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Almost as if they were hoping that someone would show up. Before I stepped inside, I fired off a text to Livie.

Now.

I slipped my phone back into my bag, careful not to slice myself on the knives.

I wasn’t stupid.

I knew that they might search my bag.

That’s why I had a gun holstered to a thigh and myrealphone slipped into my knee-high boot.

The heiress with kitchen knives for weapons was such a good play though, that Freddie insisted that I kept them.

Only two seconds passed before the building went dark, along with all the ones surrounding it. The only light that remained was the orange tinge on the horizon where the sun had set a while ago. Only then did I slip inside the building, closing the door quietly behind me.

“What the fuck happened?” I heard a whisper further inside the warehouse. But I stayed put, waiting for my eyes to adjust a little.

There were windows scattered throughout and narrow slices of the building were still offered a little bit of orange light, so I was able to make out shadows and get a general idea of my surroundings.

I headed towards the voices, slowly and quietly.

That’s where the scene got a little clearer, and the silhouettes of multiple people moving about in panic came into view. So I stepped further into the chaos, planting myself in the middle of it all and plastering a wicked little smile on my face before sending the next signal to Livie.

27

ASHE

“What the fuck happened?”one of the goons hissed through his teeth.

I rolled my eyes, shuffling in the hard seat that I’d been attached to for hours now. A quick glance towards Toni was all I needed to know he still hadn’t moved. I tried to reach my foot out far enough to nudge at him.

He’d been out cold for a while now, and I was starting to get worried.

Of course the rich boys hadn’t laid a hand on any of us, but their very young looking lackeys had laid into Antoni especially.

The boys were probably still teens. They were obviously inexperienced, though they seemed very keen to beat on a man tied to a chair. But I was sure that if they saw any of us on the street, that they would piss themselves and run.

The rich boys behind it all hadn’t made any requests, though. Hadn’t laid out any terms or tried to negotiate. Hadn’t given us any idea of why we were there.

The whole thing just seemed like a bit of a pissing contest. Like they were doing this for the sake of it, for the fun of it, perhaps for the thrill of it, rather for any real purpose. That was yet another reason why The East Allies were different to us.

Not like us at all, really.

Every move of violence we ever made had at least been for a reason.

Were they good reasons?

Maybe not always.

But reasons nonetheless.

“Think the power went out, fellas,” I recognised Rome’s deadpan, shit-stirring voice.

She hadn’t reacted at all when Toni went limp, at least not while anyone was watching her. But I noticed how she inched her chair towards him whenever she got the chance, how her concerned glances started to last a little longer with each stretch of time he went without moving.

“No one fucking asked you, whore.”

Then, the lights flickered back on.