Page 87 of Making the King

A rumble from above snaps me and Baz from our hypnotized state, and while he moves, gun raised to check the stairwell, I approach my wife like she’s a wild lioness.

“Killer.” I rasp from next to her, my voice snapping her attention to me, and I gesture my head to Baz. “We have to go, hermosa. I need to get you to safety.”

With her chest heaving from her explosive assault on her mom, Cara slowly stands, knife still in hand and gives me a nod.

“We have to go.” Baz calls out, and we hurry forward, as we step over the dead Reapers, and the kid that I sacrificed, and make our way back up the stairs.

All the action is still happening on ground level, so when we step out, we see a couple of Reapers with their backs to us, firing into the main space where I abandoned my truck.

With swift and fluid action, Baz shoots the two Reapers with precision, and we keep moving.

As we step out into the foray, a body slams into me, and we roll, crashing into the wall as Cara cries out.

“You fucking cunts! You have ruined everything!” The asshole snarls in my face as he presses his forearm to my throat. His brown eyes are wild, and his sparse beard is singed, and as I buck him off successfully, the fight turns to fists.

We roll around, grunting and punching, and I can’t take my fucking eyes off him for a second to see where Cara is and if she’s okay.

My fist lands a crunching blow into his nose, blood spraying out everywhere as he lurches away, and I see the patch on his vest says President, with the name Rusty underneath.

A cry from my left snaps my attention in time to see Cara in a fucking knife fight with a Reaper.

Pain explodes down my cheek before warm blood rushes over my skin.

Shocked, my gaze catches back onto the Reapers’ President, and the shard of glass in his hand.

“Did you just fucking cut me?” I snarl and he grins.

“I fucking did. What the fuck are you gonna do about it?”

I lurch for him, copping another slash on my arm, but the shard tumbles from his hand as we thud to the ground, and I start laying blow after blow into him.

A loud explosion booms through the warehouse, throwing me off the Reaper, my hearing vanishing momentarily before it’s replaced with yelling and fucking annoying ringing.

“Come on, let’s go!” Dante’s voice bounces off the walls as he pulls me up off the ground, but I try to pull out of his grip.

“Cara!” I yell, and Dante slaps my chest.

“Over here, man.” When I turn to him, he points to a man running out of the warehouse carrying a woman. “Cain has her.”

“Cara!” I yell, pushing past Dante as he and Baz run at my heels, and we manage to get outside right before the structure collapses in on my fucking truck.

“That was close.” Baz mutters, and I want to agree, but my mind is on my wife.

Cain was carrying her.

Is she hurt?

“Cara!” I yell, needing to have my hands on her. See if she’s fucking okay.

Did I fail to protect her?

Am I even worthy of being her husband if I can’t fucking do that?

“Mi rey!”

Her voice, so strong and determined, snaps my head to the side, to see her running for me.

“My queen!” I yell back, closing the distance in time to catch her as she leaps on me and wraps her legs around my waist.

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