Regal Queen by Ivy Mason

Five

The house was too fucking crowded.It was a small three bedroom home, much smaller than I was accustomed too, even smaller than my own wing at home. It was also haunted by the memories. Everywhere I went was an assault of our simple time spent here, dredging up the past I worked so hard to forget.

I'd never shared this place with anyone, not even Coulter, and now it was filled to the brim with the men from New York, all milling around like they owned the place. Rows of sleeping bags crowded the floor at night and during the day, the kitchen was cluttered with people and plates of food, with maps and laptops crowding the kitchen table.

“He brings in most of his cocaine through this lane here,” Torian's fingers indicated a line over the map, glancing at both Knight and Dante, “but with Knight’s new information, I’ve discovered a Russian carrier ship that left China yesterday. Their paperwork says they’re headed for Mexico but I think they’ll dock in California first.”

I nodded, pretending like I was listening but I was distracted by Rose, who was seated in between Coulter's thighs. His hands were on her hips, whispering into her ear and making her chuckle. I grit my teeth against my jealousy, hating that I couldn’t easily control my emotions when it came to them together. They’d been spending the past three days in each other’s constant presence and it was driving me insane.

She also hadn’t taken off the coat she was wearing when we captured her, even though it wasn’t necessary in the warmth of the house. Sometimes I caught her stroking the edge of the sleeve unconsciously, her eyes far away and her expression dark. Curiosity filled me as my gaze drifted from the fur lined hood down to the front buttons. It was a man’s coat, dirty and well used, and was clearly Russian made. Where did the jacket come from? Why was she always wearing it? What did it mean to her? Did it belong to someone she met while she was at Dimitri’s or was it the only comfort she’d been given while she was there?

As if she felt my gaze on her, Rose turned, her eyes catching mine, and she stilled. Her throat moved and her chest Rose in a silent inhale.

"Bourbon?"

My eyes snapped to Torian, who stared at me with expectant eyes. He was Grant's replacement and the complete opposite of my old assistant. Instead of a sharp suit, dull emotions and a crisp manner, Torian was like a lethal panther. He had gold-colored skin and almond shaped eyes. He wore dark clothing, his hair tied back in one of those stupid man buns. He also had a gun strapped on him at all times, even when he went piss.

I wouldn't be surprised if he took it in the shower with him.

He was lethal in every sense of the word and, even though he clearly wasn't used to taking orders, he'd been respectful enough of my position as his boss. He'd also come with glowing recommendations from the Luca in New York and, after our battle in Dimitri's stronghold, I'd come to respect him.

He hadn't hesitated to take out the man who'd dared to point a gun at my head, and was quicker than even Coulter.

“When will they arrive in California?”

“At the speed they’re moving, I would say ten to eleven days.”

I nodded, making a low sound in my throat. Eleven days wasn’t nearly enough time to prepare, but Torian believed that this was the first large shipment Dimitri was sending to Nero.

If I did this, made the choice to attack, I would officially be declaring war on my own father.

Not that I cared about him, per se, or my relationship with him. I just wasn't sure if we were ready for it yet.

I wanted to take them down one at a time, instead of going against them both at once. Combined, their powers would be an unstoppable force.

If we attacked, I was pretty much guaranteed to be living on the run for years. If we somehow failed, they would hunt us down until they'd either killed us, or until we destroyed them enough to bring them to their knees.

Nero would never surrender willingly, but I had to admit, the thought was enticing.

I would love to see him on his knees, begging me for forgiveness before I shot his bra—

I forced that thought to end, needing to keep some kind of my humanity. Was I really that emotionless, that I was plotting my own father's demise?

It was hard to admit to myself that I'd been dreaming about it at night, of his head exploding, his eyes begging me for mercy.

That, combined with my sadistic thoughts of peeling Dimitri's skin from his body was feeding the burning, raging monster inside me.

And that's why I was staying as far away from Rose as possible.

I didn't want her to be exposed to the evil, violent thoughts I was having. If she knew what kind of man I really was, she’d run for her life, probably with Coulter by her side. And by the way he was holding her close, his hand on her waist, his lips at her neck, he would follow her to the end of the earth.

I shut down the raging thoughts that accompanied me every time I looked at them.

I wanted them to be happy. To move on from this shitty life.

If may be too late for me, but they could still have a happy life outside of this world.

I forced my gaze back to the map on the coffee table.

We'd marked the locations of Dimitri’s usual shipping routes, as well as where Nero's security was usually located. If we took this chance, Nero could be on us within about an hour.

We were taking a great risk and I didn't like it.

Not only did it put our futures at risk, Rose and Coulter's future, but all these men who'd come to rely on me the past few months.

I wasn't sure we were ready.

Just as I opened my mouth to say something, Torian's face snapped to the phone in his hand. "We have a code Flynn.”

Everyone in the room reacted, leaping from their seats. ‘Flynn’ meant that the motion sensors had gone off and, from the cameras we’d set up, that there was an enemy on the property.

Yeah, maybe I'd named our code after the so called ‘good’ guy in Tangled, so shoot me.

We'd made up the protocol just in case, but I'd been so confident that they wouldn't find us here.

In fact, it was almost impossible.

