Page 2 of Collateral Love
One driver.
Charles watching.
Charles tilted his head, studying me like I was a puzzle he’d finally decided to solve.
“You always did think you were smarter than everyone else,” he said softly.
“Usually I am.”
His smile widened. “You still protecting your sister?”
I didn’t answer because while Zayden always told me I was doing a great job protecting Channy, I wasn’t so sure anymore. Because the truth was ugly. For years, I had watched Chanel spiral in ways she never admitted out loud. Alcohol. Reckless decisions. That hollow look people get when their heart breaks and they don’t know how to survive the silence afterward.
And I had convinced myself she was still safer with Charles. Despite the bad grades and the sorrow in her eyes, she was better off not popping out baby after baby from conjugal visits and being a walking fuckin’ cliche. I thought her struggles, no matter how big they seemed, were safer than loving Xavier. Safer than loving someone dangerous.
I swallowed hard. “Whatever the fuck this is will be your biggest mistake,” I said calmly, “You should leave.”
Charles laughed. The men behind him started walking toward me. The first man reached for my arm. I drove my elbow straight into his throat. He gagged and stumbled back. The second man grabbed my jacket, and I twisted, slamming my heel into his knee hard enough that something popped. He went down cursing, clutching his leg.
Charles sighed as if I were inconveniencing him.
“You see?” he muttered to the others. “I told you she’d fight. I always wanted to fuck on this Davis sister more.”
The third man lunged. I ducked and swung my keys between my fingers like brass knuckles, catching his neck. Blood sprayed across the pavement. For half a second, I thought I might actually make it to the corner. If I could just get there, someone would see me.
As I began to make a run for it, someone grabbed my hair from behind.
Pain ripped through my scalp as they yanked me backward. My feet left the ground, and the world tilted.
“Get her in the car,” one of them barked.
I kicked wildly, catching someone in the ribs.
“Bitch got hands,” another one muttered.
Charles walked closer, his expression calm while the men wrestled me toward the SUV.
“Careful,” he said lazily. “That one’s always been stubborn.”
I spat at his shoes.
“You should pray my fuckin’ husband never finds out about this.”
Charles crouched in front of me.
“I hope he brings Chanel’s hoe ass and her prison bait Nigga so I can kill you all together.”
They shoved me toward the open door of the moving vehicle. I clawed at the frame, fighting with everything I had left.
Someone slammed me into the backseat.
The door shut.
The SUV sped off. As the vehicle lurched forward, I forced myself to breathe through the pain in my ribs.
My head was on a swivel, assessing the situation. A driver, a masked passenger, and Charles’s bitch ass next to me. But something about the way this was organized made my stomach twist.
Charles was reckless. This wasn’t. Someone smarter had planned this. This had to be fuckin’ personal. The build of the third man felt familiar, but with his face being covered by a skull, I couldn’t see him.
