Page 189 of Fall Before Her Throne

We sprinted past dozens of people fleeing the building at the same time we headed deeper inside, closer to the lobby.

“Shit, more mercs!” Ciel said, whirling to the left. I reacted instantly, training my gun on the ground floor entrance. I fired, dropping two bogeys before I grabbed Leona by her now-custom Kevlar vest and pushed her to the side. Bullets rained down on us, but Ryuji and Max followed them up quickly. They took out the two remaining opponents.

Citizens screamed as they saw the bodies and our weapons, but we didn’t have time to explain.

“Get out of here!” Leona screamed at them. They jolted to life, scrambling over each other to escape through the door.

“They’re in the stairwell!” Ciel said. “Mercs from the top and us from the bottom!”

“A mayor sandwich!” Ryu quipped while we took off.

I slammed against the crash bar, pushing the door open so we could enter the stairwell. Gunshots immediately ricocheted past us.

“Josephine!” Leona screamed. “Tell them to stop shooting!”

The bullets immediately cut off. Leona leaned her head out into the center of the well. “Shit!”

She pulled her gun to her face and fired three bullets. The body of a merc in combat fatigues toppled down the well until it squelched into the concrete right in front of us.

The sound of another door bursting open and slamming shut echoed above us.

“They’re on the second floor, moving toward the exit to the east,” he said. “Her security is taking her toward the street parking. I recognize the cars on the news from this morning. It has to be her motorcade.”

We shot up the stairs, firing at two more mercenaries headed in our direction. They quickly fell to our firepower.

“We have to catch up with her!” Leona shouted. “Hurry!”

“This is a fucking goose chase,” Caspian said. “They’re going to think we’re the ones trying to kill her.”

My pace slowed. That was exactly it. That was the trap. I exchanged a frantic glance with Max as he realized the same thing. They’re going to think we’re trying to kill her.

“Come on!” Leona pushed open the emergency exit stairwell and catapulted down it. Wynn, Caspian, Ciel, and Ryuji followed her down while Max grabbed my shoulder.

“It’s something on the street,” he said breathlessly. “It has to be. He’s herding us all there.”

He was right.

“She has to get free of this,” I said. We had to get Leona out. We couldn’t step into a trap that would doom her alongside us.

He nodded. “I know. We’ll protect her.”

The stairwell fed out onto the street. We caught up to Leona and the rest of my brothers just as she opened the door onto a busy street full of people who had just fled the building. The alarms still blared through the air. Using the scope of my gun, I frantically swept the countless windows that stretched toward the sky above us.

Something on the street…

Herding us toward a close-quarters area…

“A car bomb!” Max yelled. “Leona, it’s a car bomb!”

Leona’s eyes went wide while we watched the mayor’s security push her closer and closer to the row of parked SUVs. We couldn’t stop her without shooting her security, and we couldn’t shoot her security without looking like we really were trying to kill her.

“Josephine!”

The mayor searched the street until her eyes landed on Leona. They went wide with fear.

“There’s a bomb!” Leona screamed. “Don’t get in the car!”

Josephine’s head snapped toward her waiting SUV. She took a step backward, then another, and another. Her security urged her to get in.