NINE

 

 

As they left the house, Dale put Lukas’s conversation with his father out of her mind. She couldn’t think any more about what she’d heard in his voice. The understanding. The love, edged with such pain when he’d talked about his mother. Hearing him and being drawn into feeling what he’d been feeling had made her wonder if she’d imagined him smashing Nero’s head onto that glass. How could that have been this tender, emotional man?

“Is the hospital far?” she asked as they traveled that high-walled path again, heading toward what she could only assume was the front of the property. “Do you drive yourself or…”

Her question dried up because they’d reached the end of the path. There was no courtyard or circular drive with a selection of luxury vehicles. But there was a helipad with a frickin’ chopper sitting in wait.

She planted her feet that were now in heeled sandals to match the mauve summer dress Lukas had requested she wear. She’d have said yes to the lovely off-the-shoulder creation even without his comment about how beautiful the color would look with her eyes.

“Dale? What is it?” He squeezed her hand.

She decided then that she liked hearing both forms of her name from him. “Uh, I’ve never been in a helicopter before, Lukas.” She spoke quietly because three men she’d seen at Scorch were approaching.

“I’ve got you,” he assured her. “You’ll be fine.” He then addressed the men who all looked remarkably alike with their light eyes and sandy hair that was cut at varying lengths. They were all over six-feet and looked more than capable of killing with the same ease Lukas had. He introduced her, and they took a moment to shake hands and say hello. All of them had identical bulges under their suits to match the one that was once again visible under their boss’s.

“Are we ready?” Lukas asked Adam whose eyebrows seemed to be pulled down in the center to create a permanent frown on his heavy forehead. He nodded and walked on ahead with Milan. They lithely hopped into the front of the sleek black aircraft with the tinted windows. Yasha fell in behind her and Lukas and shadowed them as they went around to climb into the back.

As Dale inhaled the scent of leather while easing into one of four surprisingly roomy seats, with Lukas sitting next to her and Yasha across from them, she didn’t feel as if she was about to fly. It felt like they were in a fancy car. She kept that to herself, though, because she didn’t want to embarrass anyone by oohing and aahing over what money could buy. If she had her phone, she’d have snapped a picture and sent it to Erika.

“Lukas?”

He turned from strapping himself in and caused her pulse to kick just by meeting her eyes. “Yes?”

“Uh, would you mind texting Farah for me? I was hoping she might go to my locker and grab my purse before she leaves the club. I feel naked without my phone.”

His gaze flicked over her as he went into his pocket. “Use mine.” He held the device out to her.

Terrified of what could be found on that camera roll, not to mention his contact list, she shook her head and barely refrained from raising her hands, pinkies up. “I don’t need it right now. I…” she looked around, avoiding Yasha’s curious stare, “just wanted to take a picture, actually.” What the hell. She was just being honest. “As I said, I’ve never been in a helicopter, and my friend, Erika, would get a kick out of this.” She proved her claim as a novice when she nearly vaulted into Lukas’s lap when the engine started.

He put his phone away and grinned the entire time he fitted an aviation headset over her ears. He put one on, too, and melted her panties when he spoke.

“It can get loud your first time, and I don’t want you arriving at the hospital with a headache.”

His voice was hot-fudge-sundae delicious as it burrowed directly into her ears. Like that was what she was supposed to be focusing on at the moment. “Hm. God forbid I should have a slight headache when meeting a mafia Don who just denied entry to a bullet with his titanium cranium,” she muttered. What the fuck was she doing here? And what the fuck was going to happen to her after she was introduced to Lukas’s powerful father? What if the man assumed their relationship was serious? How would they get around that? She turned in her seat. “What should I expect to happen during this meeting?”

His relaxed chuckle made the hair on her arms rise. “My father is a Bratva leader, Magdalena, and if there is one man in this world you should not fear, aside from me, it is him. Like Farah, you will have him wrapped around your little finger in no time. Oh, and a Don is the title once used by the Italians. Many have done away with it and prefer to use Boss because that says it all, doesn’t it?”

Mafia Culture 101. Great. “I don’t need a lesson in mob terms. I need to know what’s going to happen after I meet your dad. Honestly. What’s the point in this, and how will you explain it when he gets out of the hospital and I’m nowhere to be found?”

“We’ll discuss it later.”

“When later? What will we do after we leave the hospital?” Would she spend the night with him? A couple of nights? She had a class to teach tomorrow afternoon, and she had to be at Scorch by seven tomorrow evening.

