Page 65 of Owned By Shadows

“Rowan!” Hunt yells, but I ignore him, pulling my arm back and launching the grenade at the group who have come together at the other end of the dock.

We take off in the next second, which is fucking lucky because there’s an almighty blast that has all the birds taking flight from the trees and I’m blinded for a second with light. When my eyes can see again, the dock is no more, and there are no soldiers in sight.

“I gotta get me some more of those when we get home!” The sound of the chopper gets closer, and my lips tug up into a smile. “Everyone stay down!”

“I swear to god, you crazy fucking psycho!” my brother snarls, but I ignore him, whistling “You’re Welcome” from Moana while I reach into my pocket and pull out another grenade.

I was always pretty good at physics, so I quickly work out the exact moment I need to throw. Luckily, the chopper is quitelow in the sky and has an open side, otherwise this would never work. Taking a deep inhale, I pull the pin, bring my arm back, and throw the grenade.

Then I do a little happy dance when it lands inside the open side just as the helicopter goes past us about five hundred meters away. The grenade goes off before any of the crew knows what’s happening, and I watch with glee as it nosedives into the sea.

“Boom, baby!” I cheer before glancing down at the others, their faces a mixture of shock and grudging respect. “What?”

“Where the fuck did you learn to do that?” Hunt asks, wincing as he gets up, helping Iris up too.

“Year Six rounders champion,” I reply, his brows dropping as clearly that wasn’t the answer he was expecting.

“That was fucking awesome!” Iris exclaims, coming over to me and wrapping her arms around my neck. My hands come to her waist, helping to steady her as we speed off. “And hot as fuck.”

Her lips slam onto mine, and I growl into her mouth, letting her control the kiss for once because she’s fucking exquisite when she takes charge. Plus, the adrenaline is roaring through my veins and I’m hard as hell. What can I say? Killing my enemies does that to me. We part with panted breaths, and if we weren’t surrounded by strangers in a small boat, I’d fuck the ever-loving shit out of my girl.

“Well, as awesome as that may have been, we are lucky to be leaving unharmed,” Nik states, his eyes pausing at my shoulder. “Well, mostly. Andrei, Rowan has been shot.”

“What?!” Iris squeaks as she pulls back enough to give me a once-over, her eyes narrowing when she lands on my shoulder. “You know the rules. Looks like Hunt has company.”

“Wait, what?” I ask, hissing when Andrei pushes me down to sitting and gets to work on my wound. “But it’s barely a scratch. Hardly counts as getting shot.”

“Rules are rules, brother,” Roman teases like a dickhead, coming up behind Iris and wrapping his arms around her. “Don’t worry, Nik and I will pick up the slack.”

“Fuck you all,” I snarl, pouting as Andrei cleans and bandages the wound, which really doesn’t count.

“Should be healed pretty quickly as the bullet only grazed you,” he says after he’s finished, the ocean surrounding us as we head to the island that Nik organised for us.

“Well then, you won’t have blue balls for long,” my brother continues, and I would launch myself at him, maybe throw him off the side of the boat, but he still has hold of Iris, so I can’t. Bastard.

“Where are we going?” Iris asks, sitting in Roman’s lap when he takes the bench seat opposite me. Hunt comes to sit next to them, Nik next to me, Bubby on my other side. Poor kid has been through it since he accompanied Iris to Russia. He’s quiet, like usual, though there’s definitely a hint of colour in his cheeks. I think the adventure suits him.

“It’s a private island that someone Alexei knows owns, which just so happens to have a small medical facility that can properly care for Iris,” Nik answers, taking Iris’s hand in his and bringing it up to his lips to place a kiss on her knuckles.

Her poor face is still puffy, her skin a little pale, and my stomach tightens with how much danger she’s in. And not just from that cunt, Sergi Petrov, but her own body.

We’re all quiet for the rest of the time it takes to get to the new island, which is around an hour, and Iris is dozing on Roman when we arrive.

“Come on, Sleeping Beauty,” he teases softly, and she blinks awake, her beautiful hazel eyes catching mine.

“How’s your shoulder, Roo?” she asks sleepily, rubbing her eyes as Hunt helps her up.

“It’s fine, Lamb,” I tell her, ignoring the throbbing sting that emanates from the wound.

“I’m glad it wasn’t worse.” I hold my hand out to her, the one on the opposite side from my injury, and she takes it, allowing us to help her out of the gently swaying boat and onto the dock where a doctor and nurse are already waiting, wheelchair at the ready. Iris’s nose scrunches. “Do I have to get in that? I can walk fine.”

“Humour us, Peaches,” Hunt says on her other side, and she sighs but doesn’t argue.

“Hello, I’m Doctor Shelia,” the doctor introduces herself. She’s in her mid to late forties, if I had to guess, Caucasian and has ginger hair that looks unruly and is barely contained with her hair tie, but she’s got a wide smile as she looks at Iris. “Doctor Clive updated me with your notes, but I’d like to do some checks, see where we’re at if that’s okay?”

“Okay,” Iris replies tiredly, letting Hunt help her into the chair.

The doctor looks at me, pausing at my bandaged shoulder. “Need us to check that too?”

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