Page 2 of Fall Before Her Throne

“Where are they, Ciel?” Obi asked. Together, Wynn, Obi, and I looked over Ciel’s tablet at the camera feeds.

“Men coming up the el—elevator,” my hacker said.

“How many?”

“Seven,” Ciel responded. We followed him through the house until he grabbed the TV remote and flipped on the screen. It flickered for a second before a video of seven heavily armed men riding the elevator popped up. “One for each of us. Not too bad.”

The metal shutters on the penthouse windows rolled down until they clicked shut and locked into place. In the metallic darkness, the penthouse took on an eerie tint.

“Fucking hell,” Ryu spat as he and Cas deposited Max on the couch, tearing a heavy groan of pain from Max’s lips.

Groans of pain at least meant he was alive. For now.

“You okay?” Cas breathed heavily when he came to my side, running a palm down my arm. His blue eyes sparked with concern. Max’s blood splattered his clothes. I grabbed his hand before I recoiled at the feeling of warm wetness.

“Yeah.” I wiped Max’s blood on my pants while I glanced between him, Max, and the TV showing the men getting rapidly closer to our floor. Hold it together. “Ciel, can you kill power to the elevators?”

“In progress,” he answered before he hissed in frustration. “I need my computer. My hands aren’t—they aren’t as fast.”

Wynn followed him to his room, still with his phone to his ear while he talked with Willow.

A few moments later, Ciel shouted. “Done!”

On the video feed, the elevator came to an abrupt halt. The men inside jolted and then started prying open the doors. The power cut would only slow them down.

Who were they? And why did they seem like fucking special ops? These weren’t typical mafia soldiers. These were highly trained men. Assassins.

“Here,” Obi said, dropping six backpacks to the ground. “Go bags. Grab one before we leave.”

Ryu dropped to a knee and began rifling through one.

“We have to leave?” I asked. This was our home. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted those fuckers to go away.

“We’ll eliminate them, but we can’t stay here anymore.” Obi pressed a palm to my cheek. His voice was low, tinged with sadness but carrying the hard truth of reality. “We’re not safe here if they know where we live.”

I bit the inside of my lip and turned back to the TV. The elevator doors opened fifteen floors below us, and the assailants climbed out. The penthouse was far above most of the other residents in this building, but it wouldn’t be good if regular people got caught up in this.

“Fuck,” I whispered under my breath before turning to Obi. “Okay. What do we do?”

“Caspian, do you recognize any of them?” he asked.

Cas squinted at the TV. “No.”

Definitely the Camorra then—or at least hired by the Camorra. Cas would recognize if they were Giuseppe Sandrini’s men, Enzo Rossi’s, or Max’s. Cas knew everyone.

“How long until they reach our floor, Ciel?” Obi asked.

“A few minutes, maximum,” Ciel said as he rounded the corner. “They’re heading for the s—the stairs.”

He pressed another button on the remote. A matrix of different screens popped up, showing different camera angles from the stairwell. We watched as the men ran up floor by floor.

“We’re safe enough inside the penthouse,” Ryu said from the kitchen. He’d taken a few of the go bags and was shoveling food inside. Already, he’d strapped a half dozen more visible knives to his arms. They paired with the guns already strapped to his holsters. “We can wait them out.”

“Not if they have explosives,” Wynn said as he darted through the hallway. He pointed to the backpacks each of the intruders was carrying. This was more like a military operation. How the hell had Piero Greco organized this so fast? “Our defense measures are temporary.”

“They’ll work.” Ryu’s voice was infused with a confidence no one else felt.

Max groaned from the couch while his eyes scrunched together in pain. He rolled over and threw up all over the floor.