“Hold your fire,” King said, “I’ve got?—”
Someone slammed into Ari out of nowhere, sending his gun flying out of his hands as the figure tackling him threw him to the ground.
All I saw was long, dark hair as the man straddled Ari, jerked him up by his shirt, and punched him so hard in the face that I could hear the cracking sound.
Holy shit. Alessio.
He reared his arm back, hitting Ari in the face again and again, blood spattering his fist and the front of Ari’s shirt.
Fuck, he was going to kill him, and that honor belonged to Theo, no one else.
“He’s down,” King said, both to us and to Alessio as he reached them and grabbed hold of Alessio’s arm to stop him. “Lachlan, are there others?”
“Negative. The only shots fired came from Ari, but I’ve got my guys searching the perimeter.”
I was so focused on the scene happening in front of me that I didn’t notice Benoit and Lucien looming, protectively blocking us as they searched the scene. Many of the attendees had scattered, some of them, along with press, hiding inside the venue.
“He’s secured,” King said, and I looked back to see Ari face down on the ground, his hands bound behind him with handcuffs. But there was no police in sight, at least not yet, though their sirens screamed through the night as they headed in our direction.
“Don’t kill him,” Theo grunted under my hold. “He’s mine.”
“Shit,” Lucien said, worry in his eyes as he looked down at us. “Is one of you hit?”
I lifted up off Theo, fear back at the thought that I hadn’t gotten to him in time. That he was too in shock to notice he’d been shot.
“Shep? Oh God. Are you bleeding?” Theo sat up, scrambling toward me as I rolled off him, a searing pain suddenly shooting through my arm.
He reached for me, blood smearing his fingers when he touched the arm of my jacket.
“Putain, get this off,” he shouted, his voice shaking a little as he pushed my jacket off my shoulders and carefully down my arms.
That was blood, all right. Soaking through the white sleeve of my right arm.
Theo tore open my cuff and lifted the sleeve up, but fuck, all that red stuff was starting to make me woozy. That wasn’t usually a problem for me, but then again, it’d never beenmyblood I’d had to deal with.
“Don’t look at it,” Theo said quietly when I listed to the side and caught myself. I closed my eyes, but when he cursed, they flew back open.
My forearm had a deep gash tearing down the side of it, and it hurt like a bitch, but there was no bullet lodged inside. I didn’t think. It was hard to tell, and I closed my eyes again as nausea threatened.
“You’re okay. It’s just a graze,” Theo murmured, and I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me or himself as he took off his cummerbund and wrapped it around my arm.“Sorry.”
“What are you sorry f—Motherfucker,” I cursed as he tugged the ends of the silk material tightly together to stanch the blood flow.
“That. We need to stop the bleeding.”
I nodded, knowing he was right, but that didn’t stop the painful throb in my bicep. This was the last thing I needed or wanted. For the first time since Theo had been threatened, we had the fucker responsible under our control, and I’d be damned if I let a mere graze keep me from going a few rounds with him.
“Good, it’s stopped. Now let’s go. I want?—”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Theo said as I tried to get to my feet, “except the hospital.”
I scanned the crowds of paparazzi and partygoers as they all huddled for cover, some of them crying, some of them shouting, while others were silent and wide-eyed. But me? I was none of those things. I was pissed. And there was no way I was going to the hospital.
“Fuck that.” I made a move to get to my feet again, but the burning pain that shot through my arm had me sucking in a gulp of air.
Jesus, that stings.
“Shep,” Theo said, reaching out to cradle my face, his eyes full of worry as he studied me. “You were just shot. I need you to get checked out.”
