Page 52 of Owned By Shadows

I take a moment to lift my shirt, gritting my teeth as I gently poke the area to see how bad it is. I can’t feel a bullet in there. I think it’s more of a flesh wound than anything, but the blood is making it difficult to see clearly.

Well, nothing for it but to make my way to the RVP and then Andrei can look. Covering the wound with my hand, which is the best I can do right now given I don’t want to take my shirt off and draw more attention to myself, I clench my jaw and start walking, reaching into my pocket for my phone.

Only I come up empty, which earns another string of curses.

“Motherfucking shitbags!” I rage as I pick up speed, knowing that I won’t be able to contact Dima or Andrei to let them know of my injuries.

It takes far longer than I’d like to get back to the damn port, and it didn’t fucking help with my vision going in and out, dark spots threatening to overtake it completely.

“Hunter! Fuck!” Andrei’s voice sounds as I approach what I think is the boat, but it’s hard to see clearly. “What the fuck happened? Have you been shot?”

I slump into brawny arms, someone taking the bag from my back as my blood-soaked shirt is lifted.

“Looks like he’s been shot,” Dima comments, and I want to laugh at the way he’s stating the obvious, but then fire races up my side as Andrei pokes the wound with a glove-covered hand. When did he put those on?

“Stay with us, big guy,” he urges as I’m lifted onto a surface that bobs. It makes me groan, nausea adding insult to my injuries. “I’ll treat you on the way back. It’s not too deep, a clear exit wound, and I’m pretty certain nothing vital has been hit, but we can’t stay here for an X-ray to double-check.”

“What if it is worse than you think?” Dima asks softly, though I catch the worry in his tone all the same, and I crack my eyes open.

“I’ve treated enough gunshot wounds to have a pretty good idea, Dima,” Andrei snaps back and then sighs. “Sorry, this is just… Fuck.” He doesn’t stop working on me, and I hiss a pained breath as he cleans the wound that is throbbing like a bitch. “If it is worse than we think, then he’ll be fucked as we’ll be too far away for help. We should know by morning, and I really think he’ll be okay.”

“Thanks, doc,” I rasp, my teeth clenching so hard I wonder if I’ll break my jaw.

“Stay awake and tell us what happened,” he commands, and I go to make a joke about him giving me orders now, but he does something that has me cursing a storm.

“Fucking hell, that hurts,” I pant, sweat beading my brows as my vision wavers a little.

“I’ve given you something for the pain, but not too much as I need to monitor your reactions to gauge how serious this is,” Andrei tells me absently as he gets a needle and surgical thread out of his bag. “It would be really great if you guys stopped getting shot though.”

“Hey, it was Nik’s fault with Roman. Still need to punish his arse for that,” I murmur, the pain less sharp now that the pain meds are taking effect. “And Sergi’s men found me, shot me and maybe my tires, so I lost control. I may have bumped my head a little.”

“Okay, so we need to check for a concussion too. Good to know,” Andrei states, focused on stitching me up. “What happened next?”

“I was trapped in an alleyway, only one way out, so I ran at the car, shot the driver and passenger, then hightailed it out of there,” I state, my eyes closed as the boat’s movement equally tries to put me to sleep and makes my body hurt in all kinds of ways. Not fucking fun. “I didn’t see if anyone else was in the car.”

I can hear Dima on the phone, no doubt telling Nik what has happened. “He wants to speak to you,” Dima’s low voice says, and I pop my eyes open, feeling him pressing the phone against my ear. Called it.

“Hey, Sweetheart,” I rasp, my tongue feeling a little heavy.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing getting yourself shot!” he roars on the other end, and I wince. “I swear to god, Hunter Anderson, I should kill you myself for making me worry like this.”

I chuckle, which only enrages him further as he switches to Russian, probably cursing me out some more. “Nice to know you care, Sweetheart.”

“Care? Care?!” I hear a door open and shut, then the sound of the ocean as he presumably heads outside so as not to wake the others. “Of course I fucking care, Hunt.”

“I’m okay, Sweetheart. Andrei is taking good care of me, patching me up,” I tell him, my voice soft even if all I want to do is go to sleep right now. “And we’ll be back soon, so you can shout at me in person if you like.”

“I should fucking spank you for getting yourself shot.” He sighs, and heat flares past the pain briefly.

“Not for a couple of weeks, Nik. Hunt will need bed rest and time to heal before you punish him,” Andrei comments as he finishes up my stitches. “He can join Iris.”

“Oh god, they will be a fucking nightmare,” Nik groans, and I huff a laugh. He’s not wrong. I already knew Iris was going to get bored real quick of being stuck on bed rest, and I don’t do well being made to rest either.

“Guess you’ll have to nurse both of us then, Sweetheart,” I tease, closing my eyes and letting the warm nighttime breeze wash over me.

“Just try to get back here in one piece, Hunt,” Nik pleads, and my heart warms at the caring tone, but I hate the worry that laces his words as well.

“I’ll see you soon, Sweetheart, promise.” The phone is taken away, the pain easing some more as the pain relief takes even further effect, and I let myself rest, the movement of the boat soothing now.

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