Asher pov
The precinct walls shook with gunfire. Plaster rained down in the interrogation room like snow, the steady pop of automatic weapons cutting through the night. My men's shouts bled into the chaos, followed by the wet crack of bullets meeting flesh.
The Serpents were inside.
I pressed the radio to my shoulder, barking orders I wasn't sure would hold. "Fall back to the west wing! Keep them from the cells..."
A scream cut the transmission. The line went dead.
Across from me, Rose sat as though the world wasn't ending beyond the glass. Shackled to the chair, her posture was regal, calm. She tilted her head at me, and for one wild second I thought she was listening to music only she could hear.
"You should run too, Detective King," she murmured. Her voice carried smooth, almost pitying. "Adrian doesn't come to play. When he strikes, he finishes."
Her cousin's name felt like poison in her mouth, though she disguised it with a smile. Adrian. Leader of the Serpents, her blood. The man who wanted her gone.
And mine, apparently.
I slammed my fist against the table, leaning forward until I was in her space. "How are you smiling? My men are dying out there because of you. This is your war bleeding into my streets."
Rose's dark eyes glinted, catching the flicker of the emergency lights. "Wrong," she said softly. "This is his war. Adrian never forgave my father for choosing me. He believes the empire was stolen. Every bullet you hear out there is his way of clawing back what he thinks is his birthright." She leaned closer, chains rattling like jewelry. "And me, of course. Adrian doesn't just want my crown. He wants me under his heel."
Something twisted low in my gut. Disgust, anger, something I refused to name. I forced my voice hard. "He won't get either."
Her lips curved. "Funny. You sound like you care."
Before I could respond, the steel door exploded inward. Two Serpents stormed in, guns raised, their leather vests marked with the coiled emblem. My pistol was up before they'd fully cleared the doorway.
One fell with a shot to the chest. The other lunged, blade flashing. We collided, his weight slamming me against the wall. The knife grazed my ribs before I shoved his wrist, breaking it with a twist and driving my gun beneath his chin. The crack of the shot left his body twitching at my feet.
The room reeked of blood and gunpowder. Rose hadn't flinched.
"Efficient," she said. "I almost believed you when you claimed you weren't like us."
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, fury boiling. "Shut up."
But her words stuck. I wasn't like them. I was supposed to be better. Yet killing them felt… natural.
A voice cut through the gunfire outside, loud enough to rattle the walls.
"Asher King!"
The name echoed, deep and commanding.
Adrian.
Rose stiffened for the first time since the chaos began. Not much, just a fraction, but I saw it.
The Serpent leader's voice carried through the halls like a sermon. "Hand her over, and we walk out. She doesn't belong to you, King. She belongs to me."
I glanced at Rose. Her smile had sharpened into something dangerous. "See? I told you. He doesn't just want my empire. He wants me on my knees."
The image his words painted sent heat crawling under my skin. I shoved it away. Focus.
"Obviously" she agreed with him
"Do nothing, and you and your men die," Adrian continued, his voice closer now. "She's chained like the prize she is. Let go, King. This isn't your fight."
I aimed my gun at Rose. Not because I wanted to shoot, but because I needed the reminder she was the reason my precinct was a warzone.
"Tell me why I shouldn't give you to him right now," I demanded.
Her eyes locked on mine, unblinking. "Because the moment you do, you'll never see daylight again. Adrian won't stop with me. He'll bleed this city dry, and you'll be the fool who handed him the knife."
Damn her. She was right. But I hated that she knew it.
A grenade detonated somewhere nearby, the building shuddering as lights flickered out. Emergency red bathed us both, painting her skin like fire. She leaned forward, chains straining, her smile feral.
"Unshackle me, Asher," she whispered like the devil.
"And I'll help you kill him."
The air between us crackled, thick as smoke. Every instinct screamed no. She was a viper, coiled and venomous. But Adrian was breaking through the walls. My men were falling. And chained, she was useless — but free, she could be deadly.
The problem was, I didn't know who she'd sink her fangs into first.
The pounding of Serpent boots grew louder. Adrian's voice thundered again, inches away now.
"ROSE!"
Her eyes burned into mine. "Choose quickly, Detective. I'm not patient. Neither is he."
The door handle shook.
I pressed the muzzle of my gun against her temple, my hand steady despite the chaos. "If I unchain you and you betray me"
She tilted her head into the barrel like she wasn't Afraid to die. "Then pull the trigger, King. Just make sure Adrian's body hits the floor before mine."
The steel door was seconds away from breaking.
My finger tightened on the trigger not to fire, but to decide.