ROWAN
I narrow my eyes at Hunt and Nik as we leave the house, making our way to the dock where our boat awaits. I don’t give a fuck what they needed to flex their muscles about. They were putting Iris in danger by remaining for longer than we needed. Never mind the blood pressure monitor we heard go off. Fucking twats.
Personally, I’m with Nik on this one. I really don’t care all that much about innocents getting caught up in this. If they aren’t family, then who gives a fuck as long as it keeps my Lamb and our child safe? If that makes me a bastard or a psycho, then so the fuck what?
The sun is rising in the sky. It’s still early morning, which isn’t the best as darkness would be preferable, but it is what it is. Dima and Andrei are already in the boat. Bubby too, after I insisted he go with them. Stupid fucker wanted to help us protect Iris, but she would be beyond pissed if I let him put himself in any danger.
Roman joins us as we walk towards the dock, which thankfully is only a few minutes away.
“They resolve their shit?” he asks quietly, both of us looking around, constantly scanning the land and horizon for any sign that Sergi is making his move. The back of my neck suddenly itches, something feeling fucking off.
“I don’t care,” I answer, my stomach tightening as a faint sound reaches my ears. “Wait, can you hear that?”
“Shit, yes,” Roman hisses, both of our gazes trained on the horizon. Slowly, a black dot emerges as the sound gets louder. “Fuck! It’s a chopper!”
A helicopter appears in the sky, heading straight for the island. Rustling sounds behind us, and I twist to see armed men emerging from the treeline by the house.
Fuck.
“Roman, Hunt, get Iris to the boat! Now!” I yell, pulling out my gun and switching off the safety. “Nik, with me and we provide cover.”
His gun comes out and we shoot as we move with the others, all of us hurrying to get to that damn boat and the fuck off this island.
“They must have come in undetected overnight. How the fuck did they bypass our security again?” Nik hisses, taking aim and firing, a soldier falling down as his bullet hits home. My target goes down in the next second, just as we make it to the wooden dock.
Dima comes up next to me, his gun going off, hitting soldier after soldier.
“Why the fuck are there so many of them?” I snarl, knowing that I’ll need to reload soon.
They’re not shooting back, so I guess they have orders to not harm Iris because of the baby, which may be the only reason we’re winning currently.
I glance behind me to find Roman and Hunt helping a trembling Iris onto the boat, Andrei and Bubby also making sure she gets in and down.
“Motherfucker!” I yell as a bullet grazes my shoulder. I twist back to face our attackers. “You’re going to regret that!”
Reaching into my pocket, I pull out a hand grenade that I found in the Knight weapons safe. Checkmate, motherfuckers.
“What the fuck, Rowan?” Nik hisses as we make it to the boat. I turn and give him a grin that I’m pretty sure is a smidge crazy, but no one threatens my girl or fucking shoots me and lives.
“Start the engine!” I command, pulling the pin out with my teeth.
“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 quite low 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?”
“I’m fine. Focus on Iris,” I reply, and she shakes her head a little but shrugs.
“Let me know if it becomes a problem,” she commands, and the nurse goes to push Iris, but Hunt takes the handles from her.
“I’ve got it. Lead the way,” he says, and we all follow the doctor and nurse up the dock and up to a modern-looking building that screams medical facility.
It’s small, but looks state-of-the-art, and I wonder why someone would need this on a private island. And why they’d let us use it.
“Who owns the island?” I question Nik as we walk through the automatic doors and into a brightly lit space. It’s clean, and there’s a receptionist, but otherwise it’s quiet and empty.
“Someone called Mr Black, Alexei said. He trusts him, says The Enlightened use this place if they need R&R, so it’s got the best equipment.”
A shiver travels up my spine at the mention of the Society that The Fallen belong to. There’s a lot of fucking secrecy about The Enlightened. I just know that, like The Fallen, we shouldn’t mess with them or piss them off. They have more power in this world than anyone has the right to, and that’s scary as fuck.
“I guess it’s the best we can do at the moment, but I’m not sure I trust it,” Roman says as he comes up next to us, all of us still following Hunt, Iris, and Dr Shelia.