He glanced at their guards. “Since the boys can hear our conversation, I’ll refrain from answering that, but I’ll let you know once we get back on the ground.”

That was when they lifted off. She grabbed Lukas’s leg and glanced across to see a grin on Yasha’s profile. Guy looked like he could be a movie star with his thick neck and square jaw. His hair was just long enough to flop boyishly over his forehead. She couldn’t see the other two goons, but she was sure they were also laughing at her. And didn’t that make her feel good.

She slowly brought her narrowing gaze back to Lukas. “Let’s just hope you don’t have the same issue later that you had an hour ago. Otherwise, we’re going to have one long, boring night.” She stuck out her tongue and would have given him her back while ignoring the deep laughter that filled her ears from four different mics had she not looked beyond her grinning mobster to see the area they’d just left.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. From up here, she could see everything surrounding the mansion she’d only seen but a portion of. There were lights everywhere. Was that a hangar? Were those stables? And was that a horse track way over there?

Lukas squeezing her wrist brought her attention back into the helicopter. “I think you’ve cut through the material.” He unstuck her nails from his thigh and brought her hand up to look at it in the dim lighting. “Does Farah insist on these for work?”

Dale had coffin-shaped acrylics that she usually kept painted black but for her ring fingers, which she did with a silver glitter. “No. I like them. They make my fingers not so Shrek-like.” Her fingers were actually long and thin, but she felt self-conscious with him staring at her hand. She looked outside again, but all she could see now were tiny headlights from the cars on a miniature freeway.

“Your fingers are as beautiful as the rest of you.”

“FYI: compliments make me want to crawl into a hole, so feel free to keep them to a minimum for the duration of our acquaintance.”

He pinched the tip of her ring finger. “You have a smart mouth, Ms. Vaner.”

She studied him for an extended minute, trying to see around the absurd contentment that continued to ooze from him. He stared back at her, allowing it. “Can I ask you something you might not want to answer with your posse listening?”

“My boys are used to hearing things they have no interest in when it comes to me, so, feel free.”

Oh? Like what? Him having sex with his girlfriends? Him arguing with the bitches? The sudden urge to scratch his eyes out for having had those females in his life came from out of nowhere, and it was so fierce and ugly it took her breath away.

“Uh,” she cleared her throat and tried to get back on track. “For a guy in the middle of some bad mojo with people shooting at you and all, and your dad gravely injured and in the hospital, you seem to be doing okay.”

He brought her knuckles to his lips and placed a kiss on them. “Thank you for that. You should have been with me last night.” Shadows moved through his eyes. Dark, writhing ones that sent an icy finger trailing down her spine.

Because he’d just insinuated she was the one responsible for easing him, she dropped the subject and faced forward.

“Was that not what you wanted to hear, yagodka?”

“No. It wasn’t,” she said flatly. “Is there anything I should know before this meeting? Do I call him something specific, like Your Majesty or Your Grace?”

“No. His name is Kostya, and that is what he will ask you to call him. As long as you remember we’ve supposedly known each other for some time, and you continue to be your smart-ass self, we’ll have no problems.”

She threw him a withering glare but had to look away because his playful smirk started to mess with her reproductive system. Her ovaries were having a goddamn party, and she could have sworn she felt her eggs punching and kicking to try to be first in line.

Ugh!

 

***

 

As Lukas approached his father’s hospital suite, the difference he felt this time around was so marked it should have been unsettling. The change had come on so quickly he was sure anyone else would have felt insecure about it.

Dale’s cold hand found his as they walked into the waiting area. He didn’t. He clasped her fragile bones in an effort to warm her. There was no room for insecurity here. No need for it either. What he would continue to rely on was patience.

He nodded to Yuri and a male nurse as they entered a room that didn’t feel as claustrophobic as it had earlier. His gaze anxiously sought out his father…

The back of the bed had been lifted, but the Pakhan’s eyes were closed.

Fuck.

Lukas deflated like a kid whose birthday party had been canceled at the last second.

“He’s not sedated,” Yuri said, coming over. “If you give him a nudge, he’ll wake.”

Lukas’s spirits revived.

“This would be Dale?” The masculine appreciation that flashed in the back of the surgeon’s eyes was forgiven because they owed Yuri a debt they’d never be able to repay.

