Chapter 46: Taking over

The express elevator ride up to the 102nd-floor observatory was a eighty-second hurricane of panting, bruised flesh, heavy gear, and zero personal space.

Mari was pinned against the mirrored wall of the elevator cab, her matte-black tactical top partially unzipped, her skin flushed hot and slick with sweat. Adrian was crowded over her, his broad, calloused hands locked around her thighs, hoisting her up as his mouth devoured hers in a brutal, dirty kiss that tasted like gunsmoke and copper. His heavy hips shoved forward, pinning her hyper-sensitive, bruised body flush against his rock-hard frame until she let out a breathless, shameless moan against his lips.

"Adrian," Mari panted, biting down hard on his lower lip until he growled. "Focus. We're five seconds from the top."

"I am focused," Adrian growled into her neck, his teeth grazing her collarbone with a force that made her toes curl. "Focused on taking you the second these suit-wearing bastards are dead."

"Can you two pause the victory foreplay for ten seconds?" Ren yelled over the elevator's screech, hammering at his wrist console. "The Council locked themselves behind an automated defense grid. Six heavy multi-barrel sentry turrets are pointed straight at these doors."

"So we don't use the doors," Mari purred, her dark eyes flashing with lethal, sovereign hunger. She planted her boots against Adrian’s chest, pushing him back just enough to look him in the eye. "Break the roof, brute."

Adrian grinned like a absolute maniac. "My favorite order."

He grabbed the steel ceiling hatch with his bare, armored hands and yanked it completely out of the frame with a horrific screech, hurling the metal plate straight down the shaft. He grabbed Mari by the waist, tossing her up onto the roof of the cab like a feather before hauling his massive frame up after her. The rest of the pack—Sera, Kael, Ren, and Lena—floated up behind them like bloodthirsty ghosts.

When the elevator car hit the 102nd floor, the doors slid open to an empty frame. The sentry turrets immediately went berserk, shredding the interior of the empty elevator with a thousand rounds of tungsten per second in a deafening wall of noise.

"Our turn!" Mari barked.

Adrian roared, dropping his entire 300-pound body weight straight through the ventilation ducting, crashing into the observatory like a falling meteor.

The room erupted into total, hilarious bloodbath.

Sera hit the floor sliding, sweeping her hands out to flash-freeze the tracking gears of three turrets. Before the ice even set, Kael vaulted off her back, landing clean on top of a corporate bodyguard. He jammed his daggers into the guy's helmet visor, yanked it open, and shoved a pin-pulled grenade straight into his mouth.

"Open wide, tax dodger!" Kael cackled, kicking the guy backward into a group of three other guards just before he exploded in a wet, chunky shower of red mist and tailored wool.

"Kael, you got brains on my boots!" Ren yelled, sliding down a support pillar while firing dual submachine guns sideways. He put three rounds through a Council member's forehead, casually grabbing the dying man's untouched mimosa off a silver tray mid-slide, taking a sip, and spitting it out. "Ugh, cheap prosecco. Death penalty."

Mari hit the deck rolling, coming up in a sleek, lethal crouch directly in front of the primary glass desk. The Head Chairman of the Council—a balding billionaire in a three-piece suit—was cowering behind a silk curtain, clutching an ancient gold-plated revolver with shaking hands.

A heavy cybernetic enforcer charged Mari from the side, his electric broadsword humming. Before the blade could get close, Adrian materialized out of nowhere, caught the glowing blade with his bare, gauntlet-covered hand, and snapped it in half like a dry pretzel.

"My Queen is busy!" Adrian bellowed, grabbing the enforcer by his tactical crotch plate and his throat, lifting him over his head, and yeeting him straight through the floor-to-ceiling panoramic window.

The reinforced glass shattered into a million glittering diamonds, and the enforcer plummeted 1,000 feet straight down toward 34th Street, his fading scream echoing into the morning air.

"Do you have any idea how much that window cost?!" the Chairman shrieked, backing against the ledge, trembling in his designer shoes. "We can negotiate! I have offshore accounts! Orbital defense codes! I can give you South America!"

Mari stepped up to him, her sidearm resting lightly against her hip. Her hair was a wild mess, her mouth bitten red, and her skin glowing with an intoxicating mix of sweat and pure dominance. She leaned into his face, pressing the warm, smoking barrel of her sidearm directly against his nostril.

"I don't negotiate with middle management," Mari whispered softly. "And I already took South America in my sleep."

BANG.

The Chairman flopped backward out the shattered window, following his bodyguard into the Manhattan sky.

The surviving three Council members immediately threw themselves flat onto the blood-soaked carpet, sobbing uncontrollably with their hands over their heads.

Ren tapped his console, bridging their live feed to every active terminal across the continent. "We're live worldwide, boss. Give 'em the headline."

Adrian stepped up behind Mari, his massive, blood-smeared arms sliding around her waist, hauling her back flush against his heavy, radiating heat. His large hand slid down to lock around her hip, squeezing hard as his hot breath blasted against her ear. Kael dropped to his knees at her side, burying his face against her thigh in manic devotion, while Sera and Lena stepped up beside them, slick with blood and victory.

Mari looked straight into the floating camera drone, a dark, filthy, devastating smile cutting across her lips as her voice boomed out across the planet.

"The Council is officially bankrupt," Mari purred, her hips shifting back into Adrian's heavy frame as she threw her head back against his shoulder. "Midtown is ours. The Empire State is our throne. Send your taxes, or we send Adrian."