“Oh, come on, guys. How much worse could it be than her being our enemy’s daughter? Why would she fake that?”
Matvei clenches his jaw and looks down at his hands. “Fair point. But everyone has something out there that hints at their existence. She’s no one. It’s hard to trust someone who isn’t anyone.”
“Well, I trust her,” I snap defensively.
“I hear you, but…”
“And you trust me!” I interrupt him. “Right?”
I fold my arms across my chest and glare at Matvei, daring him to say he doesn’t.
“I think…” Before Adrian can add his thoughts, we hear the loud, coldly familiar smack of a bullet hitting the ground of the warehouse.
“What the fuck!” I blurt out, running around the desk to look out of the viewing window.
Matvei and Adrian are next to me, their guns drawn from beneath their jackets.
I pull mine out, too, and glance at Matvei with a frown. “Where did it come from?”
Another shot spikes through the left window, shattering it. A heavy-duty bullet smacks into the ground close to the first.
Then we’re running as Adrian shouts, “SNIPER!” And everyone on the floor of the warehouse leaps into action.
“Left window! Building across the street!” Matvei shouts.
“Samantha moves!” I yell as the tea lady comes strolling across the warehouse with her headphones in and music blaring from them. She’s young, not even twenty-five. Her father works on the floor, and she wanted to earn some extra money, so she came here to work. And right now, she can’t hear a damn word I am yelling at her, and she’s about to walk right into his window of fire.
I bolt at full speed across the warehouse and her hear huff as the air is slammed from her lungs when I crash into her, pulling her away from the sniper’s view. She screams, and hot tea flies into the air from her tray. Something bites with the sharpest teeth into my shoulder, and I know I’ve been shot as I push her out of the way and to safety.
Her headphones have fallen off. Her eyes are wild with fright.
“Run!” I yell at her as another bullet smacks into a crate nearby.
The crate splinters. Then the shooting stops.
“Adrian got him!” Matvei shouts in relief. “Fuck, you’re bleeding a lot,” he grumbles.
“I’m okay, it’s not as bad as it looks.”
But it is bad. Blood is soaking through my shirt. My arm is flooded with pain shooting from the hole in my shoulder. As long as it’s through and through, it’ll be okay.
“Come on. Let’s get you out of here. I’ll call the doc on the way.”
Matvei ushers me towards his car.
“No doc. I’ll sort it out myself. I’ll call him when I get home if I need him,” I say.
“You’re being stubborn.”
“I don’t want a big drama at the penthouse. I’m sure it’s not as bad as it looks anyway.”
He rolls his eyes. “Your shoulder, your call,” he says, starting the engine.
On the way home, I keep getting slammed by waves of dizzy pain, but I grit my teeth and hide it. The last thing I want is for the twins or Selene to see what happened and to think that if I can’t keep myself safe, I can’t keep them safe. Selene is already at odds with me as it is.
Matvei asks again if I need the doc as I climb out of the car. “No, man, I promise I’ll be fine. I’ll talk to you later.” I slam the door closed and head towards the elevators. Carefully, I slip my arms into the jacket, pulling it closed to hide as much of the blood as I can. Luckily, though, the twins and Selene are not in the living room. I can hear them playing in their bedroom, music on loud, laughter spilling from the door. I hurry past and into my private bathroom, closing the door quietly behind me. I turn theshower on so that if Selene comes to check on me, she’ll think I’m in there.
Pulling out the first aid kit from beneath the basin, I scratch through it for what I need. It’s stocked enough to supply a hospital emergency room.
