Vengeance Aside (Wanted Men 0.5)(60)

“A Zavrazin owned a club my friends and I used to go to before I had my kid,” Ursula said to Lukas. “Great place. Any relation of yours?”

Dale could feel Lukas’s eyes on her, but she didn’t return the look as she watched her dad move a blanket off her bag before pulling it out. He’d tried to hide it better after she’d left the other day. Nice.

“Which club?” Lukas asked in a brittle tone that would have sent Dale searching for an excuse to leave had it been aimed at her.

“Scorch.”

“It’s my brother’s.”

“Oh! Wow! Great place,” Ursula repeated, gushing the words as she leaned against the wall so she could squish her arms together and plump her cleavage.

Dale wanted to tell her she’d missed a spot with her self-tanner. A white patch on her left boob had an uneven orange border.

Lukas completely ignored the obvious woman and took Dale’s duffel from her father without thanking him. He linked his and Dale’s fingers again and pulled her away from the uncomfortable scene.

“Thanks, Dad,” she called back without getting a response as they motored toward the car. Yasha was handed her bag, and without a word, he carried it back to the Land Rover while Lukas opened the door and helped her into the car. It felt like she was sitting on the street as he slammed the panel shut before going around to his side.

He got in and slammed his door so hard she was surprised the glass didn’t shatter. As a sexy growl came from the engine, an equally sexy one came from her mobster. Then he was voicing his anger. In Russian.

“Hey, I have an idea,” she said, speaking loudly so as to be heard. “How about you speak English so I can understand what’s happening in your beautiful head?”

“He did not hug you or even smile at you!” he roared as they sped off down the street, his accent more pronounced than she’d ever heard it. “He did not even congratulate you on your coming marriage! His daughter! How the fuck did he not know you hadn’t shown at his house on Saturday night? If I hadn’t taken you, Garrett Dawson could have snatched you after work and not a motherfucking soul would have known because your own goddamn father was not aware that you had not come home!” He obeyed a stop sign, but just barely.

“Lukas, it’s okay.”

As she found herself plastered to the seat, he gave her a black look. “It’s okay?” he asked in a chilling tone. “It’s okay, Magdalena? How can you fucking say that? Jesus Christ, I wanted to break his jaw for the total lack of interest he just showed. But the boy was watching so I couldn’t even tell the fucker off. Has he always been like that with you?”

Her stomach soured. “Yes. What boy?”

He stopped behind a taxi sitting at a red light. “Yes? Yes?” He growled again and flexed his hands on the steering wheel. “The one peering around the corner from what you said was the living room. His hair was lighter than his mother’s fake shit, but he shared her narrow face.”

Dale hadn’t seen him. Thank God. Where did he sleep? “How old did he look?”

Lukas blew out a hard breath that apparently helped calm him because his voice wasn’t so sharp when he said, “Six or seven.”

She nodded and tried so hard not to care as they zoomed past houses, St. Francis Church, Dale’s old school. When they reached the freeway, she stared at sign after sign. Best Buy. Marshalls. Olive Garden. Crown Plaza Suites. But by the time they merged onto sixty-nine, with her stomach aching along with her heart, she knew she’d lost.

“My parents were weird,” she said as she focused on the taillight of Milan’s Ducati. “My dad worked nights driving a cab—he’s with Uber now. When he wasn’t working, he was sleeping so we either we had to be quiet or get out of the house until he woke. And then we had to be quiet because he was having his dinner and watching his shows before he had to leave for his shift.”

Lukas stared at the road, his jaw stiff, and Dale waited for the questions to come.

They didn’t. All that happened was, once he shifted gears, he reached over and took her hand. His thumb rubbed over her ring every little while as, for the first time, he gave her the freedom to speak only if she wanted to.

The ploy worked.

***

Lukas couldn’t speak through the icy rage locked in his throat. He wanted to demand more. He needed fucking details about Dale’s life. But he couldn’t get a word out, and, naturally, his well-protected clam didn’t give up shit without prodding.

Until she miraculously did.

“My mom wasn’t the best either. She was…cold.”

So fucking grateful for even that, he let up on the accelerator and placed a kiss on her wrist. She took their hands back and began playing with his fingers as she gathered her thoughts.

“I’m aware it sounds gripey, but, she didn’t care about us.”

Lukas looked over when she pluralized again. “Us? You and your father?”

She dropped her eyes to their hands, but the agony he caught before she hid from his gaze had his gut spasming. “I had a brother.”

Her announcement sent shock sweeping through him. “What? Where is he? What do you mean ‘had?’”

“He’s gone. Dead.”

“Oh, fuck, Dale.” He squeezed her hand, pissed that they were in the car now that she’d finally decided to open up. Or maybe that was why she was talking. Because he wasn’t able to entirely focus on her. “I’m so fucking sorry, yagodka.”