Page 83 of Evil Queen

Nikita

Fear was bouncing through me like a loose ball. It was less for myself and more for the rest of my friends. We foolishly believed that we were safe at Nathan’s house. I should have expected that whatever Brayden was up to was nefarious and been more vigilant. I had blades on me, as I always did, but if I went for them, I was going to get a bullet through the brain.

Cherri took a few steps forward, and the guy who didn’t have his gun to my head stabbed his gun in her direction. “Stop!”

“No,” she hissed back, then looked at me. “They need us alive. He’s not going to shoot you.”

“I’ll fucking kill you, you little bitch,” the other guy said.

“No, you won’t,” she spat, and with that, she leaped out and tackled the guy to the floor.

His gun discharged, firing straight up, and the rest of The Royal Court scattered up the stairs, likely to gather their own weapons, except for Nathan, who stood still, staring at me. Seeing Cherri tackle the man to the ground, I developed some confidence and quickly ducked down. The gun fired just over my head, and I jumped, thinking he maybe did intend to shoot me. Maybe Cherri was just banking on false confidence. When the bullet missed me, I quickly stood back up, headbutting the guy in the head.

“Fuck!” He drove his fist down into my rib cage, and I crumpled sideways.

I was a fighter, but a grown man was still a grown man and had far more power than a teenage girl. Nathan rushed forward and got between the guy and me. Acidic sludge filled my stomach at the thought that an unarmed Nathan was going to get shot. I got to my feet as quickly as I could, but while Nathan was battling with the guy who’d attempted to shoot me, Cherri was struggling to overpower the man she was up against. I was about to run over and help her when I heard a piercing battle cry, and Sicily came flying out of the kitchen with a bag of flour. He reached his hand in and grabbed a clump of it, dropping it in the man’s face. Cherri used the distraction to put some distance between her and the guy. All the members of The Royal Court came bolting back down the stairs with guns, and they looked at him in shock.

“What? It’s what I can do,” he said.

The man wiped his eyes clean and made an irritated charge for Sicily. Cherri jumped in and tangled up with the man, just as the one Nathan was fighting with reached out and grabbed me by the arm. We all got twisted in together, and it felt like déjà vu. It was so similar to what happened back in Nathan’s cabin, almost like it was purposeful. As long as no one could get a clear shot on either of the guys, they couldn’t shoot, and the men knew it.

The one that Nathan and I were mixed up with cocked his shoulders back and got his arms free. He socked Nathan in the face, knocking him to his back, and I could see the daze in Nathan’s face. The man quickly pivoted behind me, rolling an arm around my waist to take me. He started to drag me toward the door, and because he was behind me, I was struggling.

The Royal Court charged forward, but the man put his gun back to my head, and everyone stopped short. That time, I wasn’t brave enough to duck out of the way. He fired last time, and though he missed me, it was clear that whatever confidence Cherri had that they wouldn’t kill us wasn’t entirely accurate. I needed an opening to make a move but wasn’t sure where it would come from.

Suddenly, I went flying forward onto the ground. I heard the clatter of the gun as it went skidding across the floor and watched as someone ran over to pick it up and kick it away. I twisted around, trying to get free of the man on top of me, but then my brain stuttered. Suddenly, I was back in my childhood bedroom. My dad was there, and my chest caved in. My breathing started to get short, and just like so many nights back then, I wanted to scream for help, but no words would leave my lungs. All the fight left my body, and all I could do was curl into a ball. I was inhaling and exhaling as much as I could, trying to force air to enter and exit my body when someone dragged me away from the fray.

“Nikki.” The voice was barely able to reach me. It was warm, comforting, begging me toward it, but it was so far away that I was afraid to look. “Nikki.” It was closer to me. Arms wrapped around me, arms that didn’t want to hurt me. Arms that loved me and wanted to keep me safe. “Nikki.” The voice was right in my ear.

