Hidden Monsters (Volkov Bratva #4)(95)

Luka, who had already turned back to the Albanian, reached for another tool, his movements more measure as he now had more time on his hands. “Call me when you have her.”

____

Not since she was a little girl had Alex ever feared the dark, but as it surrounded her so completely that she almost felt blind, she wished she had appreciated light a little bit more.

She’d fought, as best she could to get free, but her hands merely slipped along the glass. Despite the pain in her hands, she hadn’t been strong enough to break it.

Then she’d screamed until her voice had gone hoarse, hoping somebody, anybody, would hear her, but beneath the earth…she had no voice.

Alex didn’t mean to cry, didn’t actually realize when it started, but with the first tear shed, the rest came in earnest.

This was it.

This was how it would end.

…Until she heard muffled movement above her.

It was the slightest of sounds, but it filled her with such hope that she tried calling out again, even as her voice failed her.

Movement came, and finally, the dirt shifted above her, just enough that brightness nearly pierced through the darkness that had covered her for so long.

Then, a hand swiped another layer away, revealing Mishca’s face.

Her relief at seeing him mirrored his own. She reached out for him, crying harder than she had ever cried in her life.

“I’m right here,” he said from his position above her, laying his hands flat against the glass where hers rested. “Easy. Breathe.”

But no matter how she tried to drag air into her lungs, she couldn’t get enough, to the point that her head was going fuzzy and the image of him blurred.

“Klaus, do something!”

But whether Klaus responded, she didn’t know.

She had already passed out again.





38

____





Safe House





“We got her. We’re at the safe house—you know the one.” Klaus was silent for a beat as he took a breath. “She’s gonna want to see you when she wakes up.”

Luka ended the call, stuffing his phone back in his pocket, eyeing the man in front of him. He was new to him, didn’t remember him from his time in Berat, but Luka had made sure he understood the gravity of the part he had played in this. It didn’t matter that, as he’d said, he’d only accompanied Fatos and didn’t actually lay a finger on Alex. No, that hadn’t mattered to the monster that had taken Luka over.

“How did he know about her?” Luka asked, the question having plagued him the entire drive back.

No one, except for those closest to him could have known that Alex meant everything to him. It could only mean someone within the Bratva.

Now, he just wanted a name.

“A woman. That is all I know.”

And with that, Luka had his answer.

“Please,” he said, the word coming out like mush as Luka had pulled a number of teeth free…and that had been the least of what he had done to the man’s face, not to mention the rest of him. “Just kill me. Please.”

Those words would have pleased him more than an hour ago before he had learned that Alex had been taken, but now they did nothing.

With a move this bold, Fatos told him everything he had been too afraid to acknowledge.

He was out of time.

Taking his blade, the same one he had walked into this place with, Luka slit the man’s throat and walked away.

With each step he took, he heard the clock ticking down.

____

“I thought I would hate you the day Anya told me she was pregnant,” Mishca started thoughtfully when he realized she was awake.

As she had slowly come into awareness, she realized she was no longer in the glass coffin but on a bed that she never wanted to leave. Besides a splitting headache and memories of pitch blackness, there were no other reminders that she had been buried not long ago.

Mishca was beside her on the bed, her tucked into his side, reminding her of a time when they had done this very thing. Before Paris, before he had followed in the footsteps of Mikhail…

Here, though she didn’t know for how long, she was safe.

Shifting so she could better see him, she waited for him to go on.

“But the day you were born, even as you screamed your lungs out, I loved you more than I ever thought I would. And with that realization, I knew that I wanted to protect you from everything, including the life I would ultimately lead.” He looked at her then, and despite the thin smile, there was sadness in his eyes. “I failed at that.”

“Mish…”

“Not yet,” he said carefully. “I don’t want your forgiveness. Not until I end this. And even then…I’m not sure if you will be willing to offer it.”

Not sure how to respond to such grave words, Alex changed the subject. “Where’s Lauren?”

“Home.”

“And does she know that I…” She couldn’t bring herself to say it.

“No. If I had told her, she would have worried more than necessary.”

“Good.”

The sound of yelling drew her attention from Mishca to the closed door.

She knew who was coming for her without having to hear his voice. And with that knowledge, her heart hammered once more. Besides her brother, he was the one other person she desperately needed to see.