Page 164 of Fallen Empire

We owed her that.

I owed her more than leaving her body under the same roof as the men who’d tortured and murdered her. Mills still had nightmares about her. Not Koslov. Layla.

When the charges went off, I let her body fall with the rubble, buried alongside the scum who’d taken her life. It was the only grave I could give her in that moment. Cold. Final. And it bought us just enough time to dig her out before the rest of the world came looking.

The Giants scored, Reaper jumped up, and Nic smirked at me. “You look like you swallowed a lemon.”

I shrugged. “I’m a Ravens fan.”

The room laughed. Everyone except Millie. She was already halfway to the kitchen.

And even in the middle of this easy Sunday night, with football on the TV and Savannah safe under Jaxson’s arm, the thought of Costa lingered.

Because men like him didn’t forget debts.

They collected them.

The laughter faded when every phone in the room lit up at once, screens flashing, the sharp chime of alerts cutting through the noise of the game.

One message. From an unknown number.

But there was only one man it could be.