Page 33 of Fallen Empire

He glanced at Nurse Sheila, then looked back to me.

“If you’ll excuse us,” he said gently, “we’re going to prep the room and get started.”

“Yeah. Of course.” I said as I looked down at Savannah’s face. She was still, but she was strong. The doctor gave me a quick, encouraging smile before gesturing for the team to follow him.

I stepped back, letting them pass, every inch of me resisting the space growing between us.

As the door clicked shut behind them, I could still feel her in the room.

Like even unconscious, she refused to let go.

“She’s probably the strongest person I’ve ever met,” Nic said softly, pushing herself off the wall.

“There’s noprobablyto it,” I replied, my eyes never leaving the door they’d just wheeled her through. “It’s the truth.”

“Fine,” she relented, sighing as she dropped onto the sofa across from me. Not in defeat, but in decision. Giving in to something deeper.

“Fine what?” I asked, brow raised.

“Fine. We’ll fight,” she said, with a lift of her chin. “That woman they just wheeled out of here on a deathbed isn’t fighting for herself. She’s fighting for all of us. I knew the moment I met her that she was something fierce.”

I didn’t know how to respond. Because she was right. But it didn’t change what I felt brewing beneath it all.

The war we were walking into wasn’t one we’d all come out of. I knew that. And it was a chance I was willing to take.

“Nic,” I said slowly, dragging a hand through my hair, “this isn’t like the other missions—the ones where we were stealth. Quiet in, quiet out. Grab the package, neutralize the threat, disappear before anyone even blinked.”

She cocked her head, unimpressed.

“We’re the targets now. We’re not ghosts anymore. We’re bait.”

“Maybe,” she said with a shrug, like the stakes didn’t rattle her at all. “Or maybe... we just need to make someone else the target.”

I narrowed my eyes. “How? There’s already been a threat.”

“No,” she said, sitting forward. “There wasn’t. That threat? The one you thought was left because of everything you’ve done? It wasn’t. I checked your cameras. The security logs. He came long before the shit you brewed.”

I stilled. “He who?”

Nic’s voice hardened. “Aleksei Koslov.”

My chest tightened.

“You’re telling me he cameback—after Bruce?”

“No,” she corrected. “WhileBruce was still out there. The night he bailed. Koslov showed up at your building. Scanned the perimeter. Never entered. Just watched.”

I stood, tension spiking in my spine. “So wait… no one knows it was me? That killed Bruce? No one knows I shut everything down?”

Nic raised an eyebrow. “Not yet.”

I turned fully toward her, my voice sharp. “Then why the fuck didn’t youstartwith that when you walked in here?”

“Because,” she said coolly, “I’m still pissed at what I uncovered in only a fewhours—what will take themweeksto realize. And that little delay? That gives us time.”

“Time for what?”

She leaned back, fingers lacing behind her head. “To breathe. To plan. To hit first, before they know which direction to look.”