Page 64 of Owned By Shadows

Rowan opens the door before Nik can respond. “Boat’s ready. We need to move. Now. So whatever this shit is, wrap it the fuck up.”

I look between the two men, the two leaders. They’ve at least come to a compromise, which is perhaps all we can hope for. For now anyway, but the underlying tension from earlier remains between them.

They both help me to my feet, Hunter catching Nik’s eyes above my head.

“We do this right, Sweetheart,” Hunt says quietly. At least he’s back to using his cute nickname. “Or we’re no better than Sergi.”

Nik’s face remains impassive, but he gives a slight nod—acknowledgment, if not full agreement. For now, it will have to be enough, because we have much more urgent problems to attend to, namely getting the fuck off this island that is no longer safe.

As much as part of me wants to walk on my own, I find myself leaning against both men as we move toward the door, one protective hand on my belly, the other grasping Nik’s arm for support. The monitor on my wrist has finally stopped beeping, thank fuck, but the numbers are higher than I know any of us like.

And I can’t help feeling that time is running out in more ways than one.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

“PROVIDER” BY SLEEP TOKEN

ROWAN

Inarrow 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 protectIris, 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.

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