Page 116 of Collateral Love
No sirens.
Just paper cuts deep enough to make powerful people bleed slowly.
And somewhere out there, Cameron Price was watching us react and thinking she was still ahead.
She’d just stepped onto the board where we stopped playing checkers twenty years ago.
And the next move?
Wouldn’t look like violence at all.
By nightfall, the city had chosen a story. They framed it clean—philanthropist questioned,prominent family under review,possible financial impropriety. No mention of bodies. No mention of Crestwood. No mention of what it actually cost to build something that didn’t collapse every time the system sneezed.
Kenya would’ve called it narrative control.
I called it bullshit with a press kit.
“He’s good,” Joel said, eyes flicking between screens. “Charles’ team already seeded three think pieces questioning the optics of his business's closing.”
Xavier leaned back, arms crossed. “That’s not for the public.”
“No,” I agreed. “That’s for judges.”
Channy paced behind us, phone to her ear, voice clipped. “I don’t care how many degrees he has—if that ethics board thinks I’m rolling over, they got the wrong Davis.”
She ended the call and looked at me. “They want a statement.”
“They’ll get silence,” I said.
She exhaled sharply. “Silence makes people nervous.”
“Good,” I replied. “Nervous people overplay.”
Miles hovered near the edge of the room, scrolling through his tablet like this was all just another crisis to manage. He’d been quieter since Cameron’s name hit the air. Too quiet.
I clocked it.
“What about the ports?” I asked Xavier.
“Locked,” he replied. “But here’s the interesting part.”
He tapped the screen.
“Someone’s rerouting pressure off Charles’s primary accounts,” he continued. “Not removing it. Redirecting.”
“To where?” I asked.
Xavier’s jaw tightened. “To entities adjacent to Chanel’s boards.”
Channy went still.
“That’s deliberate,” she said. “They want me exposed without indicting him.”
“Exactly,” I replied. “They’re daring you to testify.”
Her laugh was short and humorless. “I won’t.”
“I know,” I said. “But they need you to consider it.”
