Page 91 of Fall Before Her Throne

I stepped forward, daring him to shove the blade into my chest like he wanted.

“Get your—your fucking shit together,” Ciel said, coming between us and shoving us both back. He’d been typing on his tablet since we got here. At least the cops didn’t take our shit before they let us go. “Stop. You both know she wouldn’t want us to fight.”

Obi stared at the building, his phone in his hand, as unmoving as a statue. With his dark fatigues and the weapons at his hip, he looked imposing, but it was the fury radiating from him that made him dangerous. I didn’t know him well, but I would have bet anything that he was calculating the best way to break into the agency office if we needed to.

The fucking FBI.

All of this was my fault.

“Ciel is right,” Wynn said calmly, next to Obi. “No one could have predicted Greco would tip off the FBI, or whatever it was he did.”

“No one had to predict it was the FBI. We just had to realize that Greco could outsmart all of us,” Ryuji said, giving a sideways glance to Obi. Obi’s fists tightened at his sides, but he didn’t turn around. “We should just find a way to walk up to him and shoot him in the face.”

Obi and I had already spent hours debating this and trying to understand a way in, but I actually agreed with their leader. Assassinating him wasn’t the right choice.

“It would never work,” I responded, raking my hand through my hair while my breath caught in my throat. “You could never get close to him. He’s constantly surrounded by security. Everywhere he goes, he’s protected.”

“We’re the motherfucking Shadows,” he shot back. “If we can’t fucking assassinate someone, what the fuck are we doing? I can set up my .50 cal and shoot him from a thousand yards away. We just need an opening.”

“Exactly. An opening that does not exist,” Obi bit out. “Calm yourself, Ryu. Our focus right now is to get Leona back to us.”

“Yeah, speaking of which, what the fuck is taking so long?” Cas grumbled.

“Samuel is doing his job,” Obi said. “Let him. They can’t hold her for long.”

“You have no idea what they can and can’t do.” Who could I contact about this? My mind rifled through the business contacts I had, both from the illegal and legal sides of my life, but I kept coming up empty. None of the dirty cops I knew would have enough sway with a federal agency to get her out. “Waiting out here is ridiculous. What else can we do? We can’t just fucking stand here.”

“We’re all worried about her, Max.” Ciel looked up from his tablet, his blue eyes piercing. “We’re the ones who love her.”

Not you, he left unsaid.

“I…I do—I don’t—” I stuttered before I stopped and turned away, my heart caught in my throat. I couldn’t respond to that.

I had no right to feel like my heart had been carved from my chest, and I was frantic to get it back. That was their right, not mine.

“And what happens if he can’t?” Cas asked. “Then what?”

“Then we break in and take her,” Obi said. “Ciel is already pulling the blueprints just in case.”

Ciel typed away, not even looking up. Wynn, Obi, and Cas looked over his shoulder, and he started pointing at the screen while they talked in hushed tones.

They really would break in there for her.

“We’ll fucking get her back,” Ryuji said. “We always do.”

Ryuji was right, and I knew the rest of them were thinking it too—probably even Cas. She was only involved in this mess because of me. It was my fault, and that was what had me so fucking anxious. Luciano had planned to take me and all the other Heads out in one fell swoop. He’d probably given them mountains of evidence against me, testimony that spoke to the work I did for the Family. My gut twisted because the chances were high that now the FBI had mountains of evidence against her, too.

This is exactly what I’d been trying to avoid.

I should have sent her away before I killed her father. I should have done all that I could to keep her out of this mess, away from me. I was dangerous. If I went down, which was looking to be more and more inevitable as the days progressed, the FBI would make sure she went down with me.

I stared up at the building, shrouded in darkness, wishing I could push my way inside.

Fuck. This was torture.

Was this how they all felt when she and I were trapped on that ship?

What kind of relief did they feel when she was back in their arms? I couldn’t wait to feel it, too. I wanted to feel it.