Page 32 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

S hit, shit, shit.

Max had frozen at my back, awaiting my command.

Frankie had exited the elevator while scrolling on his phone with a bored—or maybe annoyed—look on his face, so I had exactly one second to decide if we were going to engage in a firefight with the most feared Enforcer in all the Families—or if we were going to make a break for it.

“ Plan B ,” I hissed, turning on my heel and sprinting up the stairs after Max, who had leapt into action before I’d even finished speaking.

“Oh, what do we have here?” Frankie called out, our hasty retreat catching his attention.

“Shit! Get to the roof,” Dom barked into our ears.

We heard the pounding of booted feet behind us as we crested the stairs and hit the second-floor landing.

“And here I thought tonight was going to be boring,” Frankie said with a laugh as he ran after us. “Oh, come on! I just want to talk.”

Fuck that.

I followed Max as he careened around the corner and ran for the next flight of stairs leading to the third floor, located just on the other side of one of the hall bathrooms.

“Shit!” I shouted as a shot sounded, a bullet entering the wall right next to my head .

Max whipped his gun from its holster and let loose a few shots in Frankie’s general vicinity, the bullets pinging off the walls around him since Max was still running for the stairs and not taking the time to aim.

Frankie ducked and rolled out of the way, still laughing, then he got to his feet and charged after us again.

We took the next set of stairs two at a time, Max increasing the distance between us as my legs were beginning to fail me. I jerked out of the way as another shot ricocheted off a light fixture above me, and it was becoming clear that Frankie wasn’t trying to hit me directly.

He wanted to take us alive.

We reached the top of the stairs, arriving on the third floor while Frankie gained on us with every stride.

“Take a right! End of the hallway!” I shouted at Max, directing him to the stairwell that led to the roof.

He took off and I followed—or I tried to, but a strong hand wrapped around my ankle and took me to the floor.

“Fuck!” I growled, spinning to kick Frankie in his face with my boot. He dodged, his body draped across the top of the stairs below me, and my blow glanced off his shoulder instead.

“Ouch, babe,” he said with a chuckle. “That wasn’t nice.”

We struggled, and he pulled me down onto the stairs.

I leaned forward and swung a punch at his head.

He blocked it, knocking my fist back and trying to climb on top of me to hold me down.

I kicked at him before I rolled, scrambling to get purchase with my boots on the stairs.

He latched onto my backpack, jerking me backwards, and I slipped out of it before he could send me tumbling down the stairs to an inevitable broken neck.

Max came charging back around the corner, gun held high, and Frankie dove out of the way right as Max fired at him again.

Max grabbed my hand and hauled me to my feet, dragging me back up the last few stairs and down the hall. I got my sea legs back and sprinted behind him, headed for the last staircase that would take us to the roof of the Tower where Spencer kept his helipad.

Get Max to the roof . Nothing else matters .

Frankie ran after us, recovering with impressive speed from his dive down the stairs.

He fired shot after shot, one finally catching Max in his Kevlar vest. Max grunted, staggering a bit, and in that moment, my world tilted, my stomach dropped to the floor, and my legs tried to give out on me as I stumbled.

“I’m okay!” Max called, bounding to the stairs and beginning to climb. “Come on, Jojo, we’re almost there!”

Breathing hard, I recovered, but not in time.

Frankie pounced on me, taking me to my stomach on the bottom half of the stairs.

“Shit!” Max was already at the top, and he turned to race back down.

“No! Go!” I shouted at him.

I yanked my knife from the sheath on my thigh, and then I rammed it backwards with everything I had into the hard body pinning me down.

“Ow, Jesus, babe,” Frankie hissed, the blade entering the meaty flesh of his thigh.

I shoved him off me just in time for Max to pull me back to my feet again. We raced to the top of the stairs, flicked the deadbolt on the heavy door, and barreled through to the roof.

Max shoved the door closed, and we both jogged over to the nearest edge of the building, coming to a stop at the solid steel railing that ran around the rooftop’s perimeter.

“Ready?” Max asked, turning to me, and then his eyes widened in horror. “Where’s your pack?” he gasped.

I smiled ruefully. “Lost it on the stairs between the second and third floor wrestling with Frankie.” I motioned urgently to the railing. “You have to go, Max. There’s no way he hasn’t alerted the Spencer Enforcer team by now. The two of us can’t fight our way back out of here alone.”

“No,” he said fiercely, grabbing me by my biceps with both of his strong hands. “No fucking way. I am not leaving you here with that psychopath!”

“You have to.”

“No!” He shook his head violently, squeezing my arms tight.

“Max, please go,” I begged, my voice cracking.

I blinked away the tears that threatened to well in my eyes.

I had to be strong. “You promised me. You promised before we ever started this that if it came down to it, you would save yourself. This is my war. I can’t watch them hurt you, Max. I won’t do it.”

“Jojo, no . I can’t,” he cried. A lone tear leaked from his eye, and the pain I felt in my damaged soul was devastating .

