Page 97 of Riot

I had no idea what the hell was really going on with my mother. Why she had it out for Allure the way she did. It wasn’t just skepticism or a side-eye, it was venom. Full-blown hostility. And it didn’t make a damn bit of sense.

Allure had been locked away for a decade. Stripped of her freedom. Forced to survive in silence. She hadn’t done a thing to anybody. So how did she manage to trigger my mother like this? Why was her presence enough to make Ma’s eyes go cold and her voice sharpen like a blade?

I tried to make sense of it, but nothing tracked.

So I had to chalk it up to her condition. That slow, creeping unraveling that was pulling her mind apart thread by thread. Mama wasn’t well. She was slipping. And Creed and I had to face the truth, we needed to get her help. Serious help. Not just prayer and denial. Not just good intentions. Real treatment. Real doctors. Something to slow the decay if it wasn’t already too late.

The woman who raised us, who held it together while our father ripped it all apart was vanishing in front of us. And I hated how helpless it made me feel. But she wasn’t alone. Not in this.

She had people. She had a village. Madeira, her sister, had always been ride-or-die, and that hadn’t changed. Creed and I were here too, whether she liked it or not. And then there was Abra… the real MVP.

Abra had stepped into Mama’s shadow and filled every inch of it without hesitation. She’d been her assistant, her scheduler, her buffer between the world and the firestorm that was our family. But when Mama started to decline, Abra didn’t run. She doubled down. She became her mouthpiece, her eyes and ears. Hell, sometimes her spine.

I respected the hell out of that.

Once the open house at King’s Vine was over, I was going to make sure she got that raise. She earned it ten times over. Loyalty like that didn’t come around often. Especially in this business.

As I cruised back home, the city blurring past me through the tinted glass, my phone lit up. Shari.

I rolled my eyes and hit ignore without hesitation.

There wasn’t shit left to say. That chapter was closed, sealed, and burned. I got what I needed from her, and I wasn’t proud of that, but it was what it was. I’d moved on. I was building something different now. Something that didn’t require manipulation or games or late-night calls full of fake tears and empty promises.

Allure had me thinking long-term.

And yeah, I was still a man. Still had blood pumping through my dick same way it did my heart. And it had been a minute since I’d touched a woman—really touched her. But Allure made me want to slow down. Made me want to earn it. Made me want to be worthy.

So I was learning restraint. Patience. Shit I’d never been good at.

My phone lit up again. I thought it was Shari again.

This time the rage rolled in fast. What the fuck didn’t she understand aboutus being done? How many times did I have to ignore a bitch before she got the message?

But it wasn’t her.

It was Rollo.

I exhaled and answered. “Yo.”

“Wsup. Just heard from Irina,” he said, voice tight with urgency. “Boaz and his crew made bail. All of them.”

I sat up straighter, tension slicing clean through my shoulders. “That was fast.”

“Yeah. Irina said she saw them walk out with smug-ass faces. She went back to him.”

My jaw clenched. “Do you think you can trust her?”

“Yeah, I do.” Rollo said. “But she’s scared. And she knows he gotta be handled. I told her to keep me posted on his location, movements, all that. She said she would.”

“You think she’ll hold the line?”

“I think she’s too afraid not to.”

“Good,” I muttered, eyes narrowing on the road ahead. “Keep me in the loop. I’ll start lining things up on my end.”

“Bet.”

I hung up, grip tightening around the steering wheel.

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