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“I will.” I kiss her quickly before reaching up to swipe away a tear. “Everything is going to be alright. I doubt we’ll even find Felix tonight. This was just a pathetic show to make it clear to everyone that he isn’t interested in backing down from a fight.”
“You promise me that you’re going to come back home, Jovan. Show or not.”
I wrap her in a tight hug and bury my face in her hair. “I promise that I’m going to come back home to you, Hadley. You don’t have to worry about me. I know how to handle myself. I promise.”
As I step away from her and head outside, I know it’s a promise that I never should have made and one that I desperately want to keep.
21
HADLEY
“Is she asleep?” Jovan asks from somewhere within the house. His voice carries down the hall to our room.
I yawn as I sit up in bed. Rio mumbles a reply but he isn’t speaking loud enough for me to hear.
After a moment, Jovan stumbles into our bedroom. He leans against the wall and crosses his arms while I reach over and turn on the light.
The air is stolen from my lungs as I get a good look at him. Cuts cover his arms and face. Blood stains his skin. He looks like he’s been in the fight of his life, though knowing him, it wasn’t.
“Are you okay?” I ask as I get out of bed and race across the room to him. “Where are you still bleeding? Do we need to go to the hospital? Damn it, Jovan. You can’t just come home looking like you crawled through a murder scene.”
“Hadley, I’m alright. There’s a bullet in my arm that I’m going to need you to pull out, but other than that, I’m fine.”
“What the fuck, Jovan! You can’t just come home and tell me that there is a bullet lodged in your arm like it is nothing. Holy shit. Get to the bathroom before you bleed all over the floor and stain it.”
He laughs and shakes his head. “Glad to see that your concern is over the floor and not the man who lets you steal his blankets every night.”
“You’re the dumbass who decided to go get shot,” I say as I follow him into the bathroom. My face softens a little as he sits on the edge of the tub. “You are alright, aren’t you?”
“I’m going to be just fine, kitten, I promise. Now, do you know how to pull a bullet out or is it something I’m going to need to walk you through?”
I scowl and start rummaging through the drawers. “I know how to pull a bullet out. I can’t say that I’m happy to have to do that now, though. What happened to you? Are you alright? And don’t give me some bullshit answer to keep me from worrying.”
He chuckles and grabs the hem of my shorts, pulling me over to him even though I’m still digging around for the long tweezers I saw earlier. I sigh and give up, letting his gentle tugging lead me over to him.
Jovan takes my hand and kisses the back of it. “I’m okay, Hadley. I promise that I am. It’s nothing that hasn’t happened before. As for what happened, well, Carlos was waiting for us. Said that I should stop digging. One of my guys went to put him down but we were ambushed by Felix’s men.”
“Did everyone on your side get out alive?” I kiss his cheek before going back to the drawers. Finally, I find the tweezers and everything else I need to take out the bullet. “I think this is going to need stitches too.”
“I have a medical kit with everything you need to stitch me up. If you’re not comfortable doing that, I have a doctor on staff.” Jovan groans as he moves his arm a little too quickly. “No. Not everybody on our side made it out alive.”
I shake my head as he strips his shirt off and reveals the bullet wound. As I dab away the blood with a wet cloth so I can see what I’m doing, Jovan hisses in pain. I sigh and try to be gentler, but I need most of the blood cleaned away before I pull the bullet out of his arm.
“Is there anything I can do for their families?” I ask as I swipe away the last of the blood on his arm. The wound is still bleeding but it’s slowed down enough for me to try and get the bullet out.
“Hadley, you don’t have to do anything. Their families will be compensated for everything.”
I shake my head and hand him a rolled up cloth to bite down on. “I don’t mean giving them money. I mean helping them out. Making meals for them. Taking care of the children if they need a night out.”
“They’re going to be fine.” He puts the cloth in his mouth and bites down.
“You don’t know that,” I say as I tie my hair back into a ponytail. “You don’t know anything that is going to happen. These people now have to survive without the other person that was taking care of the family. The least I can do is offer a little bit of support for the next few weeks.”
Jovan’s breath hitches as I shine the flashlight from my phone at the wound while holding his arm still. I lighten my grip a little but keep looking for the bullet. As soon as I see it, I grab the tweezers.
My heart is racing as I insert the tweezers. I hold my breath as I poke around for a second before the tweezers close around the bullet. More blood is seeping out of the wound as I pull the bullet out and drop it into the sink.
He spits the cloth out and closes his eyes. His teeth grind together for a moment as I wipe my hands on a towel. While I dab at the blood on his arm, my stomach starts to toss and turn. I take a deep breath, trying not to get sick over the thought of what I just did.
