Chapter 19
19
LUCA
W e spend the afternoon milling around in the casino, ordering food and drinks before being persuaded by Quincy to watch the beginning of a show the hotel is hosting.
“Come on, guys. It’s a tiger. I haven’t seen one since I was a kid and went to the circus.”
The way he pleads with us, we all find ourselves in a large conference room. The lights are dim and people are sitting in chairs, watching the performance that’s already started.
“Is that tiger really named Tony?” Jax asks as he watches the tiger do some tricks on stage. There is a man, nervously sweating, holding a large lit-up ring in his hand.
“Yeah, that’s what the banner says,” Viktor replies.
“Yeah, guess you’re right. It’s kinda funny. Oh fuck. The trainer looks like he’s going to pee his pants,” Jax adds, making Quincy snort.
“He looks ready to faint. ”
“Maybe he should find a new profession,” Jax says.
“Seems like that might be for the best.”
As they continue to comment back and forth, Viktor links his hand with mine as he sits on my lap, blushing when I lean over and whisper in his ear. “How is your ass, kitten?”
Viktor bites his bottom lip, peering at me over his shoulder. “Just right.”
“Mm. You took it so good, though, didn’t you?”
“I always do.”
He’s right. He does. I look forward to many more years exploring his insatiable need for it. For me.
My mind drifts to earlier when we were dropping off our bags in our room. When we set them on the ground, Viktor took the lube from his suitcase and set it on the bed, leaning forward and wiggling his ass.
“You need it already? You couldn’t wait?” I asked him as I unzipped his pants and dragged them down his sexy thighs. The way his ass looked in those panties…
They’re sitting in my pocket right now. Torn to shreds. Might have even done it with my teeth.
“It’s been four hours. I’ve basically been deprived,” he replied with a wicked grin.
“We wouldn’t want you deprived, kitten.” So I spread those flushed cheeks and put him out of his misery.
I fucked that tight, wet hole without inhibition, without thought. The only thing running through my mind was how good he felt, how sexy he sounded. Our skin slapped loudly as I railed into him, our groans spilled around us, through the floor, walls, and right out the window. For all of Vegas to hear. It was electric, my entire body thrummed when I came. Viktor wasn’t far behind me, releasing on a muffled shout, his teeth sinking into the flesh of his forearm. The way his hole clenched around my cock made my vision white out.
Heaven.
Fucking bliss .
“You’re still dripping out of me, by the way,” he says, and I growl as I nip at his jaw.
“I’ll fill you up again, baby,” I reply, and he purrs as I adjust him on my lap. The show has progressed, the tiger doing tricks before us, its large paws carrying him stealthily across the stage, its head swiveling as if assessing the crowd.
“It looks pissed, like it’s going to eat us,” Jax says, and Quincy nods.
“Looks like it’s hungry.”
“Probably needs a snack,” Jax says with a shiver. “Think we’re safe back here? I think tigers can jump really far. Or is that cheetahs?”
“No clue,” Quincy says and then laughs. “But that tiger looks far too intelligent to be around people. It looks calculating. Like a serial killer.”
Just as he says it, the tiger lifts its lips in an almost smirk before lunging forward and letting out a roar.
Everyone jumps back slightly, eyes wide, screams filling the air. When they realize he’s not going to eat them, nervous chuckles filter around the space.
“Fuck, that’s creepy,” Jax says a little too loudly, and the tiger seems to hear it. Its eyes narrow as it glances around the crowd, looking for who said that.
“I think you’ve offended it,” I say lowly, a laugh tightening my chest. “Perhaps we should leave before you do more damage.”
Viktor nods in agreement and is the first to stand up, his ass flexing as he moves. I can’t help but reach out and touch it.
“It’s probably time to go, anyway. It’s getting dark and it will take about forty-five minutes to get to the coordinates,” Viktor says, leaning into me.
“You’re the boss.”
“Am I?”
“The boss of the bedroom,” Jax says with a snort, and I glower at him, making him shrink back. “Just kidding. I don’t know what you guys do in the bedroom, and I don’t want to know…” He shifts nervously on his feet, and I move my gaze from him.
“Alright, kitten. Lead the way.”
