Page 61 of As the World Falls

I take a quick shower and decide to go to bed. The sooner I get some sleep and wake up tomorrow, the sooner I can leave this dreadful apartment. I hated the way she made me realize how alone I was. I never had a problem with it before. I’ve been alone my entire life. I just needed a little sleep to forget about Cecilia, even for a little while. I needed to forget that I came so close to taking her tonight even though every alarm in my conscience was going off, screaming at me to stop. No matter how much I was starting to want her, I could never have her.

I woke up the following morning to a pounding on my door. Glancing at my clock, I saw that it was five a.m.

It could only be one person.

I stretched and stepped out of bed, padding to the door. When I opened it, Tobias’s fist shot out, but I blocked it, swinging my head to the side.

“Good morning to you, too,” I huff out.

He grumbles and shoves me in the chest, pushing me further into my apartment as he walks in, slamming the door behindhim. “I’ve never asked you for anything. Nothing. I give you one rule. Stay away from my sister, and then you fucking hire her without telling me?”

I regain my balance, meeting his gaze. “Your precious sister wouldn’t leave my business alone. She was incessant. It was the only thing I could think to do to get her off my back.”

“Well, you fucking failed at that. She knows everything! She knows…Fuck— She knows I’ve been lying to her.”

I can only imagine the kind of conversation they had after I left them last night, and it pisses me off that my first thought was how she was doing. Was she upset? Does she really never want to see me again?

“Where is she?” I ask. He looks at me, his face marked with a scowl that shows the resemblance between him and his sister.

“Fuck no. You don’t get to know anything else about her. You’re going to stay away from her.”

I grind my teeth together, the urge to strangle him with my bare hands surging through me so strongly that I need to walk out of the room completely to get a hold of myself. He was my friend. My best friend. I never want to actually hurt him, but if he tells me to stay away from her one more fucking time, I might lose it.

I knew I needed to stay away from her, but I didn’t fucking like it.

“So, what now, then?” I attempt to ask through clenched teeth. “If you know everything now, then you know what she plans to do.”

He sighs, raking a hand through his hair. “I’m going to handle that. I’ll get her under control.”

“Hah,” I bark out. “I’d kill to see that.”

He eyes me suspiciously. “I just wanted to come by and tell you that and to let you know that under no circumstances are you to go near her again. She’s already too deep into this shit. Idon’t want her getting into trouble that I don’t know I can get her out of.”

He’s bat shit insane if he thinks I’d let anything ever happen to her, but I didn’t need to voice that right this second. I pick and choose my battles. I don’t need to tell him how fucking crazy his sister makes me. How much I can’t help but want her. But I can tell him how I don’t like to be spoken to in my own home.

I walk toward him, stopping just in front of him, and land a quick punch to his stomach. He hurls over, gripping himself as he catches the breath that was knocked out of him. I lean to his ear level as I whisper, “Thanks for stopping by to reassure me, dear friend, but next time, you will speak to me with more respect in my home. Are we clear?”

He nods, sucking in a breath and standing straight, and I follow suit. I walk him to the door to leave, but he stops before opening the door and turns to face me again. “If Cecilia tries to come around again, you call immediately this time. I mean it.”

I nod. “Of course,” I lie.

He nods and then opens the door, stepping out to leave before I stop him. “Tobias,” I call out to him. He turns to face me again. “Any luck with the ledger?”

His face turns to stone, and his hands flex nervously at his sides. “No, but I’ll do my best to get it back.”

I narrow my gaze on him. “You better. If that ends up in the wrong hands?—”

“I’m aware,” he says tightly before turning back down the hall and leaving. I shut the door and went straight back to bed before I talked myself into hunting Cecilia down.

Chapter Twenty

Cecilia

“You’re not going to say a word. You’re going to be silent and not move an inch,” Tobias demands from the driver's seat.

I slump back in the passenger seat, the dark bill of my hat clouding half of my vision. “That’s not fair?—”

“Lia, we are in a stakeout right now. If you ever listen to me, you’ll listen to me right now. We need to remain inconspicuous.”

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