Page 96 of Fallen Empire

I looked toward Savannah, who was chatting with Millie. Normally, I’d be hanging on every word she said. Every laugh. Every small detail. But right now, I was torn—split between telling her there was still a threat out there... and keeping it buried until we had a plan.

It didn’t work out well for us last time.

Last time, the secrets nearly cost her her life.

"Millie, I wouldn’t have cared if you never came back," Savannah said with a grin.

Millie blinked. “Wow. Okay.”

Savannah winked. “Just kidding.Then,I would’ve been a little upset.”

“There’s no way that would ever happen,” Millie said, nudging her gently. “I’ll always be around to take care of you.”

Savannah rolled her eyes. “Well, damn. I hope I don’t always need to be babied.”

She was glowing.

Still hooked up to IVs, bandaged and bruised—but her smile? It was brighter than I’d ever seen it. Real. Untouched by pain, even if just for a second.

And in that moment…I didn’t think. I didn’t weigh the timing. I didn’t consider the cost. I just wrecked their world without giving it a second thought.

“Alex is still out there,” I said. My voice was low but sharp. “We think he’s up to something.”

Both of their heads snapped toward me, wide-eyed.

“What the actual fuck, Jax,” Ben said, the words like smoke curling through clenched teeth. He didn’t yell—he didn’t have to. That kind of rage doesn’t need volume. It simmers. Quiet and dangerous.Shit. I forgot he was still in here.

“They need to know.”

“Damn right we need to know,” Millie snapped, standing up so fast her chair nearly tipped.

She turned on Ben. “Youknew about this? And you didn’t fucking tell me?”

Her voice cracked, anger laced with betrayal.

“You kept me out of the loop…again?”

I had seen Millicent angry maybe a handful of times in my life. Feisty, sure. A little fire here and there. But this was ice. Cold and sharp. Rage held tightly beneath the surface. A storm with nowhere to go.

And if looks could kill?

He’d be six feet under.

The room was silent. So silent it felt like the air had been vacuumed out of it. Millie’s glare was fixed on Ben like she was deciding whether to verbally destroy him or physically maim him first. Ben didn’t move. Savannah didn’t blink. And me? I was questioning every damn decision I had just made. Or lack thereof.

What the hellhadI just done?

The door creaked open behind us.

Of course it was Nurse Ruth.

You’d think someone would’ve given her a damn day off by now, but no. The woman was either immortal or running on caffeine and pure moral superiority. Regardless, I was grateful for the interruption. She’d just inadvertently saved my ass.

“Well,” she said, with a quick scan of the tension hanging in the air like storm clouds. “You could hear a pin drop in here… if someone didn’t throw it first.”

Millie turned her face to the window. Ben leaned against the far wall, suddenly fascinated by the floor tiles. Nurse Ruth deadpanned right at me and raised a single eyebrow. I just shrugged my shoulders like I hadn’t detonated a bomb in the middle of the room.

Nurse Ruth never took her eyes off mine as she spoke to Savannah, and I was too chicken shit to move. This old woman scared me more than the kind of men who used body counts as lullabies—tossing victims into the earth instead of watching sheep jump fences.