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I lean back against the seat and settle her so she’s not leaning on my hurt shoulder or getting my blood all over herself.
“Get the doctor to meet us,” I say to Maxim as I wipe the tears from her face. We’re both a mess and need a good cleaning.
“I already called. He’ll meet us at the safe house,” he says.
“No. Take me home.”
“Nikolai wants you at the safe house for the night. De Luca wasn’t lying about the Raskolnikovs looking for you. Enzo used it to get Stepan to bring you to him, but they’re still out hunting you. You go to the safe house until we get that under control.”
“You’re being hunted?” She pushes off my chest with wide eyes.
“Shhh.” I push her head back down gently, wincing at the pain in my shoulder. “How’d you find me anyway?”
“Her phone,” Maxim explains, looking at us through the rearview. “You may have all the GPS tracking turned off on your cell, but it works just fine on Avery’s. The idiots didn’t turn it off.”
I hug her tight. If they hadn’t been able to find me and get into the warehouse when they did, she could have been hurt while I was taking care of the assholes myself.
“Stepan?” I ask.
“Hurt, not dead,” Maxim responds.
He’s going to wish he was once his questioning begins. He’s going to have to answer for his traitorous actions.
“I want to be there,” I say, and Maxim nods, understanding exactly what I want to take part in.
“Budimir smells bad,” Avery whispers after a moment passes in silence. “He smoked in your house.”
I kiss her forehead. “I’ll have it fumigated.”
“He yelled at me.”
I’ll make it so he’ll never be able to yell again. I don’t say this of course. She’s had enough tonight. She needs to get cleaned up and sleep.
“Maxim.” I reach my hand out and snap my fingers. He reaches into the middle console and hands me what I need.
“She’ll be all right,” he says as he turns onto the highway taking us north out of the city.
“What’s that?” Avery asks, starting to turn toward my hand, but I don’t let her see it. I sink the needle into her ass through her leggings and inject the sedative. “Luka.” My name is a whisper on her breath just before her pretty eyes roll and she falls forward onto my chest.
Asleep.
Luka
“She’s alright?”Maxim asks when I enter the small kitchen of the safe house. It’s a three-bedroom farmhouse set on two acres of forest. Aside from being away from the city and having the trees as some cover, there’s security all along the property and several hidden safe rooms in the house.
“Still asleep.” I drag my hand over my face and sink into one of the kitchen chairs. I roll my shoulders, wincing at the stiffness of my left one.
“You got lucky with that shoulder,” he says.
“That prick can’t shoot for shit, even when he’s trying to hit an unmoving target. As soon as I stepped into the warehouse, he fired. I didn’t even have a chance to see who shot me.” I roll my shoulder again. “That doc dug out the bullet pretty easy.”
“Yeah, it looked easy.” Maxim rolls his eyes.
I grab the beer he offers me and take a long pull. “So, what’s the news from back home?”
“The old men are meeting.” He sits across from me with his own beer. “They’ll make some backroom deal to avoid further bloodshed. Then you’ll be in the clear.”
“I can handle myself. I don’t need to hide.”
