Page 26 of Ink

Nora, Ash’s wife, was waiting for us. She quickly ushered me over to an exam table. “Help her up here.”

Matteo lifted me off my feet and set me on the padded surface. Then he moved to stand by my uninjured side, interlacing our fingers as he slid his other arm behind me.

Nora asked me a bunch of questions, checked my vitals, then took a closer look at my arm.

“Thank goodness, this isn’t as bad as it looks.” She applied pressure over the spot where I’d been shot and lifted my arm in the air.

“Did she lose too much blood?” Matteo asked.

Nora shook her head. “She’d be lightheaded if that was a problem, and judging by the gash in her arm, the bullet only grazed her.”

Just hearing her say that eased some of the pain and most of my tension. “See, it’s just a graze. I’m okay.”

“Nothing is okay about this situation!” The vein in Matteo’s temple visibly throbbed.

“At least she’s accepting medical treatment for her minor gunshot wound,” Nora muttered, shooting a loaded glance at Ash, who’d followed us into the clinic. “Unlike someone else I know, who had a freaking bullet in his arm and refused to let me get a good look at it or take him to the hospital.”

I twisted around to gawk at Ash. “You got shot and refused treatment? For more than just a graze?”

“I wouldn’t put it that way,” he disagreed. “I just put it off until I could get to the clubhouse so Razor could take care of it for me.”

I quirked a brow at Nora as she cleaned my wound. “I bet that went over well with you.”

Ash snorted. “She was pissed as fuck and made me work hard to get her to agree to a date.”

“Which he then blew off for club business,” Nora grumbled with a roll of her eyes.

They seemed so madly in love with each other, it was difficult to believe they’d started off so rocky. “Really?”

“Yup,” Nora confirmed.

After she finished bandaging my arm, Ash wrapped his arms around her. “Luckily, she gave me another chance, and I proved to her that I wouldn’t fuck up again.”

“Aw,” I sighed.

Wizard poked his head into the clinic. “You got a second?”

Matteo shook his head. “Not gonna leave my woman’s side until she’s taken care of.”

“You heard Nora. I barely got shot. I’m fine.”

Wizard shook his head. “That’s not good enough for you, is it?”

“Not a chance in hell,” Matteo confirmed with a slight nod.

Ash tugged Nora from the room.

Wizard’s gaze slid toward me, and he must’ve found whatever he was searching for in my expression because he came into the room. Hooking his foot around the leg of the rolling stool Nora had used when she examined me, he rolled it close and sat down. “This is more about Annika than club business, so I guess I can share the news in front of her.”

Tension filled my body, and my muscles locked. “What is it?”

Matteo threaded his fingers through mine as Wizard announced, “Your uncle is on the run.”

My shoulders slumped as relief coursed through my veins. “Well, at least he can’t come after me if he’s gone.”

Unfortunately, I underestimated the lengths my uncle would go to.

10

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