Page 100 of Diary from an Inked Throne

I really hated how stupidly macho this sport was sometimes. The guy probably had a concussion. There was no shame in not wanting to be alone when you were disoriented and in pain.

Luca patted his shoulder. “Club policy. Nobody goes to the hospital alone. If you don’t want one of the guys, you got me.”

I smiled to myself because I was ninety-nine-percent sure Luca had just made that policy up on the spot. He grabbed his keys from his pocket and tossed them at me. “Take my car.” He glanced past me to Viktor and Bruno. “Drive her home. She doesn’t go alone.”

Part of me wanted to complain about him demanding I have a babysitter. It was a little stifling to never be alone.

But I also wasn’t an idiot. My own father had tried to have us all murdered not all that long ago, and even though he was no longer a problem, I somehow doubted that meant we were home free.

Luca would never fully escape his name. There would always be dangers in being associated with him.

And yet, he was worth every one of them.

He walked out of the rink gripping French’s hand and reassuring him he was going to be just fine.

It reminded me he really wasn’t an asshole at all.

Viktor and Bruno took their jobs incredibly seriously and bundled me into the back seat of Luca’s car. For the sake of my feminism, I reminded them I was perfectly capable of driving myself, then handed over the keys when they just stared at me. We all knew they were never going to agree to me driving when their boss had given them a direct order.

It suited me. I tried calling Lynx and Dax but when neither answered, I hunched over my phone and typed out text messages telling them what had happened to French and that Luca was headed up to the hospital with him in the back of an ambulance.

I stared at my phone for a minute, waiting for either of them to reply but nothing came and I dropped my phone onto the seat beside me.

It was only then I realized I had no idea where we were. I leaned over, peering through the windshield at the unfamiliar road. “Uh, where are we?”

Viktor twisted to face me. “Backroad to the Guerra house.”

I peered out the window again and tried to identify where we were. But I hadn’t grown up in this town, so while I’d been here long enough to know the main roads and how to get from place to place in the most direct way possible, I definitely didn’t know the area well enough to be taking short cuts.

I sat back against the car’s plush interior. But every turn of the car took me deeper into an area I didn’t recognize, and unease grew in the pit of my belly. I reached for my phone, questioning the brothers while I was at it. “Why didn’t we just take the main road?”

Bruno glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “You didn’t notice the roadwork? The entire street was cut off.”

I hadn’t, but I couldn’t exactly argue that he was lying either, because stupid me hadn’t been paying attention. I’d been too busy trying to contact Lynx and Dax.

I still hadn’t gotten a response from either of them.

“I’m calling Luca,” I said, a little too loudly.

Neither brother responded.

I found his number and was about to push it when Bruno made a left hand turn onto a road, and I realized I knew exactly where I was.

“Well, you’re a dumbass, aren’t you, Nyah?” I muttered to myself, putting my phone back down.

“What was that?” Viktor asked.

“Nothing,” I assured him quickly, then much lower beneath my breath. “Nothing except thinking I was being abducted when really all I have is a bad sense of direction.”

I felt stupider by the mile, as Bruno steered the car back to the Guerra mansion. They punched the code in at the gate, and rolled the car into the driveway, parking it in its normal spot right in front of the doors. I grabbed my phone, checking again for a reply text from one of the guys, while Viktor got out, and Bruno stopped in front of my door to open it for me.

A noise crackled through the air.

One I didn’t recognize or understand. One I maybe only heard because the door was open and everything around us was silent.

I don’t even think a bird chirped.

Maybe that should have been a sign.