Page 75 of Kissed By Shadows

“Sergi is playing his hand, attacking us on our own fucking turf,” he snarls, his body vibrating as he slams the light on and I blink, trying to clear this nightmare away. Roman is still cursingas he tugs on his sweatpants and a vest, all while I sit there, the still-warm blankets clutched to my naked chest.

Hunt goes to his bedside table and nausea swirls around my stomach when he pulls out a gun, checks it, and then shoves it into the back of his jeans. Full-body tremors wrack my frame, my arms coming to wrap around myself as my mind begs for this to be a nightmare.

“W–what’s that for?” I ask, dread leaving me freezing and shaking. Hunt pauses, his deep scowl softening as he comes towards the bed. Using the same hand that just checked his weapon, he cups my cheek, and my breath stutters out of my lips as I hold his intense stare.

“Stay here, Iris,” he commands, and it’s the use of my name that stops my heart. I didn’t realise how much the constant use of nicknames was a comfort until now. “Rowan will stay with you, Bubby and a few of the others will keep you safe. We need to protect our people and show those bastards that they can’t come onto Shadows’ turf and not pay the price.”

My breathing is stuttered, my chest unable to take in a full breath as he dips down and places a quick kiss on my lips. Then he’s gone, taking all the warmth from the room. I swallow, licking my lips as Roman steps in front of me.

“Stay in the flat, okay, Princess? We’ll soon sort this out.” Then his lips land on mine, his kiss deeper than Hunt’s but no less fleeting before he’s striding away.

My lips are frozen, opening and closing as I’m left alone. A small whimper leaves me when I hear the front door slam, and I realise that I didn’t even get my fucking brain to work to say anything.

Trembling, I get out of bed, reaching down and snagging a hoodie from the floor. A broken sound falls from my lips when I realise it’s Roman’s, and tears fill my eyes when I tug it over my head, the soft material falling to my thighs. I slip some knickersand my leggings on, though it doesn’t seem to matter that I wore them yesterday. I just need something to cover my clammy skin and make me warm again.

Only being in their arms will chase away the cold…

More cracks rend the air, sounding far too close, and I flinch, especially now that I know the sound is gunfire and that my guys, my Shadows, are out there, facing bullets. My heart thrashes inside my chest, the walls feeling like they’re closing in as panic consumes me. Stopping, I take several deep breaths, just focusing on counting them until the black spots that were starting to take over my vision disappear.

With the next pop, something jogs inside my mind, and I rush to my bedside table, opening the top drawer and grabbing the knife that Rowan gave me. It sits in my trembling palm, the handle warming against my skin, and not only does it make me feel closer to the guys, but a sense of power washes over me. I may not know how to use it since we didn’t get that far in my self-defence training, but at least I have something if it all goes to shit.

It’s with shaking limbs that I leave the room, tucking the switchblade in a small pocket in my leggings before making my way down the silent hall, planning to find Rowan, whom I’ve still yet to see. Hunt said he would be here with me, alongside Dayton and some of the other guys. As more gunfire sounds, I can’t help wondering where the fucking police are, though as soon as the thought enters my mind, another tells me that Sergi probably paid them off. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had that kind of power.

All the hair on my body stands on end, my breathing picking up as I pad down the hall towards the main living room. The place feels so empty without the guys in it, so cold and lifeless, and I once more wrap my arms around myself as I round thecorner. My eyes snap upwards, a dark shadow appearing from the side of the room and stealing all the oxygen from my lungs.

“Good evening,Kukolka.” My entire body freezes, the sound of Sergi Petrov’s voice like the brush of death upon your spine. “You have been a very naughty girl, but it’s time for you to come home where you belong.”

“NO TIME TO DIE” BY BILLIE EILISH

HUNTER

My jaw clenches as I duck behind a concrete planter, just barely avoiding another fucking bullet that could have taken me out.Fuck. We’re outnumbered, and the number of my crew littering the ground breaks my fucking heart. I can’t even get to them to check if they’re alive, the gunfire unrelenting.

I would question why the police haven’t turned up, but knowing the Russians, they’ve been paid to ignore what’s happening on the estate. Fucking pigs, it’s bollocks to think they are here for the people. They’re here for whoever pays them the most.

“What’s the plan, Hunt?” Roman pants from beside me, and I look over at him, seeing the same grim determination that I feel, his face and body glistening with ruby red like some kind of demon. The Russians have suffered losses too, but there are too many of them for us to gain the upper hand, and it pisses me the fuck off.

I knew from the moment Nikolai messaged me, telling me he was being sent to Russia, that something was going to happen.That Sergi was planning something and that we’d be going into it blind without his son and heir’s help.

“What’s the plan, Hunter?” Roman asks again, his voice rough, the blood lust riding him hard, and I swallow before biting the inside of my cheek. My stomach tenses, similar to when I was a young boy and would come home to find my baby sister screaming with hunger as my mother was passed out on the sofa, a needle in her arm.

For the first time in years, I’m at a loss. I don’t have a fucking plan, just a hope that we somehow make it out of this alive.

“PANIC ROOM - ACOUSTIC” BY AU/RA

IRIS

My entire body goes cold, like the icy brush of a freezing winter wind as I gaze upon Sergi Petrov, the man I’ve been running from for what feels like an eternity, but in reality, is barely over a week.

I don’t ask what he’s doing here, or how he got past the Shadows that were posted outside the door, but I can’t stop the small sound of pain that leaves my lips when I see Rowan, slumped on the floor, a small puddle of ruby underneath him. He’s not moving, and as I take a step forward, Sergitskslike I’m a naughty child, and my gaze snaps back to his.

“He’s not dead, just incapacitated for now,” Sergi says, his accented voice so damn calm that it sends a shiver across my skin. “What happens next, what happens to them all, is completely up to you, little Iris.”

Terror locks up my muscles, making it hard to breathe, my heart screaming at me to go to Rowan and check for myself, but my mind knows that I’m mostly powerless here.

“What do you mean?” I ask, my voice barely above a whisper, and the grin he gives me is nothing short of evil as he closes the distance between us. I’m frozen, my mind screaming at me to run, but my body just won’t fucking move.

“You have a choice,Kukolka.” His hand reaches out, his fingers grasping a piece of my hair and coiling it around, his touch gentle but full of a promise that makes butterflies with barbed wings soar in my stomach and bile sting the back of my throat. “If you come with me quietly, with no fuss, I will let them all live.”

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