I crouch the best I can, cradling my hand, my left shoulder pressed against Paddy’s back. He said to stay close, and I figure if I’m touching him, he knows where I am and won’t have to waste time keeping an eye on me when he needs to keep both eyes on the action.
There’s a grunt and a thud. I think we may have hit someone, but the machine gun starts firing again. We didn’t hit therightsomeone. After another volley of return fire, there’s a slight yelp, another thud, and the machine gun doesn’t start again. Thank God.
“I’m going to check.” Connor edges his way around our poor car.
“Lucky, don’t!” Paddy calls after him, snatching at his disappearing suit jacket. But it’s too late, and Connor has gone.
Swearing under his breath, Paddy kneels, his eyes and his gun trained over the top of the hood of the car so he can cover Connor in case there are more of them. I hope there aren’t more of them.
It’s eerily silent around us and dark. There are no other cars. I think they may have all started reversing when the gunfire started. I don’t blame them. I wish I were in a vehicle hightailing it out of here.
A screeching of tires cuts through the stillness of the night air, and a black SUV fishtails onto the scene, illuminating us, the wreck of our car, and the other vehicle with its bright headlights. Oh, God. I cringe into Paddy’s back again as he swears.
“Lucky!” he hisses. “Get the fuck back here!”
The SUV doors burst open, and I sag with relief as Seamus jumps out. If Seamus is here, we’re going to be okay. He will make sure everything is taken care of.
“Liam, Ronan! Over here!” Connor calls to the other two guys spilling out of Seamus’s SUV. Seamus’s head swivels toward his cousin, but he keeps stalking over to Paddy and me. Now that the backup Connor called has arrived, Paddy turns, and carefully lifts my right hand.
“Don’t move it.”
He still sounds gentle, but I’m not paying attention to him anymore. Seamus reaches us, dropping to his knees, his gorgeous face like thunder. I can’t help but stare at my husband. A dark, dangerous vibe is rolling off him, and I have to swallow the urge to scoot away from him.
“What the fuck happened?” he growls, knocking Paddy’s hands away from me as he gently takes my wrist, muttering a low oath as he sees my broken fingers.
“They hit us from behind.” Paddy is now leaning back against the car, running a hand through his thick, dark hair. “Thank fuck they hit the opposite side to where Tiggy was sitting.”
I glance at him in surprise. Considering how much he seems to resent me, I would have thought Paddy would have preferred it if I got taken out tonight. Then again, maybe he doesn’t want Seamus to know that’s how he feels. Because if the look on his face and the vibe rolling off him are any indication, I think Seamus would probably seize any opportunity to snap someone’s neck with his bare hands.
The same bare hands that are currently cradling my wrist. I focus on their chatter so I don’t panic spiral.
“Bulgarians,” the new guy grunts from above us. Paddy swears under his breath as Seamus frowns.
“We don’t have any fucking problem with the Bulgarians, Ronan,” Seamus growls, climbing to his feet and lifting me, bridal-style, to carry me across to the SUV.
Liam and Ronan climb into the front seats while Paddy, Connor, and Seamus sit across the backseat, with me tucked into Seamus’s lap.
“We weren’t the only ones in that car tonight.”
Paddy’s voice is casual, but I freeze when I realize what he’s saying. This could have been aboutme? Now I’m in painandtrying not to have a panic attack. One, the golden bracelet on my wrist. Two, the smell of my perfume. Three, Seamus’s wood and spice scent. Four, the beating of my heart. It’s loud. I can hear it in my ears.
“Are you counting?” Connor, seated next to Seamus, glances at me curiously. At his words, Seamus glances down, his eyes lingering on my left hand pressed against my heart. Five, my wedding ring. I touch it with my thumb, Seamus’s hand stroking through my hair.
It’s a weird dichotomy, the gentle comfort he is offering me with his hands while murderous rage and tension keep his body taut beneath mine.
Chapter Nine
SEAMUS
My fingers twitch as I shove them into my pockets, my jaw grinding so loudly I’m surprised no one can hear them. I’m fucking pissed right now for a multitude of reasons. The first is that someone rammed the car carrying my wife and opened fire on it with a fucking machine gun.
They came after mywife. In our world, that's a crime punishable by death.
My wife is under my protection, and nobody fucking touches what is under my protection unless they want me to hunt them down and, if they're lucky, I put a bullet in their head for them, nice and quick.
If they're unlucky, I let Niall at them first, and I can't say that I've met a lot of lucky men in my life.
The second reason I'm fucking pissed is that I had plans for tonight. And I was looking forward to them. Plans that started with Tiggy naked in our bed and ended with her screaming out my name as she came on my dick.