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Maybe there was some hope for her, after all.
CHAPTER11
LUKA
The sleek sedanshimmered under neon lights as it cruised across Las Vegas. It was a Friday night in the middle of May, and the city was restless with excitement. The weather was finally reaching that stereotypical dry desert warmth that everyone looked forward to so much. Luka’s hands rested on the steering wheel and a faint smile lingered on his lips. The traffic flooded the street with a green glow, and Luka’s car purred forward through the intersection. He followed a path that was so instinctive, he didn’t have to pay attention at all. He felt like he could find the Shining Star Casino with his eyes closed and his hands tied. He didn’t need the bumping music, flashing signs, or crowds of people with deep pockets to tell him where to go. He thought his heart might lead him there, purely driven by the magnetic attraction he felt for Kira. Wherever she was, that was where Luka wanted to be.
Especially after the long, grueling week he had experienced. Ever since he was forced to leave the casino on Saturday night and head to his overnight training session, his schedule had been a jam-packed, nonstop smorgasbord of action. He had spent nearly two straight days working with his new prospective security team members. It was his job to put them through the wringer, test their abilities, and see how far he could push without breaking them. In order to best command his inferiors, Luka needed to be the best of the best… by far. That meant that if his soldiers were staying awake for twenty-four hours, he needed to be able to stay up for twice that long. Easily. Without yawning.
Luckily, his own father had given him a leg-up by training him ever since he was a child. Luka was no stranger to sleep deprivation. When he needed to stay awake, he could control himself entirely without losing his edge. And when it was finally time to catch some much-needed shut-eye, Luka could just as quickly turn off and knock out. He could sleep anywhere, anyhow: sitting, standing up, with or without a soft surface or blanket. He could drop into a deep sleep in seconds, and no matter how exhausted he was, he could always wake up on a dime.
Luka had to be better than other human beings. He had to run like a well-oiled machine, like a robot designed for destruction. It wasn’t until after days of training the security hopefuls that he finally crawled into bed for some sleep. He fell into a deep slumber for several hours in the middle of the day on Monday, only to wake up for another mission at midnight. Throughout the week, he performed his usual check-ins with local owners and managers of Sokolov-owned properties. He would go in, check their numbers, glean pertinent information, and quell any stirrings of drama that came up. Sometimes, being an enforcer was almost equally about the threat as it was the punishment. He didn’t always have to immediately resort to snapping wrists and busting kneecaps. Sometimes a little well-placed intimidation did the trick.
But not all of his missions were tinged with darkness. On Thursday, Luka had been assigned to a very different endeavor: he was to accompany the Pakhan’s wife and children to a doctor’s appointment. Normally, Mikhail made a point to attend these appointments alongside Annika, but this particular day, Mikhail had been called away on business in the northern part of the state. On top of the regular security detail who shadowed Annika and the twins every time they stepped out of the estate, Luka was there for extra safety. Mikhail trusted him above all others to get his wife and babies to the appointment and back in one piece. Luka was all too happy to take on the unusual request. He liked spending time with the Pakhan’s wife; Annika was surprisingly upbeat and relaxed for a naive young woman who had very abruptly risen to an exalted position in the Sokolov crime family. Rather than becoming more intense, she had mellowed out since the birth of their twins.
Luka even enjoyed sitting in the waiting room with them. He played peekaboo with the twins, listening to their peals of delighted laughter. The doctor was another professional on Sokolov payroll, and he was accustomed to Annika showing up with a small entourage of security guys. He didn’t bat an eye at Luka’s presence. He performed the routine checkup procedures for the babies, then gave Annika a quick exam, too. Luka was happy to hear that everything looked great. The twins were doing so well, growing like a couple of weeds in the garden. Annika had healed remarkably after their birth, and she had taken to motherhood like a true natural from the very start.
