Hidden Monsters (Volkov Bratva #4)(102)

For a beat, Mishca was quiet, and then his eyes cut to Alex and stayed there. “Bring him to me.”

Her stomach dropped to the floor. “Was that about Luka?” she asked before he could even hang up the phone.

He didn’t answer, pulling open one of the drawers and grabbing the nine-mil he kept inside, checking the clip.

Now, it was Lauren that was struggling to her feet, looking at her husband in alarm. “Mish, what’s happening?”

The man in question looked at Klaus. “Take her out of here.”

Lauren, who had never done well with taking directions, glared over at Klaus. “Touch me and I’ll make you regret it.”

But Alex was still focused on her brother, realizing exactly what he wasn’t telling her. “This is about Luka, isn’t it.” It wasn’t a question.

“Alex—”

“What are you going to do?” she demanded, becoming all too aware of the sheer firepower and the level of skill present in the room. “What did he do?”

Mishca didn’t offer an explanation, but Klaus did…the last person she expected. “There’s a lot of shit you don’t know about that Albanian.”

“Like that his name is Valon? He told me. He told me everything.”

Shock crossed his face for a second, his lips parting though no words came out. Strangely, he touched his chest, rubbing over his shoulder, but once he realized what he was doing, he dropped his hand.

“Whatever he told you probably wasn’t the whole of it. If I have to drag you out of here—you, too,” he said with a jerk of his head in Lauren’s direction, “then so be it.”

He made to grab her arm, his fingers barely brushing her skin before she slapped his hand away and took a step back.

“What the f*ck is going on!”

But whatever she might have gotten was lost because there was a loud commotion out in the front room. Before anyone could stop her, Alex was out of the room first, ignoring Mishca as he yelled her name.

Until she came up short, seeing the man who had happily stood above her as he buried her alive. There was a sliver of fear that raced through her at the sight of him, but she knew Mishca and Klaus, and even Celt, wouldn’t let him do anything more to her.

No, it was the sight of Luka next to him that knocked the air from her lungs.

Something about Luka’s expression worried her—never mind the guns trained on him, most of them assault rifles. It was both reassuring and worrisome that they feared him so much they needed to make sure he couldn’t blink without someone’s finger twitching on the trigger.

His face was bruised in some places, across his cheek and the underside of his jaw, but that was nothing compared to some of the others that were behind him. Somehow, they had bested him, but it was obvious he didn’t make it easy on them.

At Alex’s sudden appearance, one of the men turned their gun on her, yelling something at her that she didn’t understand. Before she could register the threat however, Luka threw his elbow back, knocking the man in the eye, disarming him easily, as if it was second nature.

Now in control of the weapon, he aimed it down at the man’s forehead. “Not her.”

His display didn’t confuse her. It was the fact that everyone else just watched it happen. Why didn’t they try to stop it? If he was their captive, why did he move about freely?

Everything about this was wrong…

There was something happening, a bigger picture that she wasn’t getting.

“Now, now Valon. No one is going to touch your pet. We know how you like the blondes.”

“Fatos,” Mishca said stepping forward, Klaus at his side. “You came here for a reason.”

From the way Klaus was eyeing the man, it was clear that he knew him, but from where, Alex didn’t know. It seemed that the only person who was lost as to who this man really was, was her.

Alex was struck by a memory, one of her and Luka back at his place during one of their late-night conversations when he’d revealed pieces of his past to her. Fatos was my best friend, he’d said, but he wasn’t who I thought he was.

No…

It couldn’t be…

But as she looked to Luka, his gaze now on her, she knew that he knew what she was thinking, and the answer to her question was yes.

His best friend had buried her alive.

And when he saw it, that realization clouding her eyes, he’d looked remorseful, an emotion she didn’t think she had ever seen on him, not even when he’d come to her covered in someone else’s blood.

“Luka, what’s happening?”

Fatos, who was looking back and forth between the pair of them, his frown growing ever more present, spoke up before Luka could. “As agreed, you can question him, Volkov, before we take him off your hands.”

So Mishca had known about this? Had actively helped them?

“Tell me,” Mishca said, this aimed at Luka.

Except, it wasn’t to him, or really anyone else that Luka directed his answer. No, he explained himself to the one person in the room who he wanted to know the truth.

“Six years ago, I was offered a job. Come to New York, kidnap the son of Mikhail Volkov, torture, and then kill him if he didn’t give me the information I wanted.” He said this all without blinking, without hesitation, as if he was merely reciting a list he’d memorized. “Problem was, we didn’t get the right Volkov. Klaus and a girl, Sarah, came to New York. Wrong place. Wrong time.”