Page 207 of Fall Before Her Throne

She shook her head vehemently while she threw off the covers and stood. “No. We’ll leave the city. Immediately.”

“I’m fine with that.” I cast a glance around the room. It might have been bland, but he was still rich as fuck. “You can take whatever money or possessions you find here, but leave the city and don’t come back. If you or any of your sons set foot in New York, I will take it as a declaration of war, and I will finish what I started tonight. Understood?”

“Understood.” She held out her hand. I clasped it.

I left her packing bags and getting ready to flee. Our work here was done.

Now, onto the next.

Obi and Ciel had bugged the police commissioner’s devices with tracking software, so it wasn’t hard to locate him working late in his office. Despite the lateness of the hour, this building had more activity than Sandrini’s, but Felix, Giulio, and I snuck inside easily. It still amazed me how confidence was usually the answer to getting into secure places. We strode right through the hallways, like we belonged there, and no one batted an eye.

My phone still showed the commissioner in his office. When we arrived just outside his door, I gave a nod to Giulio and Felix. They both pulled their weapons as I pushed inside.

Only to find Commissioner Michael Drake asleep at his desk. The room reeked of booze and sweat. Stale, gross air.

“So much for working late,” I murmured.

“Ah, the pressures of public office,” Giulio joked with a grin. “Must be so hard.”

“I bet it’s a fucking nightmare,” I said as we walked closer to the desk where he lay snoring. A five o’clock shadow covered his cheeks and jaw. The bags under his eyes were sunken and dark. “He’s not waking up, is he?”

“Doesn’t look like it,” Felix responded. “Want me to?”

“Nah.” I smacked my open palm on his desk, right next to his ear. Drake’s head shot up, his eyes bleary. It took them a moment to search the room and land on me—and Giulio and Felix behind me. When he recognized me, he sucked in a terrified breath.

“Hi!” I said brightly.

He frantically reached for the desk drawer where he had likely hidden a weapon. Felix slammed a foot against the drawer, and the commissioner recoiled.

“What do you want?” he squeaked.

“Well.” I leaned one hip on the desk. “You fucked up.”

He blinked while his mouth hung open, but he had no excuse.

“Personally, I think Obi was more than fair with you,” I said with a sigh. My arms crossed over my chest. “He gave you multiple chances to come through on the favor you owed him, but you chose poorly.”

His fingers curled under his desk. With a flick of my wrist, I had my knife in my palm and underneath his throat.

“Do not press that panic button.”

Slowly, his hands raised. Fear blotched his face red. It was almost too easy to read what he was thinking.

“You’re considering your options right now,” I said quietly. “Fight or flight—that’s my guess. You chose fawn with Greco, but you won’t go that route with me. Freezing is a possibility, but you’ve tried twice now to react. So I’m going to go with fight.”

His jaw clenched just a moment before he launched himself at me, hands reaching to throttle my neck. Thank God Wynn had taught me exactly how to grapple. Felix and Giulio didn’t even have time to react before I had the commissioner in an armbar at the foot of his desk.

“I’ll snap your arm,” I hissed in his ear.

Drake froze, only to look up and see two guns pointing directly at his face.

I broke his arm anyway. The snap of the bone sent a chill rolling through my arms. Yuck. He rolled around on the ground. Felix shoved a wad of something into the commissioner’s mouth so his screams were muffled. I grabbed Giulio’s hand, and he pulled me to my feet. I snatched the knife from where I’d dropped it onto the surface of the desk.

Felix put his boot on Drake’s chest.

“Look,” I said as I brushed some dust off my jacket. “You’re not getting out of here alive, and you might as well accept it. I just wanted to let you know I could have killed you in your sleep, but I wanted you to be very awake and very aware of this. You fucked with the Shadows, and you should have known better.”

He fucked us over, and he would die in pain for it. But not before he knew that every person he cared about would know exactly the man he was.