Page 192 of Fall Before Her Throne

She shoved me into the passenger side of a nondescript sedan. The car door slammed as she collapsed into the driver’s side.

Don’t look back.

If I turned around, I would go back. I knew it. I bit my lip and dug my nails into my hand so that I’d stick with the plan.

Trust Obi.

Trust the plan that he and Max came up with.

Trust my men.

Trust myself.

Badawi’s car pulled into the road before it merged into traffic. She drove toward the tunnel without another word. Neither of us spoke as she left the city, but the radio on her dashboard crackled quietly with reports and updates. All of my men had been arrested. The voice reported that they had resisted their arrests and that two of them had gunshot wounds that needed attention.

No mention of Greco or his men, the mercenaries, or the car bomb.

Badawi thankfully said nothing while I let out a rattling breath and tried to keep the tears from falling. At least they were alive. Arrested, but alive. For now.

The cops cheered on the radio about how they’d saved the mayor’s life. I bit my cheek to keep from screaming. We’d saved her! Greco was the one who almost blew her up!

“Where should I go?” Badawi asked as she drove south through New Jersey.

The city wasn’t safe. Ciel was right—I still had allies. I wasn’t alone.

“Philadelphia.”

My phone was still in my pocket, so I sent a quick 911 message to the girls’ group chat. Then I texted Giulio and Felix to take our men underground. To hide and await further orders.

Badawi merged onto I-95 South.

In the rearview mirror, I watched as Greco got everything he wanted. My empire crumbled to pieces. I left it behind.

And my heart hardened for the road ahead.

60

LEONA

Badawi drove silently, casting furtive glances my way every couple of miles. Fallon had texted me a meeting spot where Badawi could drop me off, and then I’d start figuring out next steps. Fallon also threatened to shoot the FBI agent, but after some convincing, she decided to shoot only if Badawi shot first.

I rubbed my eyes. How were my guys? Did they get medical treatment? Was everything going okay, or were they lying dead in a dumpster somewhere? Did Greco get his hands on them? What if something went wrong? My joints ached with pent-up energy and worry.

After Badawi’s sixth glance, I broke the silence with a sigh. “How did you know where we were?”

She stared at the road. “To answer that, I have to go back a week.”

I folded my arms over my chest. “All right?”

“I got a secure message from an unknown source telling me that my bosses were compromised,” she started. My neck prickled. That was the same time we were collecting data to give to the mayor about her cabinet. “At first, I dismissed it until I got another one that contained surveillance footage of my boss walking into an upscale social club. The Gilded House.”

Yeah. Ciel and Obi definitely sent those messages.

“And?” I said, turning back to the window. “It’s a common club. A lot of rich men around town belong to those fancy social clubs.”

She let out a breath. “And shortly after that, Piero Greco showed up at the club. The footage fast-forwarded to a few hours later. My boss left first, followed by Greco.”

I wasn’t surprised that Greco and her boss met together. We’d suspected he’d been puppeteering officials in the FBI since the night I got arrested at the casino.