Page 92 of Crave

“Why’d you tell me?” I narrowed my eyes. “You don’t even know me.”

“I know enough.”

The air between us thickened. His hand was still near my side, but I could feel him brushing his fingertips along the edge of my new bandage. I could feel his pulse through it, too.

I swallowed. “If this is true, and Ghost goes down, and they link me to any of it…”

“You’ll go down too,” he finished for me.

“Fuck.” I leant forward, elbows on my knees, head in my hands. “I’m fucked.”

Tristan hesitated, then, “Not if you play it right.”

I lifted my head. “What d’you mean?”

He looked at me as if he’d already thought it through and hated that he had. “If you know when they’re hitting, you could use it. Let Ghost’s lot take the fall while you… clean your side of the line.”

“Clean my side?”

“Ensure there’s no evidence tracing anything to you. Including those who work under you. Without evidence, the CPS can only prosecute what they have. And if that’s this rival lot, then that’s what it’ll be.”

“You’re saying I should set them up?”

“I’m saying you have the chance to not have been there. Ever.” He shrugged. “What you do with that is on you.”

I stared at him, chest tight, the war inside me kicking off again. Loyalty. Survival. Guilt. Need. All of it twisting until I couldn’t tell which was which anymore.

He met my gaze, steady. “You don’t owe them your life, Richie.”

That name. Said like that. Soft. Real.

It almost broke me.

Because it’s exactly how Levi used to say it.

I laughed, quiet and cracked. “You really think there’s a way out for people like me?”

“There’s always a way out. It’s whether you want to take it.”

“There’s no choice in my game, believe me.”

“There has to be.”

I shook my head, throat thick, then tilted my chin at him. “Why you doing this? Other than… whatever this is.” I waved a hand between us. “Beds. Alleyways. What is it? You think I’m a good fuck?”

Tristan bit his lip. “Evidently. But, no…it’s not just that.”

“Then why?” My voice came out harsher than I meant. “Why you wanna save my poisoned heart? No one else would. You read a few case studies and think I deserve to be saved?”

“Everyone deserves redemption.”

“That’s just in stories.”

“No. Not a story. I’ve seen it.”

I cocked my head. “Seen what?”

“How the world screws people like you and the unfairness of it.”