Trouble in paradise (official)

Chapter86 "It's always been you" 😈👿🔥🔥

Hey 👋🏽
I came to drop off a lil spicy something for y'all just in time for the Thanksgiving break. Consider it a treat since I be vanishing like a deadbeat dad sometimes. 😭
These chapters be long as hell — basically one-shots at this point — but y'all know I like to make sure you eat real good when I finally pop back out.
Enjoy the heat, the mess, the drama... I definitely had way too much fun writing this one. 😏🔥

————BACK IN THE BOARDROOM—————
                           (Same night)
By the far wall, Sanzu was posted up in a shadowed corner, cigarette dangling between two fingers like it weighed more than it should. He watched Lani with narrowed eyes, smoke curling lazily from his lips. He didn't say shit, but there was something tense in his stillness. Ran strolled up beside him first, shoving his hands into his pockets probably looking for a light, a smirk ghosting his lips. Hanma wasn't far behind, his long strides casual, like nothing in the world was worth rushing over.

"So," Ran murmured, glancing between them, "what's the move?"

Sanzu took a drag, blowing it out through his nose like a pissed-off dragon. "Depends how bad you want her to hurt."

Hanma frowned. "The fuck kinda cryptic shit is that supposed to be?"

"It means," Sanzu said, flicking ash to the floor, "you're gonna have to make some hard calls."

Ran's eyes cut toward Lani, his smirk gone now. "Pretty sure she's already feeling it. And Mikey—" he shook his head— "he's on some other shit lately. You saw what he did in there... pretty much tried to embarrass her in front of everybody. Took everything I had to hold her back so she didn't blow the place up and cause a scene. Guy's losing it, and he don't care who he drags down with him."

"I know," Sanzu said. He took one last drag before crushing the cigarette out against the wall. "And if we don't get ahead of this shit, things are gonna go bad—fast. But we can't just walk up and press him about it."

"And why the fuck not? You're his second-in-command—the closest to him."

"Yeah, well... he ain't gonna sit here and listen to a damn thing I gotta say, once his mind is made up. And if I push him, he'll take it as a challenge."

"Tch. You've been ridin' with this muthafucka longer than anyone here. If you can't talk him down, who the hell can? You could at least try talking some sense into him."

"That's not how the pecking order works," Sanzu said sharply. "Being second-in-command means I'm basically his shadow. I'm already crossing the line by having this conversation with you. Going against him? Dead that shit now. We need a plan—'cause if we don't, I don't know how this is gonna play out. Only thing I do know? Pretending nothing's wrong is a death wish. All it takes is him snapping... or if that other shit circles back."

Hanma gave a short laugh. "Since when we start shaking over Mikey?"

"It's not about being scared, "It's about knowing when the ground's about to give out under you. If he decides she's a problem, we can't stop it."

Ran's jaw flexed. "Then we make him see she's not."

"And if that don't work, then what?" Sanzu shot back. "If he's already decided she's disposable? You gonna gamble her life on convincing him?"

"You really think he sees her like that?"

Sanzu gave him a flat look. "You heard what the fuck he said in that meeting. That wasn't nothing. He's got some unknown animosity toward her, and I don't even know where it came from. Y'all didn't see it earlier at the party... he tried to choke her out in front of me. My body moved on its own, I almost killed him—"