Page 92 of Collateral Love
Not just that I was alive?—
But that I was still running the board. I also knew that he’d kept her on the phone long enough to trace it.
It would be exactly when Charles least expected it.
I let the darkness take me.
Not sleep.
Just stillness.
Because this wasn’t the worst thing I’d survived.
Not by far.
And I wasn’t done teaching them the cost of touching what didn’t belong to them.
The door flewopen hard enough to rattle the concrete, light slicing into the room like a blade. My eyes adjusted fast. I expected Zayden but was pissed to see Charles instead. Shock was a luxury I didn’t allow myself.
Charles stood in the doorway.
Smiling.
That was how I knew the phone call had rattled him.
“You look tired,” he said, stepping inside like this was his living room, and I was an inconvenience he’d decided to tolerate. “Did you sleep?”
I didn’t answer.
Silence pissed men like him off more than insults ever could.
He circled me slowly, shoes scraping the floor on purpose. He wanted me to track him. Wanted my attention fractured.
I tracked anyway.
Old habit.
“You know,” he continued, “I expected more screaming. More begging.”
“I don’t perform for men who confuse volume with authority,” I said calmly.
His smile twitched.
There it was.
“That mouth,” he said. “Your sister got a sharp ass mouth too, but I prefer hers wrapped around my dick.”
“Bet that shit little.” I replied.
The slap came fast.
Open palm. Side of my face. Enough force to make my head snap, but not enough to knock me out. What a fucking bitch.
I tasted blood.
I smiled anyway.
That infuriated him.
