Page 10 of Revenge of a Queen

I calm my breathing and take one last look at my surroundings before nodding at Linc and moving towards the warehouse.

Once I reach the entrance, I glance back at Linc and he signals that he is going to check around back, which is a good idea. Although it seems like no one is here, we don’t want to be caught off guard. I open the door quietly and peek my head round and am greeted with a very poorly lit hallway. I slip inside and close the door behind me. I hold my gun tight by my side and stick close to the wall, as I move deeper into the hallway. I come to the first door and take a deep breath readying myself as I open it and step inside. Thankfully, it's empty but that doesn’t make me feel any better, it’s practically a mirror image of the room I was kept in. There is a dirty old mattress on the floor stained with blood and lord knows what else and a bucket in the corner. I take a deep breath and ignore the hundreds of images that are trying to force themselves into my brain. This is exactly the type of situation Zack prepared me for.

I leave the room as quietly as I entered and check four more, finding them the same but also empty. As I move towards a fifth, I hear a commotion further into the back of this place and know immediately that Lincoln has encountered someone. I rush to find him when I hear footsteps close by. Asher obviously hears the struggle and starts shouting down my earpiece, but I zone him out. I can’t respond without giving away my position to whomever is almost upon me. So, I ignore him and push myself into the shadows as the guy enters the hallway, I see him pull out a cell phone and know it’s now or never. I have to take him out before he calls for backup.

He doesn’t even sense me until the last second, as he goes to pass me, he is so close he must have felt my breath but it’s too late. When he turns towards me, I have already pulled the knife from my waist, forgoing my gun, in favor of a quiet kill. I quickly slice right across his neck, even with all the training I’ve had, I'm impressed. It's clean cut and perfectly deadly, forcing the life out of him in only seconds. He never stood a chance; the only downside is the blood spurt that has just sprayed all over me. I don’t need a mirror to know I look like fucking Carrie right now. I catch his body as best I can even though he’s heavy as fuck and slowly lower him to the floor. My only friend is stealth right now.

Asher's voice is still blaring in my ear when I quickly respond our prearranged safe word for everything's fine, “Donuts,” I whisper into my wire and it calms him straight away as he mutters, “Fucking donuts,” back to me and I smile. He was the one who insisted on having code words for situations like this, he wasn’t impressed when I insisted on coming up with them. ‘Donuts’ for everything's cool and ‘Crab Sticks’ for a cry for help. It still amuses me now as I get to use one.

I move further into the building when footsteps start coming towards me, I pause before the corner and ready myself for another attack. As the figure rounds the corner, I dart my knife out but my arm is quickly slammed backwards to the wall.

“Fucking hell, King!” Lincoln shouts, before taking in my appearance, then he quickly looks over my shoulder at the dead body behind me before looking back to me, “You okay?”

“Didn’t you hear her say fucking Donuts?” Asher snaps into our ear and we both laugh at him drawing more curses from him. I notice a little blood on Lincoln's cheek, it's nothing in comparison to me but it looks weird on his usual perfect appearance.

“You okay?” I return his question.

“Four threats neutralized,” he responds like it's nothing to kill a man, let alone four. His eyes are a darker shade of green than I am used too, and I can practically see the tension rolling off of him.

I just nod before he continues, “We don’t have much time before someone else might check in, so we need to be quick,” he says quietly. “You check the rest of this hallway and I’ll check the remaining rooms at the back,” I nod more in response.

“Five minutes King,” he adds before taking off into the darkness. I search the remaining rooms but find nothing but more fucking sex slave rooms. It fucking sickens me, how many there are, how many girls will have been here. I take that sickness and pour it into my vengeance. I will make every single one of these sick fucks regret the day they ever took a girl against their will.

As I make my way back towards the front entrance, Lincoln appears carrying a black duffel bag that definitely isn’t ours. I don’t bother asking questions now, we need to get out of here. We exit and make our way back into the trees when a whistle close by draws our attention, causing me to draw my gun in quick succession, only to be greeted by the last face I expected here.

“Pretty boy? What the fuck are you doing here?” I ask, taking a deep breath and trying not to think about the fact I almost just shot him in his pretty fucking face. I look to Lincoln and even in the dark I can tell by his face that this is his doing. Fuck’s sake, what the hell is he playing at?

Asher’s voice curses in my ear for what feels like the hundredth time tonight, I ignore him again. I swing my gaze back to Jace as he replies, “I came to blow shit up,” he says holding up the two bags in his hands and I realize Linc called in him for this.

I turn back to Linc, “Really you brought him into this to blow shit up?” I say in annoyance.

Linc just shrugs, “Rebels have each other's back, you're one of us now, it was time.” Ash fails to stay silent at that and mutters “Oh great, she’s a Rebel now too, just fucking perfect,” but Linc ignores him and continues to say, “You’re part of the family and this is Jace territory, he's our pyro specialist,” he says like it's nothing.

“Pyro maniac more like,” I mutter under my breath thinking about how he blew up my jeep on the first day of school before raising my voice, “Fucking fine just be quick about it,” I snap.

“Damn, princess, didn’t think you could get any hotter than that throw down today, but this bad ass, covered in blood, psycho killer look is really working for me,” he says with a wink.

“I’m not afraid to add your blood to the mix, Jace Conrad,” I snap back in exasperation, but he just laughs offering us a mock salute, before disappearing into the night. Linc and I make our way back to his SUV and I cringe thinking about getting in there covered in this much blood. He must sense my thoughts because he leads me to the back of the car and pops his trunk. A little light inside illuminates us slightly better and he rifles through a bag pulling out some clothes.

He hands me a black shirt, “Wipe your face with this and then strip,'' he says casually.

“Strip?” I croak out as Jace reappears.

"What the fuck does he mean strip?" Ash roars into my ear and I cringe.

"Relax, Donovan, I'd much rather see you naked than King. She's covered in blood and I need to dispose of her clothes," Lincoln answers him smoothly.

"In your fucking dreams, Lincoln."

Linc is saved from answering when Jace cuts in, “Oooh, perfect timing,” he says, wiggling his eyebrows at me.

“Fuck off,” I respond but still feel myself pausing. I look at the two of them and then feel stupid. Lincoln is gay, and as much as Jace jokes, I know he doesn’t actually look at me in that way, he is too loyal to Marcus for that.

I slip off my boots and my pants, followed by my shirt until I am standing in nothing but a black sports bra and black panties. I feel both their eyes on me, but I know, it's for one reason and one reason only, they can see my scars. The couple on my legs are artfully disguised by the dream catcher tattoo across my thigh, you wouldn’t notice them unless you knew they were there. The ones on my stomach are a different story. Some are minor, they look like they are a faded scratch, but there are two prominent ones that are red and jagged. It’s clear to anyone that sees them what they are and where they came from. Neither of them say anything as Lincoln passes me some sweats and a hoodie and I slip them on. As soon as I am covered, I feel less vulnerable, having my body on show doesn’t make me feel vulnerable but people seeing my scars does.

Lincoln takes my clothes and places them in a trash bag, I know I can trust him to dispose of them properly. We all climb into Linc’s SUV and still nobody says anything, if only it could have stayed that way.

“Was it Elliot or Greg?” Jace asks suddenly and I almost choke on my own breath.

---