EVIL QUEEN - Rebel Hart Page 0,96

blades on me, as I always did, but if I went for them, I was going to get a bullet through the brain.

Cherri took a few steps forward, and the guy who didn’t have his gun to my head stabbed his gun in her direction. “Stop!”

“No,” she hissed back, then looked at me. “They need us alive. He’s not going to shoot you.”

“I’ll fucking kill you, you little bitch,” the other guy said.

“No, you won’t,” she spat, and with that, she leaped out and tackled the guy to the floor.

His gun discharged, firing straight up, and the rest of The Royal Court scattered up the stairs, likely to gather their own weapons, except for Nathan, who stood still, staring at me. Seeing Cherri tackle the man to the ground, I developed some confidence and quickly ducked down. The gun fired just over my head, and I jumped, thinking he maybe did intend to shoot me. Maybe Cherri was just banking on false confidence. When the bullet missed me, I quickly stood back up, headbutting the guy in the head.

“Fuck!” He drove his fist down into my rib cage, and I crumpled sideways.

I was a fighter, but a grown man was still a grown man and had far more power than a teenage girl. Nathan rushed forward and got between the guy and me. Acidic sludge filled my stomach at the thought that an unarmed Nathan was going to get shot. I got to my feet as quickly as I could, but while Nathan was battling with the guy who’d attempted to shoot me, Cherri was struggling to overpower the man she was up against. I was about to run over and help her when I heard a piercing battle cry, and Sicily came flying out of the kitchen with a bag of flour. He reached his hand in and grabbed a clump of it, dropping it in the man’s face. Cherri used the distraction to put some distance between her and the guy. All the members of The Royal Court came bolting back down the stairs with guns, and they looked at him in shock.

“What? It’s what I can do,” he said.

The man wiped his eyes clean and made an irritated charge for Sicily. Cherri jumped in and tangled up with the man, just as the one Nathan was fighting with reached out and grabbed me by the arm. We all got twisted in together, and it felt like déjà vu. It was so similar to what happened back in Nathan’s cabin, almost like it was purposeful. As long as no one could get a clear shot on either of the guys, they couldn’t shoot, and the men knew it.

The one that Nathan and I were mixed up with cocked his shoulders back and got his arms free. He socked Nathan in the face, knocking him to his back, and I could see the daze in Nathan’s face. The man quickly pivoted behind me, rolling an arm around my waist to take me. He started to drag me toward the door, and because he was behind me, I was struggling.

The Royal Court charged forward, but the man put his gun back to my head, and everyone stopped short. That time, I wasn’t brave enough to duck out of the way. He fired last time, and though he missed me, it was clear that whatever confidence Cherri had that they wouldn’t kill us wasn’t entirely accurate. I needed an opening to make a move but wasn’t sure where it would come from.

Suddenly, I went flying forward onto the ground. I heard the clatter of the gun as it went skidding across the floor and watched as someone ran over to pick it up and kick it away. I twisted around, trying to get free of the man on top of me, but then my brain stuttered. Suddenly, I was back in my childhood bedroom. My dad was there, and my chest caved in. My breathing started to get short, and just like so many nights back then, I wanted to scream for help, but no words would leave my lungs. All the fight left my body, and all I could do was curl into a ball. I was inhaling and exhaling as much as I could, trying to force air to enter and exit my body when someone dragged me away from the fray.

“Nikki.” The voice was barely able to reach me. It was warm, comforting, begging me toward it, but