Page 209 of Fall Before Her Throne

He tucked the badge away with a snort. “Special Agent Jack Greer.”

Next to him, his partner gave me a curt nod. “Special Agent Farrah Badawi.”

Those were the two agents who had tracked Leona down. They were the ones who had interrogated her, offering to let her go if she testified against me.

“What the fuck do you want?”

One guard pushed them both to the side. “Get up, Volpe. You’re coming with us.”

I stood carefully, keeping my eyes on the gun and handcuffs on each of the Special Agents’ belts.

“We just want to talk,” Badawi said.

“What for?” I asked.

“Come see,” Greer said, leaning against the wall. “You’ll want to hear this.”

I gestured toward the door. “Lead the way.”

The interview room was just a little warmer than the solitary cell.

Just a little.

“Mr. Volpe,” Badawi said as she sat down opposite me. She set a manila folder on the table. “Over the last five years, we’ve been building a case against you. As the Head of the Five Families, we believed you to be responsible for running the Italian mafia in New York City.”

Okay, we were jumping right into it then. I opened my mouth to deny, but Badawi held up a hand to cut me off.

“Before you say anything, it has come to our attention that you have not been the Head of the Five Families. In fact, you’ve been getting your orders from someone else. Someone at the top of the food chain.”

I blinked, watching as she pulled a photo from the folder. She slid it across the table to me. I stared at the man; the recognition was instant.

“Piero Greco,” she said. “The man in charge. The one who has given all the orders safely from his home in Italy. For decades.”

I did everything in my power to keep my mask in place.

Greer leaned forward in his chair, watching me like a hawk. “Is that true? Has he been your boss?”

I looked up at Badawi—at the furrow of her eyebrows. They almost looked…pleading.

I flicked the photo back at them and sat back in my chair, trying to look as casual as possible while I tried to play catch-up with whatever Badawi thought she was doing. “What if he were?”

“Then Greco would be the man at the center of our case,” Badawi said. “Not you.”

I had to forcefully contain the smile hiding behind my lips. They were trying to pin this on Greco. Leona and Badawi must have come up with this after Obi and I told her we had to take out two birds with one stone. This was the plan.

If Greco took the fall, they could get free.

Obi and I had talked about pieces on a chessboard plenty of times. We’d talked about removing all pieces from the board in order to let the Queen have an opening. We’d talked through the strategy.

But we never talked about those first few pieces of the Queen’s Gambit strategy. The sacrificial pawns. The ones who started it all.

We couldn’t win this war without sacrificing a few of our pieces.

My heart pounded in my chest while my head spun. Leona probably thought she could pin this on Greco—and if she was working with Badawi to do that, Badawi would know that this case wasn’t going away without someone serving time in prison.

Cold spread through my limbs. Leona would want to take the fall. Leona would want to be the one to get us free, while taking the jail time for herself.

I would not let that happen.