Page 63 of Fall Before Her Throne

“Follow me,” I murmured.

We crept forward in perfect lockstep, searching for any other movement or threat. A flash came from the right. Max shoved me down and returned fire. A body thunked to the ground near a door, splayed half-inside and half-outside the building.

One breath.

Two breaths.

Three breaths.

Quiet.

My heart thudded wildly as I exchanged a glance with Max. He took the first steps toward the bay doors, ducking down slightly to look inside the small opening at the bottom. After about ten seconds, he straightened.

“Clear,” he said over his shoulder. “It’s clear.”

Slowly, everyone came out from their cover. My grip on my gun relaxed just a hair when I saw Leona was fine. Her eyes locked on mine, and her body released its tension. I gave her a half-smile. So far, so good.

“Fuckers,” Ryuji scoffed as he stood beside me and looked at the body in the doorway. He nudged my shoulder. “You all right?”

“Yeah, I’m good.” I wiped my mouth with the back of my arm. I glanced down the hallway past the door’s opening. All I could see was a large void of shadowed darkness. The lights were off. “Think Giulio’s men⁠—”

Before I could finish, another round of gunfire echoed within the building. I cursed before stepping inside, quickly bracing the flashlight in my free hand beneath my weapon. Obi and Ryuji followed right behind me, fanning out to my sides as soon as there was room. Their flashlights and mine scanned the warehouse bay, but our lights only illuminated rows and rows of wooden crates.

“Our men are on the North side. We have to make our way there,” I said quietly. The flashlight revealed another door to the West, which had to lead to more warehouse bays. Ryuji’s light pointed toward a metal staircase which seemed to lead to offices of some kind.

Pops of more gunfire echoed through the metal building, but I couldn’t tell from which direction—upstairs or through the other bays.

“We’ll clear downstairs first,” Obi said while he and Wynn gravitated toward the West. “We’ll head upstairs after.”

We moved as a group. I stayed two steps in front of Leona, ready to shield her with my body if I had to.

“Ryuji, please keep an eye on Max,” Leona said quietly, just as Wynn and Obi breached the west door and crouched forward. The other bay was just as large as the first, and it had the same wooden crates organized in rows.

“I’m not fucking babysitting again.”

“You are.”

Ryu leaned into Max, but he eyed the rows of crates. “I really hope we don’t get into a situation where friendly fire happens. That would suck, wouldn’t it?”

Max looked Ryu directly in the eye. “Yeah. You go ahead first. I’ll watch your back. Hopefully, my finger doesn’t squeeze the trigger by accident.”

I snorted. Max would be fine, and so would Ryu.

“What does the shipment usually look like?” Obi asked Max while our group made its way through the rows and rows of crates.

“Exactly like these crates,” Max replied. “But this is way more than our usual order. Almost triple.”

“Wynn,” Obi said as he let his automatic rifle hang on its strap by his side. The two of them grabbed a lid from one crate and pushed it open.

Wynn peered inside. “Jackpot.”

Ryu let out a whistle. “There are a shit ton of guns here.”

“Good. Our men need them.”

“So he ordered triple the amount of weapons, but he didn’t change the delivery schedule…” Leona said, eyebrow furrowed.

Gunfire popped off from above us, somewhere on the second level. I pushed Leona behind me and trained my rifle toward the top of the stairs in this bay.