Page 256 of Lethal King

There’s no time to coordinate—not that we need to. Rian rolls one way, and I roll the other. Another thunderous fills the air. I feel a bullet whizz past my ear.

“Finally,” I spit towards Adriano as I push myself onto my feet. “You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to kill you.”

Pulling the gun from my thigh holster, I aim at the treacherous Italian. But just as I’m about to pull the trigger, the door at the far end of the room bursts open.

It distracts me just enough. My bullet goes flying above Adriano’s head. He ducks to the floor, and a stream of heavily-armed men rush into the room behind him.

“Maksim. Deacon. Get the fuck in here,” Rian yells into his earpiece. “And bring the troops. It’s a trap. We need—”

Rian is cut off by a hail of gunfire. The deafening boom is so loud it sends me onto my ass. A smoky residue fills the air. I search for my lion.

My heart jumps when I spot him.

He’s taken cover behind one of the chairs at the table. The wood is splintered from the bullets. But he’s still breathing. I follow his lead and scramble behind a chair of my own.

“No! Stop!” Adriano shouts. “I need to be the one who kills them! That’s what the fucking cameras are for! Make sure they’re recording!”

For a moment, the chaos pauses. I pull my gun up to my cheek and gaze beneath the table.

“Are you alright?” I ask Rian.

“Never been better,” he growls. “Now we finally have an excuse to kill this fucker.”

I can’t help but laugh.

“That’s exactly what I said.”

Reaching down to my ankle, I pull out a smaller pistol. The two guns fill my hands with a familiar weight. My heart starts to race. My pulse quickens with excitement.

Fuck. How could I ever abandon this shit? A quiet life would never suit me.

This is my heaven. Fighting next to the man I love.

“You idiot,” Rian shouts out to Adriano. “You’ve signed your death warrant. We have men outside. You really think we’d be stupid enough to come here alone?”

“No. But that doesn’t matter. I have men outside too. They’ll buy me enough time to kill you and then escape.”

“Moron,” I mumble.

“Hey, angel,” Rian calls to me. “I count eight men. That gives us four each. Do you think we can handle that?”

“I bet I don’t even break a sweat,” I respond, loud enough for Adriano to hear.

“You cocky assholes!” Adriano shouts. His voice is shaking, but I can’t tell if it’s from anger, frustration, or fear. “Come out here and fight me!”

“As you wish,” Rian smirks, looking over to me.

Those ocean blue eyes sparkle with the same excitement I feel. We both know that Adriano’s made a grave mistake. Eight men aren’t enough to bring the two of us down. Especially not if we’re fighting together.

“You go left. I’ll go right?” I smile back at him.

“Meet you in the middle.”

“Don’t keep me waiting.”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

We let our gazes linger for a little while longer before my trigger finger gets too itchy to ignore.