Page 105 of Moros

“Never mind.” Boss leaned in to glare at me. “If you can’t have his back in this and trust him to make the right decision if it comes to that, then I will call a squad car and have it take you back to the house. One of my guys will stay with you until this ends. I will not—let me repeat that—I will not allow you to sit here and be this fucking shadow to distract him. Because if he gets hurt or killed in this, there isn’t anyone who will save you from Pasha, you understand me?”

“I was just saying to go easy on the sister. There’s no reason for her to get hurt because her brother is warring with Khadri.”

“Warring. What an appropriate term.” Boss stood again. “Since you used war, what the sister is, is collateral damage. Now make a decision—stay or go?”

“I’m staying.”

Boss left me alone to stand by Khadri’s side.

The two of them fell into a quiet conversation—one where Boss was doing all the talking.

Feeling out of my depths, I tried figuring out what I felt about this entire thing.

I didn’t start any of this.

I was quietly living my life, waiting for death.

Every morning, I woke up and went through the motions of life—earning money to pay the bills, sleep—repeat. It wasn’t a fantastic life or even an exciting life, but it was mine and I was dealing with it.

One man’s greed plunged us into this—one man who wanted me dead over things I had no idea about placed us all in his precarious position.

In a position where I had to chose between someone’s life and the man I was falling madly in love with.

I knew—no one had to tell me—I knew Khadri wasn’t a mean man. The quiet moments we had together told me so many wonderful things about him.

This entire situation told me he was fiercely protective when it came to his friends, his livelihood and his woman. And while he hadn’t ever called me his, the way he took care of me, wanting to see me smile—his tenderness with me, all of it told me that even if he didn’t know how he felt about me, he cared.

I’d already broken his heart once.

I didn’t mean to—but I had and betraying him again would only tear that wound wide open.

It wasn’t a good thought to have. But if there was no other way of getting Pasha back safely, I couldn’t in all good conscience make Khadri break his own soul to save this woman whose brother was nothing but evil.

He’d gotten an out—Khadri had giving him an out by telling him to turn himself in to the police. Even after burning Musk down, even after sending killers after me, even after the fight at the diner that could have gotten Pasha hurt, Khadri still gave this man an out.

Torez refused to take it.

In fact, he’d doubled down.

As much as I hated the thoughts of someone getting hurt—anyone else getting hurt in all of this, enough was enough.

With that final thought, I straightened my spine and walked over to the small fridge beside the desk now covered with paper. Hunching down, I opened the door to find there were beers, water, sodas and a half-eaten slice of cheesecake.

Picking up a couple bottles of water, I brought them over and handed one to Khadri and the other to Boss. While Boss hesitated in accepting it, he finally did, and I turned to walk away.

“Don’t.” Boss told me. “I’m going to take a look around. Spend some time with him.”

Nodding, I waited until the door closed behind him before turning to look up at Khadri who was drinking from the bottle.

“It’s killing you not being able to just go get him, isn’t it?” I asked him.

“Yes.” Khadri replied.

With the kind of man he was, I was very sure it hadn’t even occurred to him to lie.

“That was what Torez was banking on.” He added. “He thought if he made me angry enough, I’d rush in without thinking, without a plan. And usually, he probably would have been right. But I don’t just have myself to think about. He didn’t count on how much I care about my people, and I don’t know why that is. At one point, he was one of my people.”

“It doesn’t matter.”