Page 9 of Fall Before Her Throne

“I’m buying a Lambo,” Ryu announced while we all hopped out of the cars and began unloading what little we’d brought with us. The go-bags with a few changes of clothes. The duffels with the weapons. “This garage is perfect for the car collection I deserve.”

“There are five other people living here, Ryu,” Wynn said with an eye roll. “Save some room for my motorcycles, please.”

“I want a Maserati,” Leona quipped. Ciel raised an eyebrow, and she shrugged. “What? I love the logo.”

Obi pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I will buy you whatever you want.”

“Buy me an armored G-wagon next,” I said with a grunt as I slung Max’s arm over my shoulder and pulled him out of the SUV. He stumbled against my body with a groan, his head lolling to the side on my shoulder.

My gut twisted uncomfortably.

The mind-fuck feeling I’d been processing since I learned what Max had been hiding from us all these years—how Luciano had killed his father and continually threatened him over the years, how he’d been trying to get Leona and I to safety—came back in full force.

Once, when we were in enforcer training, probably close to fifteen, we got caught out by a group of Sandrini’s men. They roughed us up pretty badly, and we had to carry each other back home in shame. We’d gotten an earful from Max’s father, Massimo, about how reckless we’d been, how we could have lost each other.

That same feeling was a fifty-pound weight in my stomach right now.

I could have lost him again tonight. I hadn’t even been there to fight beside him. My gut knew I would have taken the blows for him, even after everything that had happened between us.

I shouldn’t fucking care, but I did.

With a heavy sigh, I carried him toward the house, behind Leona and the rest of the guys. My jaw clenched at their uneasy looks. I didn’t know what tomorrow would look like, but right now, we needed somewhere safe to sleep and recover.

We could figure out the rest later.

“Keys?” Ciel asked.

Obi ducked his shoulder and slammed it into the door from the garage into the house. It jolted open with a slight splintering sound. Ryu snorted.

“So,” Leona started while pursing her lips. “If you bought it, why don’t you have a key?”

Obi ushered us all in. “The sale is…in progress. The house was empty, so it’s safe to use. No one will know we’re here.”

“So we’re squatting,” Leona said with a suspicious eye as we walked into the house.

“Squat on this dick, hanii.”

Leona flipped him off.

“I bought it,” Obi answered her. “It’s mine to use as I please.”

I wasn’t interested in debating ownership. “Obi, where can we put him?”

Obi led us into a massive, state-of-the-art kitchen. A huge island with white marble countertops bisected it. Ryu started dumping all his weapons on top while Obi pointed behind him and to the hallways leading away from the kitchen. “There are three floors. Upper floor, main floor, and basement. Eight bedrooms. A study. A room where we can build a gym. Most of the bedrooms are upstairs, so take your pick.”

“Furniture?” Ciel leaned to the side to look at the living room attached to the kitchen. The house was open-concept, at least here, so the kitchen bled into the next room as if they were the same massive space. Objects that looked like covered furniture dotted the rooms. A faint air of dust floated in what little light we had.

“The house is partially furnished, or at least it should be,” Obi said. “The estate has been managing the property while it’s been up for sale, so it should still be clean.”

“Great,” I said, adjusting my grip on Max’s arm around my shoulder. “I’m going to put him in a room. Hopefully, one with a bed where he can sleep.”

Max groaned on my shoulder, a whisper of unintelligible words leaving his lips. I swallowed, giving Leona a sideways glance. She wrung her hands while her teeth tugged on her bottom lip, eyes flicking between me and Max.

“Ryu, Ciel, Wynn, let’s put our bags down and start implementing some security measures. Caspian, I’ll follow you shortly to assess Volpe’s status,” Obi said. He gave specific instructions based on the house’s layout and our available supplies while I hobbled down the massive hallways to find the stairs. Their voices faded in the background, but I still caught his orders for our girl. “Leona, I want you to look at our food situation. There are emergency food supplies in the bags. Make a list of what we need for a few days, and we’ll figure out how to get it. After you’re done, I want you to find a couch or bed and rest.”

They continued assigning duties while I took Max further into the house. The stairs were slightly challenging, but we made it with only a few grunts of pain. After peeking my head into a few rooms that shot off the main hallway upstairs, I found an empty bedroom that looked clean enough to use. It would have to do.

I gently eased Max down onto the bed. His head rolled to the side, eyes fluttering for a moment before they shut again.