I pull out a cigarette and he lights it. A well-oiled machine. My lungs inhale the bitter smoke and I see Vik grin at me as his fingers link with mine.
“You ready?” I ask, a question meant only for him, and he nods.
“We have what we need to take him down. We’ll finish this. Tonight.”
“Good. Let’s show this fucker who’s boss.”
The drive into the desert as the sun sets is eerie. Shadows from the surrounding mountains cast a dusky glow on the barren stretch before us. Everyone is packed into an SUV, each of the men silently loading their guns and making sure everything is in order just in case the world goes to shit. And knowing Henry, it’s quite possible. Seems he’s smarter than we realized. And he’s proven to be more formidable than I ever gave him credit for.
“Shame we couldn’t go to see Red Rock Canyon,” Viktor says. “I heard it’s a great place to spend an afternoon.”
“If we make it out of here, we can go see it.”
He peers over at me. “Promise?”
“I promise, kitten. Everything will be fine.”
I don’t know that, but I say it anyway. I need to reassure myself and my men. And more importantly, I need Viktor to know that everything will be all right. That we’ll come out of this stronger. Better.
The two of us. Together.
“And when we’re done, when we get back from Vegas, we’ll make plans to go visit my aunt and uncle.”
He peers over at me. “You that serious about me? ”
“Yeah, he is,” Jax interjects and then murmurs his apologies. “Just, you know, it’s fucking obvious .”
I peer back at him, and he leans back, turning his gaze to the GPS.
“Jax is right. I am serious. I want you to meet my family. What’s left of it.”
He flushes and nods. “Yeah, okay. I’d love that.”
I pull his hand up and kiss it gently.
“Right up here,” Jax interrupts, leaning forward from the back middle seat. “Or at least, I think so. This is what the phone says.”
“It’s probably right,” Viktor replies as he turns off onto a bumpy dirt road and slows down slightly as dust billows up around us.
“Looks like it’s about a mile down here. Fuck, this is shitty,” Jax adds. “What a creep. Worse than the tiger.”
“Way worse,” Quincy adds. Rafe, on the other hand, is quiet, his eyes scanning the horizon. It’s getting darker with each passing minute and soon the sun will be completely behind the mountains, making this place completely dark.
Cavernous. Deathly.
My breath hitches slightly, and Viktor peers over at me, concern in his gaze.
It’s nothing. It’s all in my head. I said everything would be fine. I promised.
“Park here,” I bite out, far too harshly, but needing to center myself. “We’ll walk up. I don’t want him to see us coming.”
“If he’s even there. He’s slipperier than a damn eel. And I know. I’ve tried catching one,” Jax murmurs.
Viktor parks and turns the car off, all of us sitting in silence for a solid minute. And then we exit, our eyes moving around us, taking everything in. It’s nothing but miles of flat land before us, full of sand and dry desert shrubs.
As we get closer and closer to our destination, my adrenaline starts spiking. In the distance is a rickety shack and an old, worn RV parked next to it. If we didn’t have a little light left and those specific coordinates, we’d have missed this completely. There is nothing that would indicate this was out here, and with the darkness the desert affords, we’d have never found it.
“Careful. It could be some kind of lab. Do not enter if at all possible,” I hiss. Everyone nods, and I make sure my gaze catches Viktor’s. “You, too. You stay next to me.”
He doesn’t respond, just narrows his gaze, looking forward once more. His gun is in his hand, shoulders tight with tension. The only sounds around us are our footsteps and the occasional ragged breath.
When we approach the shack and RV, we stop abruptly, eyeing the perimeter, searching for movement, for the sound of someone, but we see and hear nothing.
It’s silent, eerily so.
As if this is just a ghost of a place.
This is never fucking good , I think as I take a step forward, all of us fanning out, including Viktor, who ignores my command for him to stay near me.
Fucking hell , I think as I turn toward him, following him as he moves toward the RV. He rolls his eyes when he sees me trailing behind him, but I refuse to let him out of my sight.
I won’t fucking lose him.
Not today.
I promised.
He moves to the side of the RV, peering through the sun-battered window, and then slides toward the door. He puts his back against the side, reaches out, and tugs the door open, taking a deep breath and peering inside.