All in all, it was an extremely pleasant outing. They successfully made it to the appointment and back without issue. Luka’s mood felt lighter than air after completing the mission. It was almost jarring to go back to a bloody interrogation that evening. But even as he tortured the target in a dark warehouse, his head was filled with much softer thoughts. Seeing Annika and the babies reminded him of his own mother. No matter how grim his father’s training had become, Luka had always known he could return to the warm, enveloping arms of his mother to comfort him. She had always shown him such gentleness and care, reminding him what they were fighting to protect. Luka’s father had shown him how to slit a man’s throat, and his mother had taught him how to come back from that bloody edge. She was a balm to his suffering.
Now that both his parents were gone, Luka had to be his own comfort. He was a grown man, after all. He could handle anything. He didn’t need his mother like he used to. But seeing Annika interact with her babies had put him in a different state of mind. All week, he’d been trying not to think about Kira. She was a distraction from the work at hand. But now, at the end of the week, he finally had a free moment to himself, and he was desperate to see Kira.
He wondered how she was doing after everything that had gone down at the casino on Saturday night. In all their flirtations, Luka had never pushed for her phone number. He’d never needed it; he knew exactly where to find her and what days she worked. But now that he hadn’t been able to stop by the casino all week, he found himself constantly wondering what she was doing. He hated the way he’d left things that night. It had never been his plan to reveal his deepest, darkest secret and then simply disappear into the night with no further explanation. He had merely run out of time. It still made him wince a little to picture Kira’s shocked expression, the tears shimmering in her blue eyes before she’d turned and run away to the bathroom.
She had seemed so overwhelmed at his revelation. He’d known it would be a surprise, but her reaction had been more intense than he’d expected. But he reminded himself that she’d been through a difficult shift that night. He assumed most of her emotional distress had to do with the drunk, handsy guys who had been bothering her. She’d mentioned needing the job badly before, and perhaps it was scary for her to have that job threatened.
Surely, she would be there, as always. One thing Luka knew for sure: he was dying to see her on this Friday night.
Luka parked and walked down the street, turning heads as he went. He coolly ignored every woman who gawked at him. He strolled past the line of people waiting to get in at the entrance, and the door guy let him in without a word. Luka’s heart beat a little faster as he scanned the main casino floor for Kira. He looked for her gorgeous red hair and blue eyes, her lithe, graceful body in her sexy uniform. He didn’t see her, but he did see a slightly familiar young man leaning against the bar counter, causing a ruckus for the girl at the serving station.
It was Lily, not Kira, but either way, Luka was not about to let a customer talk down to any woman working at the casino. He approached slowly, keeping to the wall as he squinted at his target. The man was red in the face and worked up, baring his muscular arms and using his large body to physically intimidate the waitress. Lily was standing her ground the best she could.
“Where is the other girl?” the man demanded to know.
Lily was glaring at the man while furiously scrubbing a highball glass with a damp rag.
“Which one? There are a lot of women who work here, obviously,” she answered.
“Don’t be stupid. You know which one: the hot redhead,” the man elaborated.
“Hmm. I don’t think I know who you’re talking about,” she replied.
The man slammed his fist down on the bar counter, making Lily jump. “Stop playing games with me, skank.”
Lily set down the clean glass with a loudclinkand put her hands on her hips. “If you’re going to be rude, you might as well just turn around and leave now,” she warned him.
Luka admired Lily’s tenacity. He assumed Kira had to be in the back or on another floor somewhere to hide while Lily tried to dispose of this hanger-on.
“Oh no, I’m not going anywhere until you bring me the redhead. My boss sent me here specifically to chat with her,” the guy went on.
“Uh-huh. I know. You and your little pals have been here all week, bothering me,” snapped Lily. “Well, there’s no point, okay? She’s gone.”
Luka frowned. Lily was really playing up the ruse. The guy didn’t believe it, though.
“I’m only going to ask you one more time—get that fucking waitress over here,” he snarled at her.
“Are you listening to me? Read my lips, dude. She. Is. Not. Here,” Lily enunciated.
The man made a furious grab for her throat. Lily ducked back and swatted at him with the dishrag, looking more alarmed than before. Luka decided that was his cue.
