"I can see that." Normally, I would've said more to stroke his ego and let him know the resourceful line was well played. But Honor wasn't a mark, or someone who needed to be controlled. He was the boyfriend of a friend who probably didn't even know I was meeting with him.
"Does Navy know you're here?"
"No. This is business. I only tell her what she needs to know when she needs to know it."
"Okay." I nodded and swallowed the twinge of nervousness, trying to settle in. "My time costs. My initial meeting fee is?—"
Honor reached into the glove compartment, and my body froze out of fear that I overstepped.
"Relax."
He pulled out two stacks of old bills wrapped in rubber bands.
"Twenty grand in the denominations of fives, tens, and twenties. We good?"
Taking the money, I snatched off the rubber bands and started counting.
"You don't trust me?" he asked.
"Nothing personal. I don't trust most men."
I thumbed through the first stack, then the second. "What do you need from me?"
"To keep an eye on Lynx," he said, staring blankly through the windshield.
"Why?"
"Does the reason matter?" His gaze flicked toward me. "Something feels off about that hit in Ember Falls. You were with him when he got the call, right?"
"Yeah."
"Do you know who made the call?"
The answer was simple. Rize called Lynx about what happened but revealing that felt like the wrong move. I didn'tknow where Lynx and I stood since he wasn't letting up about my job, but I didn't want to fuck up my chance at something real by snitching him out to Honor.
"Look," Honor said, as if he read the hesitation on my face. "I'm not asking you to snake that nigga."
"Then what are you asking, because it sounds like you want me to snitch on my man."
"I'm asking you to look out for the people you love by watching the nigga you like."
"Meaning?"
"If I'm right about what I'm feeling, then Lynx might not be down for us like he claims."
I did my best to stay neutral, but what he was asking would blur the lines between personal and business.
"How can you trust I won't tell him everything?"
"'Cause you didn't tell me Rize was the one who called Lynx," he said. "It's rare that I ask a question I don't already know the answer to."
I hesitated. "Okay, but?—"
"No buts, either you're gonna look out for Chosyn and River, or you're not."
"What does this have to do with them?" Panic slipped in, and the moment it did, I lost control of the conversation.
"Nothing directly but the men they love deal with Lynx. If this nigga is moving foul, they're gon' be hit first."