Lukas let go of Dale’s hand and slid his arm around her waist. He’d have moved her to stand at his back if it wouldn’t have made him appear strange. “Dale, this is my father’s surgeon. Yuri, Dale Vaner, my fiancé.”

He wasn’t sure whose eyes went wider, Yuri’s or Dale’s, and he didn’t care to find out because a sound had come from the bed. He looked over Yuri’s shoulder to meet his father’s elated stare.

“Did I just hear that? Or are both my ears damaged?”

Pulling Dale along—was she trying to rearrange the bones in his hand?—he moved to the side of the bed to kiss his father’s too-warm cheeks. “You heard correctly, Papa. How are you feeling?”

“Uncomfortable. Where is she? Move your big head.”

Appreciating the familiar tone, Lukas stepped aside so he could show off his prize. He looked at Dale, trying to see her as his father did at that moment.

Young. Exquisite. Nervous. His.

There was no way he could have described the satisfaction he gained from introducing his future wife to the head of their family.

Dale, who’d recovered from her introduction to Yuri, offered the Pakhan a smile that was warm but careful. Her dimple peeked in and out of view. “Hello, Mr. Zavrazin. Magdalena can be a mouthful, so please feel free to call me Dale. I’m sorry to be meeting you under such unpleasant circumstances.”

“Nonsense.” He took and held her hand between his. “You will call me Kostya, and believe me; this is a pleasure I have waited years for. She’s very beautiful, son,” he added in Russian.

“I know,” Lukas answered in the same.

“Does she know who we are?”

“Yes. She’s witnessed me at my worst, but she feels deeply enough to still be at my side.”

His father chuckled. “Lukas is bragging,” he said to Dale, reverting to English. But he was the one who sounded proud.

Dale glanced up, and for the second time, Lukas had the pleasure of seeing her blush. “I usually do, too, when I introduce him to my friends.”

“He is a good man. His mother and I couldn’t be prouder of our boys. Samuel said you work at the club, so you must know him and Farah.”

Fear closed in to ruin Lukas’s moment. His father had just spoken as if Lukas’s mother were still alive. Had he seen her again? In his dreams? Was she coming now because it was time for her husband to join her? Had Yuri missed something? Had a piece of the bullet broken off and lodged somewhere in his father’s brain?

Was he not out of the woods yet? Was there still a chance Lukas and Samuel might lose him?

“…been at Scorch almost a year,” Dale was saying as Lukas shoved aside his frantic thoughts.

“All that time?”

He saw hurt flash in his father’s eyes, and he swept in to fix it. “But I only discovered her recently. And, like you and Mama before us, one look was all it took.”

“I thought Samuel said you’d been putting off introducing her. When did you meet?”

“Not long ago,” Lukas hedged, and avoiding Dale’s eyes because of what he was about to do, he shared some incentive he hoped would be enough to ensure his father wouldn’t give up on life yet. “Dale moved into the house tonight, Papa. So when you come home, you can take your time getting to know each other.” He gave no indication he’d just received a sharp kick to his calf. “Yuri, how long do you think it will be before we can bring him home?”

“I can’t say, Lukas.” The surgeon was sitting at a desk in the corner.

“Days? Weeks?”

Yuri turned with a genuinely apologetic look. “I won’t say yet because I don’t want to get your hopes up for nothing. Give me a day or two and I’ll know better.”

Lukas understood. “I’m curious because,” he leaned closer to his father’s good ear and lowered his voice, “Dale and I have decided to start a family right away, and it would be nice if you could be home when it happens. That kind of announcement shouldn’t be made in a hospital.”

“But you still have some time, Kostya,” Dale cut in as she slipped her hand through Lukas’s arm and gave his bicep a pinch that was sure to leave a mark. “Lukas certainly isn’t trying to rush your recovery. Are you, Lukas?” Her fragile jaw was set, and he could see betrayal and disbelief in her eyes.

“No, of course, not, yagodka.” He held her chin and kissed her, and felt something more than surprise when she let him. “He knows that.”

“How would he know that from what you just said? If he’s still in the hospital when a little plus sign shows, it will still be shocking news, won’t it? Wildly shocking and life-altering. Won’t it, Lukas?”

He wished he could let her know why he’d shared his plans. But he couldn’t very well stand there and explain his selfish need to give his father a reason to come home. What if Lukas’s mother came to visit tonight and took her husband with her when she left again? He wanted to beg her not to, but, looking at Dale, how could he? Of course, Leane would want her Kostya with her, wherever she was. Lukas fully understood that now.

