Page 88 of Fall Before Her Throne

I sat back in my chair and crossed one leg over the other. “I’ll wait to speak until my lawyer is here.”

“You’ve been a busy girl, haven’t you?” Greer added. “Running around the city. Getting into all sorts of messes.”

I bounced my leg and kept my face as passive as possible. He was trying to get a rise out of me, and it wouldn’t work.

“Innocent people are usually willing to work with our investigation.”

“Cool.” I acted like I was going to pick up my water cup, but I accidentally knocked it over instead. Water spilled over the table. Badawi snatched up the file and shot to her feet, while Greer shoved backwards to avoid being soaked. “Oops. My bad! Jack, darling, could you be a doll and fill up my water for me? I’m parched.”

His eyes fell to the cup and then dragged back up to me. He looked like he was about to snarl an insult, but he sighed heavily, stood, and grabbed the empty cup.

“Thanks so much,” I said as he headed back toward the door. “Oh, could you also please see if my lawyer is here? I’d hate to keep us all waiting silently in this room. Appreciate it.”

He glared, then left. A short minute later, he opened the door and tossed Badawi a roll of paper towels before exiting again. The heavy door thunked shut, leaving only me and Badawi.

Badawi put the file folder on the floor, unrolled a bunch of paper towels, and began cleaning up the mess.

My hands pulled at the cuffs. “I’d help, but as you can see, I’m a little tied up.”

She smirked. Once she finished wiping up all the water, she tossed the soaked paper towels into the wastebasket in the corner. “Sorry about Greer. He can be a little abrasive.”

I snorted. “Bad cop.” I gestured to her, as much as I could with my hands bound. “Good cop.”

Her mouth crooked up at the corner. “Something like that.”

I looked around the room, unwilling to continue making small talk. The silence stretched, and I got increasingly annoyed that it was taking Greer so damn long to fill up a tiny paper cup. Something had to be going on out there. I watched the one-way mirror, hoping I could see something behind it, but all I saw was me in my bloody clothes in a room full of metal.

“You have to understand that we’ve been working this case for a very long time,” Badawi said, finally breaking the silence.

“The RICO case?”

She eyed me, neither shaking her head nor nodding.

The most they could connect me to happened within the last few months. Before that, I wasn’t doing anything related to the Five Families organization. They were focusing on me, but this case was much bigger than me. My father had probably given them enough to go after the whole mafia.

But I still didn’t know why.

Just that he was willing to doom everyone else around him.

I could never become like that. No matter what happened, I would never make choices that put my safety and freedom above those of my men.

“How long?” I asked.

“Years.”

My memories trailed back to the last time we spoke at Ryuji’s club. “A few weeks ago, you said my father was acting as a confidential informant for the United States government.”

“That’s correct.”

“Tell me more about that.”

“We’re the ones conducting the interview, Miss Vero.”

“Are you?” I looked around, with Greer still nowhere to be found. “You sure about that?”

Her jaw clenched as she glanced back toward the door. Looked like neither of us knew where he was.

I leaned forward. “Do you want to go check on him? Poor guy could have gotten lost.”