Page 109 of Fallen Empire
It was about everything that came after.
The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. We stepped inside, and I found myself watching Savannah’s reflection in the mirrored panel. She looked pale, and exhausted, but therewas something different in her eyes now. A kind of still-burning defiance that hadn’t been there before.
And damn, if it didn’t make me love her even more.
I leaned back against the cold metal wall and crossed my arms.
I used to think strength looked like never breaking.
Now I knew better.
Strength looked like Savannah Sinclair.
The ride was short, but it felt like a lifetime. I could feel my nerves beginning to buzz again. I wasn’t sure if it was from seeing Ben, from the threat still hanging in the air, or from the fact that I was about to go back to the very place that started this all.
But one thing was certain—I wasn’t letting her out of my sight.
Not again.
The doors slid open with a soft whoosh, and Ruth rolled her forward past the lobby doors outside, where Jaxson and Ben were already waiting. Jaxson opened the car door while Ben popped the trunk for our bags. Ruth parked the wheelchair next to the passenger side, and Savannah gripped the frame of the car as Jax moved to help her in.
I stayed quiet, standing off to the side. Watching. Thinking.
This wasn’t over.
But we were still standing.
The drive was quiet at first. Savannah rested her head against the window, her hand loosely curled around the seatbelt. Every now and then, I caught her wince out of the corner of my eye, but she didn’t say a word. Not even when Jaxson reached over to adjust the blanket across her lap.
We turned off Third Avenue, cruising through a quieter stretch of Midtown. A part of the city where the buildings turnedmore industrial and the sidewalks began to empty out. The kind of street people didn’t linger on.
As we approached the intersection before my parking garage, the car slowed to a stop at a red light. And that’s when I saw it happen.
Savannah’s posture shifted. Just enough for me to take note.
Her head tilted slightly, eyes narrowing on the building across the street—half-decayed, blackened bricks, windows shattered like broken promises. It stood like a ghost on the corner. Forgotten. Empty. Except… it didn’t feel empty.
“What’s that place?” she asked quietly, her voice low but clear. “The building across the street.”
“45 Park Place,” Jax replied. “Abandoned. Has been for a while.”
Savannah didn’t answer right away. Just stared. Like it meant something. Like it was waking something up. Maybe a memory she’d just come across.
“You’ve been there before?” she asked after a beat.
Jax nodded, his eyes still fixed ahead. “The developer ran into financial trouble before it was finished. I looked into buying it—thought I could renovate and flip it. But the ownership was... messy. Red tape. No clear signatures. It just disappeared into the system.”
I stayed quiet and so did she. The light turned green, and Jaxson eased the car forward, pulling into the underground garage.
But Savannah kept her eyes on the mirror. Staring at the building. Long after it was gone.
And I couldn’t help but wonder what it was calling to. What she remembered.
What she felt.
But whatever was happening inside her mind…
She wasn’t ready to say.