I hadn’t known I could feel things like that anymore.

“You have to. They won’t kill me, Max. They’ll want information first. We have contingencies for this. You guys will get me back out in no time.” My eyes were desperate—imploring him to listen. “ Please . I can’t let them have you. It would be so much worse.”

The door banged open behind us.

“Go now!” I shouted at him.

“Fuck this so much,” he spat, finally letting me go and climbing the railing. He looked back at me over his shoulder. “I love you, but fuck this so, so much.”

He launched himself over the side, and I hurried to the edge, leaning over to watch as he fell.

After a few seconds, he pulled his parachute, the black, rectangular fabric shooting from his pack and catching him in the air.

He sailed gracefully away, disappearing behind the neighboring towers and into the darkness.

“We’ll get you out, honey,” Dom murmured in my ear, not quite hiding the wobble in his voice. “Don’t worry.”

“I know,” I whispered back.

A gun cocked behind me. I let out a defeated breath, my shoulders sagging.

“That was impressive,” Frankie said with a low whistle. “Here I thought I was finally going to be able to corral you both up here for a little chat. I wasn’t expecting a BASE jump. And I pulled this off you entirely by accident!”

I turned to face him. He held his handgun aloft in one hand, aiming it straight at my head, and he lifted my pack in his other hand, taunting me with it.

I crossed my arms and stared him down. I wouldn’t show these people fear.

Never.

Frankie walked toward me, favoring his injured leg a little bit.

He’d removed my knife, but blood now soaked through the thigh of his ripped, acid-washed jeans.

He wore another ratty homemade tank top, this one with “Nirvana” scrawled across the front in neon blue, and his dark hair flopped onto his sweaty forehead.

“Good. I see you’re ready to behave,” he purred. “I’m just very curious , you see. I really wasn’t expecting this excitement when my dear nephew asked me to do a quick check on things up here since I was already at work in the basement.”

He stopped in front of me, dropping my pack to the ground beside us, and he reached up to pull my balaclava down, exposing my face. The seconds felt like hours as he studied me, and then his eyes widened.

He barked out an incredulous laugh. “I’d been wondering just who it was that had the balls to break into James Spencer’s fucking house. But of course—it’s you , Little Knight.”

My mouth fell open. I could only stare at him, speechless.

He lowered his gun, letting it hang loose in his hand at his side, and a wide smile broke out across his striking face.

“And I thought Andrea was being so obnoxiously paranoid claiming someone had been in her basement office and moved her things an eighth of an inch out of place. But I bet that was you too?”

I just continued to gape at him.

“Shit, I apologize.” He pulled me into a ridiculous bear hug. “How have you been? Where have you been?”

“Frankie, I-I….” I stammered.

“Fuck, you know what? Don’t tell me. I can’t wait to see how this all plays out.”

He released me, stepping back to look into my face again. “I like the purple eyes. That’s a nice touch.”

“They're violet,” I mumbled, still dazed.

“Sure, sure,” he said, bending over to pick up my backpack. He held it out to me. “Here. You better get going. The boss will be home soon.”

I took my pack from him wordlessly, still stunned I wasn’t being hauled off to the basement to be wrung for information until my team could figure out how to extract me.

He busted out another laugh, clapping his hands like this was the greatest thing ever. “Things are about to get shaken up here in our fair City. I’m looking forward to it.”

Then he nudged me toward the railing.

“Um,” I began. “Thanks?”

“Don’t mention it, Little Knight,” he said, turning to head back down into the penthouse with a surprising amount of pep in his step for someone who’d just taken a knife to the thigh. “See ya later!” he called over his shoulder .

“Bye, Frankie,” I mumbled.

He pulled the heavy door open and disappeared through it, the loud clang of it slamming closed echoing across the otherwise silent roof top.

I let out the world’s biggest sigh of relief. “Did you get all of that?”

“Yep,” Dom replied, also sounding extremely relieved. “So, you know what this means, right?”

I hoisted my pack onto my back and fastened the straps across my chest. “Fuck. Dom, I’m not ready. I still don’t have anything on why my parents were murdered.”

“I know, but we agreed. If you’re ever made, we move straight to Phase Two. It’s safer for you that way.”

Fuck. He was right, of course.

I pulled my balaclava up over my nose and mouth again, tightened my helmet, and climbed onto the railing.

“I’ll call Mari,” I said as I took in the twinkling lights of the City below me. “She’ll be able to help, and I trust her.”

“I agree,” he replied. “I let Max know you’re okay. He’ll meet you at the rendezvous point we set for Plan B.”

“Got it. Love you. See you at home.”

“Love you too, honey.”

Then I jumped, my body cutting sharply through the cold night air as I fell.

After a few seconds, I released my parachute.

As I floated down, navigating my way through the City’s skyscrapers and away from Spencer Tower, every ounce of energy I’d reached so deep to find to survive this entire fucked-up night left my body.

I sagged in my straps, and I made peace with what I was going to have to do.

This was a fucking war, after all, and I came to win.