Page 104 of The Tallest Tower (Underbelly Enchanted)

“You won’t be the last to tell me so.” He yanks me away from my desk. Away from my article. My phone. My bag. My glucometer and everything I need to survive another few days inside a mafioso’s home. “And you won’t be the one who pulls the trigger, Ms. Cannon. Let’s go.” He tugs me across my office. “We’ll get her set up at the house,” he says to Savannah, “then we’ll contact Malone and end this.”

“Let me go!” I reach up to save my scalp when he changes his grip from my wrist to my hair. “Please let me go.”

“The security footage?” He ignores me and glances back to Savannah as she follows us into the hall. “What of it?”

“I’ll get it taken care of. No one will know we were here.”

“Everyone will know!” My feet slip on the cold tile, my ankles rolling and one of my heels falling free of my foot. “I’ve already scheduled my article to print.” I dig my nails into Pastore’s wrist and try to pry his fingers from my hair. “No matter what you do to me, the story prints, and you’ll both be front-page news.”

“As long as Malone is shark food by then,” Savannah stalks ahead ofus and hits the button for the elevator before turning back, “I don’t care. You’re a fool if you think I don’t have another name to cross off after this.”

“So your plan was to just… kill him? There’s no justice there. He won’t even knowwhyhe’s being punished. It’ll just be over, and your anger will still exist.”

“My anger will enjoy ice-cold mojitos and the knowledge he’s rotting in his back garden, just like every other female who ever trusted a Malone. But don’t worry, Christabelle.” She steps forward and strokes my cheek with the tips of her fingers. “I’ll make sure you’re buried right beside your sister.”

“You know where she is?” My heart stumbles to a painful stop. “He told you?”

“Felix?” she taunts. “No. But Tim did. He said it over and over and over again while he was fucking me without my consent.I’ll toss you in the orchard too, little girl.” She claps my cheek, startling me until I jump. “It’s where I was going until I proved I was more valuable to him alive. It’s where they all go. And it’s where you’ll go, too. I’m doing you a favor,” she simpers, her smile sickly sweet. Her eyes, no longer sane. “I’m reuniting you with your sister. It’s what you wanted all along.”

The elevator dings its arrival, the silver doors slowly sliding open. But her back is to the men inside. Her attention, focused solely on me, so she doesn’t see Felix’s feral glare.

“Fuck!” Pastore whips his gun around to his new target, but the thought of Felix being shot has me crying out as though at battle.

Savannah spins, a horrified gasp erupting from her throat, but Felix swings out and backhands the woman with such force, she slams against the wall, blood bursting from her nose and mouth.

Micah aims a gun similar to Pastore’s and shoots.

He doesn’t think. Doesn’t take time to aim.

He squeezes the trigger, the boom making me scream, and the wind of his bullet blowing the hair back from the side of my face.

Pastore’s hand shatters, his gun flying into the air.

Everything happens so fast. So explosive. So horrifying. But all my mind obsesses over is the rage in Felix’s eyes. The betrayal I know he’ll feel, and the way he looks down on me when my legs give out.

I drop to my knees, my head dizzy and my blood sugars dipping dangerously as adrenaline rockets through my veins. But it’s Pastore who makes all the noise. His cries of anguish. Pieces of his hand, raining down over pristine white tile in a way I’ll never unsee.

Micah steps out of the elevator and comes around to collect Pastore’s gun, picking it up with sure movements and tucking the piece in the back of his jeans like it belongs to him now.

But I look to Felix, his forest-green eyes burning with a severity of temper I’m not sure I’ve ever witnessed before. His body raging with adrenaline, and his hands balled to fight.

He could punch me in the face, and I would deserve it.

He could kill me, and easily justify it to himself.

“I-I’m sorry…” My words tumble free of my mouth, tears torrenting onto my cheeks. “I’m so sorry.”

“Good job keeping our call live.” He grabs my arm and brings me to my feet, though he does so legions gentler than Pastore did.

The latter still squirms on the floor, cradling his destroyed hand.

“You were gonna have me killed?” Felix raises a brow at me and sets his foot on Savannah’s forearm when she attempts to climb to her hands and knees. He crushes it to the floor, pushing until small bones crackle and the woman lets out a shriek reminiscent of a wild cat in a dark alleyway. “You faked everything?”

“I wanted…” My voice trembles. “I wanted to get closer to you. Make you notice me.”

“You faked the diabetes thing?”

Instantly, I shake my head and swallow the nausea rising in my throat. “No. Th-that was a stupid miscalculation. I meant to keep track of my condition and deal with it before it got bad.”

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