Page 65 of Riot

Did she eat?

Had she cried again?

Did she feel safe?

Is she okay with being alone?

Abra was talking but her voice was muffled under the current of thoughts crashing against the back of my skull. I nodded when I was supposed to, made comments here and there. But I wasn’t present.

I was too focused on her. What the hell was this? I do not know this woman. But her presence caused a shift in me.

“Riot,” Abra snapped her fingers.

I blinked. “Huh?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Where the hell did you just go?”

I leaned back in the booth, exhaling. “Nowhere. Just… tired.”

“Bullshit. You’re thinking about her.”

I didn’t say anything.

“You like her.”

“I’m just looking out for her.”

“You’ve looked out for other people before and didn’t act like this,” she said. “You’re different. Soft, but also… focused. Like she’s your mission now.”

“She ain’t a mission,” I said, eyes locked on the steam curling off my untouched coffee. “She’s… she’s somethin’ else.”

Abra let that sit for a second, then pushed her iPad aside and folded her arms. “So what are you gonna do?”

I shrugged. “Keep her safe. Handle Boaz. Then figure out the rest.”

“The rest being…?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know yet. She’s been through too much for me to push anything. But I can’t lie. I’m drawn to her. And not just ‘cause she fine.”

“She is fine, though,” Abra teased, taking a slow sip of her drink.

I cracked a smile. “Yeah. She is.”

There was a long pause before Abra said, quieter, “You ever think about having a real life? Wife. Kids. All that?”

I glanced out the window. “Lately… yeah.”

“Think she could be part of that?”

I didn’t answer right away.

But the silence?

That was loud as hell.

Abra nodded like she’d heard it anyway. “Don’t fuck it up.”

“I don’t plan to.”

---