“Mekhi—”
“Is not your enemy,” I interrupted. “All of your parents made poor choices. That does not make Mekhi your enemy.”
He looked at me like I’d spit on him.
“That nigga got love. Got protection. Got opportunity. Got family.”
“You want his life.”
“I want what he stole,” he corrected angrily.
“Or what you think he stole.”
His lips tightened. He looked confused.
“Don’t do that. Don’t make me doubt what I know. Don’t fucking gaslight me, Farrah. I hate when people gaslight?—”
“Okay, okay!” I soothed. “I’m not trying to gaslight you. It’s just another perspective. You gotta think, Trell?—”
“Stop talking. Just stop,” he whispered hoarsely.
“But why? Trell, none of this is your mess. It’s not your fight. You bringing it to Mekhi, when both of you suffered. You tryna hurt him, and he ain’t the one who?—”
He stood and tilted my chair backward. My heart jerked, but I kept my face and voice calm.
“This ain’t y’all fight.”
He stepped back, chest heaving. And for the first time, he looked unsure. He looked young and miserable and unsure.
“Don’t… Don’t make me weak,” he said, voice cracking.
“You’re not weak,” I whispered.
He shut his eyes. “She’s right,” he muttered. “Gillian was right.”
My blood went cold. I didn’t need him listening to anything Gillian said.
“What did she say?” I asked carefully.
“She said that you could make me think twice.”
I didn’t breathe. He shook his head.
“I’m not doing that. I wanted you. I have you. And real soon, when we can move, I’ll have you in every way,” he promised, voice low, determined.
Terrifying.
My heart stopped moving.
By the timewe got the location, I’d stopped feeling anything. I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t angry. I wasn’t even thinking. I was justfocused.
Prime pulled up the satellite view on the hood of Seth’s car. We were parked a block away from the warehouse, one of the old storage places used by the railroad that Emancipation was renovating or tearing down. This part of town was dark. The streetlights were out, the town-installed cameras broken or blacked out. This was the perfect spot for the kind of shit Trell was into.
“This the place,” Prime confirmed. “Thermal picked up two men on the top floor, three on the main floor. One in the back room. No movement on the east side.”
His tone was clipped, professional, but I could hear the tension underneath. All of them felt it.
I didn’t say a word.
