NALEDI’S POV
The rate at which Luka stole glances at me was downright ridiculous. Despite feeling his gaze every so often, I refused to give him the benefit of seeing me squirm.
“Tell me,” He finally spoke, “Don’t you feel affected by me?”
I resisted the urge to laugh in his face. “Am I supposed to be?”
A smirk. “Not to be proud but not every woman is unswayed by this.” He gestured to himself. “I have everything you could possibly need and more. And yet somehow you make me feel lacking, inadequate. Why is that?”
I was floored by his use of words while sounding confident all the while. “It was never my intent to make you feel such, Luka. You said so yourself, you are quite the price. Just not my price.”
“Maybe I am the price. You just don’t know it yet.” He reached for my hand and I let him, “I’m tempted to take up the challenge of making you see reason.” He made to speak but the ringing of his phone interrupted.
He picked up the phone and I was glad to be rescued by that phone call. The last thing I needed was to be roped into yet another conversation with the sicko. I had enough on my plate preparing to get into the cave.
The car sped through the road and I listened to him speak. Making sense of his one-sided replies.
“Are you sure it was him?” He asked after listening for a while, sounding irritated.
Minutes passed and Luka’s face grew poorer if I must say. “Do whatever you have to do. Pay your way in. I want this matter resolved by nightfall. Keep me updated.”
With that he dropped the phone, if there was any semblance of lightness between us, it was eradicated by that one conversation. I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry.
“Something wrong?” I asked when the silence grew nauseating.
“Some people think it’s alright to fuck with me.” He gritted, and my brows raised. “I have my men on the job so it will be resolved soon.”
“Then why do you sound so worked up?”
Luka flipped his head towards me and I wondered if I had crossed a line. His forehead held layers of unresolved emotions, one I suspected to be anger.
“Because I hate when people think they can cross me and get away with it. The fact that they go through with the idea of pissing me off tells me that I have not been doing my job well.”
I swallowed. Hard. “So what are you going to do about it?”
“We’ll see.”
That marked the end of our conversation. And every other conversation until we got to his club. Also known as the secret entrance of his fucking women’s ranch.
A bile lodged in my throat as we crossed the double doors, greeted by his employees, the majority of which were vampires, while we led our way to his office.
As soon as we settled in his office, a man came in holding some papers. After greeting us, his eyes fixated on me, and then Luka, silently communicating over my head.
“You can say it in front of her,” Luka said, much to my surprise.
“The woman is causing a fuss downstairs. Permission to put her down.” The man said without a touch of emotion.
“I’m already having a hard time getting more of them as it is. I don’t need any more of my cash cows dying any sooner than they should be. I’ll be down in a few.” He said, taking a big drink from his wine.
“Yes, Capo.” The man said, dropped the papers and left the office, leaving me with him, alone.
My legs were tingly. I couldn’t bear sitting here doing nothing when there was something huge going on. One more minute of silence and I would demand we get to business.
I wasn’t a patient woman.
After typing furiously on his phone, which he had been doing for a long time now, Luka got to his feet and made his way to the infamous wall in his office. His private entry to his human poultry.
The door soon opened and he turned around. I didn’t need to be told what I had to do. I strutted towards him and he led me down the fiery pits of hell. When we got down, there was indeed a ruckus.
“Stay down! Don’t make me shoot you, whore!” One of the guards yelled at a woman who was bleeding down her legs, surrounded by other guards, while a man stood with a briefcase by the side, looking bored as hell.
“What the hell is going on here?!” Luka roared, stamping his presence.
All eyes were on us.
“I said what the fuck is going on?!” With the look in his eyes, I could tell he didn’t like to repeat himself. I’ve seen animals like this before. Worked with them, and walked side by side too.
Luka was a ticking time bomb. A danger to himself and those around him.
“She refuses to let the doctor take care of her, capo.” One of the guards explained. “The baby is lost and we are trying to save her life but she’s crazy.”
“I already lost my baby swallowing your fucking drugs!” The woman bellowed like she was deranged. “No one is going to touch me! That will be over my dead body!”
“You will die if you don’t let him attend to you,” Luka stated, too calmly if you ask me.
“I’ll be the happiest woman to die. It’s not like I’m living anyways.”
“You hurt me, Karen.” My eyes widened when I realized she knew him.
The woman before us seemed to know Luka. And by my observations, they were quite close.
“You should be a good girl, take your drugs and be ready for the next mission. I don’t have time for this.” His tone was laced with threats.
“I regret the day I met you, devil. I wish I could turn back the hands of time and let you die in that road.”
“You don’t mean that. Are you upset about the baby? You can always make another one. I’ll be glad to help with that.”
A maniacal laugh, “And have your dogs rape me again? Have them rip the child away from me at childbirth and nurse me back to ingesting heroin for you and passing borders? No thanks.”