Hidden Monsters (Volkov Bratva #4)(99)

Seeing the two of them together told Luka everything he needed to know. When he was gone, Loki would be in good hands.

With one last scratch to Loki’s ears, Alex stood, looking at Luka with an expression he couldn’t mistake. “I think you promised me something, Luka.”

Laughing, he led her up to his room and gave her exactly what she wanted. For hours, he savored her, wanting to remember everything about this night, wanting to brand a piece of her onto himself.

He needed this…

Before he didn’t have it anymore.

For a long time, Luka lay awake, Alex long since having fallen asleep tucked into his side, the arm she had around him tight even in her sleep, like she was afraid he was going to slip away in the middle of the night.

After tonight, he knew he was out of time.

Fatos had always been prone to reckless behavior, but what he had done…he was determined to make sure that Luka knew he wasn’t going away quietly.

Laying in the quiet of his home, Luka also knew that it was time he paid for his sins.

He shifted, bringing Alex closer, if that were possible, one hand tangling in the fine strands of her hair. Enjoying her for as long as he could because he knew, with every part of his being, that this might be the last time he was able to have this with her.

Though he couldn’t make out the features of her face in the darkness of the room, he stared at her, mapping them out with light passes of his fingertips. He was happy with the peace she had finally been able to find. A peace he had ultimately been able to help give her. If there was nothing else he could take with him, something that was done without care of a reward, he had finally done good.

I love you, Alex…and I’m not saying it for you to say it in return. I’m saying it so you will know in case I never get the chance to tell you…

But yet…he couldn’t bring himself to say the words aloud, not because he was afraid, but because he feared he wouldn’t be around long enough to show her that he meant them.

____

Late into the night, in the wee hours of the morning, Alex woke up, slowly getting her bearings as she blinked her eyes open.

Luka was still at her back, his chest rising and falling with each even breath he took, but there was a tension within him that sleep didn’t shake.

Now more than ever, she knew something troubled him, and it was eating him up. She couldn’t help but notice that he was showering her with more affection than usual, not that he didn’t otherwise.

Luka didn’t whisper sweet nothings. He wasn’t constantly announcing his love, but Alex didn’t doubt his love for her. She felt it in everything he did. From the way he made her dinner, constantly trying new recipes if only to impress her. Then there was the way he listened to everything she said in a way that didn’t make her doubt that he actually heard what she was saying.

But more than all of that were their nights together. No matter if she fell asleep before him, he would slip in, careful not to jostle her too much as he shifted until he was at her back, his arm slipping around her body. He skimmed his hand beneath the edge of whatever shirt she was wearing, the pads of his fingers drifting over her stomach until she reacted.

She couldn’t know for sure, not when he wasn’t willing to share, but she couldn’t help but feel that something bad—something worse than being buried alive—was coming their way.





41

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Choices





“What’s wrong?”

He tried. God, it was so obvious how he tried to force a smile to make her feel better, but now it was too easy for her to read him and the emotions he tried to hide. Ever since she had been buried in that warehouse, things had only gotten worse with him, but not in a way that she fully understood.

It was obvious that he felt guilty about what happened to her. No matter how often she said that it wasn’t his fault, he accepted her word but didn’t appear to get any better. Most days he was gone more often than he was home. She tried not to make a big deal out of this considering she didn’t want to smother him, but it was beginning to feel like he was pulling away from her, and she didn’t know how to make that stop.

“Shouldn’t you be getting ready?” he asked, not looking at her. “Don’t want you to be late.”

It was obvious he was avoiding the question, but she refused to let him. “Luka, talk to me.”

But he ignored her, going over to the small chest in the corner of his room, pulling out a gun and a magazine. That did nothing to make her feel better.

Anyone that said dogs couldn’t discern human emotion obviously had never spent time around one.

As Luka clicked the magazine into place, placing the gun at the small of his back, she could practically feel Loki’s probing gaze on him like he, too, knew that this time was different.

When he moved to the door, Loki, his ever-loyal companion, attempted to trail behind him. Luka shook his head once, a silent command for Loki to stay, but he didn’t. Crouching down, Luka reached for him, smoothing a hand over the fur at the top of his head.

It broke her heart seeing the two of them that way. It didn’t matter that nothing was said, she could feel the change in them.

“You’ll watch out for her, won’t you?” Luka whispered so low that she almost didn’t hear him. “And anyone who gives her shit, you have my permission to take a chunk out their ass, yeah?”