16. Lucia
16
LUCIA
M y eyes widen when Luka pulls up to an iron gate as tall as a house, spikes on the ends of the bars, two men with guns peering down at us from a tower at its entrance. They move a spotlight to the car and shine it in through the windshield, its heavy beam so blinding I have to cover my eyes.
Luka rolls down his window, and without a word from him, they let us through.
I rub my eyelids as Luka coasts down a driveway. When I lower my hands, I spot more men with guns walking the property. A mansion as impressive as my father’s is at the end of this driveway, but Luka takes another path and drives us to a small lot of cars around the side of the building where he parks.
“What is this place?” I whisper, turning in the seat to peer at the mansion. My stomach knots as I note the eerie similarities to my home. The guards, the fence, the beautiful house. Is this a sanctuary or a cage?
“Welcome to the Petrov Mansion,” Luka says, shutting off the car. “Otherwise known as Bratva headquarters.”
“Bratva?” I ask, my throat thickening.
“Russian mob.”
I look around again and shake my head, fear tickling the back of my neck. “I know what the Bratva is. Why the hell would you bring me here?”
Luka snickers before opening his door. He comes around to help me out, but I’m not sure I want to let him. I’m also not sure what choice I have.
Luka is a mobster?
He takes my hand and drags me from the car before leading me to the mansion while I dart my eyes around at the men. They watch us as we pass, and a couple say things to Luka in Russian, but no one stops us.
Is he high ranked?
The closer we get, the more curious I am. A soldado wouldn’t stand a chance walking into my father’s estate with such confidence as Luka is doing right now. But then again, it isn’t headquarters either.
“Are you sure your bosses will be okay with you keeping me here?” I whisper as we approach the door.
Luka looks back at me with a smirk. “Definitely not.”
My lips part with a gasp, and I take his hand to try to stop him from opening the door, but he evades me.
“Luka!” I angry whisper, grasping his shirt to hold him back. “Wait!”
He chuckles before prying my hands from his shirt and walking inside, leaving me standing at the entrance with a guard hovering a few feet away. When I peak behind me, the man is watching me with his brows knitted, his lips puckered slightly with the first sign of a smile. I turn and hurry inside, clicking the door shut behind me.
My head whips searching for Luka in the lit foyer, but he’s nowhere to be found.
“Luka?” I call, panic taking hold. I wrap my arms around myself and tiptoe forward. “This isn’t funny!”
A horrifying thought stops my steps along with my breathing.
What if he never planned on helping me? What if this is some sick, sick joke? What if I just walked into the trap of a different crime organization?
I suck in a breath and hurry forward, my heart beating fast, my breathing erratic. When I move past the foyer, finding two sets of stairs on either side of me, a hand reaches out and grabs my arm.
I let out a shriek but am quickly silenced as my back slams into the wall and a palm presses over my mouth. Luka’s body flattens against mine, his low laugh making him shake. He puts his mouth to my ear. “Got you.”
When he removes his hand from my mouth, he’s still smiling victoriously while I can barely breathe.
“Relax, Peach.” He laughs. “It was a joke. You’re safe.”
I blink at him, wondering if I’ve ever met a person so comfortable in their cruelty. “I hate you.”
His smile widens, and he taps me on the nose before taking my hand and pulling me up the stairs. “Come on, quit messing around,” he tells me. “You smell. Let’s get you upstairs before someone thinks I’m banging a hobo.”
“Luka?”
I tense at the woman’s voice carrying down the opposite staircase, and although I’m certain Luka heard her by the brief pause of his movements, he carries on like he didn’t. In fact, his steps quicken.
“Stop,” the woman calls, now hurrying up the staircase after us. When we’ve reached the top, Luka pauses, his back tensing as he sighs. He turns just as the woman approaches and gives her a tight smile.
“Hey, sis.”
“What’s going on?” she asks, pushing short brown hair behind her ears. She pulls her robe tight and crosses her arms over her chest as she stares at Luka expectantly, tossing me a concerned look when he doesn’t answer right away. The wrinkles around her eyes deepen with worry when she locks onto my bruised neck.
He gestures to me. “This is the girl Leo told you about.”
The woman looks between us, her eyes wide. Even if he hadn’t called her sis , I would’ve spotted the similarities in their features. They have the same nose, the same heart shaped face, hair the same color.
I turn to watch Luka as his sister does, waiting for an explanation. Leo told her about me?
But instead of giving it to her, he turns to me and points down the hall. “Every empty room has a ribbon on the doorknob. Pick one. I’ll be there in a minute.”
