Page 4 of Fall Before Her Throne

Together, they pushed me down to duck behind the couch.

Beside me, Wynn huffed a breath and wiped his forehead with the back of his arm. Bandages covered Max’s chest wound. “That’ll do for now. It’s clean, but he needs stitches.”

Max’s eyes flickered open, bleary and dazed. He grimaced in pain. “I shouldn’t…have come here.”

“No shit,” Ryu sneered. “You’ll get us all killed.”

Wynn stared at Max, suspicion turning his mouth down at the edges. Cas’s eyebrows drew together, and his fists clenched. Ryu’s jaw was set, a knife in his grip.

No one was happy about this. But here we were.

“Wynn!” Obi called from somewhere deeper in the penthouse.

“Coming!” He darted down the hallway. Ciel followed.

“If they are here for him, we should give him over,” Ryu said. On the TV, the men still planted the C4, but after they shoved some wires into the blocks, they backed away. My heartbeat tingled in my fingertips. “Maybe they’ll kill him and leave. We could fix all this mess before it gets any worse.”

I glanced back at Max. He stared back at me from the couch, with something like guilt in his eyes, while his hand pressed into the fresh bandages on his side.

We could turn him over, but the likelihood of the Camorra leaving was slim. They’d taken the effort to come all this way from Italy, and we were fools for even hoping they’d turn around and leave. They wanted what we had. They were assaulting my territory. Max or not, I couldn’t fucking let that slide.

“No,” I said, my grip on my Hellcat tightening. “They’re fucking with us. We’re going to hit them back. Show them they made a mistake waltzing into this town and thinking they own it.”

“Hell yeah,” Cas said, a smile tugging at his lips.

Ryu grinned wickedly. “Now that I can get behind. That’s my girl.”

If the Camorra wanted New York, they’d have to take it from our cold, dead fingers.

2

OBI

The explosion reverberated through the penthouse just as Wynn, Ciel, and I grabbed the last bag from the weapons closet. My ears rang from the shockwave, but it wasn’t strong enough to destroy the blast door. Although we were far above other residents, some must have felt or heard that blow.

One round of explosives would not destroy that door, but two would. We had to move.

I would not let my family be harmed.

“Go,” I commanded. Together, the three of us—each with a backpack full of weapons and extra ammo, plus two bulletproof vests—darted back through the hallways to the living room.

Ryu and Caspian covered Leona’s body with their own while they huddled against the couch.

“Guys!” Leona shouted. “Obi!”

“We’re here.” I shoved a vest into Caspian’s arms, then crouched in front of Leona. We only had six. Enough for all of us, minus Volpe. “Put this on, ifunanya’m.”

“Are those bulletproof vests?”

“Yes. Kevlar.” I slipped it over her head, and she grimaced slightly at the surprising weight. “This is too big for you. Stay behind me when we engage them.”

I should have custom-ordered one that would fit her size and be easier to carry on her frame. I added it to the list of additional defense measures we’d need once we eliminated this threat. The list was already twenty-two tasks long.

We had prepared for an attack on the penthouse. It had been possible that one of our clients would find out where we lived, or someone would eventually turn on us. Prior to Leona and Caspian moving in, we even conducted quarterly evacuation drills.

But I had not prepared for our temporary, enemy-turned-reluctant-ally to lead our enemies right to our door.

Leona rolled her shoulders, trying to get the vest to fit securely while we both tightened the straps. “I’m fine.”