I finally clawed my eyes open and looked into Nathan’s eyes. “Nathan?”

“It’s okay. You’re okay. I’m here.” He kissed my forehead.

I looked over my shoulder and saw Jaxon tangled up with the man who had been dragging me toward the door moments before. Jaxon was fighting with him, and fortunately, the man didn’t have his gun, though it didn’t look like Jaxon had one either. Not far from them, Cherri was still fighting with the other guy, keeping her body between him and Sicily, who was still only armed with a bag of flour. It didn’t make sense to me that we were still struggling so much with two men when we all had weapons, but then I scanned The Royal Court and noticed for the first time the looks of fear on all of their faces. They had guns, but they didn’t have what it took to shoot. It was one thing when it was a target, but when you were faced with having to hurt or potentially kill someone, it was a whole different ball game.

It poured confidence back into me. Most of my friends were still leagues away from being able to defend themselves, but fortunately, a few of us had the experience we needed. I got to my feet, and Nathan tried to stop me, but I pulled free. I flipped a blade out of my sleeve and started to advance on the guy who was fighting with Jaxon when the guy who was fighting with Cherri shoved her away. She fell back against Sicily, and the guy pulled out his gun and cocked it.

“All right. I’ve had enough of you.”

He pointed his gun at Cherri, and I heard a shriek. It shocked the guy enough to cause him to hesitate as Avery rushed out and jumped between Cherri and the guy who was pointing the gun at her.

“Avery!” Cherri and Alistair yelled in response, and I reflexively jumped forward.

I collided into Jaxon, who collided into the guy he was battling with, who collided into the guy pointing the gun at Avery and Cherri. The gun went off, and I heard Avery yelp. The stream of blood I saw first made me panic, but then I noticed that the bleeding spot on Avery’s arm was very small. I’d just sent the trajectory off enough for the bullet to barely graze Avery’s arm. I threw out an elbow toward the guy who was still pointing a gun at Avery, and it slammed into the guy’s face. In a flash of color, Alistair was next to me, pointing his gun down, but I shoved it away.

“We don’t need it, and you’ll never come back from killing someone,” I barked. Alistair cocked back a fist and brought it down hard against the man’s face, and his entire body went limp. His head dropped back to the floor, and he lay there, unconscious. “Oh, okay. That’s not what I meant, but that’ll work.” With the blade in my hand, I walked over to the guy who was tussling with Jaxon and stuck my knife to his throat. “You’re outnumbered.”

The guy froze, looked back over his shoulder, and noticed that his partner was out, and then he held up his hands. I was prepared to keep him standing, but all of a sudden, a pan flew out of nowhere and slammed against his head. His eyes rolled back, and he dropped to a heap on the floor.

Jaxon and I looked over in shock as Colette turned the pan over in her hands. She looked up at Jaxon with concern. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Are you?”

She smiled, holding up her frying pan. “Hell yeah. I think I just found my new favorite weapon.”

“Shit, Nikki,” Jaxon murmured. “I think I fucked around and fell in love.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, buddy. That’s been evident for about three months.”

It was useful but frustrating that both guys were out cold. I was hoping to ask them some questions, but whatever. They were down, and that was what mattered.

Everyone converged on them at that point, using whatever they could find to tie them up. We propped them up against the wall when they were properly secured. Nathan was frozen in place, and I thought it might have been from fear, but when I walked over to him, he whispered, “Brayden set us up.”

My heart broke as Nathan, once again, lost a friend that he’d fought to keep. He would have some trouble bouncing back from that one, but the rest of us would be there for him every step of the way.

I looked over at Avery and saw that she was holding her arm. Alistair crouched next to her, and Cherri stood in front of her. Despite the fact that it was Avery who was bleeding, she looked up at Cherri and smiled. “Are you okay?”

Cherri dropped to her knees with tears in her eyes and threw her arms around Avery. “Yeah. I’m much better now.”

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