Page 71 of When Kings Fall

“All the trouble you’ve caused me, how you’ve put not only my operations at risk, but my goddamn life, we should be here to kill you. But I need leverage, I need to make sure Malcolm knows it’s not me coming at him. And he’ll want a gift to go along with it. That’s you. You’d think that would mean I’m showing mercy here, but, believe me, death would be the mercy. Once you’re in Malcolm’s hands, the horrors will truly begin.” He looked at Brianna through the small gap between me and Colt. “Isn’t that right, pretty princess.”

I felt her shudder against us.

“Where’s Knight?”

“No idea,” I ground out.

“I wouldn’t be so hasty, Hall. I’ve got twelve guys here who get off on spilling a whole lot of blood.”

“You’re not touching him!” Colt yelled.

Royce slapped his hand over his heart sarcasm dripping. “How touching.” His eyes narrowed in the next second, switching on a dime like a psycho. “And foolish.”

I stepped forward and hissed, “Like I said, he’s not here.”

He sneered. “No matter. He’ll come when we’re done here. He’ll try to stop me from handing you over. We’ll take him then.”

“You aren’t taking him anywhere, you piece of shit,” Bree seethed, stepping out from behind us and facing her former tormentor head-on, like the brave and impressive woman that she was.

“Damn, you’ve grown up good. I’ll make sure to have a taste before I hand you over to Malcolm.”

Everything happened so fast then.

Colt lost his composure at the despicable threats to her and threw his fist.

It slammed into the underside of Royce’s jaw, making his head snap back and destabilizing him.

As he stumbled back, he bellowed at his guys, “Subdue them! And make it fucking hurt!”

He stepped back, folding his arms across his chest and looking on sadistically to enjoy the fucked-up show.

And then the guys closed in.

Before they could fully, I smashed my fist into the closest guy, knocking him to the snow in one shot.

I spun as another tried to take a shot at me, and caught his fist, twisting it brutally until I heard a telltale snap that had him grunting. And then I yanked him toward me and used the hold as leverage to haul him around and toss him into two more incoming guys.

As I kicked back another with my boot, I caught sight of Brianna jumping onto the hood of the car, then smashing her foot into a hostile’s face, blowing him back.

As another tried to grab her, she leapt up onto the roof of the car and assumed a fighting stance.

Two approached her from either side.

Thankfully, I saw Colt grab one of them and wrench them back, then he smashed their face into the trunk, knocking them out cold.

Distracted by the wellbeing of my loves, my plan to cut a path through the guys was jeopardized when I took a brutal hit to the gut.

Instinctively, it forced me to double over, and then I took a hammer fist to the back of the neck that drove me to my knees in the snow.

One of them rounded me and fisted my hair, wrenching my head back, and about to knee me in the face in a clear attempt to knock me out, or keep beating me until it had the same result.

As they raised their knee, something cut through the air.

In the next split-second, a knife was buried in the guy’s throat.

As he choked and collapsed, I looked out to see Bree giving me a chin lift, before she spun into a spinning kick that propelled her latest opponent off the roof of the car and had him landing with a hefty thud on the hood. He ricocheted off it and hit the ground on his back.

As I shoved back more hostiles, the fuckers overrunning us by their sheer numbers, I caught sight of Colt struggling to defend himself against three that had closed in around him.

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