Page 48 of Kissed By Shadows

“Okay,” I whisper, and he leans closer, pressing his lips against mine as his warm palm cups my cheek.

“Good girl,” he breathes against my lips, and then he straightens up, gazing down at me for a long moment. Heaving a deep sigh, he turns around and walks out, leaving the door open.

Moments later, I hear the rumble of deep voices, then the sounds of footsteps coming towards me. A smile splits my lips as Roman and Rowan enter the room, their gazes fixed on me.

“Heard you needed some sleeping buddies,” Roman teases, his hair damp as he drops his sweats and strides over to the bed completely naked. “Room for two?”

“Always,” I say, that damn lump back in my throat as I shuffle to the middle of the, luckily vast bed, which is definitely bigger than mine, though I still think we could do with bigger if all four of us will share a bed one day.

I’ve not slept alone since I arrived here apart from the couple of days the guys were away, and I hardly slept while they were gone. I just can’t seem to sleep alone anymore, and although that should probably worry me, it doesn’t make it any less true.

He climbs in, pulling me close to his burning-hot body just as the mattress dips behind me and Rowan snuggles up to my back. Like his brother, he’s not wearing anything, and I can’t help wiggling my arse into his crotch, tangling my legs with his.

“Careful, Little Lamb, or I’ll take you up on that invitation, regardless of how sore you might be,” Rowan purrs in my ear, so I still, even as Evangeline throbs.

My exhausted and sated body soon slips into slumber, surrounded by their warmth.

My breath huffs out of me as I run, the dark too thick to see much. Where are they? I’m frantic, looking left and right as I futilely search the pitch black, screaming names, but I just can’t find them.

Suddenly, I burst into a room, the light so bright after the dark that it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust. When I can see clearly, a sob tears from my chest and I wish I was back inthe pitch black because then I wouldn’t be faced with the horror before me.

Hunter, Roman, and Rowan are all tied to chairs, but Hunt and Rowan are unmoving, blood dripping down their foreheads, their eyes unseeing. My gaze locks onto Roman, his eyes wide as his mouth opens on a scream, telling me to run just as a dark shadow materialises behind him, the barrel of a gun pressed to his head.

My gaze snags on familiar hands, arms covered in ink that I mapped with my touch not that long ago in my bed. I trace it up, my heart fracturing into a thousand tiny pieces when Nikolai’s face swims before him.

“Hello, Solnishko.”

A scream tears through my throat as the bang on the gun sounds…

“Iris!” A deep shout has me gasping, and I sit bolt upright, my heart pounding as I’m torn from my nightmare into the brightness of morning. “Sweetheart, it’s okay, you’re safe.” Roman’s low voice has me snapping my head to him, and with a sob, I launch myself into his arms, tears streaming down my cheeks.

“H–he s–shot y–you,” I stutter, his arms coming up around me and pulling me tight to him.

“Who did, baby?” he asks, warmth at my back letting me know Rowan is here too and not in that god-awful room, his eyes unseeing as he bleeds out.

Letting go of Roman, I twist, another sob leaving me as I find Rowan really there, alive and unharmed, my gaze tracing his forehead. I’m not normally so weepy, but it’s been a tough week, so cut a girl some slack.

“It was just a nightmare, Little Lamb,” Rowan assures me, pulling me into him and placing a kiss on my head. I wrapmy arms around him, flinching hard when the door is suddenly flung open.

“What the fuck is going on?” Hunt’s gruff voice rings out, and I quickly release Rowan, scrambling over Roman and throwing myself at Hunter, who to his credit, catches me with one arm, the other holding a gun. “Hey, Peaches. What happened, darling?”

“She was having a nightmare, said something about some guy shooting us,” Roman tells him, and I hear the rustle of the bedclothes behind me, then feel the body heat of both twins pressing up against me, my racing heart finally starting to slow.

“Who shot us, Peaches?” Hunter asks softly, and I crane my neck to look up at him, my arms still wrapped tightly around him.

“Nikolai,” I confess in a soft whisper, my stomach twisting as I feel like I’ve betrayed Nik somehow by admitting that.

His jaw works, but then he’s dipping down to press his lips against mine in a gentle, reassuring kiss.

“Petrov won’t be shooting any of us, baby girl. I’m pretty sure that the way he sees it, he owes us a debt for keeping you safe,” he tells me, his lips brushing mine as he speaks.

My brows dip down. “Why do you think that?” I ask. I know that Nik agreed they were the best people to keep me safe, but there was no mention of a debt being owed.

“The night you arrived, I had a text from an unknown number, telling me that a debt was owed and would be paid one day,” he tells me, and my heart twinges at the knowledge that Nikolai risked contacting them and offered them something which would make his father even more furious.

I wonder again what happened after he went back empty-handed the night he was sent here, but I can’t focus on that for too long, dread making nausea swim in my stomach.

“How about Hunt makes us some pancakes and we take a shower?” Roman asks, and I don’t miss the growl that vibrates in Hunter’s chest.

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