Page 140 of When a Soul Cries
My jaw tightened.
The old me understood that language immediately.
Leverage.
Pressure.
Find the weak spot and squeeze.
There had been a time when Kai wouldn’t even have needed to finish that sentence.
But I wasn’t that man anymore.
Neither was he.
At least we weren’t supposed to be.
“Don’t touch Desmond,” I said.
Kai went quiet.
“Rome—”
“I mean it.”
“You scared of that nigga?”
I almost laughed.
“No.”
“Then—”
“I’m scared of us.”
Silence.
I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees.
“We worked too fucking hard to get out of that life. You almost lost your whole life behind that shit. I’m not throwing everything away because Desmond Vance decided to crawl out from wherever the fuck he’s been hiding.”
Kai exhaled slowly.
“So what you wanna do?”
“Let Darius dig.”
“And if he finds something?”
“We handle it through business first.”
“*First?*”
I smiled despite myself.
“Go to bed, Kai.”
“That ain’t an answer.”
