Hidden Monsters (Volkov Bratva #4)(20)

If he told Mishca about the reason why his car was the way it was, he would have to explain what Alex was doing—though even he didn’t know what exactly was going on with her—but he didn’t want to do that just yet, not when he thought he could get through to her first.

“I crashed it.”

Mishca blinked, disbelieving, and Luka could almost see the exact moment when Mishca thought about killing him. He laid his hands flat against his desk, leaning his weight against them as he said, “Say that again.”

There was a knock at the door before it was pushed open, but Luka was looking at Mishca and didn’t see who was coming in.

“That again.”

His eyes narrowed to tiny slits. “Don’t f*ck with me, Luka.”

This was the first time in a long while that he had let someone talk to him like this for the sake of someone else, and even before, he responded violently, and was now even thinking about what he would do to take the edge off.

A different kind of irritation filled him as he tried not to react. He wished, had wished, many times that it was anyone but Alex to affect him.

“But we both enjoy it so—all right, all right,” he said putting his hands up. “It was late and dark as f*ck. Ran her right off the road and hit a tree that came out of f*cking nowhere, but if it makes you feel better, I can get you a hula girl for your new car.”

“Get out!”

Luka was smiling as he turned his back on Mishca, heading for the door, his step faltering as he caught sight of Alex in the doorway. He didn’t have to wonder whether she’d heard, it was written all over her face.

Her gaze skirted from his the moment they made eye contact, forcing a smile as she greeted her brother, ignoring him entirely. He didn’t want to call her on it here, but if she thought she could avoid him any longer, she had another thing coming.

Walking out to his car, he leaned against the side of it and waited, knowing that at some point, she was going to have to come out. He didn’t know how long he stood there, drawing the gazes of curious onlookers, but he paid them no mind. After at least an hour, she finally came out, her gaze immediately stopping on him, her look of surprise making him all too aware that she hadn’t expected him to wait.

She turned, heading in the opposite direction, away from where she needed to go, just to avoid him. Pushing off his car, he jogged after her, easily catching up in seconds. Thankfully, she didn’t try to run from him, just resigned herself for whatever he had to say.

Alex didn’t look any better than she had the last time he had seen her. In fact, he thought she looked more tired than usual.

She didn’t wait to see what he wanted, instead saying, “You didn’t have to do that for me. I was going to tell him what happened.”

He shrugged. “Now you don’t need to.”

“What can I do for you, Luka?”

He studied her face, the veins of red forking out in her eyes, bags heavy beneath them.

“Is it Anya?” he asked. He genuinely wanted to know what had her so distressed. He wasn’t arrogant enough to believe that it was because of him that she was doing this to herself, though he did think that it wasn’t helping her feel any better.

When they were together and she’d asked him to tell her that he didn’t want her, he’d told her the truth. He wanted her, more than he even liked to admit to himself, but there would come a time when the truth of who he really was would come to light, and he didn’t want to be the one to break her heart when she found out the truth.

“I’m fine.”

“You can lie to everyone else,” he said with a tilt of his head in the direction of the club. “But don’t lie to me.”

“Luka, I don’t owe you anything.”

“If this is about Natasha—”

She looked away from him, but not before he saw the flash of emotion in her eyes. “Who you f*ck is none of my business, right?”

“Alex—”

“Are we going to do this every time we see each other?” she asked suddenly. “There’s nothing really left for us to talk about.”

He was growing frustrated, not just because she was shutting him down, but because he couldn’t find the words to tell her what he really meant.

“Stop punishing me for—”

She laughed. “Is that what you think this is about, Luka? I’m not punishing you because I don’t want to talk about my feelings. Maybe I like to drink. Maybe it’s the one time in my life that I’m actually happy, where I’m not pretending for everyone else’s sake. Now, we both know how this conversation is going to end because we’ve been running circles around each other for weeks. Let’s just end it now and save ourselves the headache.”

This time when she backed away from him, he let her go. Whether she admitted to it or not, it seemed he did make it worse for her, and if he had to force himself away from her to give her a chance to heal, he’d do that.

Even if it killed him.





10

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Tainted Hunger





Her stomach rumbled from lack of food, but as she flipped through the various menus she had spread out on the countertop, she still couldn’t decide on anything she really wanted. Tossing the last pamphlet down, she sighed, going to grab her phone to scroll through texts. One from Lauren that she would respond to later, and another from Luka that she promptly deleted without reading.