Page 62 of Deadliest Throne

“Where to?” Hunter asks as we rush into the house. A few of our men are inside already, more shots fill the smaller space. It’s dark in here, and it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust.

“Basement.” Heart pounding, blood pumping, and adrenaline coursing through my veins, we search for a door that will lead downstairs.

After opening a few, I’m about to try another when a man pops out of nowhere, gun raised and pointed at my head. He hesitates, but I don’t. Without thinking, I raise mine and empty a few rounds into his skull. He drops to the ground.

“I found it!” Hunter calls out. My head snaps over, and I start running. Hunter turns off the flashlight on his phone, and we jog down the stairs two at a time, one hand grasping my gun, one hand tightening around the rope.

When we get to the bottom, Hunter holds up the light, and we see that it breaks off in two different directions. The halls are long. “Fuck,” Hunter hisses. “It looks like a damn maze down here. How the fuck are we going to do this in the damn dark!”

“Why haven't the lights been turned back on,” I grunt.

“Maybe the storm really did knock them out, I don’t know, but we don’t have time to waste.”

A gunshot rings through the hallway. "Shit!" Hunter shouts, moving his flashlight to our right. A man comes running at us full speed. We duck as he shoots off another few rounds. That's all he manages before Hunter shoots back at him. His aim is better than the guy's because Hunter gets him right in the chest, then the neck.

“Come on.” Hunter takes off in the direction the guy came. “If there’s a guard down here, it must mean they have someone to protect.

I follow after him, my mind buzzing, my body shaking with energy. I want that fucker dead and my girls in my arms.

We take out a few more men before we reach a door. Hunter shines a light up to what looks like to be a keypad. "Shit. What was the code." He looks at me with wild eyes.

I do my best to remember and punch in the number. “Fuck,” I curse when it flashes red. I try again and this time it flashes green.

The lock clicks, and Hunter grabs the handle, pushing it open.

“Don’t move!” a voice sounds, followed by a fit of coughing, then he fires off a bunch of shots. We quickly duck back into the hallway, plastering our bodies to the walls. He keeps firing, hitting the wall on the other sideof the hall. Then comes the clicks of an empty gun. “Shit!” he curses.

“Well, your aim is shit.” Hunter chuckles, gun raised as he steps back into the room. I raise my own, looking around to make sure no other people were in here. It was just him, in a tiny room with a bed. He’s sitting on it and my eyes widen. The man looks like he’s seconds away from death. He’s got an oxygen tank next to him and tubes in his nose.

This is the man everyone fears? No, that man is long gone now. Clearly, he has been suffering from cancer, that part was real. It just hasn’t killed him yet. I’m sure if we weren’t ending him tonight, he wouldn’t last much longer on his own.

Too bad he won’t get a say in how he dies.

“This is him?” Hunter snorts, shaking his head.

My hand trembles as it takes everything in me not to shoot the fucking monster. Pure rage settles over me. This is the monster who had us living our lives in a consistent panic. The monster who hurt my girl when she was young, and the one who thought he could steal her away.

Raven is ours. No one can have her. And we will always kill anyone who tries, no questions asked.

“Drop the gun,” Tyrone demands, his voice shaky as he starts coughing again. “My men will kill you. There’s no point.”

“What men?” I chuckle. “Right about now, they’re all dead.”

We can’t hear much from down here, but before we found him, I was able to hear faint gunshots. But now, nothing.

“You–” he starts to speak but Hunter grabs something from his back pocket and shoves it into the guy’s mouth.

“Shut the fuck up,” Hunter snarls, then bashes the fucker over the head with his gun, knocking him out cold. “Tie him up. I need to see Raven and make sure she’s okay with my own fucking eyes before I go out of my damn mind.”

He’s not the only one. Once I’m done tying him up, we leave him passed out on the bed and lock the panic room behind us.

“Don’t shoot. Titus sent us here to see if you needed any help.” Hunter holds up his flashlight and gun at the newcomers. Then we see that it’s one of Titus’s men, followed by a few of our own.

“He’s in there, tied up. Doors locked. No one goes in, and he doesn’t come out. Not until Link or Titus comes for him,” I tell them.

They nod and Hunter, and I take off in search of our girl.

We’re coming, Chiaro di luna. We’re coming for you, baby.

---