Page 85 of Making the King

“Onward we ride!” Cain cries, shoving his door open and leaping from the truck even as he sprays bullets toward a group of men running in the other direction.

“Why the fuck did Dante leave that guy in charge?” Baz mutters and I chuckle.

“Don’t be fooled by the craziness. He’s the smartest man you’ll ever meet, and always the guy you want watching your back.” I check my gun and open my door too.

As gunfire pierces the air, a masculine whimper draws my attention to a stack of crates next to my truck, and with my gun raised, I round the stack to find a guy, probably not even in his twenties yet, curled in on himself, trying to hide.

I press the barrel of my gun to his head.

“Are you ready to die?” I ask him, and he stiffens, lifting his head from his arms to stare wide eyed at me. A quick glance down and I see he’s wearing a leather vest. A cut. And the badge on it says Prospect.

His trembling body quivers, but the shake of his head is clear enough, so I kneel down to get eye level with him.

“You have two choices here. The first is, you can continue to support the Reapers and not cooperate with me, in which case, I will pull the trigger. Or, you can choose to live, tell me where the girl is that they brought in not long ago, and I’ll let you go, but you have to leave this behind,” I fist his cut, and his nostrils flare as he heaves in panicked breaths, “and choose a new fucking path in life.”

“She-she’s down in the b-basement level.”

“Show me.” I snarl and he balks.

“B-but you said if I t-tell you where she is t-that you’ll let me go.”

“I will let you go. Once I have my wife.”

“Your w-wife?” His brows shoot high. “N-no one said s-she was married.”

With my fist still in his cut, I drag him closer. Nose to nose.

“That’s because you are taking orders from motherfuckers who only care about money. And even if she wasn’t married, it still wouldn’t be alright!” I scream the last part of my sentence in his face, and the smell of piss meets my nose.

“Get the fuck up and take me to her.” I hiss, dragging him up before shoving him deeper into the warehouse.

As Cain covers us, Baz follows behind me, watching my back, as I force the kid to lead the way. He hurries along. Not wanting to drag it out, which I’m fucking grateful for, because every fucking second that I’m not with my wife, is a second too long that they are with Cara, possibly doing heinous things to her.

As we walk, Baz shoots anyone trying to come at us from behind, and I end about three Reapers on the first level, and another two on the lower level, before we reach the basement steps.

“They are down there.” The kid trembles at the top of the steps, and for a moment, I feel fucking guilty for what I’m about to do.

Shooting Baz a look over my shoulder, I prepare to shut my morals down, knowing the only way I can get to Cara is by leaving them up here.

“I have to do what I have to do,” I tell Baz, and his eyes dart to the kid before meeting mine again.

He nods. “I’ll follow your lead.”

Nodding, I turn my eyes to the stairs and suck in a deep breath before grabbing the boy by the scruff of his neck.

“Hey. What are you doing?” he cries, but I ignore it.

“Move.” I demand, shoving him forward, but not letting go of him as we start our descent.

The kid whimpers as we hurry down the steps, and at the bottom, we turn into a room, and are immediately assaulted by gunfire.

Holding the kid in front of me, I use him as a shield, wrapping an arm around him as I point and shoot with my other hand. His body is peppered with bullets, and his limbs fall lifeless as I hold him up, moving further into the room as I shoot two of the Reapers, and Baz takes care of another two.

“Come back!” a woman screams in frustration as we move deeper in the room, her eyes trained on an open door in the back corner.

“They’ve run like cowards,” I tell Martina, gaining her cold glare. “I hope you weren’t paying them too much. It’s a pity you won’t be alive to ask for a refund.”

“You son of a bitch!” she snarls, storming closer to me. “You’ve ruined everything!”

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