“All night.”
She nodded like that didn’t surprise her. “I’m going in to see her now. I’ll assess the situation, explain the extradition process, and start building our defense strategy.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“Prime—”
“I said I’m coming with you.”
Camille sighed. Stepped in front of me. Even in heels, she barely came up to my chest, but she stood her ground like she was ten feet tall.
“You can’t,” she said firmly. “You’re not on her approved visitor list yet. The paperwork takes days. And even if you were, they’re not going to let you in right now. She’s being processed for extradition. Limited contact. Attorney visits only.”
“I don’t give a damn about their process?—”
“I know you don’t.” Her eyes met mine. Steady. Unflinching. “But if you go in there and cause a scene, they will arrest you.And then who’s going to be out here fighting for her? Who’s going to take care of Yusef? Who’s going to find out who did this?”
I clenched my jaw so hard I thought my teeth might crack.
“You are doing everything you can do,” Camille said, softer now. “Being here. Hiring me. Supporting her. That matters.”
No I’m not.
The thought burned through me like acid.
I wasn’t doing everything I could do. I was standing in a parking lot while my woman sat in a cell. I was playing by rules that didn’t apply to people like me.
Someone put her in there. Someone made a phone call, pulled some strings, fed information to the cops. Someone wanted Zainab gone.
And I had a pretty good idea who.
Rashid.
That man had been a shadow over my entire life. Once my savior—the one who’d pulled me out of that prison bathroom when I was thirteen, bloody and terrified, seconds away from being destroyed by Big Sauce. He’d trained me. Made me. Turned me into a weapon. For years, I thought he’d saved my life.
Now I knew better.
Rashid didn’t save people. He collected them. Used them. And when they stopped being useful—or when they got in his way—he disposed of them.
I’d gotten in his way when I took Yusef back. When I chose Zainab over his bloodline. When I stopped being his obedient soldier and started thinking for myself.
“That boy is my blood, Prime. Remember that. Know your place.”
I remembered his words in that prison hallway. The threat wrapped in silk. The possession in his eyes when he looked at Yusef.
And I remembered how I’d responded.
“I know exactly where I stand.”
That was the moment everything changed between us. The moment the mentor and the protégé became enemies.
He’d already tried to take Yusef once. Already threatened Zainab. Already made it clear that anyone who stood between him and what he wanted would be dealt with.
This had his fingerprints all over it.
“Go,” I said to Camille. “Take care of her. Tell her I’m here. Tell her I’m not leaving.”
Camille studied my face for a moment. Whatever she saw there made her nod slowly.
