Hidden Monsters (Volkov Bratva #4)(35)

She looked down at herself, pulling at the bottom of the shirt she wore, trying to read the front, but it was nearly faded to the point of not showing at all. Somehow, her dress was gone, and her hair was damp.

Weird.

She ran her fingers over the faded type, positive that she had seen Luka in something similar. And she was prone to wishful thinking sometimes when it came to him, but she thought it smelled like him, too.

Looking around, she took in her surroundings, but she didn’t think, even with the hazy memory, that she had been here before. She could tell she wasn’t with Snow at the very least. It was far too empty and lacked the smell of a pack of men who lived together.

Heading into the bathroom, she raided the cabinets, finding a small bottle of Listerine that she desperately needed to get rid of the foul taste in her mouth. After, she splashed her face with water, feeling moderately better, but not nearly as well as she’d hoped.

Leaving the room, she took in as much as she could, hoping that she might find something, even just a picture that would help her understand whose place this was.

A narrow hallway led to a staircase toward the end of it, two other rooms on this floor. There were no pictures or anything particularly noteworthy that spoke of who lived here. It all just felt…barren. The walls had been patched up in certain spots, the white paint standing out amongst the muted cream, and it was pretty clear that the house was being renovated.

The living room was very much the same, appearing as though it was in the middle of repairs. There wasn’t even any furniture. “Hello?”

No answer came. Nor did she hear footsteps announcing someone’s approach.

Alex turned a corner, heading toward the kitchen where she could smell food cooking. There were an assortment of pots and pans on the six-burner range, all housing bubbling ingredients. Alex was tempted to have a look, but the back door came crashing open, and a rather large dog bounded in, his eyes darting to her as she jumped in surprise.

It was a Husky, if she wasn’t mistaken, with gray and white fur, eyes the same pale blue as Luka’s. The way its eyebrows arched over its eyes made it look demonic, as if it was plotting on how best to chew her arm off and make it into a new toy, but its tail wagged back and forth.

Maybe it was a happy killer?

Luka came bursting in behind it, shaking the snow out of his hair as he closed and locked the door. When he noticed her standing there, his expression went from open to closed, giving nothing away. With her, there was always something in his eyes, whether anger, annoyance, and on the rare occurrence, playful joy, but now…nothing. And while she usually disregarded that, she felt, even though he had yet to say a word to her, that he was upset with her.

If she had to assume, then it had to do with Snow because, if nothing else, she remembered going to him the night before. Was that the night before or just a few hours? She didn’t even know what time it was.

Shit. Where was her phone?

“Luka, where—”

“You hungry?” he asked cutting her off and gesturing to the stove with a nod of his head.

Not when her stomach was threatening to turn in on itself… “Not really, but I’m—”

“Give me a sec. Gotta feed Loki.”

He stepped around her, going over to a corner of the kitchen that had a rather large dog bed and two silver bowls resting beside it. He filled one with water from a jug he pulled from the refrigerator and the other with wet dog food.

Alex had never taken him for much of a pet person, not when he was rarely home, but it was obvious that he loved the dog—was its name Loki?—from the way he had scratched behind its ears before he let him eat.

Maybe he was watching him for a friend? “Is this your dog?” she asked looking back and forth between them.

“Yep. Name’s Loki.”

Of course. Luka didn’t have any friends who weren’t a part of the Bratva.

Alex smiled, looking over at Loki. “I didn’t take you much for a comics guy. Where’d you get him?”

“He came over with me from…” But he trailed off, his jaw tightening for a moment.

Had he not meant to tell her that? “From Albania, you mean? Did you find him, or did your parents buy him for you?” At this point, she was just trying to make conversation, not just because she wanted to know more about him, but also because she wanted to avoid the talk that she knew would come once he told her why she was here with him.

He seemed to fight an internal battle with himself before he answered her.

“I don’t know where he came from, just showed up one day. The place where I found him…the dogs there had been trained to fight and were all massive. He hadn’t stood a chance against them. Had anyone known he was in there, they would have put him down… I just kind of adopted him. He’s been my companion ever since.” Something about the way he told the story made Alex think there was more to it than that, but she wasn’t in any place to push him for more.

Done with his food, Loki trotted over to her, sniffing her hand as she extended it to him. When he deemed her ‘okay,’ he even let her pet him. “Did angry ol’ Luka save your life?”

And with all the conviction in the world, Luka answered, “No, he saved mine.”

Not knowing how to respond to that, she kept quiet, until the silence was too much.

“Is this your place?”