Page 88 of Fallen Heir

Please let it be the spot.

Please let her still be breathing.

“She’s alive,” I said quietly. Not to them. To myself. To whatever god would listen. “She has to be.”

No one responded. They didn’t need to. The air in the SUV shifted—more than determination now. It was war.

And I wasn’t walking away without her.

CHAPTER 29

Savannah

Light stabbed through the darkness like a blade, but I didn’t move.

I didn’t blink. Didn’t flinch. I stood there—bare feet planted on the cold metal floor of the van, arms stretched in front of the children still huddled behind me.

They needed someone strong. They needed someone to believe in. They needed someone to give them hope after being thrown into a world they never knew existed.

I was going to be that someone.

A shadow moved into the light, slow and deliberate. A silhouette I would’ve recognized anywhere, even in hell.

Bruce.

He stepped forward like he owned the world—like this place, this horror, was his crown jewel. His suit was rumpled, his sleeves dusted with dirt. He looked like a man who’d crawled through fire to get here, but still believed himself untouchable.

"Savannah," he said, his voice sliding over my name like oil.

I stepped forward, ignoring the pain in my legs, the fire in my ribs.

"Bruce," I said, steady as I could. "What are you doing?"

He laughed. Low. Menacing. Like this was all some private joke. "Me?" he said, raising a brow. "I’m doing what I’vealwaysdone. Making a name for myself. Something you’d know nothing about—since you were born into your pretty little fantasy world."

I kept moving toward him, slow and sure, every step pulling me further from the terrified woman I used to be. Every step toward him was one back to my former self. Before he thought he’d broken me. Before Jaxson gave me a reason to want to live. Before I needed to speak for children that couldn’t speak for themselves.

"You think that money was yours? That legacy?" he sneered. "You lived in that house with your soft mother and clueless father while I was out building therealempire. I tripled his profits—hell, Iquadrupledthem."

He took another step, and I felt the children behind me inch further back.

"Not just drugs anymore, Savannah. People. Humans. That’s where the real money is. That’s whatIbuilt." Each word more fervent than the last. Like he was proud of it. Like it made him powerful.

"My father would never—"

"No, Savannah," Bruce barked, voice sharp and rising. "He wouldn’t. That’s the point. He had no idea how far I’d taken it. No clue I was using his routes, his connections, his power to build something bigger than he ever imagined. He thought he was the king? No. He was a puppet. A puppet that had the audacity to not be thankful for what I’d fucking done for him."

My throat burned. I didn’t want to believe it. Couldn’t. But the longer I looked into Bruce’s eyes, the more I knew—he wasn’t lying. Twisted as it was, he was proud of what he’d done. He was a monster. A monster dressed in Armani. The kind of monster that looked beautiful. Polished. Controlled. The kind no one ever saw coming—until it was far too late.

"And when he found out?" I whispered.

Bruce smiled—tight, smug. The type of smile that made my stomach twist.

"He wanted to shut it down. Said I was dirtying his name. Called me a traitor. He was going to cut me off, expose me to everyone—the family, the buyers, the banks. And your mother? She was already making calls. Pulling strings. Threatening to dismantle everything."

He raised the gun slowly, running the barrel against my cheek like it was a lover’s hand. I didn’t flinch. "So I ended them."

My breath caught.