Page 45 of Fallen Empire (The Fallen Trilogy #2)

Jaxson

We’d scoured every camera feed we could access, rewinding, enhancing, pulling angles from traffic lights, storefronts, and even private security networks Nic had no business hacking into. We followed Koslov as far as the grainy footage would let us… and then he was gone.

Just—gone.

Like a ghost walking the streets of Manhattan with a hostage.

A hostage that was like a sister to me .

Somewhere out there, Millie was breathing the same air as him, close enough to hear his voice, close enough for him to touch her.

And I was standing here, useless, with nothing but shadows on a fucking screen.

In my head, I could already see it. His hand gripping her hair, that cold smile as if she were nothing but leverage.

Ben slammed his fist onto the countertop so hard the monitors rattled.

“She’s out there with that psycho, and we’re sitting here staring at pixels!

” His voice was raw, fraying at the edges.

“Every second we waste, Millie’s closer to—” He cut himself off, jaw clenching until the muscle jumped.

“We’re not losing her. Not to him. Not to anyone. ”

I didn’t tell him I was thinking the same thing… only worse.

Before I could answer, the doorpad on the security feed lit up with an incoming call. The tiny screen flickered, and the image of the front desk clerk filled it.

“Mr. Westbrook has a food delivery,” the clerk said, voice muffled through the speaker. “Should I send him up?”

Reaper crossed the room without hesitation, the weight in his steps making the floor vibrate. “No,” he said flatly. “I’ll come get it.”

He punched in the code to unlock the door, the beeps echoing sharp in the tense silence.

Reaper disappeared into the hallway, the heavy door thudding shut behind him.

“We’re going to find her,” I said, forcing the words out even though I wasn’t sure I believed them in that moment.

“Yeah,” Nic said without looking away from the screen, “but how many pieces will she be in?”

The noise that tore out of Ben was low and guttural, the kind of sound that came from a place far past rage. It was haunting. Even I didn’t want to see what he did to Koslov once he finally got his hands on him.

Ben pushed away from the island and began pacing the room, his fists clenching and unclenching like he was physically holding himself back from tearing through the streets on foot.

“Every second we sit here, he’s doing God knows what to her,” Ben said, his voice sharp enough to cut. “We should’ve found something by now.”

Nic’s eyes flicked toward him, then back to the monitors. “I’m not holding back. But Aleksei’s not sloppy. He’s covering his tracks better than anyone I’ve ever seen.”

I didn’t respond. Because I knew she was right, and that truth was a heavier weight than anything else in the room.

“Ben,” I said, trying to cut through the storm building in his eyes, “you’ve got to put whatever you’re feeling to the side right now if we’re going to find her.”

His head snapped toward me, eyes sharp enough to draw blood. “Like you did for Savannah?” His voice was pure venom. “Tell me—did you stop once you had her back? No, you didn’t. So don’t be a fucking hypocrite now.”

The words hit like a punch, and somewhere beneath the sting, a darker truth took root.

Whatever was between Ben and Millie went far deeper than I’d thought.

If Millie meant to Ben what Savannah meant to me, there was no limit to what he’d do to get her back.

And no limit to what he’d do to whoever had taken her.

I thought back to the story Nic had given about Koslov torturing his own brother. But looking at Ben now, vibrating with barely leashed violence, I knew he could make that look like child’s play.

The door swung open again, Reaper stepping back inside with the bag in his hand.

“I’ll take it to her,” I said, reaching for the food.

Reaper didn’t move to hand it over. “You might want to check first,” he said, voice low. “Bedroom door’s wide open… and the bed’s empty.”

The bag slipped from my hand, hitting the floor with a dull thud as my pulse spiked so hard I could feel it in my teeth. But my body was already in motion.

I started with the bedroom. She was nowhere in sight. Maybe she’d moved to another room. My pace quickened as I crossed the hall, checked the guest rooms, the bathroom. Millie’s room. All of them empty.

A cold panic clawed its way up my spine. Someone had gotten to her. Again.

But how? With us all right here.

This place was supposed to be untouchable. I’d built it as an escape, a fortress no one could breach, only escape. The thought slammed into me. My Safe room.

I rushed to the closet, my fingers flying over the keypad. The door swung open with a quiet hiss. Nothing. She was truly gone.

When I stepped back into the bedroom, I took a deep breath, my eyes locking on the bed. That’s when I saw it. Her phone, lying there like an accusation.

Something wasn’t right.

