Rebellion of a Kingdom by G.N. Wright
Chapter 13
MARCUS
It’s been a week. A fucking week since we lost Cassie, and Elle went rogue. Every day without them is like a fucking knife, right to my gut and I know everyone feels the same. We all wonder if Cassie is being kept safe and if Elle is ever going to come back to us. I’ve officially lost count of how many of Elliot's lackeys keep mysteriously disappearing before showing up dead. I know the blowback from Joseph Kavanagh’s murder means Elle has set her sight on lower targets for now, but that won’t last long. There are too many key players that she blames for everything that happened.
We have her list of targets and some of Max’s guys are tracking them. They are looking out for any unusual activity, but mostly just waiting for Elle to turn up and kill them. I can see Max regretting his choice to let Elle go every day. I know he was just doing what she wanted, what he was asked and paid to do, but deep down he cares about her as more than just a client. She is family to all of us and without her we are all a little lost.
I haven’t slept more than a handful of hours here and there and I’ve barely eaten. Every second I spend not doing everything I can to find them makes me feel like a failure, and I’m not the only one. Asher is so far gone he has no human emotion left in him, he barely had it before, but this is different. His whole persona is just void of anything. His self-control is shattered beyond repair and I fear for anyone who gets in the path of his destruction. It’s weird, because as far gone as he is, I have never felt closer to him. Like he was always meant to be here, part of us. Elle knew it from the moment she met him and now I am finally catching up.
Jace is barely sober, he has slipped back into his old ways very quickly. The first couple of days they were gone he was here, present. But every hour that ticked by without them coming home was another bit of control he lost. He’s the same Jace as the one I first met, lost, detached, and completely struggling with his emotions. I knew how to help him back then, but how can I help him now when I feel exactly the same? I could spiral just as easily as he has, but I have to keep my faith. Faith that we will find them and faith that Elle knows what she is doing.
Lincoln is more frustrated than I have ever seen him. I can see the guilt eating away at him, at what he thinks he should have prevented. He blames himself for not knowing the Donovan’s plans before they were executed and is punishing himself daily. He hasn’t taken more than a thirty-minute break all week. He hasn’t slept and only steps away from the laptop to shower, change and inhale a few protein bars before continuing whatever the fuck he’s doing on there. Lincoln has always been the most closed off of my brothers and I, but now it’s like I can see him bleeding from the inside out. He is my brother in every sense of the word and we are sharing this pain like we are connected as one.
Logan’s still here too, he refuses to leave, and I can’t say I blame him. Between Cassie being taken, Elle gone and Zack in a coma, how he is still coping is beyond me. Helen and Lily went to a safe house located near the medical facility that they are keeping Zack in, and along with Arthur, they move back and forth between the two every day. All of them are scared, on edge and desperate for Elle and Cassie to come home.
Max and his team are quiet, but they haven’t stopped either. From stakeouts to recon to even fucking flying drones over the Donovan mansion. Anything they can think of to try to get more information on how to get in and out without Cassie getting hurt. We still haven’t been able to come up with a solid plan, but if that doesn’t happen soon, I’ll fucking snap. Walk right in the front gates and blow the head off anyone who gets in my way. I need my girls back, for all our sakes.
We have all exhausted every little thing we can think of, and aside from doing what I wanna do and going straight in the front door, we haven’t really got anything. I can’t stand this feeling of fucking defeat. It’s the same feeling I had the night my father was killed. I knew something was off, it had been for weeks since Elle left town. Obviously, now I know why, but back then I was just a punk who thought I knew best. My dad was gone all hours of the night, and days at a time, never telling me where he went or when he was coming back. The night I walked into my home and it was dark, it wasn’t really anything new. I had become accustomed to finding the house empty, save for a few staff, what I didn’t anticipate was stumbling along his body and that of our old housekeeper, Margaret. Both of them bloodied and cold.
It’s a sight that will haunt me forever.
I did what any normal person would do, I called the police. It wasn’t long before the house was swarming with cops and paramedics, until eventually a coroner came. I was questioned a little, until Captain Baizen showed up and everyone started to filter out. He was the one who told me to pack up so I could go to emergency care. I didn’t think anything was weird about it at first. I mean of course, my dad was dead, I had no other family. My mom died giving birth to me and we had no extended family, so it was always just me and my dad. It wasn’t until I was sitting on the steps of my childhood home that Elliot Donovan pulled up. I’d never liked him; he was just a grown-up version of Asher to me. Quiet, weird and had the members of the King family under some kind of spell.
Every other person that night looked at me with pity in their eyes, but not him, the only thing lighting up his eyes was glee. I was too fucking out of it with grief to collect my thoughts, but I will never forget what he said to me.
