Page 17 of Rebellion of a Kingdom

“Why? Because you helped her slip out in the night and go after the Donovan’s alone?” There's no point beating around the bush, that is exactly what happened, I’m sure of it.

“I work for her,” he replies like it’s just as black and white as that. Like this whole thing isn’t the most dangerous situation we will ever fucking face. He’s unleashed her on them. Yet, he doesn’t really know the evils of this town, he can’t. You don’t know unless you are born in this city of chaos and raised in its insanity.

“Just because you trained her into what she is today, doesn’t mean she should be doing this alone.” I feel my temper slipping slightly, but I hold it back as tight as I can. I won’t waste it on the undeserving, not when there are so many targets, I can take it out on.

“That wasn’t my choice to make,” he replies solemnly. His words mean nothing, if anything happens to Elle because we weren’t there to have her back, I will hold him personally responsible.

“It wasn’t hers either,” I snap. “She isn’t the only one in this anymore.” Asher comes into the room as I speak, followed by Jace and Lincoln and I smile sinisterly at Donovan's presence. “Besides,” I say smugly flicking my eyes back to Max, “I’m not the one you should be worried about.”

“Brother?” Linc starts judging the situation, “everything okay here?”

“All good with me, brother,” I smile in return as I look at Asher, “You good?”

He looks at me confused, like he is wondering if I am being serious or not. Not too weird of a reaction, we might be on the same side, but it isn’t like we are friends. We never really were. What I am only just realizing, is that it doesn’t matter if we’re friends or not, because we’re family. One made in desperate times, yet more important than any blood and thicker than any real family ties. I will have his back until the fucking end, and I know he will have mine.

“Fine,” he replies in a clipped tone, looking around the room again, “Where’s Elle?”

I feel excited as I respond, knowing I am about to poke the bear. I look at Asher and then to Max, “Max helped her sneak out alone to go get her revenge, she’s probably been gone for hours.” I say the words casually, but they still taste horrific as they roll off my tongue. I know Elle can handle herself, but she shouldn’t have to. We should be fighting side by side.

The room turns deathly silent. Asher doesn’t speak, not one word. His blue stare turning dark as he locks in on Max. I barely blink and he has moved from the entrance to in front of Max, swinging a fist at his face. Lincoln captures it just in time, but then before Asher can protest, he punches Max himself, surprising us all.

What the fuck?

Max takes the hit and I see his team are impressed by Lincoln's strength, and for the first time since the party yesterday, I see the ghost of a smile on Jace's face. This is what we do, what we are good at. We protect people, keep them safe, and now the person we care about the most needs us.

Asher frowns at what’s just occurred, and Lincoln looks at him with a stern face, “You probably have a broken fucking wrist, how about you refrain from punching anyone?”

“I don’t need the help,” he spits his nickname, “fighting my battles for me.” I roll my eyes. They’re so alike it’s comical. I don’t understand why they don’t get along better.

“Really? Because the help is the one who is gonna bring your daughter home,” Lincoln fires back.

“Listen here Blackwell -” Asher starts, but I cut him off.

“Measure your fucking dicks later, we’ve got work to do,” I grunt at them before turning to Max and his guys. “We,” I gesture to my brothers and Ash, “are going to get Elle back and bring Cassie home, with or without your help. Elle isn’t here so whatever she told you is now irrelevant. The only thing that matters to me is those two girls being unharmed. We all need to set our shit aside and fucking work together.”

Lincoln and Asher remain in a stare off until Asher breaks it and shocks us all, “Agreed.”

I nod, “Alright then, let’s do this. Where should we start?”

Max cracks his jaw and then resumes the conversation, “Ash we were just going over all the property owned by your family, is there any helpful information you can think of?”

Asher moves in between two of Max’s guys and starts inspecting all the paperwork they have laid out in front of them. He picks up a pen and starts writing stuff on each of them, varying from numbers and markers, none of it seems to make any sense to anyone but him.

Once done, he takes them and splits them between us, Max and his guys as he speaks, “X’s represent the number of guards usually there, O’s the number of staff and the squares are the security feeds. I have a couple of people on the inside I can speak to, but it will take some time to contact them.”

Max nods along as he listens to him, while his guys look over the locations they were given. I’m not sure how he and his team usually do things, but me and the guys usually work as a unit. Lincoln takes out security and hacks into anything on the inside and then Jace and I go inside and do whatever we need. I doubt any of the stuff we do from here on out will be as simple as that. The Donovan’s and their men won’t be playing, so neither will we.

“My father’s men won’t think twice about killing you all, so be prepared.” Asher confirms what I was already thinking.

“We brought enough weapons and ammo to support a small army, so that won’t be an issue.” Max adds, “Once you’re all ready to go, you can go through them and pick what you are comfortable with.”

I nod along with my brothers, we won’t turn down weapons, that would just be stupid. “So how are we doing this?”

“How we always do it,” Lincoln says, “together.”

Max glares at him, before turning to Asher, “You go with Marcus and his guys.” He nods his head at me, “but I’m taking Logan with me and sending Elijah with you.”

I look at Asher who is giving Max the death stare, but manages to grits out, “Fine.”

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