Lucas clenched his teeth. He couldn’t bring himself to admit that he wanted to pitch it all out the fucking window. Break all his rules. Andrei lit a fire in him that he simply couldn’t extinguish. The man made him laugh and feel. He made him reckless and alive for the first time…in so fucking long.Chapter 8It was after two in the morning when Lucas and Andrei finally shuffled through the front door of the penthouse. The silence weighed thick and heavy, like a living presence stood between them, pushing them apart. Lucas had thought of and tossed out half a dozen comments to kick start a conversation. There were too many things scattered in his brain and nameless emotions he didn’t understand.
“Stay,” Andrei commanded when they walked inside.
Lucas grunted, locking the door behind him and resetting the alarm. He turned to watch the other man move through the rooms, a gun in his right hand. His dress shirt was gone, replaced by a dark blue scrub shirt. Andrei’s movements were stiff now and he occasionally winced as if in pain, but Lucas didn’t know the extent of his injuries. Lucas had escaped the building with nothing more than a few scrapes and some smoke inhalation, even if he did have to suffer through another CT scan.
When Andrei returned from his check of the second floor, he gave Lucas a nod and then paused in the kitchen. His brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed as if he were thinking hard about something, but couldn’t find the words to explain what was bothering him. Lucas wished he could read the man’s mind. Was it the fire? The fact that they could have been easily killed? That he’d been canned and rehired in the span of an hour? Or that they nearly kissed? Lucas mentally snorted at his own thoughts. Their “almost kiss” was probably long forgotten in the face of their bigger problems.
“Why burn down the building?” Andrei asked after several empty seconds.
Lucas walked over to the fridge and pulled out two bottles of water. He offered one to Andrei and then leaned back against the sink, holding his with both hands. Standing in the dim light cast by the work lamp over the stove, Andrei’s eyes were hard obsidian gems. Lucas couldn’t take his gaze off him. “I don’t know. The building itself was worthless. I’d been tempted to level it and start over.”
“So…what? A scare tactic?”
Lucas allowed himself a little smile. “Pretty shitty scare tactic. A fire isn’t going to get me to walk away, even if I was in the building at the time.”
“Then what are we left with? Beyond a name, that is.”
Lucas stopped in the process of lifting the bottle of water to his lips. “What name?”
“Rowe said in between bouts of shouting at me that Thomas Lynton also suffered an attack recently. I think Dr. Frost might have pulled some info and Rowe’s been digging. Lynton’s been very reluctant to talk to the police about it. He’s told everyone else that he was in a car accident.”
“I know Thomas,” he said as his mind raced off, trying desperately to connect dots between his situation and what he knew of the other man. “He owns a local investment firm with Patrick Laughlin and has a couple luxury condo developments on the East Side.”
“Business associate?”
Lucas shook his head. “No, we just have mutual acquaintances.”
“Ah, fellow old rich guy.”
He glared at his companion. “I’m going to ignore the age comment, but yes, we travel in some similar circles.”
“Why did you ask Rowe to rehire me?” Andrei asked suddenly. The words escaped him in a rush, as if he’d finally worked up the nerve to ask.
Lucas frowned, biting back his initial response. He didn’t ask Rowe to rehire Andrei. He had very nearly strangled his best friend while ordering him to rehire the man. But Lucas was still working out all the logic, or rather the lack of logic, behind his actions. For the most part, he’d been operating purely on instinct, fueled by an unhealthy dose of frustration, rage, and guilt. He certainly didn’t want to share that with Andrei.
“Because it wasn’t your fault. It was mine.”
“Why go at all?”
“Something you said in the restaurant,” Lucas started slowly. He dropped his gaze down to the bottle of water in his hands. “About your working class background. It’s not so far off from my own. You’re the only one I’ve shown Price Hill. The only person I’ve told about all my plans. I feel like this is something you would understand. Someone who could understand what I’m fighting for. More than the others.”
“What about Dr. Frost? Rowe said you grew up together.”
Lucas lifted his eyes back to Andrei and grinned. “If you asked Snow, he would tell you he was hatched fully grown from an egg. He doesn’t claim a childhood and I don’t blame him.”