Page 65 of Fall Before Her Throne

My mouth hung open in a gape. “Did you just⁠—”

He shrugged, a wide smile on his face. “I couldn’t help myself.”

Leona grinned while she put her hand on her head. “I thought you got shot!”

Ryu shoved him. “I was going to run in here to avenge you!”

“Serves you fucking right, you weeping pus-filled abscess,” Max retorted, still with a grin on his face.

It only took a second for Ryuji to laugh. “Well, that’s more like it. I told you, Leona. Creative insults are always more effective. Fuck, I almost had a heart attack.”

“You have a heart?” Max said, a confused frown on his face. “I had no idea.”

“All right, all right,” Ryu said.

Leona leaned into my side, and I looked down to find her smiling. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her head. If my pulse had almost stopped because of that, I was certain Leona was feeling the same relief I was.

“Sorry to be the buzzkill,” Wynn said. “But we need to keep moving.”

“You’re right,” Leona said with a grimace. Her eyes scanned the room. “Cas, any word from Giulio?”

I glanced at my phone again, ready to answer no, when we heard more footsteps behind us. All six of us reacted, training our weapons on the hall.

“Someone called for me?” Giulio said as he walked into view.

“What the fuck happened to you?” My eyes locked onto the burnt edges of his clothes, the soot covering his arms, and the head wound dripping blood down his face. Giulio carried a gun in each hand and looked like he’d just been through battle.

He gestured to all the dead bodies. “This happened.”

“Are any of them left?” Wynn asked as he pulled off his backpack. He dug around in it for the med kit.

“I don’t think so,” Giulio said, tucking away his guns so he could take the med kit from Wynn. He distributed some supplies to his men before he started wrapping a line of gauze around his forehead. “We took out about a dozen of them from the North side. Even more were hiding inside the bays, just waiting to pick us off. We got the upper hand and chased the rest of them up here.”

Leona rubbed her hands over her eyes. “How many of our men did we lose?”

Giulio tied off the gauze. It was already stained pink. “Fifteen.”

“How many do you have left?” I asked.

He gestured to himself and then to four men who trailed him. “Just us.”

Fuck. That was a dent, especially at our lower numbers. We’d brought twenty with us, and only five were going to head home.

Giulio glanced at Leona. “Bad news, though, boss.”

“What?” she asked.

“They were waiting for us,” he answered. “As soon as we got close to the North side of the building, they fired. My men weren’t even exposed yet. It was like they knew we were coming.”

“A trap?” Ryu asked, narrowing his eyes at Max. “They let the shipment happen because they knew you knew about it.”

Max gave a weak nod. “Probably.”

“Shit,” Leona hissed.

“Why didn’t we consider this?” I asked. “We could have let it go.”

“We did,” Obi responded succinctly. “But we need the guns.”