Luka
As soon as the door to Lucia’s chosen room shuts, Mila starts grilling me.
“What the fuck are you doing?” she growls with a self-righteous glare pinned to me.
I suppress the urge to roll my eyes and instead run my hand through my hair like I’m distressed. “Honestly, I don’t know.”
“What did you do to her neck ? What is wrong with you?”
She’s always asking this, isn’t she?
“That wasn’t me.” Rubbing at my jaw, I sigh. “Look, I’m storing her at your place, so obviously I have to tell you. But please promise me you aren’t going to freak out.”
She barks out a laugh. “You really are insane. You are not keeping a kidnapped girl here. How could you even?—”
“Her boyfriend killed Piper.”
Mila’s contempt sobers, her mouth closing. “ What ?”
I nod. “Yeah. Leo suspects it but doesn’t know for certain yet. I got it out of that girl.” I nod toward the room Lucia entered. “Her boyfriend wasn’t really her boyfriend. He was more like her captor. She’s a cartel princess, and he’s, I guess, a soldier from a rival cartel who was transporting her.”
Mila’s hand moves to her heart as her eyes widen to saucers, but I continue before she can interrupt.
“The cartel thug killed Piper when he found them together, and the girl, Lucia, managed to get away. But one of Leo’s junkie friends tipped him off on her being in one of the tunnels, and Leo took her. The bruises around her neck are from him.”
“Jesus,” Mila says, her eyes moving to stare off. No apology. Great.
“When he told me what happened, I insisted on taking the girl myself. I told him I’d get rid of her, which…” I slide my hand over my face, then show her my palm. “Maybe we should? I mean fuck, she’s a cartel princess . If her father ever found out what Leo did…”
“We wouldn’t be able to protect him,” Mila says grimly. She covers her face with her hands. “Oh my God, Leo .”
“I know…”
Mila lowers her hands and turns toward the door, staring already with remorse. She hates killing the innocent—especially women. Mila is tough, but she isn’t totally hardened. That’s why I chose to go this direction with her.
“The thing too, though, is she went with the cartel thug willingly. She thought she was in love and running away from home with him, and she insists that she never wants to go back. I guess she was mostly a prisoner there as well. She said she only left her compound for the first time a few days ago.”
Mila frowns but doesn’t say anything.
“So she’s caught between hiding from her father and hiding from this other cartel, and I just…” I shake my head. “I don’t know, Mi. Would it be crazy to let her hide out here for a week or two, just until we can make a more informed decision? When I was talking to the kid, it sounded like she’d never caught a break in her life. It just kind of … reminded me of you.”
Mila’s frown relaxes at my words, her eyes brightening like for the first time in her life, someone has seen her. She looks away, as if sensing her vulnerability showing. If she knew how easy she was to play, she’d hate herself.
“I don’t know how Vitaly would feel about it,” she says, her voice sympathetic.
“Then let’s not tell him.”
She turns back to me with her eyes narrowed.
“Just a week or two,” I say, holding my hands up. “If you still want me to kill her then, I’ll take her out to the desert without protest. You’re the boss. Just, please , for once, let’s at least think about doing the right thing instead of the smart thing. Vitaly wouldn’t understand that there’s a difference.”
“You don’t even know him,” she says, her arms crossing defensively. “You’ve never even tried to. Don’t tell me what my husband will or will not understand.”
Now, I can’t help but roll my eyes. “Fine,” I say through gritted teeth. “Tell him. Like I said, you’re the boss.”
When I go to step around her, she puts her hand on my chest to stop me. I stare down at her, my annoyance flared, although it doesn’t make much of a difference what Mila does. I’m not actually going to kill Lucia. I feel good about the deal she and I made. But it would work out best for me if she could stay here, so whatever Mila needs to hear is what I’ll say.
“You’re my brother.” Her neck arches to peer at me. She gestures over her shoulder to where Lucia went. “This is your decision, and like I told you before, you are always welcome here. If you say the girl being here is no danger to us, then I will believe you and I’ll say nothing. I’ll just … tell Vitaly she’s your girlfriend, and you’re both staying here for the next week or two because your apartment flooded. If that’s what you want.”
The muscles in my back unwind as I nod. I relax on an exhale. “ Yes . Thank you.”
Mila opens her mouth to say more, but then closes it and gives me a tight smile and nod. When she removes her hand from my chest, I start down the hall but pause again when she calls my name.
I turn to look at her over my shoulder, getting a look at the vulnerability she works so hard to hide.
“I’m proud of you.”