Jana looked up first, her face lighting with genuine pleasure as she spotted Hadley. Jana’s little girl, Nella, squealed happily from her lap, waving her chubby arms with excitement. Jana passed Nella to another woman and stood, crossing the room to pull Hadley into a warm, welcoming hug.
“How are you doing?” Jana asked softly, drawing back to look Hadley over, concern in her eyes. “Nitro told me what happened the other night. You’ve definitely had one hell of an introduction to underground racing.”
Hadley laughed quietly, some of the tension easing from her shoulders. “It’s been a little more than I bargained for.”
Then she glanced at me, and her cheeks turned pink when I winked.
Jana caught the interaction, and her mouth parted in surprise. “Did you just wink? And…” She looked at her old manand shook her head. “I didn’t think his face could make any expressions except stony and blank.”
I grunted in annoyance and scowled at Nitro when he barked a laugh.
“You know how it is when a brother falls,” he drawled with a smirk.
This time, it was Jana blushing.
“Yeah,” she agreed, smiling up at him. Then she turned back to Hadley and squeezed her arm reassuringly, her smile warm. “You’re in good hands here. Promise.”
I waited a beat longer, ensuring Hadley felt comfortable, before gently gripping her chin to tilt her face toward mine. Her gaze lifted, her deep green eyes bright and trusting as I leaned in, claiming her mouth in a kiss that was hard and sure, making it damn clear who she belonged to.
I felt her soften beneath my touch, her lips parting for me instinctively, a quiet sigh slipping from her throat. I was tempted to drag her to the nearest empty room, but I had a man waiting on me. And bullets had to take precedence over my need to be inside Hadley.
“Stay put, baby,” I murmured roughly against her mouth, my thumb brushing her jawline. “Be back as soon as I’m finished.”
She nodded, her eyes hazy with desire, a soft smile curving her mouth. I watched as she crossed the room and settled onto a couch with Jana. Reluctantly, I stepped back, already missing the warmth of her body against mine, before turning and heading toward Nitro, who waited near the kitchen door.
Nitro raised an eyebrow at me, that familiar dark amusement flashing across his face as I joined him. “Done marking your territory, Cage?”
“Fuck off,” I growled under my breath, following him through the kitchen and toward the back corridor leading directly into the internal entrance of the clinic.
Nitro chuckled quietly, shaking his head. “No judgment here, brother. Hadley looks good on you.”
“You’ve got your own woman,” I muttered, pushing through the door, my body and mind already shifting firmly into the controlled focus of a doctor. “Don’t worry about mine.”
Tyre was sitting on an exam table, grimacing and clutching a blood-soaked towel against his shoulder, while Kane stood nearby, his arms folded and jaw set in grim displeasure.
Tyre grunted in pain when he twisted toward me as I approached, his gaze lifting to meet mine. He was tough, but the sweat dotting his brow and the tight line of his mouth told me he was hurting more than he’d ever admit.
“Relax, asshole,” I muttered, snapping on gloves and moving to inspect the damage. “Let’s see how much of a mess you made.”
“Fuckin’mierda,” he hissed as I eased the towel away, revealing a jagged wound that had thankfully missed anything major. Unfortunately, the bullet was still lodged in his flesh, though not deep. I’d need to pluck it out before I cleaned and stitched up the injury.
When I looked up at him, he read it in my expressions and grimaced, cursing again.
I moved around, gathering what I needed. When I returned to his side, he looked a little paler than before.
“Gonna need me to knock you out?” I asked dryly.
It was complete bullshit. The man was built from pure steel, even with a fresh bullet hole.
Tyre glared. “Unless you want a matching hole in your ass, shut the fuck up and get me the hell outta here.”
“What happened?” I muttered.
With his jaw clenched, he gave me a short summary of what had gone down as I worked quickly, irrigating and sterilizing the wound. “Bastard shot like a fucking amateur.”
“Be glad he did, brother,” I murmured as I picked up an instrument. “It’s practically a flesh wound.”
I didn’t wait for him to respond before getting to work on removing the ammunition from his shoulder. He let out a string of rapid curses under his breath, but he never flinched away. It didn’t take long for me to finish, then I went about taking care of the bleeding before cleaning the wound again and preparing to sew it up.
