Page 24 of The Mafia Bloodline
I looked up just in time to see the black Escalade roar to a stop near the main doors. The headlights cut through the night, harsh and white, and the second the doors opened, my stomach dropped.
Volken. He was out before the vehicle fully stopped, and even from where I stood, I could feel it, the pulse of fury radiating off him like heat from a wildfire.
He barked something at one of the guards, his voice too low for me to hear, then turned to stride toward the house, until he froze.
His head lifted, nostrils flaring. And then he turned…straight toward me. Our eyes met across the courtyard, and my heart stopped.
Ashen stood a few yards behind me, arms folded, his phone still in his hand, expression unreadable. He didn’t move, didn’t speak. Just nodded once as if silently saying, you brought this on yourself.
Volken’s pace quickened. Then faster. His stride turned into a blur, long and purposeful, the shadows seeming to bend around him. By the time I took a single step back, he was there, his scent, his heat, his presence wrapping around me like a storm about to break.
“What the hell were you thinking?” he snarled, voice low and rough enough to vibrate through my bones. His hands came down on my arms, not hard enough to hurt, but firm enough to make sure I couldn’t bolt.
“I was thinking that maybe someone has to actually do something about my father instead of just talking about it!” I fired back, chin tilted up even as my pulse stuttered.
His jaw clenched, his fangs flashing as he bared them in frustration. “You haveno ideawhat’s out there. What could’ve happened to you.”
“I don’t care!” My voice cracked. “He’s my father, Volken! He raised me, protected me, and now he’s out there all alone, maybe dying, and you expect me to just sit here and do nothing?”
“I expect you to stay alive!”
The words hit like a thunderclap, echoing off the stone walls around us. His grip loosened, but the look in his eyes didn’tsoften. Fury and fear warred there, tangled with something deeper, something that looked almost like pain.
We stared at each other for a long, breathless moment. Then he exhaled, long and heavy, dragging a hand down his face. “You’re impossible.”
“You’re controlling.”
“You’re reckless.”
“You’re terrified,” I shot back before I could stop myself. That froze him.
For a second, something in his gaze flickered…raw, unguarded. Then, with a quiet curse, he stepped closer, his forehead brushing mine, his voice rougher now. “You have no idea what that word means to me.”
Silence stretched between us, charged and fragile.
Finally, he sighed, tension bleeding out of him in slow waves. “Fine,” he said, his voice quieter, lower. “You want to know what we’re doing? You’ll hear it. But you’re not running into danger blind, not again.”
My breath caught. “You’ll take me?”
“I’ll take you,” he said, eyes sharp as steel. “For a drive. I’ll show you what we know, what we’re planning. But after that, you do as I say.”
I hesitated, studying his face…the hard lines, the exhaustion beneath the fury, the unspoken worry that clung to him like a second skin.
Finally, I nodded. “Deal.”
He made a low sound that wasn’t quite a growl, wasn’t quite a sigh. “You’ll be the death of me, Runa.”
I managed a faint, shaky smile. “You say that like I haven’t already tried.”
That earned a flicker of a grin…brief, reluctant, but it was enough to break the storm between us.
He took my hand, his fingers threading through mine as he turned toward the waiting SUV.
“Come on,” he muttered, his voice softer now. “If we’re doing this, we’re doing it my way.”
I didn’t argue. Not because I’d given in but because, I believed him when he said we.
The tension between us lingered, thick as smoke, as we made our way to the black Escalade idling at the edge of the courtyard. The engine purred low, headlights casting pale light over the gravel. Volken opened the rear door for me without a word, his hand brushing lightly against my back as I climbed inside.
