Page 28 of Enemy of the Heart

Pulsing pain radiates through my body, but it’s nothing compared to the relief unfurling in my chest.

She’s here. She came for me.

Now that I know Lou isn’t a figment of my desperate imagination, I feel the overwhelming urge to touch her, to solder our bodies together. Jace has taken on the role of guiding our crew toward the exit, so I grasp her, disregarding Kazi’s heavy gaze that feels oppressive enough to bury me six feet under. My fingers fold around the back of Louhi’s hand as I clutch her tightly.

She twists her head in my direction, our eyes colliding. Her braided hair, the color of a starless night, is silky now and gleams beneath the oppressive lights. And she’s undeniably clean now, her face void of makeup. She looks beautiful, deadly.

When I notice that one of the deeper cuts just above her collarbone has been tended to, I ask, my voice rough, “Did you see a doctor?”

“Viktor wouldn’t let me come without being checked out. A bloody waste of time.”

Something else I need to begrudgingly thank the Pakhan for.

While I know she’s more than capable of taking care of herself, I hate that I couldn’t be the one to take care of her myself. I wanted to, if only to help atone for my sins against her.

A shot rings out a split second before the concrete next to Louhi’s head cracks, dust particles flying. I whirl around, but she’s already got a round in his forehead before I could even raise my Glock.

“Damn, Lou,” Jace echoes my inner thoughts over the sound of the wailing sirens.

She waves a hand dismissively, but her lips curl.

Our small team of four marches down the hall, Kazi towering over all of us. We ignore each other’s blatant nudity and the motherfucking baseball bat swinging freely between Kazi’s legs as we become one unit hellbent on catching a ride out of here.

As we edge closer to the end of this maze of terrors, Louhi sidles next to me and whispers a smidge too loudly, “I kind of want to fuck.”

A laugh bursts free of her mouth like air releasing from a popped balloon, and I surmise she’s responding to something someone said in her earpiece.

My nose wrinkles. “What? Now? Here?”

She shrugs. “Why not? For old time’s sake. We could go back to the torture room for one last shag.”

In front of me, Jace’s shoulders bounce with silent chuckles, and he shakes his head. I can practically hear him thinking, she can’t be serious. I tug her along by the hand still in mine, rushing down the concrete corridor. “We don’t have time for that.”

She sighs, stumbling for a beat to keep up with my long, heavy strides before catching her footing. “I suppose you’re right, but I still want to. I…miss it, even if it hasn’t been all that long.”

Fucking hell. “What the fuck? You miss this place?”

“No, I miss the games. I miss the way I could get under your skin and watch you crack.” She smirks, just as Kazi fires a round into the chest of a soldier who enters through the door we’re about to use as our exit, and it gives me an idea.

I bark a short laugh. “You still do that.”

She grins broadly, showing off her sparkling white teeth. “You’re right. I do.”

Stepping over the dead soldier, I yank off his olive-green mesh mask, recognizing the face of a patrolman. I pass the wad of fabric to the woman next to me with a wink. “For games.”

Lou squeals like I just offered her ice cream, then brushes a kiss over my cheek, setting my skin ablaze. I don’t comment on the very real possibility that we might not make it off this God-forsaken island alive.

She’s just shoved the mask into her pocket when the double doors only a few feet ahead of us burst open, and a horde of men in camouflage tactical gear spills into the hallway like a dam that’s been broken.

Sean

“Please tell me this is the worst part you were mentioning earlier,” Jace calls out as he fires round after round at the men aiming their rifles at us.

Louhi steps around the wall of naked men that we’ve silently built in front of her and sprays the soldiers with bullets as if using a water hose. I don’t recall the men working for me not being able to shoot for shit, but damn, they’re awful. Or maybe Lou hexed them somehow. That’s plausible.

Once we eliminate the impending threats, I glance around and ensure we don’t have any casualties.

“I can’t say I’ve ever fired a gun naked before,” Jace comments as he carefully treads around the bodies littering the ground.