Chapter 23 #2
Charles coughed, spat, and a red streak appeared down his chin. “Cameron told me Channy and
Kenya had to pay. She said—”
That was it.
Xavier’s fist came out of nowhere.
A short, brutal arc that landed square across Charles’s jaw. The sound was sickening—wet and hollow. Charles crumpled sideways, shoulder scraping brick as he slid down, boots kicking uselessly.
I watched Miles flinch.
X crouched in front of Charles, grabbed his hair, and yanked his head up until their eyes met.
“You don’t get to speak on my family,” X said, voice flat. “You don’t get to breathe and remember her name in the same lifetime.”
Charles sobbed then.
“I didn’t mean to hurt her,” he choked. “I swear—”
X laughed.
“You left her bleeding with a future you didn’t plan to claim,” he said. “You don’t gotta touch a woman to ruin her life.”
Charles shook his head wildly. “I can fix this. I still have accounts. I still got people. Cameron needs me alive—”
X stood.
Pulled the gun up.
Charles screamed.
X shot him in the knee.
The sound echoed down the alley, sharp and final. Charles collapsed fully this time, howling, hands clawing at his leg as blood poured fast and dark onto the concrete, mixing with rainwater until it ran like ink toward the gutter.
None of us moved.
X stepped around him, nudged his shoulder with the toe of his boot until Charles rolled onto his back.
“You remember the arcade?” X asked calmly.
Charles sobbed harder. “Please—”
“The night your cousin thought he was untouchable,” X continued. “The night your family laughed about consequences like they were for other people.”
He crouched again, forcing the barrel of the gun inside of Charles ’ mouth.
“You made my sister-in-law collateral,” X said. “Your people made Channy, and I lose Xander.”
Charles’ tears were running down his face.
X took the shot, blowing right through his throat and the back of his head.
The mass of his brain matter splattered on the concrete.
Charles’s body jerked once, then went still.
The alley fell silent except for the rain.
I watched X hold position for a beat longer than necessary. I watched his shoulders rise, fall. Then he stood, lowered the weapon, and stepped back.
I looked at Miles.
His face had gone pale, jaw clenched so tight it trembled. He stared at Charles’s body, recognizing that it would be him soon.
Xavier turned, eyes cold, blood speckling his sleeve.
“That wasn’t Cameron’s endgame,” he said.
“No,” I agreed. “That was her distraction.”
I looked down at Charles one last time.
Cameron lost her shield tonight.
But she got exactly what she wanted.
Us visible.
Us committed.
And Miles?
Miles just realized he was standing in the middle of a war he no longer controlled.
I turned away from the body to the cleanup crew that arrived.
“Bag ‘em,” I ordered. “Burn the site. Erase the stoplight footage. Move.”
The soldiers moved instantly. They recovered a laptop at the scene before it all went up in flames.
As we walked back toward the cars, rain washing the alley clean behind us, I felt it settle in my bones.
This wasn’t an escalation.
This was alignment.
And Cameron was about to find out what happens when you push men who learned restraint the hard way.
When we got back to our office. We washed our bodies and burned our clothes. I locked Miles in the war room; death was coming for him soon enough.
X pulled Charles’s recovered laptop.
It took my bro less than 2 minutes to uncrack the password.
Channy stood beside him, arms folded tight, eyes hollow in that way that comes after adrenaline leaves.
“Pull everything,” she said. “Messages. Drafts. Voice memos. Deleted shit.”
X nodded once and went to work.
The room was quiet now. Too quiet.
Xavier froze.
“I need you both to look at this,” he said, motioning for Channy and me to come closer.
On the screen:
A message thread.
Cameron:
He’s asking questions again. Your people need to tighten.
Charles:
Already spoke to her. She’s nervous but compliant.
Cameron:
Make sure she remembers what happens if she gets sentimental.
Below that was a contact name.
Sharon Davis
Channy sucked in a breath so sharp it hurt to hear.
“That’s… that’s Mom.”
I didn’t say anything.
X scrolled.
Another message.
Charles:
Your moms is still holding onto guilt about the boy. Says it keeps her awake.
Cameron: Always choosin’ her other fuckin kids over me. Good. Guilt makes people loyal.
X tapped into the attachments.
An audio file.
Time-stamped years ago.
A woman’s voice filled the night — older, sharp, trembling just enough to sound believable.
“I told the police Jared had a temper. I told them he talked crazy when he was upset. I didn’t say he did it.
I just eluded to the fact they he might have.
Alan, what the fuck was I supposed to do?
He found out about us, and I couldn’t let him tell his dad.
We leverage so much drug money through that fuckin church. ”
Channy covered her mouth.
I felt something cold settle behind my ribs.
Kenya walked downstairs, tears streaming down her face.
“Mom was fucking Professor Price, and she got Jared put away on purpose?”
“And apparently Cameron is her daughter.” Channy cried.