Page 72 of Xerxes Ascendant
Akira’s frustration made his tongue sharp. “Be realistic. We’re stranded, unarmed, trapped up here and-”
“If the Carrion intended to hand us over to Mackenroth, they would have done it while we were still bound and defenceless,” Kyle retorted, unfazed by Akira’s biting tone. “They could have served us up to him on a plate last night, and yet here we are. There has to be a reason for that.”
“We’rebait,” Akira breathed, realisation crystallising into sharp clarity. Kyle cocked his head again, this time in question, and he elaborated. “That other aircraft we saw being prepared in the hangar, that large transport, isn’t for attacking the Rise. It’s for rescuing the people who were taken.”
“So there’s no security grid?” Kyle said slowly.
“No. Or if there is, it can be disabled locally, and that bullshit about needing to do it from Mackenroth’s office was just to keep us satisfied until we got here. Because we’re meant to be the distraction that keeps the mayor’s attention occupied from the Carrion’s operation on the other side of the city.” He tensed, and swore. “Which still means Sinead will have tipped Benedict off that we were coming.”
Kyle wrinkled his nose in thought. “But not when or how, or he’d have had security waiting for us.” He peered down over the edge of the roof and Akira snatched fretfully at his arm, even though he was in no danger of falling. “So Sinead’s given us a fighting chance.”
“Only because it will require Mackenroth to expend more resources to find and catch us.”
“The question is where his men will be hiding. On the ground floor, expecting us to enter the building that way? Or near the suspension controls?”
“Both,” Akira said, knowing how Benedict Mackenroth operated. He wouldn’t have left anything to chance. “He’ll also have a team covering his office, and another patrolling the stairwells.”
“So they’ll be stretched thin trying to keep an eye on everything at once,” said Kyle cheerfully. “Good to know.”
Akira hummed his assent. Kyle’s positivity was both infectious and impossible to resist, for Akira found himself beginning to believe they could actually survive the trap that had been laid for them, despite the terrible odds. Two unarmed, unprepared whores against the most powerful man in the city…on his own turf?
Akira had faced worse.
“We can’t use the door,” he instructed, disregarding the obvious way off the roof. The greenexitsign glowed with innocent temptation. “It will be alarmed.”
“What about the windows?” his boyfriend asked, peering at the triangular glass structures that protruded up from the flat parts of the roof for the purpose of directing natural light down into the top floors of the building. “Surely there are too many glass panes to alarm each one.”
“Agreed. That one.”
Kyle followed Akira’s outstretched finger, nodded, and dragged one of the Diving suits over to wrap around his hand. With a quick, efficient strike, the glass shattered and tumbled free, landing on the stretch of thick cream carpet Akira had chosen to hide the sound of the impact. They paused for a moment, listening intently, but heard nothing to indicate they’d been noticed or that the floor was occupied by any security.
They helped each other inside, using the straps of the protective suit as a makeshift rope to lower themselves down, and Akira led them to the stairwell. He told Kyle which particular steps to avoid, conscious that at any second he could misremember or misjudge, and bring half a dozen armed men down on their heads.
He permitted himself a small breath of relief when they reached the next landing without triggering any alarms.
One floor down. Many,manymore to go.
Yet their luck wouldn’t hold forever; sooner or later they’d encounter actual human resistance to their impromptu stealth attempt, and then they’d be fighting for their lives. They needed an advantage.
And Akira understood how the mayor’s mind worked...but it meant Benedict understood him in turn. If it came down to it, Mackenroth and him, they were too evenly matched.
Yet Akira wasn’t just Akira.
He wasKyle’sAkira. And his boyfriend added a splash of unpredictability, an unknown element in the war of wits and wills that would soon play out between House Master and mayor.
“Kyle? If you were Benedict Mackenroth, what is the last thing you would expect me to ever do?” he asked thoughtfully.
Kyle’s response, accompanied by a wry grin, was immediate. “Give up.”
Akira’s own lips twitched in amused response. It really was unthinkable.
Boots sounded on the stairs below them. Urgent, insistent, and heading their way.
“Sweetheart,” he murmured, threading his fingers through Kyle’s and then lifting their joined hands skyward as if in surrender. “Are you ready to give ourselves up to the mayor?”
Kyle snorted and yanked their arms back down to their sides before tugging him through the closest door. “Not quite yet, pet.”
Kyle
