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“Understood.”
A rapt knock came on the door, and our heads turned toward it. Lev eyed him, and Konstantin’s hand traveled below his belt before he commanded, “Enter.”
The knob went down, and the most beautiful creature walked inside. Blue eyes, brown curly hair, and a face unlike any other he’d seen. Her eyes assessed the room, traveling from a curious Konstantin and finally landing on Lev, who was no doubt impressed by her stun. She held his gaze for what seemed like it had dragged on to minutes before Konstantin’s thick Russian bass voice broke the spell.
“What do you want?”
She blinked, visibly taken aback, and swiped her pink tongue over her lips before parting them to speak. “Um, good evening, sirs.” She fumbled with the notebook, flipped a few pages, and looked up with a mask of confidence. But Lev saw right past it. He could almost see her shaking in her thigh-high boots.
“My name is Zia, and I’m the assistant manager atDarnell’s Planners.We’re the ones organizing Jax’s sixtieth birthday party here.”
“Okay.” Konstantin was intentionally making her nervous due to his ‘Women could be a weapon’ notion. “And?”
“Jesus, let the poor girl breathe, Kostya. She was obviously just doing her job and making sure everything was going smoothly,” Lev laughed and held her gaze once more. “Right?”
Her head bobbed up and down in appreciation, and she smiled. It immediately brightened up her face, and the sight of how perfect she looked went straight to his chest like a gut punch. The impact felt even worse than the Spirytus alcohol, and he couldn’t explain why there was a sudden need awakened in him to make the girl an offer.
He sat up, cross-legged with his fingers clasped over one knee, and she watched every movement like she didn’t want to miss the slightest detail. “You’re doing a good job, Zia.”
Normally, from his experience, whenever he called any girl by their name, they hid their face and blushed uncontrollably. But this one didn’t. She maintained her simple smile and didn’t so much as blink.
“Thank you. Please do enjoy the evening. I will take my leave now,” she was on her way out, but Lev suddenly found himself on his feet, walking toward her.
“Or maybe we could continue our conversation elsewhere? I have a pretty amazing view back at my place.”
She stopped and turned around, tilting her head backward with a look of shock.
“What?”
Lev stuck a hand into his pocket, wearing his signature smirk that he was sure the girls found charming. He wasconfident that it was only going to take a matter of seconds to bring this one down off her high horse. “You heard me.”
“I’m pretty sure I didn’t.” She looked offended. “Did you just indirectly offer to take me to your house?”
He smiled even more. “So, you heard me, after all.”
She was about to say more, but a loud explosion from outside the room cut her words short.
After the first bang, everything else happened so fast. The pulsating music stopped; the lights flashed. Then, rapid gunfire.
Konstantin was on his feet in seconds, taking long glides toward them with his gun out. They shared a look, and that was when Zia spotted the gun in the big guy’s hand. She pointed at it and was about to let out a scream, but the explosion came again, rattling the building’s foundation. They all felt the floor shake beneath them, and her grip on the door tightened.
Before either of them could stop her, she pulled it open, eager to run and hide for protection.
But she didn’t make it.
The club was chaos—people running, screaming, and tripping over each other. And Lev watched her get sucked into the crowd. She screamed, and her arms flailed in the air. He tried to reach out to her but watched her get knocked to the ground.
She tried to stand, but a blast of heat and debris knocked her back down. As she struggled to get up, to his horror, a beam fell and trapped her beneath its weight.
Chapter 3 - Lev
Lev’s instincts kicked in.
He ignored Konstantin’s call and rushed after her, pushing the screaming crowd aside. She struggled under the weight of the beam, and he crouched to his knees. The question in her eyes was unmistakable, but there was no time to explain. Even Lev couldn’t understand why he’d rushed after her.
He successfully jacked the beam off her and pulled her to safety, Konstantin slowly creating the path in front of them.
Together, as they stumbled out of the burning club, he wrapped his arm tightly around her, shielding her from the falling debris and panicked crowd. He couldn’t explain why, but he felt an overwhelming urge to protect her, to keep her safe from harm. They stumbled into the cool night air as more of his men rushed into the scene.
