Hidden Monsters (Volkov Bratva #4)(79)

“Will you…will you dance with me?”

There was no hesitation.

He offered his hand, palm up, and as she took it, he pulled her in, carefully spinning her, and when her back was to his chest, Luka began to move them around the room.

Even as she moved to the tips of her toes, she barely reached his chin, and with this height advantage, it was easier for her to stay up this way, letting him lead when he became so inclined.

But she soon realized that Luka wasn’t really dancing at all, but just moving side to side, occasionally spinning her as he had done before. Without really trying, he was letting her use him as a distraction from her doubts, and while just enjoying herself with him, she was finally doing what she couldn’t earlier.

She could feel the flush in her cheeks, the heat growing hotter, as she noticed that he had yet to take his eyes off her. “What?”

“You’re beautiful.”

She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, glancing away from him, but he gently turned her face back, forcing her to look at him.

“Thank you.”

“I mean it.” As he was prone to do nowadays, he pulled her closer by the nape of her neck, kissing her forehead.

Alex didn’t feel small when he did this, not anymore. She felt cherished and important.

“Even when your feet turn to shit once you get back into this after a few years, you’ll still be beautiful to me.”

Laughing, she shoved him away.

“You’re such an *.”

He reclaimed his seat, stretching his legs out to cross them at the ankles. “Just finish your practice.”





32

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Permission





“Luka, I think your dog is a bit of a pervert,” Alex said with a laugh, feeling him smile against the curve of her neck as they both listened to Loki’s panting.

If he hadn’t been trained so well, Alex worried that he might have jumped on the bed with them, and nothing was more awkward than having a dog lick her while she was straddling Luka.

“Yeah, I got it.”

Hooking an arm around her waist, he rolled them over, pushing to his feet as he headed for the door, ushering Loki out of it before closing it soundly. He grabbed hold of her ankle, pulling her down the bed before laying between her legs, his head resting on her belly, his hair tickling her skin.

She played with the ends of it, watching the golden strands slip between her fingers, using the pads of her fingers to massage his scalp. He relaxed under her touch for a time, at least until she drifted to the back of his head. The hand on her waist tensed, releasing slowly when she stopped.

She didn’t know what had caused the reaction. From what she could feel, there were no scars there, but like other things with him, maybe it was psychological.

Since he had taken her to the studio he’d rented, she’d gone back time and again, growing more comfortable with each hour that she spent in there. She was nowhere near where she needed to be for the audition, but she was close.

And it was all thanks to Luka.

He hadn’t completely healed her. She wasn’t totally mended just because he was so deeply involved in her life now, but he helped remind her that she was somebody.

Now she was remembering what it was really like to be happy.

Luka leaned over the side of the bed, the screen of his phone lighting up as he pressed a button. He barely glanced back at her as he said, “Got a job.”

Alex frowned, watching as he got dressed. “It’s midnight.” But even as she said that, she knew it didn’t mean anything. He could be called in at three in the morning and he would have to show up.

____





Dragging in a lungful of nicotine and tobacco, Luka stretched out in the driver’s seat of his Wrangler, streams of smoke drifting out the window into the night air as he exhaled. This went unnoticed by the man a few blocks away, parking his Harley. No, he was too busy with the woman who was nearly falling off the bike, as she was visibly intoxicated.

Luka had followed them for a little more than an hour, stalking his prey unnoticed as he had been trained to do. He’d been eager to get this started but had known that patience was the key.

He had made Snow a promise after all, and he didn’t want to ruin it by acting irrationally.

Snow might have forgotten that threat and moved on, considering the girl he was leading back to his clubhouse, but Luka never forgot. He didn’t care that Alex was finally healing, that the last thing on her mind was Snow…No, he wanted to make him pay, not for the drugs, but for what he had done while she had been too out of it to consent.

And with the changes within the Bratva, he couldn’t just go up and shoot him in the face. The Angels would more than likely want retaliation for the death. Luka had thought about telling Mishca the truth about why he had acted out the day he’d went to make the drop, except he didn’t need him turning his frustration to Alex which would have only made the situation worse.

So he did the next best thing.

____

“What the f*ck do you want?” Klaus asked as he drew his shirt off, going for one of the rags on the ground next to him.

Klaus was one of the last people that Luka ever wanted to willingly seek out, but he was in a delicate situation that only he could help with, and while they might not have been the friendliest toward each other, this might have been something that he was willing to help with.