Chapter 314: My Girlfriend’s Dad Wants to Have a ’Talk’
The interior of Luka’s SUV slled like leather, pine air freshener, and what I could only describe as "impending doom."
We’d been driving for exactly five minutes and thirty-seven seconds. I knew this because I’d been counting every excruciating tick of the dashboard clock, using the ntal exercise to distract myself from the fact that my adoptive father had just witnessed his daughter making out with
like we were starring in a rated-R movie.
Luka’s hands gripped the steering wheel at ten and two. His knuckles had gone white about three minutes ago and hadn’t recovered since. Every few seconds, a muscle in his jaw would twitch, and I’d watch it pulse like a seismograph detecting an approaching earthquake.
Kimiko sat in the passenger seat, her posture rigid, her gaze fixed on the passing highway lights with the intensity of soone trying to achieve enlightennt through sheer willpower.
And Natalia?
Natalia had decided that personal space was a concept invented by cowards.
She’d slid across the back seat the mont the car started moving, pressing herself against my side like a cat claiming its territory. Her head rested on my shoulder. Her fingers had found my thigh and refused to let go. Every few seconds, she’d squeeze, a silent reminder that she was there and she wasn’t going anywhere.
It was simultaneously the most arousing and terrifying experience of my life.
Okay, Satori. Think. Calculate.
I ran the numbers in my head.
Current speed: approximately sixty miles per hour. Distance to nearest exit: unknown. Probability of surviving a jump from a moving vehicle: low but not zero. Probability of Luka pulling over and beating
to death with his bare hands if I stay in this car: uncomfortably high.
I glanced at the door handle.
If I tuck and roll, angle my shoulder into the impact, maybe protect my head with my arms...
Natalia’s grip on my thigh tightened, almost as if she could read my thoughts.
"Don’t even think about it," she murmured against my shoulder.
How does she always know?
The highway stretched out before us, a ribbon of asphalt illuminated by the SUV’s headlights. Other cars passed in the opposite direction, their occupants blissfully unaware that a family apocalypse was unfolding re feet away.
Lucky bastards.
Luka cleared his throat.
The sound rumbled through the vehicle like a geological event. I felt Natalia’s fingers dig into my leg. Kimiko’s spine sohow straightened even further.
"So."
One word. A single syllable carrying the weight of a thousand unasked questions.
I opened my mouth to respond, but nothing ca out. For the first ti in either of my lives, I, Kaelen Leone, the Stray Dog, the Scumbag Sovereign, master manipulator and tactical genius, had absolutely no idea what to say.
Luka’s eyes appeared in the rearview mirror, locked onto mine.
"How long?"
The question hung in the air like a guillotine blade waiting to drop.
Natalia lifted her head from my shoulder. Her voice was steady when she answered, carrying that regal confidence that had first attracted
to her. "Since the first Gate run."
A slight exaggeration. The physical stuff had started later. But the foundation, the tension, the inexorable pull between us? That had been building from the mont I’d stopped being a pathetic leech and started being sothing worth her attention.
Close enough to the truth.
"The first..." Luka’s knuckles went from white to translucent. "That was over a month ago."
"Yes."
"You’ve been... together... for over a month."
"Yes."
"Behind my back."
"In my defense," I said, finally finding my voice, "we were also trying to not die. Priorities got a little scrambled."
Kimiko turned slightly in her seat. Her expression carried sothing strange, halfway between maternal concern and genuine curiosity. "You were fighting monsters and... courting? At the sa ti?"
"I prefer to think of it as multitasking."
Natalia pinched my thigh. Hard.
"What Satori ans," she said, shooting
a look that promised retribution, "is that circumstances brought us together. The danger. The shared experiences. Fighting side by side." Her voice softened. "He saved my life, Papa. More than once. And I saved his."
The SUV fell silent again.
I watched Luka’s reflection in the rearview mirror, tracked the way his eyes moved from Natalia to
and back again.
His gaze lingered on Natalia, and I saw the exact mont realization hit him.
It wasn’t in the way she touched . It wasn’t in the words she’d spoken.
It was in her eyes.
Natalia looked at
the way soldiers looked at their general. The way worshippers looked at their god. The way a queen looked at her king.
It was devotion. Pure and absolute.
Luka’s grip on the steering wheel loosened slightly. Sothing changed in his expression, a shift from anger to sothing morethoughtful.
Without warning, he pulled the car off the highway.
Kimiko turned to him, eyebrows raised. "Luka?"
"I need so air."
The SUV rolled to a stop at a scenic overlook, one of those little pull-off areas with tal guardrails and a view of the city below. New Vein stretched out beneath us, a sprawling carpet of lights that made the night sky seem dull by comparison. Skyscrapers pierced the darkness like crystallized ambition, their windows glowing with the evidence of a million lives in progress.
Luka killed the engine and sat motionless for a long mont.
Then he opened his door and stepped out into the night.
"Satori." His voice carried through the darkness, deep and steady. "Walk with ."
Oh shit.
This is it. This is where he murders
and dumps my body over the railing. They’ll find
in three days, picked apart by birds, and everyone will just assu I fell.
Natalia’s fingers tightened on my leg one final ti before releasing. When I looked at her, she nodded slightly. A small gesture of encouragent. Go. Face this.
I opened my door and stepped into the cool night air.
The overlook offered a panoramic view of the city, the kind of vista that appeared on postcards and travel brochures. A gentle breeze carried the distant sounds of traffic and the sll of exhaust mixed with sothing cleaner from the surrounding hills.
Luka stood by the guardrail, his massive fra silhouetted against the glittering cityscape. As I approached, he produced a cigarette from sowhere and lit it.
I raised an eyebrow. "Didn’t know you smoked."
"I don’t." He took a drag, exhaled slowly. "Haven’t touched one in fifteen years. Kimiko hates the sll."
"Tonight seed like a good ti to start again?"
"Sothing like that."
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