“Do not go in there,” I hiss, but he ignores me and does what he’s told not to. But then again, this is his job. This is what he’s good at. With swift and agile movements, he steps inside, my agitation at an all-time high. My stomach is churning, my vision clouding as I follow behind him. But after a few seconds, when nothing bad happens, I realize that perhaps I’m being a little too overprotective.
I stand in that empty RV and realize I’m panicking for nothing .
It’s just that I’ve finally found something…someone. Someone who makes me happy, who I crave, who I want to spend decades exploring. I don’t want to lose him.
Not yet.
Viktor, oblivious to the way my mind is reeling, steps past me, looking smug, as I grumble that he needs to listen to me.
“I’m fine, Luca. This is my job. Let me do it.”
I stop him with a fist to the collar of his shirt and pull him toward me. My lips descend on his and I kiss him thoroughly.
He needs to know.
He needs to fucking know.
Our lips part, and he stares into my eyes. “I know, baby.”
It’s a whisper, an understanding, and then the sound of an explosion rocks the shell of the RV, the cabinets flying open, plates tumbling out and onto the counters.
My heart rate spikes as Viktor pushes past me and out the door, gun drawn, his long legs carrying him away. I follow and come to an abrupt stop when I see the flames bursting from the top of the shack, the rickety roof looking like some kind of bonfire.
“What the fuck! What happened?” Viktor shouts, and Rafe and Quincy approach, gasping, their faces bleeding, soot lining their skin and clothes.
“We—Jax said he saw someone!”
“Where the fuck is he?” Viktor shouts.
“He’s inside. I told him not to go!” Quincy shouts, and before I can stop him, before I can keep him against me, keep him safe, Viktor bolts forward, straight toward the entrance. And with a single blink, he disappears.
Into the flames, into the fire.
He’s gone.
Swallowed up, the flames licking across the entrance he just ran through.
I stare at it, that dark, hellish space. The black smoke billows out, choking me. I claw at my shirt, the heat oppressive, peeling my skin from my bones. Everything collides at that moment. The past and present. I can’t breathe, can’t think. He’s gone. Everything’s gone.
He’s not coming back.
He’s gone.
My knees hit the gravel and pain pulses up my limbs. My hands are numb, my face too, and my throat is closing. I can feel them. The spiders, crawling across my skin, biting me, eating me alive. Someone is touching my back, shouting at me, but I can’t even inhale enough to respond. I can’t think, my mind is gone. I’m just that little boy again. Stuck in that cabinet, trying not to die.
Suddenly, the roof collapses, the sound loud enough to drag my swollen eyes up to that burning door. As I stare at it, gulping down painful breaths, I see Jax stumble through, coughing loudly.
But not Viktor.
He’s not here.
He’s gone.
Jax wheezes and falls to the ground, his head bowed, some of his hair singed.
Rafe and Quincy move toward him, all talking at once, and I try like hell to say something, to fight the panic bubbling inside of me. Because I need to get to him. I need to go in there and find him.
“Where is Viktor?” I hear someone scream, someone that is most likely me, and Jax rasps, “I dunno. I didn’t see him. That place was…oh fuck, it was a maze of small rooms and junk everywhere.”
Oh god. He’s going to die. He’s going to burn alive, just like them.
Don’t leave me! Come back!
I gasp, my lungs contracting.
I inhale the flames. They’re scorching. No one survives that.
No one can, not even Vik. My Vik…
My mind reels, and suddenly I’m back in that small crawlspace, listening as my mom screams for her life, the scent of gasoline overpowering as the men sneer. The gunshots, the scent of blood mixing with all of it.
I peer through the small wooden slats and I see my mom reaching for me, blood pooling at the corner of her mouth. Her lips move, and I see what she says.
“Get him, Luca. Go get him.”
I snap out of it, gasping and clawing at my hair, tears sliding down my cheeks as I push myself up on shaking legs and stumble forward. I feel hands grab at me, but I don’t stop. I need to get him. I need to find him.
“Get him, Luca. Go get him.”
My mom’s voice is clear, as if I never forgot it.
I will. I’ll get him.
As I draw closer and closer to the flames, my gaze widens, my eyes blurry, stinging.
I won’t let him die. I’ll fight.
This time, I’m going to fight.
I step forward, the fire licking at my skin, searing my clothes, setting me ablaze, but I don’t stop.
