Page 93 of Fierce Monarch

“Hands in the air!”

I scratched and clawed at Greyson, desperate to get out, but he had me locked in his lap. He dropped his head to my shoulder, whispering, “You can’t go out there, Mari. You know you can’t.”

I never wanted to be the type of leader who required their people to make sacrifices for them, and this was something I couldn’t condone. “I can’t let him do this alone.”

“You said it yourself, your people need a leader they can trust. That’s you.”

“But Dominic—” My voice cracked, and I hated it. I needed us safe. It was too dangerous to be separated right now.

Greyson squeezed me tight, though it was more comfort than restraint this time. “Is doing his job, Mari. Trust him to get out quickly. Trust him to come back to you.”

“Taking the fall isn’t his job or yours.”

“Yes, it is. We’re here to support you and guide you, but we’re also here to shield you. Let him do it.”

Not like I had any choice but to sit front row as every gun in the vicinity—and there were a lot, considering four fucking police cars were on the scene—turned Dominic’s way.

“Who the hell is that?” someone asked.

“The guy who set fire to this building,” was Dominic’s flippant reply. Fucking idiot.

The confusion continued until someone else said, “He’s a Marcosa. I saw him when they brought the girl in.”

All at once, the other cops seemed to get the memo.

“Get on the ground!”

“Hands above your head!”

“On your stomach!”

They all yelled their own commands, most of them contradictory, and I could practically see Dominic rolling his eyes. I just had to hope that he wasn’t going to cause any issues. There were too many to fight off, and I wasn’t willing to risk hurting him in a shootout. The Donnaghals would get him out of jail quickly or I would make them regret their choice in career.

“Rogers, go check the car.”

My heart went into overdrive, and I pulled out a gun. We weren’t hidden well enough for someone to come snooping around nearby. Unfazed, Greyson squeezed me tighter. “Don’t.”

I didn’t drop the gun. We weren’t going to die because of a cop on Cash’s payroll. Not in this lifetime or the next.

Heavy footsteps smacked the pavement, getting closer by the second, and when they were close to the front of the car, I raised the gun, finger poised to squeeze the trigger.

“You’re a bunch of cocksucking assholes.” Dominic’s voice echoed in the relative quiet, and the footsteps ground to a halt.

“Excuse me?”

“No, I won’t. You’re a sorry excuse for a cop and an even sorrier one for a man. You’re whipped and not in the fun way. Seriously, how do you live with yourselves? The second Master calls, you go running. Fucking pathetic.”

“Is he out of his mind?” I hissed.

“No, he’s trying to get them away from you.”

It worked.

Men with any semblance of power had the biggest egos around, and Dominic had poked a hole in theirs, rendering them a slowly deflating balloon.

The cops converged on Dominic. Nothing felt right about letting them cuff him, especially when they kicked him as they did. I felt every single hit like it was on my skin, and I was ready to kill each and every one of them. Someone called him a scumbag as they spat in his face, and I wanted to creep out from behind the tree and destroy everyone who touched him.

“Later, Mari,” Greyson promised. “We’ll take care of them eventually.”

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