Page 101 of Marked By the Devil

She trailed off, looking in the direction of the hallway that led back into the house more from the foyer. “They called for an ambulance and the others are, uh, handling the other mess.”

I heaved out a deep breath, looking her over again as the lights and sirens approached. The sounds of the emergency vehicle were sharp and loud, but I welcomed the sight of help on its way.

“You’re not hurt?” I checked again, unable to even start forgiving myself if she was wounded at all. “He didn’t hurt you?”

She shook her head, biting her lip with a worried frown. “No. He didn’t hurt me. He barely even had a chance to grab me. I knocked him down, and before he could shoot, I did.”

I backed out as the EMTs came in. The paramedics moved with the urgency they were trained to operate with, and as the foyer grew more crowded with too many bodies, I retreated. They took over compressing the wounds. Mila took her hand away and scooted out of the way. Wren edged back to the wall, and I joined her.

“Should you go with him and make sure he’s okay?” she asked as I grabbed her in my arms.

“No.” I shook my head. Alexei was already on it, still here and helping with the chaos.

“I’ll stay with him,” my cousin told us gruffly. He glanced at his sister-in-law. “Unless you want me to wait until Lev is here, Mila?”

She shook her head, looking at me and Wren covered in blood, then down at her own hands. “No. I’m okay. We’ll try to start cleaning up.”

“He’s on his way,” Alexei said before rushing out the door to follow the gurney that held Paul.

They loaded him up and closed the back doors to the van before they sped off. Lights continued to spin, but in the brightness of the sunshine glaring down on the earth, it wasn’t that noticeable. The sirens faded as the ambulance sped off.

Still, we stayed there and waited. Watching. Staring into the void of where the ambulance had been.

Adrik and Elena were further in the house and their voices carried. I held Wren to me as she caught her breath, clinging to my arms. In the other direction, I heard the men who were already handling Smithson’s body.

That motherfucking…

I relished the fresh wave of anger, the white-hot, molten fury that traveled through my blood and ignited my heartrate into a fast tempo. With every beat, my rage escalated more and more.

He dared to come here.

To my home.

To break in and shoot Paul.

To attack my woman…

“I killed him,” Wren whispered.

I nodded, holding her closer and trying to calm down.

She had. I had faith in that. If anyone else on this earth could hate that agent and want him dead as much as I did, it was her.

I couldn’t tell if she was saying it so bluntly because she felt how tense I was, but it didn’t matter. What mattered now was that she could know that she had my full support to move past this. To overcome the rush of adrenaline that prompted her to be the badass she was, to not wait for me to defend herself but to prove she was strong and resilient to handle danger herself, too.

I tucked my head down, resting my chin on the top of hers. My beard caught strands of her red tresses and I closed my eyes to let her presence soothe me. To ground me. To calm me down with the fact that she was unharmed. That we were alive and together.

And that the chapter of that agent was closed.

She’d killed him and he would never be able to bother her again. Never be able to be bribed and weaken the Bratva again.

“Maybe we can…” Mila spoke up, like snapping out of a trance as she hugged herself with one arm. “Maybe we should all clean up.”

Wren nodded, coming to like she had been in a trance. “Yes.”

I guided them both toward the other side of the house, away from where the men handled the scene of what Smithson earned for daring to threaten and endanger Wren.

I would let them handle it all. For now, it was critical that we decompress and clean up ourselves.