This isn’t what I meant. He prayed the words, even though he hadn’t meant to be that blunt.
Sure, he’d been thinking earlier that Kira needed to trust her own strength. To believe that she could face more than she thought she could handle. To not shy away from life because she was scared to embrace the parts that were hard or painful—the parts she couldn’t tackle with medical care.
But he didn’t want her to have to face a dangerous situation where she was forced to be stronger than she believed she was. That wasn’t what he’d meant.
She didn’t need to learn strength all at once while fighting for her life, just to have circumstances prove to her that she was strong.
He wanted to protect her no matter what.
Lord, keep her safe.
His deal was making Renegade safe for the people he cared about. Generally speaking—the way he had operated in the military. Not protecting a specific person who was in danger. Luca had spent years purposely not forming relationships like that. After all, Kira could get killed or walk away from him. And then where would he be? He would have nothing.
He would be just like his father.
Loving a woman will destroy you. That was what the old man had said before he proceeded to try and drink himself to death like there was no other reason to live. In the end, it had taken intensive questioning from federal agents and a self-inflicted bullet to the brain to finish it.
Part of him wondered if the FBI’s accusations had been true and his father had killed himself out of guilt. Or if it was simply a sad end to a sad life.
Luca had loved a woman during the second year of his military service. When Bridget left him, he’d been crushed. He had sworn off all relationships as a result, sticking with close friends who had become family to him. Now that Kira had crept into his heart, he knew that if something happened to her, there was no way he would be able to continue.
Kind of like there was no way out of here. He had zero ability to keep Kira safe from in here, which meant Luca had to leave her fate entirely in the Lord’s hands. Another thing he wanted to learn, but not all at once.
The whole thing was like a kick to the stomach that left him breathless.
I don’t want to lose her.
The man who held on to Kira came to the door, dragging her in front of him. Stuart Parker had his hand around her neck. Behind him was Hector, the cartel guy Luca had heard talking about the hit at the hospital. Were these guys really working together, or was this a crime of convenience?
Stuart called out loudly, “You’re going to set Jenkins free, and then we’re going to trade. Send him out and you can have her back in one piece.”
Kira winced, but he didn’t see tears in her eyes. And as far as he could see, she didn’t have any injuries either. Luca wanted to communicate with her. Reassure her somehow. But what could he say when there was no way to get out of the room?
“So open the door,” he told Stuart. “I need a key to set Jenkins free.”
They knew he cared about Kira, but they didn’t know how much he cared about Jenkins. Unless they thought Luca’s association with Hammer meant that he wouldn’t want Jenkins to be killed. There were ways to play this that meant minimal carnage. Especially to anyone in this situation who was innocent.
Not the first time he’d been in a face-off with a bad guy. But it was the first time it’d happened when he didn’t have any weapons on him. Neither did Stuart, but that wouldn’t stop him from snapping Kira’s neck at any second.
Stuart looked at the officer. “We need this door open.”
Luca managed to make out the words “We need an admin password to get any of the doors open.”
Stuart leaned over toward him, deadliness in his body language. “Figure it out.”
Hector said something and followed the officer to the security office.
Luca glanced back at Stuart. The guy was watching him, trying to read how he felt about Kira. How far he could push this and terrorize her while Luca watched, just to get as much sick satisfaction out of this as he possibly could.
Luca turned away.
She wasn’t going to understand why he gave them his back. But doing so took all the power from Stuart. Luca wouldn’t be able to see what he was doing, and he couldn’t object to something he didn’t hear. With his back to them so they wouldn’t know, he said to Jenkins, “What is he doing?”
“Staring at you.” Jenkins glanced over. “You ticked him off with that move.”
“Is he hurting her?”
“She’s scared, but he’s just holding her too tight.”