usually wasn’t his problem, but this was his mate’s apartment, and Luka couldn’t leave the corpses behind.

He picked them up one at a time and carried them to the fire escape just outside Spencer’s bedroom window. Then he crawled out, looked around to make sure no one was watching him, and threw them to the dumpster down below.

With a sigh, Luka jogged down the steps, his booted feet hitting the ground. He was going to need a cleanup. There was no way for him to dispose of the bodies himself. Luka pulled out his phone and dialed Rayne’s phone number.

“Rayne,” the guy said when he answered.

“I need a cleanup.”

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