“Morning to you too.”
“Have you seen Jav?”
A pause. “Not recently.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“Then tell me where he is.”
Another pause. This one longer.
“Why?” he asks finally. “You worried about your gangster sweetheart? Starting to see what I warned you about?”
I close my eyes. “Please, Maliek. This isn’t about you. This is about Ben.”
That gets him. His voice drops.
“I’ll be there in ten.”
He’ssmug when he arrives. Leather coat, smug tilt to his chin, like he’s the hero walking into the ruins after the storm. But there’s something new beneath it. Tightness around his eyes. Like he knows something I don’t.
“Nice place,” he says, stepping inside like he owns it. “He paying for this now?”
“Don’t,” I snap. “Just tell me what you know.”
He holds his hands up. “Didn’t say I knewanything. Just came ‘cause you sounded like you were about to break.”
I stay silent.
“You look like hell,” he adds.
I nod once. “So talk.”
He leans against the kitchen counter. “I saw him yesterday. At the school. After our little chat, I figured he’d crawl back under a rock, but nope—he’s still playing daddy.”
I blink. “Wait—youwent to the school?”
He shrugs. “You weren’t answering my calls.”
“You weresnoopingaround Ben’s school?”
“Protective instinct,” he says, all fake-casual. “Which is more than I can say for the syndicate rat you’re sleeping with.”
“Stop calling him that.”
He raises a brow. “It’s what he is, Kairo. Always will be. You don’t get to dip a dagger in glitter and call it a toy.”
I clench my jaw. “He’strying.”
“Trying?” Maliek barks a laugh. “You think a man like that just walks away from a life like his? You’re not naive.”
“No,” I say slowly. “I’m not.”
His smile fades.
“I already told Ben,” I say. “About Jav. Who he really is.”
