Page 14 of Fall Before Her Throne

I let out a bitter laugh. “Even now, you’re so full of shit.”

He peered at me, eyes empty and hard. His words were slow. “What do you want it to mean, Leona?”

My lips pressed together. I’d been asking myself that question for the last thirty minutes.

“That’s not fair, and you know it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Flipping it around on me. Dodging the question.”

He shrugged noncommittally. Frustration tightened my fists into balls.

“I don’t know what I want it to mean,” I said. My voice dropped to a whisper. “But I’m telling you the truth when I say that I’m getting so goddamn tired of the secrets and lies, Max.”

“I…” His throat worked, and he stared with those steely grey eyes. “Where are we?”

I folded my arms across my chest. I couldn’t stand here and pretend not to see that tattoo. Not to feel it like a knife in my gut. What would be worse? That it meant what I thought it meant, even though there was no way that was possible? Or that it didn’t?

I had to get out of here.

“A safe place, at least for now. There’s medicine on the end table. Take it. Go back to sleep.”

“Where are you going?” he asked while I walked to the door.

“I have work to do,” I said, not even turning around. It wasn’t worth my time or energy. We’d saved him, I’d give him safe harbor, but after that? No idea. We were playing this entire situation minute by minute.

“Wait—” he called as my hand closed around the door handle. “Wait, Leona.”

I paused. My voice was empty. “Why?”

“Thank you.”

My eyes snapped to his. His face was still swollen, but I saw the earnestness in his gaze.

“Thank you for saving me. Bringing me with you.”

“Cas carried you. And stitched you up.”

“I’ll thank him, too.”

“The guys protected you.”

His jaw clenched. “I’ll also thank them.”

My hand was still on the door handle. I leaned my head against the wood of the door and closed my eyes. “Be honest with me, Max. For once. Can you do that?”

I heard him shift on the bed behind me. “Yes,” he said softly.

“What is supposed to happen next? We’re safe, for now. The Camorra are probably taking over New York as we speak. Are you going to disappear, like when you left me after the Albanians kidnapped us? Just slip away without a word?”

He was quiet for a moment. “Do I have another choice?”

Emotion choked my throat. Did he? Was I offering him one? “You always have a choice, Max.”

“I don’t think your men would be happy if I didn’t leave.”

“You’re right. They won’t be happy.” Ryu had been vocal about his displeasure at Max being here, but both Ciel and Wynn seemed against it, too. Obi was planning something, the gears turning in his head were crystal clear, and Cas seemed to feel conflicted the same way I did.