Page 26 of Fallen Empire

She waited three seconds—long enough to make sure the nurse was gone—before her voice returned, this time low and lethal.

“I won’t ask again Westbrook. Tell me the truth.” Each word came out like it had teeth—sharp, deliberate, barely restrained behind a clenched jaw.

I didn’t answer.

“This goes way past damage control,” she continued, pulling a folder from her coat.

“You didn’t just torch Bruce’s empire. You set off alarms we were trying to keep quiet.”

She shoved papers into my chest. I let them fall.

I knew exactly what I did. And I’d do it again. For her.

“That threat—” she stabbed a finger into my chest, “—could be anyone. You just gave me confirmation of what I’ve been tracking for weeks. And instead of asking what I’d found—while I was giving you space to grieve—you fucking cut off the artery that fed half the underground economy.”

She bent down, snatching the papers off the floor, but she wasn’t done.

Nic crunched them in her fist, her rage building again.

“What the fuck do you think the consequences are for choking out a system built on blood money and backdoor deals? Everyone who drinks from that fucking well is going to start to notice. And they don’t send warnings... they send bullets. And I fucking promise you—they won’t miss.”

“You think I don’t know that? You think I don’t know how that system works?”

I stepped closer. “I know more about that world than you’ll ever fucking read about on your monitors.”

I was tethering a line—between telling her the truth, and telling her to fuck off and let me handle it.

But I needed her.

“I know exactly what I did. And I don’t give a shit who comes for me. I’ll make this world burn if anyone tries to hurt her again. The only way to end it—for good—is to shut it down. So let them come.”

She softened—just barely. Her tone lost its edge, but not its warning.

“Jax,” she said, voice lower. “I hope you’re ready. Costa wasn’t the only one at play.”

She paused. “Aleksei Koslov.”

She said the name like it should mean something to me. It didn’t.

When I didn’t respond, she sighed like she’d just accepted something dark.

“His name isn’t Alex Cox,” she said. “It’s Aleksei Koslov. He killed his own brother, Dimitri, for a crown his father never offered him.”

I didn’t flinch. “I’m sure I can—”

But she didn’t wait for me to finish.

“He started by scraping off his fingertips,” she snapped. “Then he removed his nails. Broke every bone in his body. Every.Single. Bone. And when his father, Mikhail, tried to intervene—Aleksei made him watch the rest.”

She swallowed.

“Twenty-seven hours,” she whispered. “That’s how long it took. And when Dimitri finally stopped screaming, Aleksei didn’t say a word. Just dropped the crown at his father’s feet... and walked away.”

My jaw clenched. Breath steady—but loaded.

I’d seen monsters.

I’dbeena monster.