Chapter 16 – Collateral
522 Words
Trust was the last fragile thread holding them together.
And now it was fraying.
---
Rob barely slept that night.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Rico laughing. Helping. Fighting beside them. The man had saved Sera’s life twice. Covered Rob’s escape once. That loyalty couldn't be faked… could it?
But the Black Crown didn’t lie.
They didn’t need to.
That made it worse.
---
In the kitchen of the warehouse, the silence was thicker than smoke.
Rico walked in, humming like he didn’t sense the tension.
“Morning, lovebirds. Got us new phones. Untraceable. And—” he paused, noticing Rob’s stare. “What?”
“Where were you last night?” Rob asked.
Rico blinked. “Here. Downstairs. Fixing the van.”
“Alone?”
“Yeah. Why?”
Sera stepped into the room then, catching the end of the question. Her eyes bounced between the two men like she could feel the match hovering near gasoline.
“What’s going on?”
Rob’s jaw flexed. “They said he betrayed us.”
Rico laughed, but there was no real humor in it. “Who’s they?”
“The Black Crown.”
The room dropped into silence.
Rico’s face changed—not afraid. Offended.
“You listened to them? Over me?”
“They said you fed intel to Kingston. Crater. Even them.”
“That’s bull—!”
“Then prove it,” Rob said, stepping closer. “Show me your burner. Your messages. Prove them wrong.”
Rico’s eyes narrowed.
Then he tossed the phone on the table. “Here. Check it. Read every damn word. You won’t find a single whisper that isn’t for you two.”
Sera snatched it before Rob could.
She flipped through the data. Messages. Logs. Clean.
Too clean.
“He wipes his logs every night,” she said, quietly. “Standard op.”
Rob’s stomach sank.
Rico looked at her like she’d slapped him.
“You too?”
“It’s not about belief,” she said. “It’s about knowing. And right now, I don’t.”
Rico’s mouth curled. “So after everything I’ve done—every time I put my neck on the line for you—you’re just going to start sniffing for betrayal?”
“No,” Rob said. “We’re going to start watching.”
“And if you’re wrong?” Rico asked. “What then?”
Rob didn’t answer.
He didn’t need to.
The air between them said it all.
---
That night, Rico left.
No warning. No note.
Just an empty cot and a memory of trust.
---
Sera stared at the space where he used to sleep.
Rob sat beside her.
“You believe he’s innocent?” he asked.
“I believe we just lost one of the last good things we had,” she said, voice hollow.
Rob looked down. “Then we both made a mistake.”
Outside, rain began to fall.
Inside, the war grew colder.
And in the dark, unseen, Gregory Kingston smiled.
Because when love couldn’t be broken from the outside—it could be shattered from within.
- Writer
