Page 56 of Ashes

“Then get her the hell out of here before I set them loose.” The guard jerks his thumb toward the wolves on stage.

Luther helps me to my feet and wraps his arm around my waist, holding me tight. Saying nothing, he hurries me out of the room.

At the door, another guard meets us and marches us to the elevator. He stands and waits while Luther retrieves our jackets, then accompanies us all the way up and out of the building.

“These two are barred,” he says to the guy out front. “For life.”

Then the door slams, and we’re out in the cold.

* * *

We don’t speak until we’re back at the hotel. Luther unlocks the door and ushers me inside.He sits down hard on the edge of the bed and rubs his hands over his closely shaved hair.

“Shit, Nova.”

“I’m sorry.” I’m standing in front of the bathroom door. It’s closed, and I’m leaning against it. My heart is still thundering in my chest. “I just don’t understand what they were doing.”

“It’s fucked up,” Luther says darkly. “And illegal, which is the only reason they didn’t call the cops on you.”

I bite my lower lip. “People get off on that? Why? How?”

Luther inhales slowly. He’s pissed at me, but he bites his tongue. “What’s important is that we found him. We found Sam.” Luther glances at me. “What did he say to you? Did he recognize you?”

“I think so, but he said he can’t leave. ‘Theywon’t let me leave.’ Those were his words.”I shake my head and sink down onto the floor, coat still wrapped around my too-exposed body. “What the hell did he get himself into? How did he end up in that place?”

Luther moves and sits beside me. He puts his hand on mine. “We found him,” he says firmly, as if all that other stuff doesn’t matter. “Now we just have to figure out a way to get him out.”

28

LUTHER

Nova emerges from the bathroom in a long white tee. Kole’s, if I had to guess. Her hair is wet. She spent a long time under the hot water, and still looks like a deer in headlights. Like everything she saw and felt in there is too much to process.

I hand her a mug of tea. “Here.”

It’s four a.m. We should sleep, but we’re both too wired.

“Thank you.” She takes the mug, sits down and rests her back on the pillows, drawing her knees up underneath her.

For a moment, I linger by the desk.

“Are you going to change, or do you think you’ll stick with the new look?” she asks, eyeing my leather pants.

I look down at them, almost certain I can see a shadow from where she pressed herself into me in those barely-there panties. I clear my throat as my dick twitches, put down my tea, jerk off the pants and the shirt, then shrug and say, “There. Back to normal.”

Nova looks at me over the rim of her mug but says nothing. Shifting over a little, she says, “Looks like we’re sharing?”

“Looks like it.” I move next to her and perch on the side of the bed. “I can sleep in the car if you’d rather?”

“That doesn’t sound very safe.” She puts her mug down on the nightstand, then tucks her legs beneath the sheets.

“You’re tired?” I ask, glancing at her.

“My head’s throbbing,” she says. “Not sure if it’s from exhaustion or emotion.” She trails off and reaches back to loosely braid her hair. She hasn’t removed her eye makeup. It emphasizes the difference between the blue and the brown. “Seeing him like that. Letting them do those things to him. The dancing, I get, but the fighting?” She looks at me and adds, “I’m not judging him.”

I look away and down my last mouthful of tea. “Of course not.”

The club was such a mind-fuck that, until it all kicked off with the wolves, I almost forgot we were there on business. Since we left, all that’s been pulsing through my brain has been Nova. The feel of her. The smell of her. Thesightof her in that outfit.