Page 186 of Fall Before Her Throne

“What the fuck is that?” I asked.

“What, nke’m?” Obi asked.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “You know what. Your little secret message with Max. What are you two thinking about?”

Max sighed. “Obi’s right. It’s a lose-lose. If we let her die, Greco will put a puppet in her place. He’ll then use his puppet to come down on us. It’s also bait. He wants to draw us out.”

“A trap?” Cas asked.

Obi nodded. “I’m guessing it has something to do with the commissioner. He’s chosen a side, and it is not ours. The two of them will try to take out two birds with one stone—us and the mayor.”

“So…what?” I asked. “If we try to intervene, they’ll kill us instead? We’re stronger than that. We’re not easy to get rid of.”

Obi shook his head. “It’s not that kind of trap. They need a public face for what happened last night, as well as what happened last week in the Bronx, especially after the mayor said they’re looking for suspects after last night’s event. They need scapegoats. People to take the fall, so the police can say they’ve handled it and Greco can keep operating underground.”

The pieces started clicking together in my head.

“So they’ll try to arrest us and pin all that shit on us,” Ryuji said. “Fuck that. I’m not going to fucking jail.”

“Arrest first,” Cas said. “Then he’ll try to kill us.”

We’d already been arrested once; I doubted Samuel could get us free a second time. And if we were trapped in small, tiny cells? Just waiting to be murdered?

I bit the nail of my thumb while I paced in front of the TV.

I liked Josephine, even though she clearly hated us. She seemed smart. Savvy. Willing to stand up for her morals. She was at least better than the fucking corrupt and skeevy assholes we’d been fighting against lately. But I didn’t want to put my men at risk. I could feel in my bones that Greco was using this to get after us.

Lose fucking lose, indeed.

A crease formed between Max’s brows. “We might not have a choice.”

“What does that mean?” Cas asked.

Max looked at Obi. “Now is the time.”

Obi frowned. “I don’t want to proceed with that plan, Max. We’ll come up with something different.”

“This is it,” Max said, standing. “This is the opportunity. If we’re going in, we need to go all in. You’ve been right the whole time. This is the only way.”

“Explain, please,” I said tightly. “What is going on?”

Obi let out a breath and dropped his head into his hands. “I don’t like it.”

“Tell me anyway,” I said.

His eyes locked on mine. “No.”

I held his gaze, watching as he wrestled with whatever was tormenting him. There was pain in his eyes. Fear. The last time I saw that look in his eyes was on the ship with the Albanians. Fear that he would lose me, that he had lost me.

I walked across the room until I stood right in front of him. Rather than slipping into his lap, I curled my fingers around his chin and I drew my thumb over his lips. “What are you afraid of?”

His lips pressed together. “Losing you.”

“I am not so easily killed,” I replied. “This is different. Why are you hiding this from us?”

He closed his eyes, his cheek leaning into my palm. “The only way we can defeat Greco is if we lose.”

Everyone was silent while his words sank in.