Page 90 of Collateral Love
That landed.
She shifted in her seat.
Her gaze hardened.
“You think you’re better than me.”
“No,” I said. “I think you’re still salvageable.”
That pissed her off.
Good.
Anger was closer to action than fear.
She stood abruptly.
“Don’t get it twisted,” she snapped. “You don’t run shit in here.”
“I know,” I said calmly. “That’s why I’m not trying to.”
She paused at the door.
“What do you want?” she asked.
There it was.
The opening.
“A phone call,” I said. “One minute. I don’t have to do the talking; you can talk for me.”
She scoffed.
“You’re out of your damn mind.”
“Probably,” I agreed. “But my phone call is the only way this doesn’t end with bodies and indictments. I’ll make sure you make it out alive.”
She stared at me.
“You threatening me?”
“No,” I said. “I’m informing you my husband will come for me with his soldier which side of this are you going to be on?”
She left without answering.
I exhaled slowly.
That was fine.
Seeds took time.
They didn’t giveme food that night.
The hunger sharpened my memory.
I remembered Zayden at twenty-four. He was too big for his own anger, too smart to stay loud forever. The way he’d learned to sit still without going soft. The way he watched patterns like they were gospel.
I remembered Xavier quiet and deadly, always three moves ahead, never emotional unless it came to family. He wouldn’t escalate without proof.
