Page 49 of The Rise

“Yeah?”

“You sure you weren’t hit?”

“I don’t fucking know, man.” All I can feel is pain shooting through me. I slide down the wall and fall onto my ass, trying to catch my damn breath. I’ve never been shot before and never had to use my vest, either, but this shit is painful.

“Load them up!” I hear Silas call out to the others while Rylan comes and kneels next to me.

“We need to get this off,” he says, tugging at the vest. I nod my head and let him pull the vest off when he curses under his breath.

“What is it?” I grunt.

“You were hit,” he says.

“Where?”

“Shoulder. The vest took two to the chest,” he reports as pain shoots through me.

“Let’s just get the fuck out of here,” I tell him.

“Let me look at it,” Rylan says, ignoring me.

“The Doc can look at it home!”

“Unless you bleed out, asshole. Sit still,” he roars at me. I sit back, doing the best I can to sit still while he checks me over. When he’s satisfied, the one bullet that hit me went all the way through; he helps me off the floor.

My chest feels heavy as they help me out of the building and back to the SUV. I wasn’t sure we’d find them this quickly, but now that we have, we can head back to Chaos.

“The kids?”

“I’m leaving some of your guys behind to handle it,” Rylan informs me.

“Good. Make sure those kids are safe,” I tell him as we climb in the car. My chest hurts, and it hurts to breathe. Silas jumps in the driver’s seat while Ry climbs in back with me, pulling my shirt up to check for wounds.

“Goddamn,” he hisses when he lifts it.

“That bad?”

“That is some nasty bruising already starting, Hunter.”

“Fuck,” I hiss.

“I texted the Doc. He’s going to meet us at Chaos,” Rylan adds. I nod my head.

“Good.”

“I hope this shit didn’t hurt anything internal,” he adds.

“You worried about me now, little brother?” I tease him.

“Hell no. You’re a stubborn motherfucker.” Damn right, I am. And I have a car full of bastards who need my attention.

Chapter 22

Lana

I pace the main room, not knowing what to do with myself. Rylan and Silas made sure to tell Tamsyn and Angel they had to stay here along with Becky. She wasn’t feeling well, so she went to one of the other rooms to lie down for a while.

Tamsyn and Angel went to the kitchen for drinks and I’m left out here alone.

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