Page 144 of As the World Falls

“Cecilia!” I heard Lance's blood-curdling roar, but to my surprise, he sounded far away. I knew this maze went deep, but I never realized how deep, and I had a feeling I was very far in.

A gunshot goes off, and I instantly hit the ground, covering my ears. “Show yourself!” he roars again, but still, he sounds far.

I waited a second, catching my breath and figuring out what to do. The only solution I could come up with was to try and find my way back out of the maze and come out of the opposite side I went in to avoid a run-in with Lance. I turned right into the maze, so I needed to cut across somehow and come out left.

I start moving through the maze again. I don’t run to keep quiet, but I move quickly, praying that I am going in the right direction. A few minutes in, I hear a rustling nearby, and I stop, my blood running cold as the noise continues.

I hear the crunching of footsteps moving around me, and I hold my breath, plastering myself against the tall hedges in anattempt to hide. The sound grows closer, and I know I have no choice but to keep moving and hope I don’t run into him, and if I do, I have to be prepared to fight like hell.

I slowly move down the path, turning one corner and then another. I walk further down another path when I hear the footsteps again. I stop, freezing in place, and am met with silence. My heart thrashes in my chest to the point where I feel sick. To be honest, I don’t know how I was still upright.

My dress sways in the cold wind around me, blowing in the same direction as my hair, as I wait with bated breath for any more footsteps, but I hear none. I was freezing but felt nothing all at once. My hands ball into fists on instinct, one tightening around the gun in my hand as I take another step. Then I hear it—a step on the other side of the hedges.

I fight to keep my breathing quiet, but I’m practically panting at this point with pure anxiety. I take another step and then another, hearing parallel ones beside me. I knew he was there, just waiting for me, and I had no choice but to make a split-second decision and try to slow him down.

I lunged around the corner, swinging the gun in my hand because I was too scared to shoot. I collide with him just as he comes at me the same way.

The gun whips his face, but it doesn’t matter. My hands are being grabbed and pulled behind my back just as another hand crashes over my mouth, stifling my scream.

“Shh. It’s me. It’s me,” I hear in my ear. Tears fill my eyes as I collapse in my brother's arms. My heart is still beating abnormally fast, but at this moment, I don’t feel scared anymore. For the first time, I felt like my brother finally had me. He would get us out of this.

“Lance,” I cry, keeping my voice a whisper as he finally removes his hand from my mouth. “He shot Marco, and he’s…I don’t know, he’s lost it. He’s here somewhere looking for me.”

Tobias nods, his steely gaze whipping around us when I notice the blood running from his nose from where I had hit him. “Be quiet and stay behind me,” he demands. “We’re going to get out of here.”

His hand closes around mine, keeping me close as he pulls me through the maze. He stops for a moment, glancing down at me, and pulls the gun from my hand and holds it himself. It was strange, but I had complete trust in my brother to get us out of this mess, a mess that surprisingly had to do with me and not his and James’s shenanigans.

Tobias and I turn down a path that I begin to recognize. A moment later, I can hear the fountain that lies in the center of the maze. We walk toward it, coming out from between a path of hedges, just as we see Lance walk out of the path right across from us on the opposite side.

Tobias pushes me in the chest, knocking me to the ground behind him just as his other hand raises the gun toward Lance, who is doing the same, aiming his straight at Tobias.

Two shots go off.

Chapter Forty-Two

James

A bell chimes over the door I walk in, alerting Hodge to my arrival. He looks up from his table in the back of the coffee shop, his face instantly paling as I move toward him.

I drop into the seat across from him, my arms stretching over the back of it as I level him with my impatient gaze. “Whatever you have to say, lay it out now. I don’t have much time,” I tell him. I suppress the smile that fights to cross my face as I think of Cecilia’s terms of my visit with him. She was feisty this morning. I needed to wake her up and make her mad more often just so she could act like the sexy little brat that she was. I enjoyed her bossiness way too much.

He leans onto the table, keeping his voice low. “Chuck doesn’t know that I’m here. Frankly, I think he’d kill me if he did.”

I laugh. “He doesn’t have it in him.”

He shakes his head seriously. “He does. He’s gone crazy. Too crazy. That’s why I’m sitting here with you. He’s gotten out of hand. I never wanted to be involved in something like this. I just wanted a cut of the jewelry business. Chuck madethe arrangement with Dante. He works for Dante or is being used like a stupid puppet by him. He thinks he’s in control, but he’s not. The night of the ball, he hired those guys to come in and attempt to kill you. Chuck thinks he’s calling the shots, but Dante’s just using him and his vendetta against you to get to Stefano Luccio.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. It had his naivety written all over it. What I want is the proof you claim to have against Chuck.”

He shakes his head. “Not until we come to an agreement.”

I grind my teeth together. “What kind of agreement?”

“I want your protection. Lie all you want, but I know you’re tied with the Luccio’s. I want protection against Chuck and Dante in exchange for the proof I have and my word to back off.”

“And how do I know this isn’t a setup either?”

“Because by calling this meeting, I saved your ass. Chuck and Dante sent one of his men to your place to see if you were home. He was going to arrange a hit on you this afternoon. I’m not sure if he went through with plans or not, but it was in talks. Chuck is here in Boston, too; I know that much.”

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