I keep going. I have to keep going.
I won’t stop. I won’t hide.
My feet carry me forward, my heartbeat thumping loudly in my ears. The oppressive smoke makes it hard to see, and I pull my shirt over my mouth and nose as I move through the crumbling building. It’s bigger than it looked from the outside, an entire addition on the back. Jax was right. It’s almost like a maze.
“Viktor!” I shout, my voice breaking. “Vik!”
But I hear nothing, just the crackling of embers, the rush of the flames, the sound of my frantic heartbeat.
“Vik!” I plead as I try desperately to catch sight of him, his elusive ghost.
Just one more glance. One more touch.
I just want to hold him in my arms once more.
I want to spend years learning the intricacies of him. I want to memorize the entirety of him.
As I continue to move around the confusing space, I stumble over a fallen beam, catching myself on something already aflame, my hands burning, but I don’t feel it. I feel nothing, just resolution, resolve.
I have to get to him.
I turn a corner and run into something, a long table that’s not on fire yet. There are large glass containers, plastic bins, and burners. Something used to make the drugs. When the fire hits that, everything will explode again.
Fuck, I need to find him before that happens. I spin in a circle and rush into the next room, not finding him there either, just the peeling wallpaper of the olden days being devoured by the flames.
My heart rate ratchets up, and I wheeze behind the shirt over my nose and mouth, trying to quell the panic. I can lose it later.
Right now, I need to locate Viktor.
What if Henry took him? What if Viktor isn’t even here?
His face appears in my mind, his lips turned up in a smile, and I feel a flutter in my chest as I trip over something on the ground. I look down at the object and that’s when I see him.
His body is prone below me, flames moving toward him from the side, trying to consume him.
Fuck!
I kneel with a sob, scooping him up into my arms and holding him to my chest. I could die like this , I think as I stare at his handsome face. He’s bleeding from a gash in his forehead, his eyes closed, not moving. But he’s alive. I can feel the thrum of his pulse under my finger. So with a strength I didn’t know I possessed, I pull him up off the floor, situate him over my shoulder, and stumble through the back door.
Just as we exit, the entire building begins to collapse, flames shooting out and hitting my back. The second explosion rocks me forward. But I don’t feel any of it. I feel nothing but relief that I found him.
I have him.
Oh god, I found him .
Hands are on me immediately, putting out the flames moving across my clothes, but I don’t care.
I just need Viktor to wake up.
Wake up. Wake up.
I lay him on the ground and hover over him, cradling his cheeks as he slumps in my arms. He’s breathing, but fuck, he’s not conscious.
I peer up at Jax, Quincy, and Rafe, all of them standing guard, all of them looking wrecked.
“Where is he? Henry,” I rasp, and they shake their heads.
“I don’t know. I thought he was in there. But he wasn’t. Fuck!” Jax curses and then coughs loudly, his lungs trying to take in air. We all probably have some kind of smoke inhalation. “But this is where he was making Pink…shit.”
“I saw that. Goddammit,” I growl and then push up onto my feet. “We need to leave. We need to get him to the hospital.”
I move to pick Viktor up again, but my body screams at me. The adrenaline is still pulsing through me, the panic numbing the pain, but still, I feel some of it. A buried throb, an internal ache.
“You’re burned. Let me,” Rafe interjects, but I stop him with a blunt command.
“No one touches him but me.”
Rafe nods, taking a step back, and I grunt, my arms trembling as I pull Viktor into them. His head lolls back, and I jostle him slightly, my arms under his back and knees as I take a step forward. And then another. Everything is burning, everything filtering in and out between reality and a dream.
My mom. My brothers.
My dad.
Flames. Fire.
When we finally make it to the car and Rafe drives us down that dirt road, we’re jostled by every bump and everything starts to hurt—searing, blinding pain. I grit my teeth, my jaw popping as I fist my blistered hands. My vision blurs, flickers of light making me blink wildly.
I know I’m injured. My legs, my lower back, my forearms—all attacked by the flames. But deep down, I don’t care because Viktor is breathing beside me, still passed out from the apparent knock he took to the head, but alive.
My swollen fingers trail across his bruised cheek, and I swallow the pain.
It was worth it.
All of it was worth it.