I stayed on my knees until I heard the front door open.
My hand flew to the gun on the coffee table, but then I heard his footsteps. That heavy, confident stride.
“It’s me.”
Prime appeared in the doorway. All black. Face unreadable. But his energy was different. Wound tight. Coiled. Like a predator who’d just made a kill and was still carrying the hunt in his blood.
“Is it done?” I asked.
“Yeah.” He crossed the room but didn’t sit. Just stood there, tension radiating off him. “She’s at the warehouse. My cousin Thad is watching her. I’ll go back in the morning.”
I nodded. Farah—that psycho bitch who called me ghetto trash—was now tied up somewhere, scared and alone.
I should’ve felt bad. I didn’t. She tried to sabotage my business and she was my best chance at getting my nephew back.
“I know that was hard,” I said quietly. “She ain’t really do nothing wrong. She’s just… collateral.”
“She’s leverage.” His jaw was tight. “That’s all I can see her as right now.”
“I know.” I stood up, moving toward him. “I appreciate you. For doing what needs to be done. For going to war for Yusef.”
Something flickered in those ocean eyes. “I’d burn down the whole world for y’all.”
“Has Rashid responded?”
The flicker turned dark. “Nah.”
“You worried?”
“He’s planning something. The fact that he ain’t respond yet means it’s gonna be bad.”
We stood there in the dim room, the weight of everything pressing down on us. War. Grief. Fear. The not-knowing that was almost worse than knowing.
I needed to feel something else. Anything else.
“Prime.”
“Yeah?”
I closed the distance between us and grabbed the front of his shirt.
“Make me forget. Just for a little while. Make me feel something that ain’t grief.”
His eyes went dark. That predator energy I’d sensed when he walked in? It surged to the surface.
“You sure?”
“I need you.” I pulled him closer. “Please.”
He didn’t ask again.
He ain’t even hesitate. Just pulled me into him and took my mouth like it belonged to him. Hungry. Greedy. His hands gripped my waist, lifted me off my feet, and next thing I knew my back was against the wall and he was pressing into me like he was trying to fuse us together.
“This what you need?” His voice was a growl against my ear. “Need me to fuck the pain out of you?”
“Yes.” I was already pulling at his shirt. “Yes, please, yes?—”
He yanked the hoodie over my head—his hoodie—and made a low sound when he saw I wasn’t wearing nothing underneath.
