125 | "Don't take too long"

Diana couldn’t help but freak out at Ladder’s words. She knew he meant them, each one of them, and it clenched something inside her.

“Lewis, please. You don’t have to be so difficult,” she said desperately, scooting over to the edge of her seat.

She couldn’t let him do what he threatened—she knew he wouldn’t think twice before following through on his words. She knew better than to think there was any humor in his words—there wasn’t. The man was ruthless—if not for his stubbornness, the device wouldn’t have existed in the first place, especially when the government shut down the project decades ago. But Lewis Ladder never took a “no” for an answer, and when he set his mind to something, he went beyond his ways to satisfy his goddamn ego.

This was the reason—the damn reason she tried to keep her family out of the mess she had unwittingly gotten herself into. The same reason she had to leave her family behind and keep them clueless over the past years.

Lewis merely sneered. “You should