“I’m not.”
Icon’s face went cold in a way that meant he was two seconds from losing his shit. “You killed Alderman Langford’s daughter while Project 83 is already tied to him and your face?”
“She was working with the Feds,” I snapped. “What the fuck was I supposed to do, let her walk away and finish—”
“Think,” Sincere cut in. “You were supposed to think.”
Big A started pacing. “Langford gon’ tear this city up looking for his daughter. The Feds gon’ start sniffing harder. The project can get dragged into this. All because you let rage make a decision.”
I wanted to argue, to say she deserved it, to say any one of them would’ve reacted the same way. But I knew what I had done. This shit was already bigger than me.
Saint was the only one who didn’t come at me crazy. He leaned against the desk with his arms folded and looked at me like he understood the instinct, even if he didn’t love the result. “She crossed the line,” he said with a shrug.
“She did,” I shot back, happy that he was seeing my point.
Icon cut his eyes at him. “Don’t help him justify this shit.”
“I’m just saying I get it. She was disloyal and moving with the Feds.”
Sincere dragged a hand over his face. “Understanding it and cleaning it up are two different things.”
“Y'all acting like disloyalty doesn’t get punished. That's the code. Reek did what needed to be done. What else should he have done? Let her go? Should he have killed the Fed she was working with instead? Because they weren’t going to just let Sienna change her mind. We just have to clean it up right, and we're good.”
Icon shot him a look but nodded slowly. “Saint's got a point. Where's the body, Reek?”
I held his stare.
That made Icon press, “Reek.”
I blew a heavy breath, regretting my answer already. “At the site. She's in the concrete now.”
Sincere barked a laugh, shaking his head. “In the foundation of my project, nigga?!”
Saint laughed. “Man, that's cold. Sincere’s been babying that site like it's his firstborn.”
Sincere was fuming. “You buried her in my foundation? The one tied to every contract we got? If that slab cracks from her ghost ass shifting, I'm burying yo’ ass next.”
“It was the fastest and safest thing I could think of,” I told them.
For half a second, the room got quiet in that almost-comical way men got when the problem was so bad all you could do was stare at it.
Then Icon snapped back into himself. “Damage control starts now.”
Legend nodded once. “Agreed.”
I looked at them. “I already paid some lil’ homies to take her car. They gon’ ride around in it and make noise with it far from where she last was.”
Sincere closed his eyes briefly like he was praying for patience.
But Legend nodded. “Smart.”
Then Icon took his phone from his pocket, unlocked it, dialed a number and put it on speaker. Soon, Jamir answered, “What’s up, boss?”
“Hack the city cams around the Project 83 site and get rid of any traces of Sienna at the Project 83 site, if there are any.”
Jamir didn’t even ask any questions. As normal, he just took his orders. “Got it. Running it now.”
“Can he hack her phone records and get rid of that text she sent telling me that we need to talk.”
