Page 52 of Revenge of a Queen

“Fire,” I say quickly, “they set fire to the building downstairs, two points,” I watch as another starts, “Three points, fuck.”

“Blackwell, I swear to god,” Asher starts, but I cut him off.

“I already told you I would die for her, so how about you let me try?” I snap at him as I strap two guns to my body, place an earpiece in, and pocket my phone so I can free up my hands.

“I need you to hack into our feeds and be my eyes,” I say quickly, entering in some code to allow him access.

“On it,” he barks, and I hear him typing away before he adds, “I’m in,” followed by a quick, “Fuck.”

I stalk towards the bedrooms across the loft and notice the smoke is already billowing under the front door. Fuck this is bad. “We need Zack,” I say but he interrupts me.

“Already on it, you have a team of six guys, five minutes out,” he says, pausing before adding “You don’t have five minutes, Lincoln.”

“Heard,'' I reply as I storm into Jace’s room, he's already up and half dressed.

“What the fuck is going on?” he asks.

“House is on fire, they’re coming,” he takes in the weapons strapped to my torso and grunts before pulling up his sweats and pulling on boots. He slides on the knuckle duster from his bedside table, grabs the baseball bat from the corner and then follows me down the hall.

I bang open Marcus’ door and startle both him and Elle who were clearly still soundly sleeping, not surprising after their extra curriculars. “What the fuck, brother?” he roars, grabbing the sheet to cover her naked body but now isn’t the time to be worried about that.

“We’re on fire, four men are on the way in,” I haven’t even finished speaking before they both dart out of bed and are pulling clothes on. Elle runs into the bathroom and comes out with the two knives from earlier. Her hair is wild, her clothes a mess but the look in her eye is refined and ready. I will never not be amazed by her resilience. We all stalk into the living room which is now thick with black smoke and I cough.

“Roof?” Marcus asks, I nod as I push them all into the direction as I hear crashing beneath us. There go our cars. We make it outside and up the stairs and gasp for air, which is also thick with smoke but mixing with the fresh winter air. Fuck, this is so fucking bad.

“Help,” Ash snaps into my ear.

“All of us are on the roof, what's their status?” I ask, hoping he has some sort of good news.

“They pulled back without setting the last fire, can you make it down the northeast side of the building?” he asks, still typing away.

I stalk across the roof and lean over the side seeing that there is a clean drop free of flames if we can make it down. Our building isn’t that high compared to others. Only two stories but it still has quite the drop. Elle joins me and looks over the side scouting out our next move with me.

“Drainpipe?” she asks, pointing to the one that runs along the corner of the building.

Probably the worst idea ever but we don’t have the luxury of options right now.

“Did she just say fucking drainpipe?” Asher barks into my ear.

“We aren’t exactly spoiled for choice right now, Donovan,” I snap in response and he curses but remains quiet otherwise. Marcus and Jace join us and both lean over to check it out.

“I’m the lightest, I'll go first,” Elle says.

“I don’t fucking think so, princess,” Jace scoffs before Marcus or I can protest. He swings his leg over the wall and reaches out to grip the pipe.

“Careful,” I snap.

“I got this, brother,” he replies as he puts his full weight on it and pulls on it to test its support. When it doesn't move under his weight, I breathe a sigh of relief. He slowly starts maneuvering down as Elle swings herself up onto the wall with a leg on either side.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Marcus snaps in a panic when she grabs for one of the guns at my side.

“Covering him,” she replies, like he is stupid as she casts her glance around the surrounding area readying herself to take a shot if need be. How the fuck did we get here?

We watch as Jace carefully descends until he reaches the floor before Elle waistbands my gun and moves to take her turn. The smoke is so dark and thick now. Just as she is about to drop onto the pipe Marcus grabs her and kisses her.

“Fall, little King, and I will fucking follow you to the gates of heaven,” he says with conviction.

“Don’t be silly, River,” she smiles. “I’ll be at the gates of hell,” she adds before winking, disappearing from view.

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