AMAI #3
Because we’d just survived a war zone together.
Because Kaisen had shown up when it mattered.
Because, for the first time in our lives, we’d fought with each other instead of against each other.
Kaisen’s jaw tightened, and he gave me a single nod.
I returned it.
Nothing was said.
Nothing needed to be.
We understood.
Kaisen threw the SUV into gear, and we peeled out of the warehouse district, leaving the bodies and the blood behind.
The city blurred past the windows—dark streets, flickering streetlights, the occasional car passing in the opposite direction.
I kept my eyes forward, my hands still gripping my gun, my mind racing.
Victor and Rahsaan had escaped.
They’d live to fight another day.
And that meant this war was far from over.
“I told you,” I said quietly.
Winston’s head turned slightly in the backseat. “What?”
“I told you not to trust Victor.” My voice was calm. Cold. “I told you he was playing you. I told you he’d turn on us the second it benefited him.”
Silence.
“And you didn’t listen.”
Winston exhaled slowly, his hand still pressed against his wound. “You think I don’t know that?”
“I think you let your ego get in the way of good judgment.”
“Amai—”
“He stole fifty million dollars from us, Winston. He teamed up with the man who killed Elias and Silas. And now we’re in the middle of a war we can’t afford because you trusted the wrong person.”
The words hung in the air, sharp and unforgiving.
Kaisen’s eyes flicked to the rearview mirror, watching Winston’s reaction.
But Winston didn’t explode.
He didn’t rage or threaten or pull a gun.
He just sat there, bleeding, his face pale in the dim light from the dashboard.
“You’re right,” he said finally.
I blinked.
“What?”
“You’re right.” Winston’s voice was quieter now, but no less commanding. “I made a mistake. And now we’re all paying for it.”
I turned in my seat to look at him directly.
His eyes were still sharp despite the blood loss. Still calculating.
“But we’re not done,” Winston continued. “Victor thinks he’s won. He thinks he can steal from us, ally with our enemies, and walk away clean.”
“He’s wrong.”
“Damn right he’s wrong.” Winston shifted, wincing as the movement pulled at his wound. “But we need information. We need to know what else he’s planning. What other moves he’s making.”
I knew where this was going.
“Yahmaria,” I said.
Winston nodded. “She’s Victor’s daughter. She knows things. Things she hasn’t told us.”
“You think she was in on the vault robbery?”
“I don’t know. But I think she knows more than she’s letting on. And I think it’s time we found out exactly what that is.”
Kaisen spoke up from the driver’s seat. “You want Amai to question her?”
“At the Sanctum,” Winston said. “First thing in the morning.”
I felt something dark and cold settle in my chest.
The Sanctum.
The place where people went to break.
Where secrets were extracted with precision and pain.
“I’ll do it,” I said.
Winston’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Good.”
“But not because you ordered me to.”
Silence.
“Then why?” Winston asked.
I turned back around, staring out the windshield at the dark road ahead.
“Because I’ve been waiting for a reason to torture her ass.”
The words came out flat. Emotionless.
But underneath, there was something else.
Satisfaction.
Yahmaria had walked into that clinic and blindsided Truth. She’d stood there with that smug smile and destroyed everything I’d been building with the woman I loved.
And I’d been forced to stand there and watch because Winston had leverage. Because Priest was locked up. Because I couldn’t afford to make another move that would cost me everything.
But now?
Now, Winston was giving me permission.
Now I had justification.
And I was going to make Yahmaria pay for every tear Truth had shed.
“She has put me through hell,” I said quietly. “A thorn in my side, making me suffer because she knew I was stuck. Did everything in her power to ensure I’d never have love.”
Kaisen’s hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“And now she’s going to learn what happens when you fuck with what’s mine.”
I could tell Kaisen felt a way, but he knew better than to say shit. We were cordial because of this war, but I ain’t forget that he wanted my woman. That thinking he could be the father of the twins made him more obsessive. That nigga would never get one up on me and take Truth.
Winston didn’t respond.
But I could feel his eyes on me, assessing, calculating.
He knew.
He knew this wasn’t just about information.
This was personal.
This was revenge.
And I was going to enjoy every second of it.
We pulled up to a private medical facility on the outskirts of the city—one of Winston’s off-books locations where no questions were asked and no records were kept.
Kaisen helped me get Winston inside while two of his soldiers stood guard at the entrance.
A doctor was already waiting, his face impassive as he assessed Winston’s wound.
“Bullet went clean through,” the doctor said after a moment. “Missed the major organs. You’re lucky.”
“I don’t believe in luck,” Winston muttered.
The doctor didn’t respond, just gestured for us to follow him into a sterile room where he could work.
I stayed long enough to make sure Winston was stable, then stepped back into the hallway where Kaisen was waiting.
“You good?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“You really going to the Sanctum in the morning?”
I met his eyes. “Yeah.”
Kaisen nodded slowly. “You need backup?”
“No. This is something I need to do alone.”
He didn’t argue.
“Amai.”
I turned back.
“Don’t lose yourself in this,” Kaisen said quietly. “I know what she did. I know you want to make her pay. But don’t let it consume you.”
I smiled—cold, humorless.
“Too late for that. Some people just don’t understand that when it comes to Truth, I’ll lay anybody down about her.”
And then I walked out into the night, my mind already turning toward morning.
Toward the Sanctum.
Toward Yahmaria.
And toward the reckoning she’d been begging for since the moment she stepped back into my life.