Page 63 of Iced Up Love: Part Two
Neither of them looks convinced by what I said.
They don’t dismiss it either.
Christian’s phone buzzes in his hand.
The sound cuts through the room sharp enough that all of us look up at the same time.
He checks it.
His expression shifts just enough that I know it’s something.
“We’ve got a hit on the plate,” he says.
I sit up straighter without thinking.
“What is it?”
He glances at Lucian briefly, then back at the screen.
“The dealer is a known associate of Vargas.”
For a second, the room just… holds.
Then Elijah moves.
Fast.
“You’re telling me he went to someone tied to Vargas?” he says, his voice low but sharp enough to cut. “After everything?”
“That’s not what that means,” I cut in immediately, pushing up from the chair. “We don’t know that. He didn’t know that.”
Elijah turns on me.
“You don’t know what he knew.”
“And you don’t know that he did,” I fire back. “The guy clearly had his own issues. We’ve all seen that. He’s not even awake to defend himself right now, so maybe don’t decide he’s the problem before we actually know what happened.”
The tension spikes hard, the kind that makes everything feel like it’s one wrong word away from turning physical.
Elijah holds my gaze for a second, something dangerous sitting just under the surface.
Then, slowly, he exhales and steps back.
Not calm.
Not even close.
But contained enough that he doesn’t push it further.
Lucian steps in before it can build again.
“This might actually work in our favour,” he says, his tone steady, controlled in a way that cuts through the edge in the room. “If the dealer is connected, then we don’t need to find the connection. We let it come to us.”
Elijah looks at him.
“What are you suggesting?”
“We set the meeting again,” Lucian says. “When Zach wakes up, we use him. The dealer expects him to come back for more. We let that happen, and we take him when he shows.”