There was no paper trail tying me to this place. I'd been careful every time I visited, making sure that no one trailed me. I’d even paid men to pose as me for my weekend tumble in the sheets, in case anyone ever bothered to verify my plans.

Which they didn't.

No one cared about some rich bachelor having a weekend long, fuck fest at some hotel.

There was no way I would’ve ever be found, unless...

My heart thudded, pounding loudly in my ears.

Unless Nero knew about this place all along.

I jumped to my feet, joining in as everyone scrambled to either defend the house, a house not meant to be used as a defensive hold, or get the hell out of here.

Torian grabbed all of the papers he could find. He shoved them into a large metal trash can. After pouring a liberal amount of lighter fluid, he threw a lit match. It lit up immediately.

Everyone else was destroying the laptops and anything else important.

For the very first time in my life, I felt lost.

No. Fucking no. This was my mom's place, the only place in the world I'd ever felt truly safe. We had memories here. Bittersweet memories but they were mine all the same.

And now, I'd destroyed that all in one swoop, all because I thought I was too invincible to be discovered.

"Bourbon." Rose soft voice filtered through my conflicted thoughts and I turned to look at her. Her face was full of concern. She tugged on the sleeve of my Armani suit, pulling me to her. "Are you okay?"

I hated, hated that look in her eyes. The concern, the worry, the way the world around us was crashing in on us, and all she cared about was me.

"Bourbon." Coulter's voice was more stern and I shifted my gaze to him. "Snap the fuck out of it, man. We need to go."

He was standing behind Rose but his attention was focused fully on me.

Not waiting for me to react, he grabbed my arm, dragging me from the room. "We need to get to the helicopter before they destroy it.”

From here, I could already hear the blades warming up.

Everyone was moving now, heading towards the the closest exit. My feet stumbled, but both Rose and Coulter kept me upright. They pulled me with the crowd rushing the back door.

My eyes searched the room frantically, wanting to commit everything to memory. Who knew if I'd ever be able to come here again?

I took in the pale yellow curtains, the blue velvet sofa cushions. My eyes landed on the small, ceramic elephant. Elephants were mom’s favorite. As we rushed by it, I grabbed it, shoving it in my pocket.

I heard it at the same time as Coulter.

A whistling sound.

We both reacted at the same time, jumping to cover Rose, shoving her to the ground.

My world crashed around me as a RPG blasted into my house.

A large hole exploded into the side wall. Flames and shrapnel tore through the room. A roar ricocheted in my ears as the house shook.

“Come on," Coulter was on his feet before me, dragging both Rose and I with him. He moved away from the crowd at the door. Instead he shoved us out the nearest window. I landed on my feet, my senses finally coming to me. I caught Rose just as she landed.

Then Coulter jumped, landing beside us with a grunt. I noticed his face was pale and sweaty again.

We ran. Rose led the way, clasping onto both our hands. We ran across the field towards the helicopter, reserved just for us. The pilot was already there, waiting.

Another boom crashed behind me. Fear sparked my blood, realizing they could shoot us out of the sky.

Good thing I had the baddest motherfucking pilots assigned to me.

I didn't look back. I grabbed Rose by the hips and hauled her up and into the helicopter. Then I shoved Coulter up and into it. They both reached down, grabbing my hand and heaving me upward.

I landed on my chest, skidding across the floor. We all took our seats, strapping ourselves in.

Hanging on for our fucking lives, the pilot jerked us upwards into the air.

As we escaped, I turned, looking down at the last thing I had of my mother. I watched as it burned to the ground before my very eyes.

My security team was shooting from their own helicopters. They used rifles to take out the men holding the rocket launchers first. One of them landed on a helicopter that had just taken off.

On the ground was chaos, both Dimitri's and my men dying. Their bodies were torn up and lifeless on the ground.

I hated this, hated that men gave their lives for me. What made my life worth more than theirs?

In the chaos, I saw a lone man, staring up at my helicopter. It was as if he knew that's where I was.

He didn’t pay any mind to the fighting on the ground. He also faced off the bullets shooting from the sky as if daring them to hit him.

Somehow, I knew that was Dimitri. The monster inside me raged.

I was going to kill him.To see his very life melt from his eyes.

To know that I was the one to put that dog down.

I was going to drop from this helicopter and strangle him with my own hands.

"Stop!. A soft voice was over my shoulder, and two hands were on my waist. I suddenly realized that I’d taken off my seatbelt, my body already obeying my mind.

Rose's fingers folded over mine, firm and comforting at the same time.

I pulled my gaze up to meet hers, and firece eyes greeted me.

"We will kill him, I swear to you, Bourbon. But not right now. It’s not the right time.”

I was caught up in the ferocity of her gaze, unable to look away from those jade eyes that I wanted to drown in.

Eyes that promised me the world and in the same moment denied me my very existence in it.

Eyes that burned for me, but also stared at Coulter with the same passion.

I finally tore my gaze from her, not looking at the remnants of everything I lost but instead, stared straight ahead, steeling myself.

Making a promise that I would do everything possible to get my revenge, while simultaneously walling up my emotions from the woman who'd already claimed my heart.

I would end this, then leave and never return.