Page 96 of Collateral Love

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That’s a Davis woman who survived.

And I didn’t protect her from this, but I’m so glad X prepared her for it.

She turned and saw me.

For half a second, I saw the flicker of panic on her face, then she locked it down.

She moved to me immediately.

“I got you,” she said. Voice steady and commanding. “Stay with me.”

Xavier appears beside her, weapon still up, scanning, calculating.

“You hurt?” he asks me.

I tried to answer.

My voice comes out raw. “Chains.”

That’s all I get out before Zayden was there.

He dropped to one knee in front of me, eyes scanning my face.

I knew I had to be badly beaten up. My head was pounding and my right eyes was swelling shut. He looked at me in his eyes, and his jaw tightened.

He stood and turned.

The remaining guard barely has time to beg.

Zayden moved like controlled rage. He struck one of the guards in the throat. The man collapses. Zayden grabbed another guard by the collar and slammed his head against the wall

Blood smears down concrete.

Xavier stepped forward and pressed the barrel of his gun against the back of the head of a man approaching Zayden’s

“You got three seconds to decide how much you like breathing,” X says calmly.

The man sobbed and spilled everything.

Names.

Addresses.

Mistakes.

Chanel cut my restraints while they worked.

Her hands were steady.

She helped me stand, but I collapsed.

Zayden caught me instantly, arms locking around me like a brace.

Only then did he let his forehead press against mine.

My village got me out of there and I understood something with brutal clarity:

This wasn’t a rescue.

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