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For now, I sit down on the pew, lie back. My feet ache like a motherfucker, and I wince as my whole body screams at me for my lack of caution or care...but I'm alive.
I'm alive, and that's what matters.
Chapter eleven
Gunnar
It's the middle ofa rainy night--a night when I would normally get some amazing fucking sleep--butsomeoneis calling for god knows what reason.
I roll over and find my phone, the light of the screen harsh in the darkness of my room. I squint at the name and find Luka's contact card, answering in a hurry.
Something has to be wrong.
"Yeah?"
"We've got a problem."
"What is it?"
"Your little omega girlfriend from Dreamland," Luka's voice is a low growl, urgent but steady like the man himself. He's got that knack for staying calm when hell's about to break loose. "She's here."
"Where?" My feet find the cold floor, and I'm moving before my brain catches up.
"My place in Celestial Hills. She's not talking. Just...showed up."
"Is she okay?"
"Don't know," he says. "She's been asleep. I didn't want to wake her since I'm not a familiar face, and I don't want her running off."
"Fuck...just stay right there," I say. "I'll be over in a couple minutes."
I grab my keys, leather jacket thrown over broad shoulders as I storm out into the night.
"Did you see her come in?" My voice cuts through the static as I keep Luka on speaker, weaving through the late traffic like a shark cutting through water. "Was she in a car, on foot...?"
"Yeah. Just walked in, sat on a pew, and passed out or something. Won't wake up." Concern laces his tone, rare for Luka--the man who turns down Nero Rossi for whiskey and sees omens in spilled coffee. "She was on foot. Bleeding. She's wrapped up in a blanket now, but she was half-naked, too."
"Keep an eye on her. I'm close."
"Be careful, Gunnar. This feels off," he says. "I doubt the Eclipse let her go, and if they didn't...well, we're now in possession of somebody else's property."
"Don't talk about her that way," I snap without really thinking.
He huffs out a laugh. "Doesn't matter how we talk about her; she's Eclipse goods. And the boss isn't looking for a war. Even if your dad was a solid part of the operation years ago, Mr. Solace won't hesitate to wring your neck for the sake of peace in the city."
"I gotcha," I mutter. "But she's...she's important to me."
"If you say so."
Luka doesn't bother with goodbyes; the line goes dead as I park haphazardly across the street from his place. The church looms before me, its spire a silent sentinel in the Celestial Hills night. Luka leans against the stone wall, a cigarette dangling from his lips, tattoos crawling up his arms like dark vines.
"Couldn't shake her awake," he says, smoke curling around his words. He flicks ash to the ground, his green eyes sharp under the moonlight. The runes tattooed on his knuckles catch the light, droplets of rainwater like glitter.
"Drugged?" I ask, my hand resting on the door handle.
"Or just wrecked. Hard to tell."
"Stay out here. Keep watch."
