Page 125 of Fallen Empire
And while I might never speak to him again, I knew one thing with absolute certainty. Ben would come for me. And when he did?
Bodies would drop.
So I could play the part. I could pretend.
Swallowing back the heat burning through my chest, I forced my voice to shake. Let it crack just enough. Let the fear creep into the edges, even as my mind stayed sharp.
“I… I don’t understand. Who are you? What… what do you want with me?”
Let the bastard think he had me. Let him think he’d broken me.
Because while he watched me through that camera, I was just biding time until the cavalry arrived.
The sound of laughter erupted through the room—sharp, sudden, and far too loud. It echoed off the walls, intense for a moment before slowly dying down.
“They have no clue I’m even coming,” he said, amusement thick in his voice. “I’ve spent my life right under the nose of Jaxson Westbrook and his little friend. They never even knew I was here. Watching. Waiting.”
The confusion on my face wasn’t pretend anymore.
And for the first time since I woke up in this place…
I started to realize maybe I didn’t have any high ground to stand on.
“Poor, poor Millicent,” he crooned, almost gently. “They never even told you about me, did they?”
I didn’t answer. I didn’t have to.
“Of course not,” he continued, answering for me instead. “If they had, I wouldn’t have been able to get so close. They have a tendency to underestimate people when they’re not in control. When they’re not stealing what belongs to others.”
The words landed like ice water.
Stealing what belongs to others.
I’d heard them talk about missions—when they were looking for Savannah. Quiet mentions of undercover work. Saving people. Rescues, they called them.
But that wasn’t how he saw it.
In Aleksei’s world, they weren’t rescuing victims. They were taking property. Humans that belonged tohim.
And suddenly, everything I thought I knew about Jaxson, about Ben, about the lines they claimed they never crossed…
Felt thinner.
Darker.
So much more complicated than I ever wanted to believe.
“So they stole something from you?” I asked carefully, trying to stay on course. If Aleksei wanted to talk, maybe I could use it. Maybe I could get information they’d never give me themselves. “A business deal gone bad or something?”
The sound of air escaping his mouth filled the room—amusement with an edge.
“They took billions from me,” he said. “Years of work. Years of finding the right people in the right places. And I can tell you this, because you won’t live to tell anyone.”
Something scraped across the floor—slow, sharp. A chair being dragged.
He was getting comfortable.
“It started years ago,” he said. “When an elected official thought he could call the shots when it came to my family business. Thought he could press his finger on me—and only lift it when he was good and ready.”
