Chapter 9
9
ANNIKA
B eing confined to the Hounds of Hellfire clubhouse should’ve been a punishment, except I spent most of the past two days in bed with Matteo. I couldn’t complain too much when he gave me more orgasms than I could count, fed me delicious food I didn’t have to cook, and talked me into taking plenty of naps so I was well-rested for our next round of sex. It was better than any vacation I’d ever taken, but I had reached the point where I missed being outside.
“Pretty please,” I begged, pressing my palms together while I widened my eyes with a pleading expression. “We don’t know that my accident was anything more than whoever hit me getting freaked out because they don’t have insurance, and that’s why they drove off. And the compound is surrounded by an electric fence. I’ll be perfectly safe if I go outside for a breath of fresh air.”
I loved how protective Matteo was over me. I didn’t feel suffocated by how he was because it had been so long since anyone looked out for me the way he did. Having someone in my life—besides Rachel—who truly cared meant the world to me.
“Shit.” He scrubbed his palm across his chinstrap beard and sighed. “I guess we can have lunch on one of the tables out back. We’re surrounded by woods on that side.”
“Like a picnic,” I squealed, clapping.
“Yeah, we can do that if that’s what you want, dolcezza .”
I bounced on my heels. “I do.”
Matteo and I headed into the kitchen to make sandwiches, grab a bag of chips, and pour ourselves a couple of drinks. Then we headed out back to the yard behind the addition to the clubhouse where King, Stella, and Cadell lived.
“Life is good.” The sun was shining, Matteo had me as close as I could be without sitting on his lap, and our lunch was simple but delicious.
He brushed a quick kiss against my lips. “I have no complaints.”
I took another bite of my turkey club. “Mmm.”
Matteo chuckled and wiped a bit of mayonnaise from the corner of my mouth, then licked it from his thumb. “Delicious.”
“Remind me to add extra to yours the next time we make sandwiches.” I bumped my shoulder against his.
He winked. “Tastes better when it comes from your sweet lips.”
“You say the nicest things.”
He grinned at me. “Only because you make it easy. Never been like this with anyone but you.”
That was another thing I appreciated about Matteo. He just put his feelings for me out there without trying to play any games. Which was great since I’d be at a huge disadvantage if he did.
I enjoyed the fresh air as we finished our meal. While we were cleaning up our mess, Matteo bent down to pick up a paper towel that had dropped on the ground. There was a loud, unfamiliar crack of noise, and then I felt a sharp sting on the fleshiest part of my arm.
I didn’t understand what was happening, but he quickly sprang into action, gently pulling me to the ground before rolling us under the table we’d just used for our picnic.
“What the heck was that?” I asked, reaching over with my good hand to touch the spot on my arm that was throbbing.
“Gunshot.”
My eyes widened at his one-word answer, and then I gasped when I looked down at my fingers and saw blood on them. “I think I might have been shot.”
“Fucking hell,” he growled, levering himself up enough to sweep his gaze over my body. A muscle jumped in his jaw as he spotted the blood on my arm.
“You can say that again,” I grumbled.
“It’s gonna be okay, baby,” he promised.
I flashed him a weak smile. “I know you’ll keep me safe.”
“Not sure I deserve your faith in me when I didn’t protect you.”
“This isn’t your fault,” I insisted. “If anyone is to blame, it’s me. I’m the one who talked you into having lunch out here.”
“Nobody should have ever been able to get to you. We’re on Hounds property, for fuck’s sake.”
Footsteps thundered on the ground, and then I saw boots surrounding the table. King bent down, and his face was only inches from mine. “You guys okay?”
“No, we’re not fucking okay. My woman was shot,” Matteo growled.
Ash called, “Nora’s inside. She can take a look at Annika once Kevlar and Rebel confirm that it’s safe.”
“Tell them to hurry the fuck up,” Matteo demanded, keeping his body over mine.
“They know what’s riding on their sweep of the woods,” King murmured. “Nobody’s gonna let that asshole get another shot at your woman.”
“Appreciate it, Prez, but she needs to get inside so Nora can take a look at the damn bullet wound in her arm,” Matteo muttered.
“Soon.”
The next few minutes felt as though they took forever while I waited under the table with the man I’d fallen head over heels for on top of me, his big hand wrapped around my arm. Finally, King told us it was safe to come out, and Matteo carefully climbed off me and helped me get out. He stayed directly behind me as we hurried into the clubhouse, where he led me through a hallway I hadn’t gone down before and into a medical clinic I didn’t even know was here.
Nora, Ash’s wife, was waiting for us. She quickly ushered me over to an exam table. “Help her up here.”
Matteo lifted me off my feet and set me on the padded surface. Then he moved to stand by my uninjured side, interlacing our fingers as he slid his other arm behind me.
Nora asked me a bunch of questions, checked my vitals, then took a closer look at my arm.
“Thank goodness, this isn’t as bad as it looks.” She applied pressure over the spot where I’d been shot and lifted my arm in the air.
“Did she lose too much blood?” Matteo asked.
Nora shook her head. “She’d be lightheaded if that was a problem, and judging by the gash in her arm, the bullet only grazed her.”
Just hearing her say that eased some of the pain and most of my tension. “See, it’s just a graze. I’m okay.”
“Nothing is okay about this situation!” The vein in Matteo’s temple visibly throbbed.
“At least she’s accepting medical treatment for her minor gunshot wound,” Nora muttered, shooting a loaded glance at Ash, who’d followed us into the clinic. “Unlike someone else I know, who had a freaking bullet in his arm and refused to let me get a good look at it or take him to the hospital.”
I twisted around to gawk at Ash. “You got shot and refused treatment? For more than just a graze?”
“I wouldn’t put it that way,” he disagreed. “I just put it off until I could get to the clubhouse so Razor could take care of it for me.”
I quirked a brow at Nora as she cleaned my wound. “I bet that went over well with you.”
Ash snorted. “She was pissed as fuck and made me work hard to get her to agree to a date.”
“Which he then blew off for club business,” Nora grumbled with a roll of her eyes.
They seemed so madly in love with each other, it was difficult to believe they’d started off so rocky. “Really?”
“Yup,” Nora confirmed.
After she finished bandaging my arm, Ash wrapped his arms around her. “Luckily, she gave me another chance, and I proved to her that I wouldn’t fuck up again.”
“Aw,” I sighed.
Wizard poked his head into the clinic. “You got a second?”
Matteo shook his head. “Not gonna leave my woman’s side until she’s taken care of.”
“You heard Nora. I barely got shot. I’m fine.”
Wizard shook his head. “That’s not good enough for you, is it?”
“Not a chance in hell,” Matteo confirmed with a slight nod.
Ash tugged Nora from the room.
Wizard’s gaze slid toward me, and he must’ve found whatever he was searching for in my expression because he came into the room. Hooking his foot around the leg of the rolling stool Nora had used when she examined me, he rolled it close and sat down. “This is more about Annika than club business, so I guess I can share the news in front of her.”
Tension filled my body, and my muscles locked. “What is it?”
Matteo threaded his fingers through mine as Wizard announced, “Your uncle is on the run.”
My shoulders slumped as relief coursed through my veins. “Well, at least he can’t come after me if he’s gone.”
Unfortunately, I underestimated the lengths my uncle would go to.