“You can thank Elle King for the death of your father. She’s the reason I put a bullet in his skull.”
I was too stunned to even respond. Everyone I had ever loved, gone and everything I had ever known, shattered. My hatred for Elle had already begun to burn at that point. A small flame flickering inside of me, but with Donovan's words it turned into an uncontrollable inferno that didn’t burn out until I realized the truth. Now all of that hatred exists for Elliot and his fucking vermin son. Ironically, not the Donovan son I hated as a kid. Now Asher is my biggest ally. I know my brothers would do anything I asked of them, same as my crew, but I know Asher won’t let anything stop him from saving them both.
Thinking about them causes a tightness in my chest. I miss my dad every day. Thought I knew what living without someone was like. But every day without Elle by my side and Cassie in the hands of the Devil, is another day where I realize I won’t survive if we don’t get them back. Whenever you go to the doctors in pain, they ask you to rate your pain out of ten. I always thought seeing my dad's body was a ten, but it wasn’t. My ten would be seeing Elle’s and I can’t let that happen. No one will make it out of that wreckage.
I am still lost in my thoughts when Asher finds me. He looks rugged and run down, far from the Asher I knew and hated. I wouldn’t say we have magically become friends, but we have reached some sort of alliance in working together to get our girls back. I think of all the times I was ever jealous of him, even as kids. Every time he had Elle’s attention, I would be sick with envy, thinking he wanted her the same way I do. Now I know him, know the true face of his family, I understand their relationship much more. Even before that night, he just wanted some light in his life, and that light was Elle. I am glad he is still there for her and Cassie. We are all just one big fucked up, barely functioning family, but that's what makes us work well together.
“Hey man,” I tip my head at him in greeting.
“Hey.” He pats my shoulder as he sits down next to me with a sigh.
I’m sitting on the back porch staring at the tree Elle and I had sex under a couple of weeks ago. The night she told me she was scared; it turns out she had every right to be. I imagined multiple ways the party could go wrong, but Cassie being taken wasn’t one of them. Or at least wasn’t one I was willing to admit.
“I miss Cassie,” I admit freely. Missing Elle is obvious. She was a constant part of my life for so long, even when she was gone. But Cass was something unexpected and she’s easily slipped into my heart.
Asher’s hands grip his knees tightly. “I miss her so much it physically hurts,” he confesses. His honesty is brutal.
“Do you think she’s okay?” It’s a question I have been scared to ask for so many reasons. The answer might just kill what bit of hope I have left.
He doesn’t answer for a while and I almost think he isn’t going to. “My father has a sickness that turns my stomach,” he starts slowly. “But he has always cared about Greg. Loved him.” I’m not really sure where he is going with this, but I remain quiet. “Elle is different for them, for him.” He doesn’t have to say which him; he means. “I saw his eyes that night, the obsession in them, he wanted her, but it was more than that. Possession, ownership, craving.” He huffs a long breath before adding, “Cassie will be an extension of that for him. They won’t risk hurting her.”
I’m not sure if his answer relieves me or makes things worse. I just reach out and grip his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. Letting him know I am here for him, whether he needs me to be or not. I think about how many times I worried about Asher being in my way when it came to Elle. Not once did I ever think I was looking at the wrong Donovan. Now he is going to be the one to help save them with me.
“What are you doing out here anyway?” He changes the subject.
“I was just thinking about how much I hated you when we were kids.” I don’t know why I tell him that, but it’s that or we sit in the deathly silence of our failures.
He huffs a laugh slightly. “Just as kids?” he asks with a small smirk.
“Yeah, now I know that you don’t want my girl, you’re slightly more likable.” I grin as I shove his shoulder with mine.
He rolls his eyes as he leans back against the sofa, we’re on. “I never wanted her, at least not the way you always did.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know that now, you prick,” I lean back next to him, “but what was I supposed to think about another teenage boy hanging around her.”
“I wasn’t just hanging around her, you were there too.” His words give me slight pause, I never thought about him trying to be my friend too.
“Oh, come on, you were barely my friend,” I scoff.
“Yeah, that’s because of your dumb ass, not mine. Me and Elle always made the effort to include you.” He rolls his eyes again and I kind of want to punch him a little for being insufferable.
I sit up to take a sip of my drink. “Yeah, until you both used to hide from me, and I’d spend half the day looking for you both before giving up and going home.” I smile a little at the memory, “Where the fuck did you always go anyway?” I ask, turning to look at him. He’s sitting up straight with a stern look on his face.
“The tunnels,” he whispers, “the fucking tunnels. I can’t believe I forgot.” He stands abruptly and starts to walk inside before turning to look at me, “Come on we need to find Max, now!”
What the fuck are the tunnels?