I stalked over, snatched it up, and turned on my heel, heading back into the kitchen. Holding the phone up as I stepped inside, I met Ben’s gaze.

“She’s fucking gone,” I said, my voice low and lethal. “All that’s left is this.”

“Um, Jax… I hate to be the one to say this.” Nic looked up at me, and for the first time, I saw something I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen on her face—confusion.

“What the fuck is it?” I snapped.

She clicked a button, and the image on the monitors shifted. At first, it was all black, grainy nothing. Then a light bled in, cutting through the darkness.

Someone had opened a door.

The camera angle was low, enclosed—like it was inside a stairwell.

My stairwell.

And then she appeared. Savannah. Her frame slipped into view, and my heart plummeted.

She was alone.

And she was running.

“This doesn’t make any fucking sense,” Ben said, his voice tight and fraying with frustration.

Nic adjusted the angles, tracking Savannah as she descended the stairwell and stepped into the lobby. She paused, turning her head, scanning the space like she was weighing her next move.

But the longer I watched, the more it sank in—she wasn’t running away from something. She was running toward something.

“Where the hell is she running to?” I muttered, mostly to myself, but the words still cut the room.

Nic cycled through feeds, jumping blocks at a time, until Savannah vanished just like Koslov had, swallowed whole by the city. The last camera caught her near the industrial side of Manhattan. Empty streets. Half-finished buildings. Nowhere she had any business being alone.

The phone in my hand lit up. One glance, and my stomach dropped. Directions. Walking directions.

“Look.” I slid it to Nic. “She asked me for a phone earlier. I didn’t think anything about it.”

Nic’s fingers flew over the screen. “It’s directions… to 45 Park Place. Isn’t that the building you tried to buy a few years back?”

“Yeah,” I said. “She asked about it on the way here.”

Ben’s head snapped toward me. “What the fuck do you mean she asked about it?” His voice was laced with accusation, and I knew exactly what he was thinking.

There was a time, before Savannah had taken a bullet for me, that I would’ve thought the same thing. But not anymore. Not after everything she’d been through.

“Light turned red, we were stopped, she saw it and asked. That’s it.”

“You think she knew where he was taking her?”

The question hit a nerve. “She couldn’t have. If she did, she never would’ve let Millie be taken.” My tone sharpened. It was a warning that he was close to crossing a line.

Ben held up both hands, but the doubt still lingered in his eyes. “I know she wouldn’t. But what if… what if she remembered something? What if Millie being taken triggered it?”

I could see it in his face, the flicker of uncertainty giving way to something heavier. The weight of knowing Savannah had already given up her life for me once… and that maybe she’d do it again for Millie.

“She’d die for her,” I whispered, the truth cold in my mouth.

The words felt heavy enough to split me in half. Because it wasn’t just some abstract loyalty—Savannah had already proven it. I’d seen her stare death in the face without flinching, for me. And if she thought walking into Koslov’s world meant saving Millie, she wouldn’t hesitate.

No one spoke. Not for several beats. And in that silence, the other truth crept in. The one none of us wanted to say out loud.

We still hadn’t heard from Layla. Not a single lead. Not a single camera hit. She’d vanished like she’d never existed to begin with.

And if Savannah had really gone after him, then Koslov could have all three of them. Layla. Millie. Savannah.

Three women. Three lives in his hands. And if he decided they were worth more dead than alive, the city wouldn’t even have time to bury the bodies before he was gone.

I didn’t need to know Koslov personally to understand what that meant. Nic’s story about him torturing his own brother had been enough to tell me exactly what kind of man he was. The kind who didn’t need leverage to hurt someone, he just needed an opportunity.

The idea of him holding all three at once made my chest tighten until breathing felt like a chore.

There was no scenario where all of them walked out alive.

Hell, there was no guarantee any of them would.

And if we were wrong—if Savannah’s gamble didn’t pay off—it wouldn’t just be her blood on my hands.

It would be all of theirs.

Reaper’s voice cut through the tension like a hot blade. “She wants us to find her. She’s not stupid. The only question is—has she bought enough time for us to get there?”

That snapped me into motion. “Nic, pull every camera around 45 Park Place. Street, rooftops, anything.”

“I’ll have eyes in under a minute,” she said, already working. “But inside that building? Total dead zone.”

“Then we hit it from the outside,” I said, reaching for my jacket.

Ben buckled his sidearm with a sharp snap. “We’re wasting seconds.”