Page 9 of Revenge of a Queen

The two of them burst out laughing when I respond, “Fuck off.”

When they stop, he turns to me again, “You didn’t have to do that, princess.”

I shrug, “It was no big deal--” I start but he cuts me off.

“It was a huge deal,” he begins, looking at Lincoln and then back to me, “every person we encounter comes to us for a reason and that reason is never pure, it’s always bullshit. Trying to wet our dicks, smoke our stuff or just use us for some shit they can’t do themselves,” he says as he pulls out a joint and lights it, breathing in deeply before blowing back out. “No one has ever done anything for us just to help us,” he adds.

I scrunch my face up in confusion as ever since I got here, all I have heard from everyone is how important the Rebels are around here. I suppose I never stopped to think that even with a band of followers, you could be lonely. Yeah, they have their loyal crew members, but that’s when I realize that's all they are, just workers. They aren’t friends with anyone but each other.

“That’s sad,” I finally reply and they both just shrug.

“We make it work,” Lincoln adds solemnly, slipping his glasses on and tapping away into his iPad, no doubt just arranging ways to make the disloyal pay.

“Well, Marcus is gonna come back to his Kingdom intact and a Queen for his side,” Jace laughs but the mention of Marcus pushes me back to reality.

“You mean if he comes back,” I respond quietly looking out into the distance of the hills.

“Yeah if,” he replies sadly.

Chapter 5

ELLE

After the exciting events of today, a stake out with Lincoln feels pretty chill. I have gotten very used to our evenings spent in his SUV, spying on targets, and eating snacks. He likes to pretend he doesn’t enjoy the fact I constantly bring him snacks, but I see him eat them, when he thinks I’m not paying attention. I do it to try make him smile, I never see enough smiles from him and even though Cassie manages to draw a few from him, he always has a tension about him. That increases tenfold when he’s at the house, especially when Asher is around, I have yet to get to the bottom of it.

The intel Asher shared with him before me was about the docks again, except it gave us more than we knew last time. Elliot Donovan does ship girls there, but he only uses the docks to send girls to buyers or receive them, he stores them at another location. A location we just so happened to be looking at right now.

It’s a warehouse that looks disgustingly close to what I remember of where they kept me that awful night, but on a much smaller scale. I know exactly where they kept me when they took me, I know the way, the layout down to every last square inch of the place but it’s too well guarded. There isn’t one loophole in the place that we have been able to find to give us an in. Not like the place we’re at now. This place is just off the radar, but it’s clear from the lack of security that he doesn’t care about this place as much as his main place. “Seems quiet,” Lincoln breaks the silence.

“Yeah,” is all I reply. We’ve been sitting here two hours, and no one has come or gone. “Let's go in,” I add.

Before Lincoln can even respond a dark voice hits my ear, “Don’t even fucking think about it, baby girl,” Asher says into my earpiece and I roll my eyes.

“Ash, it’s a fucking ghost town out here, we need to get in there and see if there is anything we can use.”

“Have you lost your fucking mind? I am not going to willingly let you walk back into a den of fucking demons to be taken again, have you forgotten my father put a fucking bounty on your head?” he snaps at me.

“Donovan's right, we don’t know what’s in there," Lincoln adds coolly, although it looks like it pains him to agree with him. Fucking traitor.

“You're supposed to be on my side, remember, dickhead?” I respond.

“No, I am on the side that keeps you safe.”

I huff and roll my eyes, “Well, considering Ash isn’t here to stop me, and Zack pays you to keep me safe, I am going in whether you like it or not. You can either wait here or come with me,” I don’t wait for a response before I jump out of the SUV and start to make my way towards the warehouse. I hear both his and Asher’s curses in my earpiece, followed by his door opening and closing quietly behind me.

I am being a bitch, but I don’t care. I want to move forward with my revenge plans now more than ever. The quicker I am done with Donovan and his sick band of merry perverts, the quicker I can take Cassie and run from this town again, and this time never look back.

I draw the gun from my waist and don’t have to try too hard to stay hidden when it’s practically pitch black out. I wait until I get close, then I use a tree for cover while I wait for Lincoln. Once he reaches me, I nod towards the cameras on the outer warehouse and he nods in acknowledgement and pulls out his phone to run interference. I thank the gods every day for his and Zack’s technical abilities. I mean I have learned a lot myself but having someone to take care of it for me is amazing.

“What's the plan here, King?” Linc whispers into the cool night air.

I look around checking again we are alone before answering, “The plan is to see what's in there and then I don’t know,” I shrug.

Lincoln does his own sweep of the property with his eyes before looking back at me, “Wanna blow it up?” he asks, and I smile at him. I knew there was a reason I kept him around.

“Don’t fucking encourage her, Blackwell,” Asher spits into our ears and Lincoln smiles at his tone, it makes me wonder something that I don’t have time to think about right now.

Lincoln ignores him and pulls out his phone and taps away quickly before putting it away and I look at him in question, but he doesn’t elaborate apart from saying, “Let’s go.”

---