Page 65 of Iced Up Love: Part Two
My stomach twists as I drag my focus back to the screen, back to the video, back to her face frozen mid-frame.
There’s something here.
There has to be.
I just can’t see it yet.
The room settles again after that, not silent but close to it, everyone moving through their own tasks without speaking, waiting on things we can’t speed up.
Waiting for Zach to wake up.
Waiting for the dealer to make a move.
Waiting for something to break.
My eyes drift toward the hallway again without meaning to, toward her room, toward where Zach is still out cold in her bed, and something tightens in my chest.
He broke.
That’s the truth of it.
He hit a point where he couldn’t hold it anymore and he broke.
I get it. I just don’t have the option of doing the same. Not right now. Not when she’s still out there.
I look back at the screen.
Back at her.
Back at that moment.
Why hasn’t he sent anything else?
That thought settles in slowly.
He wanted us to see that video.
He wanted the reaction.
So where’s the next one?
I don’t like it. I don’t like the silence. I don’t like what it might mean.
Christian’s phone buzzes again. The sound cuts through everything. We all look at him. He checks it.
And this time, his expression shifts properly.
Grim.
“It’s the Blackbird,” he says.
The room stills.
“What do they say?” Elijah asks.
Christian reads it quickly, then looks up.
“Security is tight,” he says. “But they’re close to pulling one of the enforcers out.”
