Read Betrayed (Undercover #3) for Free Online Page B

other hanging at an odd angle. Somehow, though, he’d managed to pull off his suit jacket to lay over me.
    Free at last, Luka got to his feet and ran to me, sweeping me up into his arms. I looked around, blinking in the sudden light.
    We were in a warehouse, as I’d suspected. But now the huge door at one end was open, letting in daylight. Two black SUVs were parked just inside. The whole place was swarming with men in black combat fatigues. Vasiliy had sent an army.
    I looked back to Yuri. “How did you…?”
    Yuri snorted. “Idiots think I’m dead in car and don’t put bullet in my head. I wake up and you and Luka are gone.” He nodded at Luka. “I track his cell phone and call Vasiliy for backup.”
    I looked up at him in wonder. I’d always thought of Yuri as just a big, dumb lunk. I was just realizing he was a superb bodyguard, something he hid behind his dour manner. Probably deliberately.
    Yuri caught my look. “Is not—how you say it?—is not my first rodeo.”
    Luka looked down at me and tenderly stroked my cheek. He didn’t ask if I was okay—I think he could see that I wasn’t. He just stared into my eyes, his own full of guilt and pain.
    One of Vasiliy’s men staggered up to us. “Olaf got out the back.”
    Yuri swore and kicked one of the dead bodies. Then he nodded us towards the SUVs. “We go. Before police arrive.”
    Luka carried me towards one of the SUVs. I looked around at the devastation as we went. Six dead, two of them Vasiliy’s men. I started to shake in Luka’s arms.
    “It’s okay,” he whispered. “It’ll be okay.”
    I knew it wouldn’t be. I saw now just how brutal his world could be. Tomorrow, I’d escape it forever...and lose Luka forever. And with Olaf gunning for him like this, I knew it was only a matter of time until this world killed him.

 
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
    “ Those fucking fucking fucks!” yelled Vasiliy in Russian. “ Who the fuck do they think they are?!”
    The SUVs had taken us directly to his house—Vasiliy had insisted. There was an antique suit of armor at the top of the stairs and I watched as Vasiliy kicked it apart, sending metal clattering down the stairs. “ Fucking fat little jumped up son of a whore thinks he can threaten us?!”
    He spun to face me, his chest heaving with rage. “You sure you’re okay?” he asked in English.
    I nodded. I was wearing a spare set of combat fatigues which Yuri had found for me. They were enormous and looked ridiculous, but at least they covered me and that made me feel better.
    “ No one ,” spat Vasiliy, “messes with my family.” He said it in English and he met my eyes as he said it. There was regret there, beneath the anger. An apology for not trusting me, before. I was one of them, now, and the thought send an unexpected flood of warmth through me.
    I’d never really been conscious of how much I missed having a family until that moment. And then I remembered how I was about to betray them, and I wanted to be sick.
    “He won’t stop,” said Luka. “Not unless we abandon the gun deal.” His voice didn’t leave any shred of a possibility that that was going to happen. He was as stubborn and as proud as his dad.
    Vasiliy started to curse again, talking about payback. Then he remembered me and sighed, shaking his head. “My apologies, Arianna. You do not need to hear this. The maids have prepared a room for you and Luka. Please.”
    Being able to take a hot bath to wash Olaf’s touch off me sounded like the best thing in the world. But first, I gave Luka a long hug. “You’ll stay right here?” I asked. “You won’t go off on some stupid revenge attack?”
    He touched his forehead to mine and let out a long sigh. “There will have to be retribution. But not tonight, myshka . I’ll be here.” He hugged me close and then took my face between his hands. “I never meant to let my life hurt you, Arianna. I’m sorry.”
    I felt hot tears welling up in my eyes. He was sorry, and