Page 155 of Fallen Empire

“You know what the real shame is, Knox?” His gaze slid to Jaxson, savoring the name like poison on his tongue. “I could’ve killed you a dozen times over. But that wouldn’t have been enough. No… I wanted you here—close enough to hear her choke on her own blood. Close enough to watch her die slow. After all, she’s the child of the one that was hell-bent on bringing me down and burning everything I built.”

Jaxson’s muscles coiled, a step forward—

The hammer clicked back.

Nine guns followed the movement instantly, barrels locked in on his head. No room to move. The air seemed to shrink between them, charged and suffocating.

“Move again,” Koslov murmured, voice almost gentle, “and I’ll paint you in her brains before you take your next breath.”

His eyes slid to me. “Tell me, soldier… Did yourbrotherever tell you how long he wore my colors? How deep he went?”

The wordbrotherwas a deliberate hook, bait sharpened for blood. I felt it dig in. Felt the old doubt he’d planted before coil in my chest.

Without thinking, I glanced to Millie. She met my eyes and gave the smallest shake of her head—a silent warning.

Don’t.

The fog in my head cleared just enough to see it for what it was. He was trying to turn me. To make me question the one man I’d follow into hell without hesitation.

And then—

A dull thump behind Koslov.

Every gun pointed at Jaxson moved, barrels shifting just enough to track the sound. One of the men dropped to his knees, head twisted at an unnatural angle. His weapon hit the floor with a hollow clatter, the noise echoing off the concrete as a thick, wet gurgle spilled from his throat.

No one moved. Not even Koslov.

It didn’t make sense. No shot. No movement. And yet he was bleeding out right there in front of us.

My muscles coiled, ready to lunge for the pile of guns between us, but my eyes flicked to Millie. Her gaze was locked on the body, and in that flicker of a second, I saw it—recognition, or maybe confirmation of something she’d already suspected.

Koslov didn’t turn, but the muscle in his jaw ticked. Like, for the first time, he was wondering if this room was as secure as he thought.

She glanced back at me, and her eyes had that slight sparkle in them. The one that told me whatever was about to happen, I wasn’t going to like.

“Looks like the other person that’s been hunting you down finally showed up.”

Millie’s voice was pure gasoline—smooth, taunting, a spark in her eyes that dared him to burn. And then she laughed.

My blood went molten.

What the fuck was she doing?

She was baiting him. Baiting the bastard who’d kept her alive on purpose. That wound on her leg wasn’t luck, it was precision. He’d carved her just enough to bleed, just enough to keep her in pain, to keep her on display like some sick trophy. And she was feeding himmore.

“Shut the fuck up, Mills,” I snarled before I could stop myself, every muscle in my body ready to snap the distance between us. I wanted to grab her, haul her back, put myself in front of that gun.

Koslov didn’t move at first, just stared at Mills with a look that could have cut through steel. Then, without a word, he yanked the gun from Savannah’s mouth and rose to his feet.

The blade in his hand caught the light—bright, cold, merciless.

Before I could process it, he drove it into Millicent’s thigh.

The opposite leg. The one that hadn’t yet been torn open.

I braced for the blood-curdling scream. For the sound that would gut me.

But it never came.