All That Falls Read Online Free Page B

go in and get the job done ourselves.”
    “And he got himself killed.”
    “Yeah, he did. But at least he had the balls to try to get out from under their thumb.”
    Victor glowered, his lips retracting to show his glistening fangs. “If you don’t want to get thrown in a fucking cell, you’d better straighten up. And I’ve already told you there cannot be a blood feud. Not now. So Merrick and that bitch muse are off limits until everything quiets down.”
    “I wanted the rock-and-roll muse. If you’d agreed to let us snatch Cerise Xenakis, the wrong portal would never have been opened. Cato would still be alive.”
    “The North girl was the smarter choice. She was more isolated. And Cato would still be alive if he hadn’t gone off half-cocked into the Etherlin.”
    “That plan worked,” Tamberi hissed. “We slaughtered every Etherlin Security officer that we came in contact with. There are no living witnesses to prove we were there.”
    “The choppers were seen.”
    She shrugged.
    “And Alissa North could testify.”
    “Not if she dies before she gets the chance.”
    “I’m so fucking sick of fighting with you about this!” Victor snapped. “It’s like you’re deaf, and—” The words that would’ve followed choked and died on his lips as two V3 bullets ripped through his heart.
    “I heard you. Every time,” Tamberi said as he crumpled backward, clutching his chest. She slid the gun she’d whipped out back into the pocket of her coat.
    She walked behind the headstone and grabbed the sword whose blade was buried to the hilt. She unsheathed it from the earth, sending clumps of dirt flying.
    She stalked to her father. Victor’s eyes were wide with shock, his bloodless lips moving silently.
    Her jaw was set. “I’m tired of fighting about this, too,” she whispered. “You think it’s only about Cato, and it mostly is about him. He’s dead, so they need to be dead, too. But it’s also about something that started a long time back. And I can’t afford to have you or anyone else getting in my way anymore. You always said you can tell how committed someone is to a goal by what he’s willing to give up for it.” She swung the sword and didn’t let herself blink as her father’s head rolled free of his body. The bullets probably would’ve killed him, but decapitation was certain.
    She swallowed hard and retrieved the bourbon bottle she’d dropped on the ground. She swiped the dirt away and took a burning swig, glancing up at the overcast sky. After a moment, she forced her gaze back to where blood pulsed, then trickled, and finally oozed from her father’s severed neck.
    “I have a goal,” Tamberi murmured. “And I am
completely
committed to it.”
    Cerise tightened the belt on her purple trench with shaky hands and walked toward the side door of the urgent care center where they’d stabilized Jersey Lane. An ashen-skinned Hayden was at Jersey’s bedside, so Cerise stepped out for a moment to escape the bleach-scented air and the sight of Jersey’s tiny body covered in wires.
    Jersey’s alive. You got there in time,
Cerise told herself, trying to stop her heart’s frantic pounding.
    But she was blue. We had to do CPR. What if she’s braindamaged? What if she ends up a vegetable? When we got her back, it seemed like we got to her in time, but maybe we didn’t. Maybe I was too late to save her. Just like I was too late to save Griffin.
    In a flash, she recalled Griffin’s lifeless body, and that image was followed instantly by one of Jersey dead on the doorstep. Cerise’s stomach churned. She swallowed gulps of air and squeezed her eyes shut.
    Do not get sick. Do not.
    She spit out excess saliva and slowly eased herself down the bricks to sit on the ground, her back against the wall.
    In the early days after Griffin had died, the pain had been so bad she’d started to meditate, focusing all her concentration on her next breath. She did that now, listening to her breathing, clocking