“It’s an ambush!” Gunshots ring out all around me as I dart around to the side of a car, Dec’s behind the car beside mine. Kieran’s on my other side.
“Motherfucker, you HAVE to be kidding me.” Jumping up I fire off a few rounds hearing curses and shouts in Russian as some of them hit the ground. Quickly sinking back down as Dec pops up doing the same thing.
Kieran aims behind us and yells, “DUCK!” He fires off a few rounds as my ass hits the ground. Popping back up and taking out four more Russians before I’m flung down to the ground by Kieran. A bullet pierces the air right where my head just was.
My heartbeat stops, “Holy shit.”
Kieran’s eyes are as wide as saucers, “Are you okay? What the fuck is going on.”
I pull my phone out and call Theo, I don’t even give him the chance to speak before I’m barking out, “A little help here. I’m in a shootout in your parking lot.”
“WHAT! I NEED MEN OUT-”
Hanging up I slip my phone back in my pocket, “Help’s on the way.” Kieran’s looking at my shoulder, and I can hear Declan pop up and fire rounds before dropping back down.
“Kie, what’s wrong?” My head’s pounding, but that’s not surprising, my adrenaline is through the roof.
“Rowan, stay down. Don’t get up again.” I can hear more shots ring out and men yelling and cursing in Italian. All of a sudden it’s silent.
Theo’s voice rings out after a minute, “Clear! I’ll get this cleaned up, you guys get out of here.”
Kieran shouts out, “Do you guys have a doctor on sight? The Boss has been hit.” What the fuck is he talking about? I start to survey my body but pretty quickly see I’ve been shot in the right shoulder. It’s like seeing it brings it to the surface and a white hot pain rips through my shoulder.
Declan’s beside us in an instant mumbling, “Shit, That’s going to hurt tomorrow.”
Gritting my teeth I spit out, “Someone call and make sure Clara and Bear are at home, and if they aren’t get them there. For the love of God make sure no one tells her about this.”
It takes them almost two hours to dig this bullet out of my shoulder and stitch me up. I need to get home, I’m calling a meeting with Nikolai, and when we get there I’m blowing his fucking head off. Then there’s Clara and Rhett, I’m sure Clara’s freaking out, and Rhett picks up on people’s energy so easily I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s anxious too. Calling to tell her isn’t possible because one; phones are tracked unless we’re at home, and two; she’ll just panic more.
The doctor slips my arm into a sling and settles it tight to my body, “Keep that on until your doctor says you can take it off.Sleep with it propped up at or above your heart level. I’m sure your doctor will tell you all this when you get home. They’re probably waiting to make sure I didn’t botch the job. I didn’t by the way. The pain medicine I gave you when we started will wear off in about two more hours” I nod and thank him for his help. Turning to shake Theo’s hand and thank him for his help. After the pleasantries are out of the way I turn to my brothers, “Let’s get home. I’ve got business to conduct.”
I haven’t been scared to walk in my house since I was in tenth grade and snuck out for the first time. Today, I’m scared to walk in there. Clara’s going to freak out, and Kieran acting weird beside me isn’t helping matters. He’s been unusually quiet and fidgety, I don’t know what’s up with him, but I figure that’s a problem for another day. Walking into my house I turn into the living room, and my heart instantly aches. My brothers are sitting on the couch, Rhett’s playing with his toys on the floor but keeps looking at his mom who’s all but burning a hole into the carpet pacing and biting her thumbnail.
“Clara.” Every head whips to me including Rhett’s after he notices everyone looking my way. Tears in her eyes and a stuttering exhale is all the warning I get before she’s running to me. I catch her around the waist with my good arm as she kisses me all over my face.
“Pretty Girl, I’m fine. It’s okay.”
She pulls back enough to survey me, her eyes catching on my bad arm. “Fine?! You call this FINE?” Fear and anger taking over any relief or happiness that was just there.
“Baby, seriously. I’m okay, it’s not a big deal.” That was apparently the wrong thing to say. I can tell by the fierce expression on her face that she’s about to lay into me. I’m saved by Rhett who claps to get our attention.
“Why’s Daddy’s arm like that? Is he okay? Daddy, are you okay?”My eyes fly to Clara’s and hers look equally as shocked as she looks to me but she doesn’t say anything. I’m guessing she’s seeing what I do, so I quickly drop a kiss on her lips and move towards Rhett.
Kneeling so I’m at his level, I reach my hand out to him. He slowly makes his way to me, as skeptical as always.
“Kieran, can you help me out here? I have one hand right now.” He kneels beside me and signs as I speak, “Yeah, Bear, I’m okay. I just got hurt at work. It’s okay, I promise.”
He lifts his eyebrow at me,“You weren’t safe?”Shit, How do I explain myself?
“I was as safe as I could be, I promise. It was an accident.” He nods accepting my answer, I let out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “I love you, Rhett.”
“I love you too, Daddy.”He wraps his little arms around my neck squishing my arm between us, but I’ll die before I let him know that he’s hurting me. Using my good arm I wrap him up tight and kiss his temple. My heart almost beats out of my chest. Daddy, it’s got a nice ring to it.
* * *
Clara
Watching the moment between Rhett and Rowan earlier had my heart in a puddle. It solidified that I’m not fucking upmy kid by bringing in Rowan as fast as I have, or well I guess technically he’s brought us in. After they stayed attached at the hip the remainder of the evening, even more so than usual, we put Rhett down for bed. Which brings us to now, where I’m currently in a standoff with the love of my life because he got hurt. I’m scared, and worried for him and for us. I know what he does, in theory I recognize that it isn’t exactly a safe profession. At the same time I wasn’t really expecting him to come home with bullet holes. Call me naive if you want to, but I just pushed that possibility out of my mind.
