Page 23 of Lawless God

She shakes her head. “Now isn’t the time to scold me. I’m sorry, okay?” There’s a panic in her voice that I’m sure everyone feels.

Everyone but me.

Defying death will bite me in the ass one day, but I spent twenty-five years escaping it despite the number of people trying to get to me. It’s only natural to start feeling invincible.

I look around us, something feeling strange. NSC isn’t here anymore. As far as I know, the warehouse is only full of Kings.

Nyx notices my sudden reaction, and she wraps her hands around my upper arms, shaking me. “They’re blocking the exits, filtering whoever comes out. If they’ve got an issue with them, they’re pulling them to God knows where.”

“What?” The next beat of my heart feels like a struggle, but nothing shows on my face.

“I just ran to both gates, Kay. They’re surrounding us. Some Kings are fighting them at the south entrance. They pulled one of us into a car when he tried to leave through the north entrance.”

“Who?”

She shrugs, shaking her head again. Her half black, half bleached, wavy hair slides over her shoulders. “I don’t know his name.”

Emma and her friends are gone. Nate has long disappeared.

“This was planned. They all rushed out when Ivan…” She hesitates, her eyes darting to the cage on our side, not even finishing her sentence.

“Nyx,” I scold her. “You weren’t supposed to be here tonight. Now you’re just one more life I have to worry about.”

“I’m sorry,” she moans again.

I’m barely eight years older than her, but the girl doesn’t have a mom anymore, and I’ve always had a soft spot for the little brat. I can relate to your mother leaving you behind.

“Just stick with me, okay?”

The first person I call is Elliot. He’s smarter than to stay in a full warehouse on a Death Cage night.

“What are you doing and where?” I snap as soon as he picks up.

“Just waiting for your orders, boss. Ethan and I are watching this fucking mess from his car. They’re blocking the north and south gates. Do you know any other exit?”

I look around, taking in the state of the anxious crowd around me, waiting like lambs for the slaughter. A teenager runs to me, pushing people out of the way. I recognize him instantly. He’s the little brother of one of my soldiers.

“They took him!” he cries out. “They took Postman. I tried to run after the car, and they pushed me right back in here. They’re fucking butchering us!”

Motherfuckers.

Of course they’d go for my strongest guys. We didn’t nickname the guy Postman for no reason. When you ask something of him, he fucking delivers. Often bodies.

His brother is about to talk again, when someone else bumps into his back in his hurry to get to me.

“Kay—”

I cut him off. “I’ll take care of it.” I go back to my call with Elliot. “On the side of the warehouse that faces the woods, there’s a door Emma uses. I’m pretty sure she thinks we don’t know about it. Go check if anyone is there.”

This warehouse isn’t a simple rectangle of four walls. It’s an old, dilapidated building that has many alcoves within different walls, other rooms, old offices. It even used to have a second and third floor, but they’re not accessible anymore.

“Go through the woods, Elliot. Be discreet. Every single NSC member knows who you are. And tell Ethan to bring a crowbar to the windows facing the highway.”

“The windows?”

“They’re boarded up. Tell him I want those fucking boards gone.”

I hang up, turning to Postman’s brother. “We’ll get you guys out of here. Don’t worry.”

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