4. Four
Four
Luka
There was a long pause. One that made me ball my fist at my side. He wasn’t going to make it easy for me, even if the call was about Amara’s life.
“Ciro?”
“What’s happened?” His voice was rough.
“Where the fuck are you?” He never left Amara unattended, despite how much I hated it about him. His absence is what allowed this to happen.
“I don’t answer to you.” He didn’t soften his tone. Why the fuck would it? We hated each other. Ciro’s voice never changed octaves. It rarely had in the years I had known him.
Amara said he was out working on a security assignment for her. I assumed it was within driving distance of the city, but I realized now he was much farther away.
“I can be there by morning. What’s happened? What are we dealing with?” It sounded as if he was breathing harder, shuffling something in the background. “Why hasn’t she called me herself?”
“Don’t you think that’s what I’d prefer?” I growled. “I don’t want to have this little chat with you, Ciro.”
“If you’re calling me. It must be a life and death emergency. Is she safe? Is she alive?” I detected pain in the question. It threw me. The stoic giant had a soft spot. It was Amara.
My first encounter with Ciro was at the pool house during Katya’s engagement party five years ago. Amara and I had ditched his cover for a night at Marguerites and eating champagne and oysters. He had never forgiven me for it. I was certain Lorenzo had given him hell for the embarrassment. He’d let a member of the Bratva steal his daughter out from under him at a cocktail party. There were hundreds of guests and we had managed to slip past him and everyone else there ready to toast my sister and Andrey.
I cleared my throat, ready to answer him. To tell him the truth. She had to be alive. I believed I would know if she wasn’t. Besides a kidnapping of someone of her status would be pointless if she was taken only to be murdered. My mind easily crossed into the dark realities facing her future.
“Novikov!” he shouted into the phone.
No one knew her contingency plans for an escape other than Ciro. I knew he had trained her. For fuck’s sake he had a tracker in her neck. He would know where Nikoli and one of the Bratva teams could begin a search and recovery. I was prepared for him to put up a fight when I asked for all their security secrets.
However, before I could explain the circumstances, the elevator began to churn. I heard a clunk then a screech. Were these fuckers coming for me next?
“Hold on. Someone’s here,” I hissed into the phone, lowering it.
I retrieved the gun from the holster inside my suit jacket. Nik would be here. He could take over the retrieval of information down at the docks. All I had to do was injure the attacker enough to stall. I paused. The elevator car was getting closer.
Was that my best option? Should I fight or should I surrender? Let them take me to where Amara was and at least together, I could save her. I would get her out. I’d risk my entire life to give her another night of freedom.
I needed to know who was behind the attack. And why was Enzo missing too? I braced myself for who I was about to meet when the doors began to slide apart.
My eyes opened, waiting for the doors to retract. I blinked, and Amara ran from the carriage. Her feet were bare and bloody.
“Amara?” I breathed.
“Luka,” she whimpered.
I opened my arms as she hurled herself toward me. The phone scattered somewhere on the floor. I couldn’t believe it. I questioned my sanity. How was she here? Was it a hallucination? Another dream about to turn into a nightmare?
“Luka.” Her face was in my neck. Her fingers dug into my back for security. She made a small wounded animal sound before I brought her face forward so I could study her eyes. They were bright green. Wild. Alive.
“Are you okay?” I asked. “Are you hurt?” I scanned her body for bruises. The blood came from her foot alone. Her jacket was missing.
“I’m fine.” Her body shook. “They got Enzo. But I ran. I kept running.”
I rubbed my thumb against her cheek. “How did you get away? Who was it?” I tried to control the questions. She was shaken. “Where are your shoes?”
“I don’t know. I kicked them off somewhere when I was running. They slowed me down.” She shook her head, staring at her bare feet. She was in as much disbelief as I was.
“It’s okay. It’s okay.” I brought her back to my chest. “You’re safe.” I wrapped my arms fully around her body.
I heard Ciro from a few feet away. Shit.
“Hold on,” I explained, reaching over for the phone on the floor.
“Novikov, fucking talk,” he growled.”
“Never mind. I’ve got her. She’s good. Enjoy your health spa.” I hung up and shoved the phone in my pocket before he could probe with more questions.
“Was that Ciro?” she whispered.
“I didn’t know if I was going to need his help,” I explained quickly. “You’re here. I can’t believe it.” I pulled her to me again.
“I’m fine, but Enzo. We have to get him back,” she pleaded. “He’s out there.”
“We will find Enzo, but first let me take a look at your foot.” I led her to a chair, and she sat willingly. I knew as soon as the last ounces of adrenaline faded she would be exhausted.
I knelt in front of her, bringing the heel of her foot in my hand to take a closer look. There was a gash several inches long on the bottom of her foot. I touched her, careful not to add more pain. She sighed when I examined it. It was a jagged and angry gash.
“This needs to be cleaned out,” I told her. “It’s deep, Amara.” I didn’t like the amount of dirt coating her foot.
She nodded, biting her lip. “I stepped on a big chunk of glass. I wasn’t looking.”
“Who would?” I lifted my eyebrows. “Don’t move.” There was a first aid kit bolted to the wall for the construction crew. I grabbed both sides and ripped it from the wall and carried it to Amara.
She watched in bewilderment as I opened it and began to line up what I needed to work on her foot.
“How do you know what to do?” she asked.
I exhaled, breaking the seal on the antiseptic. “I’ve patched up a few Bratva.” That was all the explanation she needed right now.
She gripped the side of the chair. “This is going to hurt,” I warned.
I held her foot in the air while I poured a generous amount of the cleansing liquid over her entire foot. The blood trickled to the floor. Amara winced, turning her head away from me. It was the only way I could try to clean what germs may have already entered the wound.
“Shit,” she whispered when I began to dab at the edges of the cut with a bandage. I needed to add ointment and then wrap it to keep it clean.
“I’m almost done.” I made sure all the blood was gone and that the cut was completely covered with ointment before I began wrapping her foot. I taped the loose edges, to hold the bandage in place.
Our eyes met. I leaned forward, brushing my lips against her ankle. I kissed her gently.
“Dusha moya,” I whispered.
She swallowed.
“Give me the other one,” I commanded.
“But it’s fine.”
“Kotyonok.”
She offered her foot in the air and I gripped her heel. I took my time, wiping the grime from the streets and sidewalks from her skin until it was as clean as the first one.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“I need to get you out of here. Nik will be here any moment. Then we’ll move you somewhere safe while he finds Enzo.”
She nodded. I stood, tall and strong over her. I bent, scooping her into my arms. Her arms wrapped around my neck. I pressed my forehead against hers.
“No one will ever touch you again,” I swore.
She shook her head. “You can’t make that promise.”
“I just did,” I growled.
“Luka, we live in a dangerous world. And once the families know about us…” her words trailed off as my lips crushed hers.
I meant to be soft and tender, but as soon as my mouth grazed hers, I wanted to inhale her. Taste her. Breathe her in. She nipped at my bottom lip, eager and hungry for me. My tongue lashed against hers. The frenzy building. I heard the elevator shaft begin to groan and croak. We needed to get downstairs to meet Nikoli.
“I swear to you, Amara I will find whoever did this.”
I meant to keep my fucking promise this time. She was mine.