Page 106 of Collateral Love
Miles checked his phone. “He’s probably trying to find out who flipped.”
“Everybody flips when the pressure’s right,” I replied. “Some just don’t know it yet.”
Channy cleared her throat. “I just got something.”
She turned her screen toward us.
An email.
Subject line:Notice of Required Appearance.
She didn’t read it aloud.
She didn’t have to.
Xavier’s shoulders tightened.
Miles exhaled. “That was fast.”
I leaned back in my chair, fingers steepled. “Too fast.”
Channy closed the laptop and folded her hands on top of it. “They want me in two weeks.”
“For what?” Joel asked.
She looked straight at me. “Testimony related to prior knowledge of violent activity.”
Xavier laughed once. No humor in it. “They’re fishing.”
“They’re threatening,” Channy corrected. “Different technique.”
Miles nodded sympathetically. “They’ll try to scare her into cooperation. It’s standard.”
I watched his face carefully as he said it.
Too smooth.
Like he’d seen the playbook before.
“We don’t panic,” I said. “We counter.”
“How?” Channy asked.
I turned to her. “You don’t speak. You don’t speculate. You don’t answer shit unless your lawyer tells you to.”
She nodded. “Already assumed.”
“Good,” I said. “Because the more they squeeze you, the more we learn about who’s pulling strings.”
Xavier finally stepped away from the wall.
He walked to the table and set his tablet down, turning the screen so only I could see.
A financial map.
Lines overlapping.
Time stamps layered.
