He took the long way around the car, scanning the street as he moved.Old habits but necessary ones.The city was never as empty as it pretended to be and tonight had already proven that.
She sat stiffly in the back seat, one arm wrapped protectively around her ribs, chin high in defiance even as pain tightened the line of her mouth.Streetlight spilled through the window in uneven flashes, illuminating her in fragments.
Luca noticed everything.
The swelling along her cheek.The way her breath hitched when the car rolled over a pothole.The faint tremor in her hands she was trying like hell to control.
She was hurt.
She was furious.
But she was still standing.
That impressed him more than it should.
He opened the rear door and slid in beside her instead.Close enough that she could feel the heat of him, far enough that she still had space.The door shut with the same deliberate calm.
Up front, the engine started immediately, smooth and quiet.
“We’re clear.”Mateo Cruz’s voice carried easily from the wheel—deep, rough, grounded.He rolled the car into traffic like he’d done it a thousand times before.
In the passenger seat, Nikolai “Kol” Petrov didn’t turn around.His eyes stayed locked on the mirrors, posture loose but alert.
“Anyone stupid enough to follow us?”Luca asked.
“None that matter,” Kol replied from the passenger seat.“Yet.”
Luca turned to look at Mara, sitting calmly in the seat beside him, but he could still see the tremor in her hands.
“You did good back there,” he said after a moment.
Mateo glanced at her in the rearview mirror, giving her a quick once-over that missed nothing.“You ran pretty damn good for someone who just got cracked in the ribs.”
Mara stiffened.“I didn’t have a choice.”
Mateo’s mouth tipped up in a humorless half-smile.“Yeah.That’s usually the case.You get smacked around, you don’t wanna hang around with the asshole doing all the punching.”
“Watch your tone,” Luca said.
Mateo shrugged.“Wasn’t an insult.”
She let out a short, humorless laugh.“I got the shit kicked out of me.”
“And you still got away,” Luca replied.“Most people freeze.”
She glanced at him sharply, suspicion flashing in her eyes.“You watch a lot of people get attacked?”
“Enough.”
He felt her studying him now, taking his measure the way he’d taken hers.Not with fear anymore.With calculation.
Good.
The car turned, the city thinning as they moved.
“Office cameras are already wiped,” Kol said quietly.“But someone pulled the feeds before we did.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.“Inside?”
