Page 22 of Shadow

The glint of the sun reflecting off steel caught my eye right before a red laser landed on Anatoly’s chest. “Move!” I barked, shoving him to the side. As soon as I moved into the laser’s path, pain exploded through my chest, and another shot landed in my shoulder. The force of the bullets slammed me back against the side of the SUV, and immediately, warmth spilled from the wounds, and crimson stained my skin and shirt.

People were screaming. Chaos was ensuing. But I couldn’t think past the pain searing through my chest and shoulder, and my breaths were too shallow. The world was spinning around me as I slumped to the ground, so much liquid warmth sliding down my body. Too much.

Anatoly appeared in front of me, and he ripped open his dark button-down shirt, yanking it off, leaving him bare and exposed. I grunted when he applied pressure to my chest. One of his men pressed their shirt to my shoulder. “Stay with me, Shadow,” Anatoly snapped, fury lining his face. “Why thefuckdid you do that, you idiot?”

“Because of Rurik,” I rasped, my eyelids drooping. He was Rurik’s best friend, and I didn’t want to witness Rurik’s pain if something happened to Anatoly.

Anatoly slapped me—hard. My head whipped to the side, and my eyes snapped back open. I slowly turned my head to look back at him as sirens wailed in the distance, drawing closer and closer. “Yeah, well, you should have let me take the fucking bullets,” he growled. “Because now my second is going to lose his goddamn mind, and I will not be able to stop him, Shadow. You are the only thing in this world he truly cares about, and he is going to burn everything to the ground to get revenge.”

A stupid smile tilted my lips as I sagged, the world going dark around me. “Fucking good,” I whispered.

“Malik!” Anatoly barked, but the world faded to nothing.

18

Rurik

My phone rang from beside me, and I looked away from my laptop where I was attempting to get some work done while Shadow was with Anatoly. Sighing, I grabbed the device, answering Anatoly’s phone call.

“What did he do?” I asked in lieu of a greeting. Because the only reason he was calling me already was because Shadow had done something to piss him off. They hadn’t even been gone thirty damn minutes.

“Get to the hospital,” Anatoly barked. I swear to fuck, my heart stopped in my chest. There was a lot of commotion in the background—beeping, loud talking, the opening and shutting of drawers. “I’m dropping the location to you now.” My phone pinged with the coordinates, and I lurched off the bed, scrambling to get dressed and find my fucking shoes.

“What the fuck happened?” I barked. “Where’s Shadow, Balakin?” I snarled, my chest feeling too fucking tight.Something in my gut was telling me Malik was in trouble. Something was fuckingwrong. “Where the fuck is he?!” I roared when he didn’t answer me.

“Just get here.”

He ended the call before I could say another word. Snarling, I stormed out of the room, heading for the room next door while still buttoning my shirt. Denis answered the door in a hurry when I banged my fist against it. “Sir?”

“Car keys,” I growled, holding my hand out. “Where is the car parked at?”

“In the parking garage on the first floor, sir.”

He didn’t question me or attempt to try to drive me himself. Instead, he simply reached into his pocket and grabbed the keys to the SUV, placing them in my palm. I turned on my heel and stormed off for the stairs. I didn’t have time to deal with the goddamn elevator. I was coming unglued.

If something was wrong withmyShadow, I was going to burn this world to the fucking ground, starting with Anatoly mother fucking Balakin. And I would dance in the ashes of it all after I was fucking done.

The receptionist working the front desk looked up in alarm when I slammed through the stairwell, but she smartly kept her mouth shut and cast her eyes away from me. I made my way out through the exit that led to the parking garage, easily finding the gleaming, black SUV amongst all the other vehicles.

Once I was inside, I quickly backed out and headed for the exit. And when I hit the highway, following the GPS to the hospital,I pressed my foot down on the accelerator, breaking numerous laws as I rushed to get there.

If Malik was not waiting there for me, alive and fuckinghealthyand unharmed, I was going to snatch the leash Anatoly had on me right out of his cold fucking hands. And I was going to turn into the feral dog he’d done his damnest to train.

“Where are you?”I snarled into my phone when I walked inside and didn’t see Anatoly or any of his men waiting on me in the emergency room lobby. I prowled toward the heavy steel doors that led into the emergency department, ignoring the nurse who was shouting at me to stop and trying to tell me I couldn’t go back there.

I’d like to see her fucking stop me.

I barged through the doors, my eyes scanning the alarmed workers for any sign of men in black suits. And there they were—triage room thirteen.

“Room thirteen,” Anatoly told me just as I started making my way in that direction.

I hung up the phone and shoved it into my pocket. The guard standing outside of the room swallowed thickly when he saw me and quickly moved out of my way, casting his eyes away from me. I could only imagine what I looked like—cold and fuckingempty. Why the fuck did I need to fake anything or wear that goddamn mask when I knew in my fucking gut that I was going to walk into my worst nightmare as soon as I opened that damn door?

Gripping the handle, I shoved the door open?—

And immediately stopped in the doorway.

Anatoly was standing beside the hospital bed, which meant he wasn’t the one in it. For the first time in my long, cold existence, Iprayedone of his men would be in that bed instead and he’d called me to come here so we could figure out a plan of retaliation.

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