“I care. You can’t just make that decision for me.”
His gaze narrows, leaning a bit closer with a low, cold tone. “Then what would you have me do? Hand you back over to Vito and hope everyone decides to be merciful?”
It takes everything in me to try and get a grip on my usually steady composure. “You could’ve returned me to my brothers, for starters.”
He scoffs. “Yeah? And what would they have done? Called the cops for you?”
Despite his tone, I step closer, even with my pulse raging in my ears. “They would’ve killed everyone who looked at me wrong by now.”
At this, he hesitates, letting a stifling silence settle between us. He goes to speak, only to stop himself as his brows furrow while his mind works.
It brings me the faintest satisfaction to watch him struggle, and I cross my arms over my chest.
“You never asked me my full name.”
That makes Wyatt pause again. Then, quiet suspicion filters into his dark eyes. “Elena…what’s your last name?”
For the first time all night, the smallest part of me feels in control as I make him wait for it before opening my mouth again.
“Lukov.”
The change in him is instant. It’s subtle, but unmistakable.
His shoulders go rigid, his eyes sharpen, and that dominance surrounding him seems to drain out at once, replaced by something closer to shock.
“Lukov…” Wyatt utters under his breath, looking more like he’s recovering from a well-placed sucker punch now. “Elena Lukov…”
“The one and only.”
Even while he stares at me, there’s a vacant sort of glaze over his features, like the weight of it has fully and truly settled on his shoulders.
After a tense, quiet moment, one word leaves his lips.
“Fuck.”
Chapter 5 - Wyatt
I don’t move. I can hardly even breathe.
It’s not deliberate, and it’s not to be dramatic…but my body locks up anyway, like a metal rod has been wedged into my spine without warning.
Anger rolls off Elena with a notable sharpness while she stands near the car, but not close enough to get in just yet. She doesn’t say anything, and she doesn’t need to. She’s pissed and grappling with the thought of being legally married to a stranger with a gun, who likely seems no better than the others we’ve dealt with tonight.
A stranger who’s suddenly forced to swallow the fact that he just royally fucked himself.
Lukov.
It’s a name I had disdain for when I worked with the Balakins, and one I’ve grown to loathe even more ever since I learned they had my sister. Indirectly, they’ve become a mental target of mine, even if I know better than to face them head-on. It’s a fight many don’t survive.
Still, the name reverberates in my skull loud enough to drown out the hum of the garage lights as they flicker briefly overhead.
Of all the bloodlines in this city, tangled up in Bratva politics, power plays, and endless grudges, she just has to belong tothatone.
I’ve spent far too long planning how to pull Lily out from beneath their all-encompassing shadow to throw it all away now. I’ve been walking the tightrope, careful not to poke the wrong bear. To not make a move that would put her in danger.
And now, I’ve legally strapped myself to one of them.
Elena wasn’t even part of the plan, and everything that has happened tonight wasn’t ever supposed to. There wasn’t room for her in the equation to begin with, yet I allowed it to steer me off my perfectly constructed path.
