Chapter 16
CINDY
Iwatch Luka come into the room, my skin still damp from the shower, goosebumps rising despite the warm air. The towel suddenly feels like tissue paper—too thin, too small, offering no protection from the intensity radiating off him.
His gaze rakes over me, dark and hungry, and for one breathless moment, I think he's going to close the distance between us. To claim me the way his body is screaming to do. Instead, he pivots sharply toward the vodka decanter, his movements jerky with barely leashed control.
The crystal stopper clinks too loudly in the silence. He doesn't bother with a glass; he just tips the bottle back and takes a long pull. When he lowers it, his Adam's apple works as he swallows, and I find myself mesmerized by that simple motion.
He starts pacing like a caged predator, each turn revealing the tension coiled in his shoulders, the way his fists clench and unclench at his sides.
“Where have you been?” he asks. “Have any of my guards touched you? Have you left that necklace anywhere? Could a housekeeper have gotten their hands on it?”
I know what he’s asking, and I’m relieved. He believes it wasn’t me.
Thank God.
My mind races backward through every interaction, every moment someone could have gotten close enough to plant that tiny piece of surveillance technology. The transmitter was no bigger than a grain of rice.
None of the guards has ever been that close to me.
They are all very respectful and keep their distance. The housekeepers don’t touch me. I take the necklace off when I shower, but only Luka has ever invaded my privacy.
That leaves Leo. And we know he couldn’t do it.
“I don’t know.” I shake my head. “I’m sorry, Luka. I swear, I don’t know.”
“Think, Cindy!”
I shake my head and replay every move.
And then it hits me.
"The pharmacy," I say, my voice hollow. "When I went for.
.. tampons." The lie tastes bitter now, knowing what I was really there for.
"Anna was there. I thought it was strange she just happened to be there.
I was pretty sure she followed me somehow.
She hugged me. She was playing with the necklace, touching it. "
But even as I say it, I know it goes deeper than that encounter. Anna doesn't have the resources for military-grade surveillance equipment. Which means she's working for someone else.
“Oh God,” I groan. “Since then?”
“I suspect.”
“I always wear that necklace, Luka. Always. Even when I sleep. When we…”
“I know.”
How many private moments and intimate conversations have been broadcast to whoever's pulling Anna's strings? Leo. I’ve exposed that little boy in so many different ways.
The nausea hits without warning, a wave of sickness so intense it nearly brings me to my knees. My stomach lurches, and suddenly I'm staggering toward the bathroom, one hand pressed to my mouth as bile rises in my throat.
"Cindy!" Luka moves fast, caging me against the doorframe, his hands on my shoulders, trying to steady me. "What's wrong?"
"Don't touch me." The words come out harsher than I meant. I shove him away with both hands. "Just... don't."
It's not him I'm rejecting—it's the violation. It’s the knowledge that every precious moment we’ve shared and every moment of intimacy has been observed by strangers.
And then another thought occurs.
They know about the pregnancy tests hidden in the bathroom. Did Anna watch me pick up the tests? And then watch as I took them? The necklace would have allowed her to see the results.
They know I’m pregnant.
I walk out of the bedroom and head down the hall to my bedroom.
“What are you doing?” Luka asks and practically chases me down the hall.
I don’t answer him. I walk to my bedroom and throw open the closet.
The go-bag I packed when I first arrived here sits in the back of the closet. It’s been untouched for two months. I almost forgot about it. The bag was my thing. I had learned the hard way that I always needed to have an escape route ready.
"What are you doing?" Luka's voice carries a dangerous edge.
"Leaving." I don't look at him; I can't trust myself to maintain my resolve if I see his expression. "This is my mess, my family, my problem to solve."
"Like hell." He moves toward me, but I spin around, holding up one hand to stop him.
"No. You don't get to make this decision for me." The words come out fiercely. "I'm done being a pawn in other people's games. Anna wants to play? Fine. I'll play."
The nausea subsides enough for me to keep packing, but the fury that replaces it burns hotter and cleaner.
Anna hugged me in that pharmacy, looked me in the eye, and warned me.
All the while, she had planted surveillance equipment on me.
She was feeding information to whoever wants to destroy the life I've built here.
Because it is a life now. It’s complicated and dangerous, but mine, nonetheless.
"You're not thinking clearly," Luka says. I can hear him struggling to keep his voice level. "You're emotional, angry—"
"Damn right I'm angry." I slam a handful of clothes into the bag. "Someone's been watching us, Luka. Watching me tuck Leo into bed, watching us. And you want me to just sit here and let you handle it?"
