Page 109 of Serpent King's Revenge

I needed to get to Lily.

Gunshots echoed from downstairs, reminding me that Nathan needed my help too, but he was relying on me to get to his sister. I found her tied to a chair, duct tape across her mouth, eyes wide with fear but unharmed. I knelt in front of her and tore the tape off her mouth, then cut the ropes on her arms, Lily taking a heaving breath. I moved to get to untying her ankles too, but she shook her head.

"I’ve got it,” she said. “Go help Nathan. Get my dad.”

"I'll come back," I told Lily with a nod.

She nodded back, raising her voice one last time before I rounded the bend to the stairs.

"Go kick his ass, Abby!"

Chapter Fifty: Nathan

The room erupted.

Gunshots cracked through the air, loud enough to split eardrums. Everything went nuts in a blink.

"Knuckles!" I yelled over the noise, trying to keep my head down.

"Got it, boss!" Knuckles shouted back, and his gun spat fire at the guards swarming like angry bees.

I glanced up just in time to see my father stumbling up the stairs, leaving red splatters behind him. His suit was getting darker with blood by the second; Knuckles had hit him, but he could still move.

Shit.

"Knuckles, aim for Kenny!"

"Way ahead of ya!" But Ba was already moving fast, using what little life he had left to put distance between us.

"Damn it," I muttered and ducked as a bullet whizzed past my head.

Shit was going straight to hell, but I had to move.

I sprinted after my father, up the stairs of the kill room. He was a ghost, slipping through the chaos like he was made of smoke. But I was close, real close. His hand hit the stairwell door, and he shoved it open, stumbling out into the dimly lit corridor beyond.

"Ba!" My voice was raw, my feet pounding up the steps. But he had the lead and desperation on his side. With a last burst of strength, he slammed the door shut.

I heard the heavy thud of a deadbolt sliding home just as I crashed into the cold metal.

"Fuck!" I snarled. The keypad was right there, blinking green and red like a traffic light that couldn't make up its mind—but I knew the code. I could get out. I punched in the first number, but before I could hit the next, a heavy hand clamped down on my shoulder.

"Where do you think you're going?" hissed a guard, blade glinting in his hand.

I threw an elbow, hard, felt it connect with something soft—a grunt, then a thud. But there were more of them, flooding the narrow stairway, all knives and bad intentions. They snarled like alley cats, too cramped to use their guns without risking shooting each other.

"Clip's out!" Knuckles' voice cut through the noise, rough as gravel.

I didn't have time to curse or even glance back at him. The guards were closing in, and Knuckles was no good to me without bullets.

My window was closing fast; I needed to move, now.

I pushed off the keypad and threw myself back into the fray. The guy in front of me didn't know what hit him as I slid the scalpel across his throat, warm blood splattering over my hand, my face, the stairwell walls. He gurgled, eyes wide with shock, and I didn't hesitate. Using his body like a shield, I shoved him down the steps, barreling through the gap he created.

"Get him!" one yelled, but their words were just noise to me.

The remaining guards swarmed, blades flashing, but I was already moving, pushing, using the dead weight to bulldoze my way through. A fist grazed my cheek, and I felt the sting, but I kept on, shoving bodies aside with every ounce of strength I had left.

"Down! Down!" Knuckles' voice barely reached me, but it was enough to keep my legs pumping, driving me forward against the onslaught.

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