Hidden Monsters (Volkov Bratva #4)(115)

Shifting to the side of the bed, he dropped his feet to the ground, groaning at the sharp stab of pain that shot through him at the movement.

Breathing in deeply through his nose, he fought past it, trying to get to his feet, but the sound of a metal door sliding open gave him pause.

“Good. You’re awake. I thought you were dead.”

Luka turned watery eyes to Klaus as he came into the room, wiping grease off his hands with a small hand towel.

“Where am I?” His voice sounded foreign to his own ears, scratchy and hoarse from sleep.

“Safe house.”

“Right.”

Struggling to his feet, Luka slowly made his way over to the stained windows, glancing out. He knew New York like the back of his hand, so he could tell with one look that they weren’t in the state.

“How ya feeling?”

Like he’d been tortured relentlessly for months on end. “Fine.”

Klaus took a seat on the bed, laying his hands on his knees. “Look, I know you’re in shit shape, and the last thing you want to talk about is Fatos, but we need—”

“What were you doing in Berat? Why do all of this?” he asked with a wave of his hand, encompassing the entirety of their situation.

“An assignment.”

“An assignment?” Luka didn’t know why that bothered him so much.

…Or at least he didn’t want to acknowledge why. Maybe a part of him had hoped that someone, whether it was Klaus or Mishca, had helped him because they cared…not because he was an assignment.

“Look, Luka—”

“It’s Valon, remember?”

Whatever kindness had been in Klaus’ face disappeared as a mask slipped over his features. “How could I forget? But you spent the better part of six years trying to erase that past, no? In fact, you made it a point to avoid or kill anyone who might have blown that past up.”

Luka ground his teeth, wishing he could block out his words.

If his past could have been buried with the least amount of casualties, Luka would have taken up that offer years ago. But he had let fear, along with misplaced loyalty, cloud his thoughts. To the point that if he acted like they didn’t exist, that none of it had ever happened, then it wouldn’t ultimately affect what he had in his new life.

He should have known better. No, he knew better, but he just hadn’t acted on his impulses.

Now, here he was thousands of miles away from the piece of life he’d built for himself and even further from the one person he burned to be with.

But what did any of that matter now?

“You got your revenge, no? Everyone from that day is dead. Unless you’re planning to kill me, too? If so, I think this assignment was a lot of working for nothing.”

“Like I told you before, if I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead. Besides, I think we’ve come to an understanding since then, yeah?”

“So what was the plan? What was the assignment exactly?”

“Extract one ungrateful ass Albanian and kill anyone else.” Klaus tapped his leg with his fist. “And when I say that, I mean everyone.”

Luka looked back at him in disbelief. “There’s no guarantee that you got to every single person in the Organization. It isn’t possible.”

“No? You seriously underestimate what my team is capable of.”

“Your team?”

“Don’t tell me you don’t remember the others? They’d be offended.”

Luka started to respond, but caught himself, realizing a little late that they were bantering. “What are we doing here?”

“I figured you wanted some time to yourself before we got back.”

“I’m not going back.”

Klaus frowned. “Come again?”

“You heard me.”

“Yeah, I heard you, but considering that’s the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard you say—and trust me there’s a lot—I needed to make sure.”

“There’s nothing left for me in New York.”

“No? There’s your Bratva? Lauren? And Ale—”

Luka laughed bitterly. “Right. I know Mishca practically gift-wrapped me for Fatos. How am I supposed to work with someone I can’t trust?”

“We got on just fine, I thought.”

Ignoring his comment, Luka said, “Don’t tell them.”

Klaus looked confused, readjusting the beanie covering his hair. “Do you actually hear yourself right now?”

“After the first week in the hole, I thought maybe I was still wrong, that there was a plan in place, some shit I didn’t know. Three weeks, I started to doubt everything. Then, when I couldn’t wrap my head around the concept of time, I stopped believing in anything.

“So, no. When I leave this place, don’t follow me.”

Luka had nothing left. He didn’t have any access to money, and he didn’t even have the energy to continue this conversation any longer.

So, turning his back to Klaus, he headed for the door.

“What about Alex?”

He paused, steeling himself. “I’m doing this for her.”

He would rather her believe him dead than see the betrayal in her eyes.





49

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