Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
LILY
“Ladies.” Roland steps aside and gestures with his hand for us to pass by. “I’ll make sure the trash is taken care of.”
Sasha’s head snaps up, mascara-streaked eyes wide. “They’re here. Oh God, don’t leave me!” She jerks hard, trying to break free of the bindings attached to the chair.
The alarm screams through the estate again. “We need to get a new sound.” I nod in agreement with Teddy.
“Yes, maybe it should be calming, or you can’t help but sing and dance to it,” I suggest. You can’t be mad when some songs are playing.
“Just a small-town girl…” Teddy starts to sing Journey.
“Livin’ in a lonely world,” I join because how can you not?
“She took the midnight train, going to the vault,” Roland adds, gesturing for us to get a move on.
“Fine.” I grab Teddy’s arm and hurry up the stairs. Sasha is screaming from behind us, pleading for us to save her. She’s on their team. Why would we save her? Now she’s just being ridiculous.
We scramble up the greenhouse stairs, leaving Sasha’s pleading behind.
We need to haul ass before we get in trouble. We’ll never hear the end of it. Everything feels normal as we move toward the house, then a gunfight cracks through the air, making my stomach plummet. It’s a hard snap back to reality.
“That’s not a good sound,” Teddy says.
“Nope.” I grab her arm, pulling her faster. “Move.”
We run for the main house, almost busting our asses on the wet grass. We go in through the back patio into the kitchen. It’s the quickest way into the house, and there are a handful of directions you can go in.
The lights flicker a few times before going out, the house losing power. The sound of gunfire lights up again outside, this time in another direction. Everything goes dark except for the emergency lighting casting long shadows.
“It will come back on,” Teddy says, grabbing me by my wrist. “This way.”
We move fast, trying to keep quiet. All I can think about is Tristan and Killian and praying they are okay.
Tristan is out there. Fighting and possibly—the thought catches in my throat, but I shove it down. I can’t let that in right now. Vault first. I know the best thing we can do is be out of the way and let them know that we are safe so they can do what they need to do.
We’re almost to the library when the growl stops us both cold.
Not a warning bark. A predator’s snarl, coming from above. From the second floor. We both drop our heads back and stare up.
“Minnie,” I breathe out.
We exchange a look, and no words are needed. We pivot toward the stairs, taking them quickly. The second-floor hallway is darker, with emergency lights spaced farther apart. Minnie’s claws skid on marble somewhere ahead, followed by a woman’s sharp cry.
We round the corner and freeze on the edge of the conservatory. Almost all the walls are glass, including the stained glass window with peacocks that Teddy’s grandma loved.
Minnie has someone cornered against it, sixty pounds of muscle coiled to spring into action. Blood stains the woman’s sleeve where Minnie caught her once already. Minnie’s growling, teeth bared, ready to strike again.
It’s her. The queen. The cunt that not only had both of my fathers killed but also sent men to kill me!
She looks up. When her eyes land on us, she smiles, as if this is all a delightful surprise, running into each other.
“There you are, little swan.”
“Wow,” Teddy says. “The wicked queen vibe is immaculate. Tell me you practice that smirk in the mirror.”
“Hours in front of a mirror,” the queen says, not breaking eye contact with me. “Your cat is going to get hurt if she doesn’t back down.”
“Are we talking about the same cat?” I ask. Because of how much Minnie’s teeth are bared, I’m not sure we can stop her.
The queen’s smile flickers. She edges along the window, but Minnie shifts with her, ears flat, a low growl rumbling in her chest. Whoever said dogs are more loyal was gravely mistaken.
“You think this ends with me?” the queen says. “You have no idea who you’re up against.”
“Right.” Teddy snorts a laugh. “Like we don’t know what crazy looks like.”
The queen keeps going, and I’m starting to think she’s not the fun kind of crazy; she’s a pure form of it. “I have resources. Networks. You kill me, someone worse takes my place.”
“Like me?” I chirp. “We’ll kill them too. We’re building a collection.”
“Like Pokémon,” Teddy agrees. “But with more blood.”
The queen’s eyes narrow. “You think you can just take the crown from us? I have given my life for this, and one man who can’t keep his dick in his pants is trying to rip it from me. It’s ours. You have no idea what you’ve involved yourselves in. The monarchy of Grandeurs—”
“Is that the actual name?” I cut her off. I was sure she was about to be stomping her feet. “That sounds like a theme park. Do you have a castle? Please tell me you have a castle.”
“We have several.”
“Oh, fancy.” I look at Teddy. “We should get a castle.”
“You have a penthouse,” she reminds me.
“Not the same.”
“Definitely not the same.”
The queen’s hand moves.
“Don’t you think about it,” I warn her; her hand freezes. “You killed my dad, and I don’t mean the cowardly king.”
“I killed your mother too.”
“Well, you thought you killed me too, so you’re not that great at it.”
“You think you’ll make it out of here?” she asks with a confidence I admire.
“I think you did all of this for nothing. I don’t want your crown,” I tell her.
“We have a whole vault full of them,” Teddy adds. “Every color and gem you could dream of.”
“Lies, you want it. The bastard child of the king thinking she can swoop in and claim what’s mine.”
“What are you talking about? Julian is over there running things, trying to find your crazy ass.” The mention of her son must set her off. Her whole expression changes, and she reaches again, pulling a small blade out.
She tries to lunge toward me, but Minnie is quicker. The giant lynx launches herself at the queen, claws extended, momentum carrying them both backward. The queen screams as they crash through the stained glass in an explosion of blue and gold shards.
“Minnie!” Teddy screams as she and I run to the broken window, glass crunching under our shoes.
Below, the queen lies sprawled on the lawn. Minnie stands over her for a moment, then bounds away toward the tree line. Tristan and Killian stand at the edge of the garden, guns still in hand, looking up at us.
“Well,” I say, leaning out the window, “she really dropped by.”
“Uninvited,” Teddy adds.
“Rude.”
“Very.”
The queen groans. Twitches.
“Damn,” Teddy says. “She’s alive.”
“For now.” I shrug.
“Hey! Are you alive down there? You fell for us pretty hard!” Teddy calls down.
No response.
“That’s kind of disappointing,” I say. “I had so many more window jokes prepared.”
“Like what?”
“‘That must have been a painful exit.’ ‘Shattered expectations.’ ‘See right through you.’”
“Solid.” Teddy nods. “I was thinking ‘clearly broken.’”
“Glass half empty?”
“Transparency issues.”
Tristan doesn’t hesitate. He hands his gun to Killian and starts climbing, finding handholds in the ivy and broken window frame.
“Oh my God,” I laugh. I was kind of teasing, and I thought he’d use the stairs.
“What? You clearly want your princess moment, so I’m giving it to you.”
“Climb the tower.” I smile so big it almost hurts as I watch my man make his way up to me.
He pulls himself inside, glass crunching under his boots, and then his hands are on my face, and he’s kissing me like the world is ending and beginning at the same time.
“Don’t ever scare me like that again,” he says.
“Which part?”
“Any of it. All of it.” His thumb traces my jaw. “Stay with me.”
“Where else would I go?”
Nowhere. The answer is nowhere, and we both know it. I’m right where I’m supposed to be; my dad made sure of that for the both of us.