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Matteo swung the heavy door open and leveled his gun at the man on the other side.
She gasped. “Oh my God! Wait!” she screamed. “Wait, it’s Lucian!” Blood covered his usually impeccable shirt like he’d decided to take a blood bath before coming over. Dirt and the pronounced smell of gunpowder joined the mix.
She pushed around Sevastyan to get to him. “Lucian. Are you okay? Are you hurt?” She ran her hands over his body but couldn’t tell where he was injured for that amount of blood to cover him.
“We have to help him. He’s been hurt. Somewhere. He’s been hurt.”
As if she hadn’t suffered enough shock in the past day, Lucian dropped his head to her shoulders and tugged her form tight against his with murmured words of regret on his lips.
Her frenzied gaze found Matteo, Roman, and then Sevastyan’s. They stood behind her, guns in hand, a dark murderous expression on their faces.
“Who did this to you?” Sevastyan demanded harshly.
Lucian only shook his head.
She breathed heavily and nearly toppled over when he fell into her arms, his weight too much for her to support.
“Son-of-a-bitch,” Matteo gritted, coming up behind her to help her support Lucian’s body weight.
“Let me help, cariña. Move a little to the side and give his weight to me. Fuck, man what did you do? Find a grizzly bear to brawl with?”
Together they lowered an exhausted, bleeding Lucian to the floor. She shoved aside her fight with the guys about the auction for later and wrapped her arms around the one she always considered the sweetest of the group. Blood, dirt and anything else making up the grim smeared over his front found its way onto her.
Roman moved to stand behind Lucian and his eyes slowly found hers. His mouth was drawn into a tight frown of worry.
“They attacked. Ambushed me.” Lucian’s throat worked several times. “I slaughtered them. We need a cleanup crew by the docks.” His hands trembled but she didn’t think it was out of fear or his actions but from the drop from a major adrenaline rush. His sorrowful gray eyes met hers. “But I was too slow in getting back to her.”
“It’s okay. You’re safe now. You’re with us now.” She soothed him. She signaled for Matteo to toss her a rag and she wiped at the blood on his face and neck. “You’re safe,” she whispered to him soothingly.
She embraced him tighter and sent up a silent prayer he wasn’t taken from them tonight. She pressed a kiss to his cheek and then moved to press another to the corner of his mouth.
Her sweet lover hissed, sucking in a tight breath before sweeping her to him and taking her mouth in a punishing kiss.
She returned the heat and possessiveness in kind, sensing he needed this as much as she did. Feeling the life in him pushed the fear in her back to a controllable level.
He cradled her to him when it should be her caring for him. He’d gone solo to help her friend. None of them considered he was in danger.
Lucian broke the kiss and pressed his forehead against her. “I’m so sorry, sweetness. So fucking sorry.”
She didn’t need to hear anymore. Maya was dead. It was a slim chance, she knew it and Lucian had put his life on the line to try and save her. “Don’t,” she stated, her fear and relief welling up inside her. “Just be here with us.” She couldn’t handle the words just yet.
She could feel the men’s eyes on her and she turned to find them looking down at her.
They said nothing. Sevastyan considered her, his face set in hard lines. Between one heartbeat and the next, the lines around his eyes softened and she didn’t mistake the small smile. When he looked at her like that, as if she humbled him in every way, she wished she could lift the worry he felt for her, but she had to see this through to the end.
“Your strength and kindness amaze me,” he gruffed and she knew he didn’t offer such compliments lightly. He took her hand in his, and Roman gathered the blood-stained rag in the other. Roman helped her from the floor.
“We will take over from here, sweetness.”
Roman moved her aside, and with the help of Matteo, they pulled Lucian to his feet. He looked exhausted with slash marks through his shirt where bullets must have grazed him. The gun in his hand looked empty with the top chamber drawn back. Matteo took it and placed it on a side table by the door.
Lucian’s chest rose and fell with heavy breathing. It must have been a long-drawn-out fight.
“Rhia,” Lucian called. He winced trying to move. “Fuck, I hurt,” he muttered.
“What the fuck happened?” Sevastyan popped a couple of aspirins out of a pack and handed them to his friend along with a water bottle.
“Maya,” Lucian husked hoarsely as if speaking hurt his throat. Bruising along his jaw caught her eye and traveled farther down to see a set of fingermarks left behind on either side of his throat. He must have had one helluva fight.