"Yes." The word comes out flat. "That's exactly what I want."
I zip the bag closed and sling it over my shoulder, meeting his gaze directly. "Well, you don't always get what you want."
He moves to block my path to the door. For a moment, we stand there staring at each other like gunfighters in an old western. The tension crackles between us, electric and dangerous.
“Where are you going?”
“To look that bitch in the eyes when I tell her I know what she’s done.”
“And then what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Cindy, why the bag?” The question is asked quietly.
I look at the bag in my hand. It’s such a knee-jerk reaction; I didn’t even really consider what I was doing.
Running.
I’m always ready to run. I get hurt, and I run.
But why am I running from Luka? He didn’t do the hurting. Not this time.
But it’s because of him that I’m hurting. I’m humiliated. I have never felt so violated and exposed in my entire life.
“I’m leaving,” I answer. “I’m dangerous to him.”
“Him?”
“Leo.”
His expression softens. “I will protect him. And you.”
“I can do this. I’m tired of being a pawn, Luka. Do you understand?”
"I won't let you walk into a trap," he says quietly.
"And I won't let someone use me to hurt the people I care about."
The admission hangs in the air between us.
Because that's what this is really about, isn't it?
Not just my violated privacy or even my anger at being manipulated.
It's about Leo's safe space being invaded.
It's about the way Luka's face softens when he thinks no one is watching.
It's about the secret growing inside me that connects us all in ways none of us fully understand yet.
I may not have chosen to be here in the beginning, but now there's no way I'm going to let anyone use me as a weapon against the father of my child or the boy who calls me mommy.
“I need you to trust me," I say.
"Trust goes both ways."
"I know." I adjust the bag on my shoulder. "Which is why I'm telling you where I'm going instead of just disappearing. Anna wants a meeting? She'll get one. But on my terms, not hers."
He looks at me closely. Whatever he sees must convince him, because his posture shifts slightly.
"The Mustang," he says, his voice rough. "Take the Mustang."
I walk out of the bedroom. He gently grabs my arm.
"Cindy."
“Yes?”
He pulls the keys from his pocket and then hands me his gun. "Don't hesitate if you need to use it."
“I’m coming back.”
"Why are you taking a bag if you're coming back?"
The question hangs between us, loaded with everything we're not saying. I look down at the duffel in my hand—packed on autopilot, muscle memory from years of being ready to run. My throat tightens.
"I..." The truth sticks in my throat. How do I explain that taking a go-bag is hardwired into my DNA? That even though I'm choosing him, choosing this life, some part of me still expects to wake up and find it all gone?
"This might take a couple of days," I say instead, the lie tasting like ash.
His jaw clenches, a muscle jumping beneath the skin. I see the moment he decides not to push, to give me this fiction even though we both know Anna won't meet me. That this is about me needing to feel like I have some control in a world spinning off its axis.
"If you're not back by dawn, I'll come for you." The words are a promise and a threat, delivered with the quiet intensity that makes grown men soil themselves.
"I know." I step closer, drawn by invisible threads. "I'm counting on it."
I was asking a lot of him. It’s nothing short of a miracle he’s letting me go at all.”
I lean up on my toes and press a kiss to his lips. "I know."
“Take the dog,” he says. “The mutt is useless, but he might actually protect you. God knows he’s threatened to take a bite out of me more than once.”
I offer a small smile. “If I'm not back when Leo wakes up, please give him a hug for me.”
“I will come find you.”
“I’m counting on it.”
I walk to the garage with Mac trailing behind me. He’s a little irritated at being roused from his bed, but he hops into the car. Luka pushes the button to open the garage bay door.
I look at him, wave, and drive away.
The city streets are mostly empty at this hour, just the occasional taxi or police cruiser. I drive through the familiar neighborhoods, past the apartment where I used to live, and past the garage where I learned to love engines more than people.
That life feels like it belonged to someone else now. The woman who lived in that apartment was gone. I always believed I would be okay if I just kept my head down.
Anna wants to play games? She's about to learn that I've had excellent teachers.
I will not let her threaten Leo.
Anna touched that necklace with such casual affection and smiled at me like she actually cared. She turned me into a weapon against the people I love.
By dawn, one way or another, this will be finished. Either I'll be driving back to the compound with answers and resolution, or Luka will be coming to collect what's left of me.
Either way, Anna's going to learn that some games have consequences.