“Yes, Magdalena,” he said as softly as he could. “It will be shocking. But someday, you’ll look back on it as one of the highlights of your life. Trust me.”

She took hold of his hand and squeezed his fingers so hard his knuckles cracked. The look in her eyes? She was pissed, but…what was that? She looked away before he could identify the excited light, then hid completely by laying her head on his shoulder.

“Has he always been such a bully?” she asked his father.

“Absolutely.” He winced but tried to play it off by shifting as though finding a better position for his bandaged head. “His mother says he’s like me that way.”

Again with the present tense. Lukas was grateful when Yuri appeared on the other side of the bed, penlight in hand. He might be allowing them some privacy, but he was watching his patient all the same.

“Are you from Houston, Dale?” his father asked as he was examined.

“Yes, I am. But maybe we should talk about that another time.” She patted his hand, which, unlike Lukas’s, was full of ink. “It’s very late, and Lukas also needs a good sleep to reboot after all that’s happened. He hasn’t been thinking very clearly since you were injured.”

“Yes. Okay.” Kostya watched as Yuri adjusted something on one of the IV bags, then asked, “I hope your parents were okay with you moving into our home before you and Lukas exchanged vows.”

The nervous giggle that escaped Dale pulled Lukas’s focus away from Yuri inputting something into the iPad he always carried.

“Oh, I left my father’s house a few months ago to move in with…a friend. But that’s also a conversation for another time.”

As jealousy burst like a blood-filled balloon in Lukas’s gut, Dale leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on his father’s cheek.

A man. She’d moved in with a man. He knew it by the way her eyes had nervously flicked to him. And she was blushing.

Who the fuck was he? Was he at home, waiting for her in their bed right now? Was she missing him? Did she love him?

“Maybe we should drop by your old place and take care of a few things before we go home, yagodka,” he suggested. Two murders in one night? Might be a bit much. Maybe he could just maim the ex-fucking-boyfriend.

Or was the man more?

Had he asked Dale to marry him? Had they gotten married already, and she hadn’t shared that detail with her employers?

“Loose ends are not something I like to leave…unattended,” he tacked on when she didn’t respond.

She shook her head hard enough to make her midnight hair shimmer. “We’re good, Mr. M…agoo. Put the snifter away. There are no loose ends to deal with. Honest.”

She’d almost called him Mr. Murdery. Fitting just then because he was undeniably feeling homicidal. But this wasn’t something they could discuss with his father watching them. “We’ll talk about it later.” The put-off came out more as a warning.

“Yeah, maybe not.” She inched away from him. “Thankfully, we’ll be too busy making babies to do any more of this talking business you seem to enjoy so much.” Talking was said in the same way others spat out words like horseshit or motherfucker.

He watched and saw the moment she heard what she’d just said.

“Uh, I mean…” she squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. “Well, you know.” She peeked at his father, who was trying not to smile, then at a grinning Yuri, and only then did she glare at Lukas again. She sighed and shrugged, and suddenly appeared tired. “Whatever. Lukas shared with me how much you loved his mother, Kostya, so I guess we don’t have to pretend couples sleep like Lucy and Ricky and only hold hands, right? I’m so sorry for your tragic loss. You must miss her terribly.”

The smile lingered on his father’s face. “I do, but it’s beginning to feel as if she is here again, and everything is all right. Son?” Lukas moved up the bed, which brought him next to Dale again. “You did well. I’m proud of you.”

“Thank you, Papa.”

“Feel better soon,” Dale murmured.

“Thank you, Dale. I will. Now that I know Lukas is happy,” he added.

Lukas felt as if he were being ripped in two. Half of him wanted to drag Dale out of there and demand to know who the fuck his new enemy was. The other half wanted to make sure his father hadn’t meant he would feel better soon because he was going to leave to be with his wife.

“He just needs some rest.” Yuri gave Lukas’s arm a pat before edging them out of the way so he could lift the side-rack on the bed.

Lukas shook himself and bent to kiss his father. “We’ll be back tomorrow, Papa. With Samuel and Farah.”

“They were here…a while ago.”

Lukas looked at his watch. Almost five a.m. He hadn’t realized it was so late. He considered asking if Samuel had mentioned the meeting, but his father’s eyes were already drooping. “Sleep well.”

As the nurse lowered the bed, Lukas joined Dale at the door, and after getting a reassuring “confusion is only natural, Lukas” from Yuri, they left.