“We can trust Alexei,” Nik states, looking around as we make our way to the lift, Dima, Andrei, and Bubby following behind us. “He wants the same thing I do, to rid the world of our father scum, so he’s trustworthy.”
We all pile into the lift, our conversation halted because of the strangers in our group.
“Now, I can’t have all of you with us while I do my checks,” Dr Shelia states as we exit and take a left down the bright corridor. One side is windows that face the sea, giving us a stunning view. Although my skin prickles with how exposed I feel. “So I’ll take one of you, plus Andrei, as you’ve been looking after Iris up to this point. The rest of you can wait here, or come back later.”
Hunt says with his eyes and grip on Iris’s chair, that he’ll be the one to stay with her.
“We’ll get the new place set up and come back in a bit, okay, Dorogaya?” Nik asks, bending down so he’s looking into Iris’s eyes.
“Okay, Nik,” she whispers back, sucking her lower lip in. I hate that she’s nervous, that we all can’t be with her, but at least this way we can make sure things are sorted for her if she’s allowed to leave the hospital.
Nik presses a soft kiss to her lips, then Roman does the same.
“We’ll see you soon, Princess,” he murmurs before stepping back and letting me say my goodbye.
“It’ll be fine, Lamb,” I tell her, crouching down and taking her cheek in my hand. “We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
“Love you, Roo,” she says, and my lips pull up into a smile that still feels unfamiliar on my face. Before her, I didn’t use to smile.
“Love you back, Lamb.”
I give her a quick kiss, then we stand there as Andrei and Hunt take her into a room that looks spacious from the glimpse we get as the door opens.
“I don’t enjoy being so far,” I grumble, my eyes on the now closed door.
“Me neither,” Roman agrees with a huff. “But she needs the care, and this is the best place for her.”
“Come, let’s go to the new place, check it over, and make sure it’s safe, at least for now,” Nik suggests, turning on his heel and heading back the way we came, Dima following by his side.
With a sigh, I follow, Bubby and Roman on either side of me.
“Will you teach me how to throw a grenade like that?” Bubby asks as we get into the lift, and I chuckle.
“Not a fucking chance, Bubs,” Roman warns as the lift goes down. “Hunt would kill you both, and I don’t even think Rowan would be able to get hold of any more…” He cuts off when he looks at my face, at the smirk that is on my lips. “No, Rowan.”
“I didn’t say anything,” I reply, getting out of the lift, my smirk widening.
“You didn’t need to. I know that look.”
“What look?” Bubby questions, and I turn to him, giving him a wink.
“The one where he’s going to cause mayhem and doesn’t give a shit,” my brother grumbles, and I can’t deny it. He knows me too well. “How the fuck will you get hold of grenades?”
“I have my sources,” I say, not elaborating further.
Nik’s phone chimes, and he freezes, all of us stopping just as we reach the doors that lead back outside.
“What the fuck has happened now?” Bubby exclaims, his tone exasperated, but I don’t miss the thread of worry lacing through it.
Nik glances around, tilting his head so we all follow himself outside and down a path that is quiet and secluded. My heart pounds inside my chest as I wonder what new fuckery we need to deal with.
“Alexei thinks his father may have discovered our plan. He’s acting suspicious,” Nik tells us in a hushed tone, and I swallow hard. Fuck. “We may need a new strategy, possibly even bring the whole thing forward.”
Double fuck.
“Shit. We can’t catch a fucking break,” Bubby snarls, and Dima places a large hand on the kid’s shoulder.
“No plan survives contact with the enemy, mal’chik,” he says gently, squeezing his hand, and some of the tension drains from Bubby.
“Let’s head to the house where we can discuss our next steps,” Nik proposes, scrubbing a hand over his face. “We’ll update Hunt and Iris when we see them later.”
A breath leaves my chest on a frustrated sigh. Bubby isn’t wrong. It feels like it’s one hit after another, like there are spinning plates that keep crashing down around us no matter how hard we try to juggle them.
