Page 112 of Vega

“Everything sounds suspicious to you.”

“I was kidnapped,” she reminded me with a shrug.

“You ever gonna stop using that against me?”

“No.”

I chuckled. “Fair.”

She laughed, and the sound moved through me like a hand down my chest. I wanted her so badly it made me still.

She must’ve seen something change in my face because her laughter faded. Her lips parted slightly, and her fingers tightened around the edge of her book.

I could’ve crossed the kitchen in four steps. She would’ve let me.

That was the problem.

That was always the problem.

My phone rang before either of us moved.

Seeing it was Wise, I answered, while keeping my eyes on Sonnet. “What’s up?”

“It finally happened,” Wise spit.

My body went rigid. “What?”

“Roman hit one of our trap houses.”

Sonnet’s expression changed as she heard the shift in my voice.

Wise continued, “We lost men. Product too. A lot of it.”

My hand tightened around the phone. “Where?”

“South Holland spot. They moved fast, hit hard, and got out before backup made it there.”

I looked away from Sonnet because I didn’t want her to see how badly I wanted to kill somebody.

“We need to meet. Now. We gotta talk about how we’re gonna handle this,” Wise rambled.

“All right,” I replied. “Meet me at my crib. Watch your backs. Make sure nobody follows you.”

It only took the crew twenty minutes to get to my crib. As soon as they got there, Sonnet went into her room to change while we discussed business in the living room.

“They burned everything?” I asked.

Wise’s jaw flexed. “Everything. Product, cash, furniture. They shot the place up first, killed three workers, then set it on fire before backup got there.”

“Who we lose?”

“Bump, Chris, and Lil E,” Prodigy told me.

Lux rubbed both hands down his face. “Damn.”

I stared at the floor for a second, mourning good, loyal soldiers who hadn’t deserved to die. The sadness sat in my chest for one quiet breath before I swallowed it down and let it turn into rage that could avenge them.

“We have to pay the Cartiers no matter what. Doesn’t matter that Roman burned it. Product was ours once it left their warehouse.”