Page 48 of Fallen Empire (The Fallen Trilogy #2)

A hand shot around the front of my throat, crushing my airway as it yanked me backward into a solid wall of muscle.

“Good hit,” Aleksei’s voice rasped against my ear. “Probably broke my fucking nose. What’s the term they say? An eye for an eye?”

Before I could respond, he whipped me around. His fist slammed into my face with bone-cracking force. Pain exploded through my skull, my vision going white at the edges as warm liquid poured from my nostrils.

I stumbled, the ground tilting beneath me, but couldn’t find my balance. My body hit the concrete with a sick thud, the back of my head smacking hard enough to send another wave of darkness crawling in.

The room tilted, spinning in jagged circles, and I blinked hard to keep from blacking out.

Aleksei’s shadow loomed over me, his voice almost light. “Tie her up next to her friend. Double the pleasure, double the fun.” The gut wrenching smile that spread across his face made me want to shove my palm into it all over again.

I hated the sound of his voice, and I was sick of his fucking games. Everything out of his mouth was some kind of twisted performance.

It wasn’t about sex. I knew that instantly. His pleasure didn’t come from sliding himself into something until he got off—unless it was someone a fraction of his age. He’d already made that sick, demented truth known.

No, Aleksei’s real high came from watching someone bleed out. From seeing the moment their soul slipped loose, only to drag it back with just enough life for another round. He liked to take you to the edge of darkness and stop—just long enough for hope to spark—before crushing it all over again.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Savannah stir, her body shifting as if she meant to get up. She didn’t make it far. Her arms were bound tight behind her, and I was certain the damage to her thigh wasn’t helping.

Her eyes found mine. I gave the smallest nod, just enough for her to notice.

And that’s when I saw it.

Savannah was back.

Her body might have been broken, but her eyes… her eyes were seething. With hatred. With malice. And with something far more dangerous.

Determination.

One of the men pushed away from the table and started toward me.

Years ago, just after high school, Jaxson had taught me how to defend myself. He’d drilled me until muscle memory took over, until I could block, strike, and disarm without thinking. I hadn’t needed it in years, but the second that man moved, it all came rushing back.

I tracked his approach, studying every detail. His movements were a little slow, and a little too confident. Like he thought I’d already given up. My gaze swept down his body, searching for an opening.

There. A pistol at his hip.

Lower… there it was again—another gun, strapped to his ankle. Oddly enough, the holster was on the outside of his pants. As if he didn’t care who saw it. As if no one he pointed it at ever lived long enough to tell anyone it was there.

I waited, adrenaline flooding my veins, until he bent down to grab me. The second his hand clamped onto the top of my head, I moved.

In one motion, I ripped the gun from his ankle holster and swung it up. One deafening shot cracked through the room. His hand jerked from my hair as blood sprayed from his neck, and his massive body collapsed onto mine.

I didn’t have time to push him off. I aimed past him—one shot. A man at the table slumped sideways, blood blooming across his temple. Another shot. Then another. Each target dropped with precision until all four men behind Savannah lay motionless. If they weren’t already gone, they would be soon.

Four clean headshots.

And then—cold steel pressed against my temple.

“Nice shots,” Aleksei murmured, his tone holding something that sounded dangerously like pride. “But ending you with a bullet? That would be a waste. Quick deaths are for men with no imagination. And I prefer to take my time.”

Heavy boots pounded against the floor. More men flooded in, their movements frenzied. Four, five… six of them piling into the room, weapons drawn, eyes darting between me, Aleksei, and the bodies on the floor.

“Boss, what the fuck happened?” one of them demanded.

Aleksei didn’t even glance their way. “My new friend decided to have a little fun.”

The words turned my stomach, but not as much as what came next. Nothing. No outrage. No grief. They stepped around the fallen like they were stepping over trash bags, their expressions unreadable.

It was sickening. These men didn’t care that their brothers lay in pools of blood at their feet. They didn’t care about the lives lost, only the orders still to come.

This was Aleksei’s team. Soldiers built on arrogance, not loyalty. They didn’t fight for each other, only for the man who made them believe they couldn’t be touched.

Nothing like Jaxson and Ben.

I’d watched them work. They trusted each other, protected each other. And god forbid one of them ended up like the men I’d just taken out—Jaxson and Ben would burn the world down to make it right.

Aleksei flicked his hand toward one of the men. “Get him off her.”

The man stepped forward, snatching the gun out of my hand before grabbing the dead weight of the body pinning me down and dragging it away.

His blood had already soaked through my clothes, hot and sticky, clinging to my skin.

The coppery scent filled my nose, thick and metallic, coating the back of my throat until I wanted to gag.

Aleksei’s hand closed around my arm, yanking me to my feet. At least this time, it wasn’t by the hair.

Across the room, Savannah’s eyes locked on mine.

We didn’t need words.

No begging. No promises.

Just a silent understanding. Whatever it took, we were getting out of here alive.

Aleksei glanced at one of the men. “Bring another chair.”

The order was carried out in seconds. A chair scraped across the floor and was shoved beside Savannah’s. Aleksei’s hand clamped on my shoulder, forcing me down until I hit the seat.

Someone stepped behind me, rough hands jerking my arms back.

Rope bit into my wrists as they bound me tight.

I didn’t bother struggling. There was no point.

I’d lost the advantage the second I pulled that trigger.

Anything I did now would earn me more pain, and Aleksei had a thousand ways to deliver it.

When the man finally stepped away, I gave a single tug on the rope. Just enough to see if there was any give. There wasn’t.

My mind spun, sifting through every possible move, every word I could say to claw my way back to some kind of upper hand. It had to be something that would stick. Something that would dig under his skin and stay there.

And then I knew.

I turned my head just enough to meet his eyes. My voice was steady, cold.

“When they come for us—and they will—they’ll do what they’ve done for years. They’ll take what you think belongs to you. And leave your little soldiers in the wake.”

I saw it—the moment my words struck. A slight curl of his upper lip into a snarl before he straightened to his full height.

The same blade from before lifted above his head, catching the dim light, before it slammed down into my thigh. The pain tore through me like fire, stealing the air from my lungs. The scream that ripped free was instinct, uncontrollable, dragged from somewhere deep inside me.

“I believe the two of you are my most prized possessions anyway, Millicent,” he said, his voice almost reverent. “This will be the most fun I’ve had in my entire life.”

Instead of twisting the blade like he had with Savannah, he yanked it toward himself.

My flesh tore open in its wake, hot blood pouring down my leg.

My vision blurred and bile clawed its way up my throat.

I tried to fight the darkness creeping in—for Savannah’s sake.

But the pain surging through my body consumed me.

And I gave in to the silence.