Page 45 of As the World Falls

I whip around her, my mind in an uncontrollable haze as I grip her jaw in my hand, walking her backward until her back slams against the wall of the elevator. “Do you realize how frustrating you are, Cecilia? You can’t go to work events with your brother when you’re mine here. Someone will recognize you, and I don’t have time to clean up your messes.”

I feel her jaw muscle bunch in my hand as her lips purse in defiance. Her eyes are angry blue flames as she stares back at me. “Then let's cut the act already, and you can admit all your wrongdoings? Admit my brother isn’t safe with you,” she retorts.

“You’renot safe with me. Yet you keep putting yourself right in harm's way. Why is that?” I wonder. “I’m starting to think this is all more for your entertainment than for your brother's sake.”

I feel her bristle beneath me. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t I? Does my little owl enjoy taking a walk on the wild side? Is your little library getting too boring for you?” Her chest rises and falls faster the more her anger grows. I eat up every breath she takes, letting it fill me with more rage for her to feed from like an endless cycle. It was addicting. She was addicting.

“I dream of the day I solve this petulant game of yours, and I can go back home safely with my brother,” she murmurs.

I let go of her face, dropping my hand to her waist and pressing her harder into the wall. “This isn’t a game. This is my life. My labyrinth. You’ve already gotten so deep, and the darkness is starting to feel good. Isn’t it?”

I bunch the fabric of her dress in my fist just as her hands shoot out, pressing onto my lower stomach to keep me at bay. Her touch is warm, and my stomach coils at the feeling of her against it. I hold onto her dress tighter, like a rope tethering me in place.

She still hasn’t answered me, and she doesn’t have to. We both know the truth. Cecilia isn’t the good little girl she pretendsto be. I see it in her every day, and she likes to show it to me. She knows it as well as I do. It’s why she’s staring at me with so much hate, and yet, her hands are curling into my shirt now, gripping me, and I feel the smallest of tugs pulling me closer to her.

Then the elevator dings again, and the doors fly open.

Her eyes widened as she caught herself in the act, the reality of the outside world slamming back into her. I smirk, finally releasing her and watching way too enraptured in the way her dress falls back down her legs as I let go of it.

Her hands practically push me off her as she releases me, and she shoulders past me, bolting out of the elevator and leaving me staring behind her.

Chapter Fifteen

Cecilia

I sat at the same Italian bar I had sat in just last Friday and ordered another glass of wine. I’d been here only a few minutes when the seat next to mine was being filled, and I looked over, seeing Hodge again.

“Hey, doll face,” he chimes, and disgust rolls through me. His deliverance of nicknames came off entirely creepy, unlike James, who, even though annoys me with them, makes them sound so…enticing, although I’d never admit that to him.

“Let’s skip the niceties,” I say, jumping to it. “I’m willing to work with you only if you can tell me exactly what I’m getting myself into. How do you know about me and my brother? What is James doing, and why do you want to take him down so badly?”

He grins at that, and it feels icky again, but I persist. “I always have an eye on Labyrinth headquarters. It wasn’t exactly hard to discover you and your reasons for being there when you were yelling about it in the lobby.” I think back to the first time I ever went there, and I’m slightly embarrassed by the scene I made, knowing it had obviously gotten his attention. “It’s simplebusiness why I want to take down James and his empire,” he adds. “I want to be the one on top. Nothing more.”

“Okay,” I say, finding his answer reasonable enough. “What is it that James is doing then?”

He eyes me for a long moment as if he is deciding whether I am worth it or not before he finally relents. “You ever hear of the illegal market?”

I furrow my brows as I lean closer to him to speak lower. “The illegal market? As in illegitimate transactions?”

He nods. “James has been working outside the government for a long time. How do you think the guy got so rich and made his business successful?”

“So, he is working with criminals,” I state, confirming what I’ve felt all along.

“He’s not just working with them doll face. He is one. What I need from you is to help me prove it.”

My mind whirls, and I think back to the warehouse incident the other day, wondering if unregulated items were being shipped from there to be sold illegally. Probably so…but how did he get the police off his back so quickly? And then there’s the ledger I found and stole from my brother. Could that book be the proof of his money laundering? I could tell Hodge about all this…but I find myself not saying anything for some reason.

I had anxiety about the ledger, considering my brother had briefly called me, asking me if I’d seen anything or dropped anything out of the glovebox in the car. He knew it was missing, and I was the one keeping it from him.

Guilty feeling number 342, welcome to the front stage.

“What do you want me to do?” I ask.

“What you are now, but keep your eyes peeled for any funny business and get proof of whatever you can. Think of yourself as my mole on the inside.”

“And what if I do find you proof? How would that keep my brother safe without incriminating him?”

---