Collateral

*POV: Aliyah Rhodes*

Footsteps.

Heavy. More than one set. Coming down the hall toward 901.

Rosie heard them. Her whole body went rigid. She looked at the open door, then at Dominic, then at me.

“Antonio,” Dominic said. His voice cut through the room. No scrape, no weakness. Command. “Lock it down.”

Antonio was already moving. He filled the doorway. Not a guard anymore. A wall. He didn’t draw a weapon. He didn’t have to. The way he stood said no one was getting past him without bleeding for it.

Two men in black suits rounded the corner. Not cops. Not doctors. Same cut as Antonio’s suit, but cheaper. They stopped when they saw him.

“Private room,” Antonio said. “No visitors.”

“Directive 9.2,” the taller one said. “Threat termination. Step aside.”

“No,” Dominic said. He was still holding my phone. His knuckles were white around it. The blood on his T-shirt had spread. “Rescind the order.”

“Orders come from the chair,” the man said. “You’re not in the chair yet.”

“Three days,” Dominic said. “Then I’ll be in it. And I’ll remember this.”

The man smiled. “Three days is a long time to be dead, Mr. Blackwood.”

He reached inside his jacket.

Antonio moved faster. One step forward, one hand up, and the man’s wrist was bent wrong. Something cracked. The man didn’t scream. He dropped.

The second man went for his waistband.

Rosie grabbed my arm. “Down.”

We hit the floor behind the bed. A second later the room went loud. Not gunshots. Taser. The wet snap and the grunt. Then silence.

I lifted my head. Antonio had both men on the ground. One unconscious. One twitching. He zip-tied their wrists with plastic cuffs he pulled from his pocket. Efficient. Like he’d done it a hundred times.

He looked at Dominic. “Hall’s clear. For now. But Leo sent cleaners, not talkers. These two are just the first.”

Dominic nodded. He looked at Rosie. Then at me. “Get up.”

We did. My knees felt like water. Rosie wasn’t shaking. She was past shaking.

“You need to leave,” Dominic said to her. “Now. Through the service elevator. Antonio will take you.”

“I’m not leaving her,” Rosie said. Pointed at me.

“You are,” Dominic said. “Because that text said terminate Rosie Blackwood. It didn’t say terminate Aliyah Rhodes yet. If you stay, he’ll flag her as collateral. If you go, she’s just an asset. Assets get protected. Collateral gets erased.”

Rosie’s mouth opened. Closed. She knew he was right.

“Why did he flag me?” Rosie said. “I wasn’t a threat this morning.”

“You became one when you walked in here,” Dominic said. “When you tried to pull her out. Leo doesn’t care about estrangement. He cares about control. You tried to take his asset. That makes you a threat under 9.2.”

“My mom died for the same thing,” Rosie said. Her voice was flat. “She tried to leave. She tried to take me with her. Leo called it interference with an asset. He had her brakes cut. 2024. Told the cops it was an accident. Mom’s dead because of 9.2.”

The room went cold. Dominic’s face didn’t change. But his hands did. They went flat on the blanket. Like he was holding something down.

“You don’t talk about her,” he said. Quiet.

“I will,” Rosie said. “Because Aliyah needs to know. Mom wasn’t the first. Sarah Chen was 2011. She was Uncle Leo’s physical therapist. Saved his life after the stroke. He paid her debts. Flagged her 9.2. She tried to quit. Disappeared. Found her in the Hudson three weeks later.”

“Stop,” Dominic said.

“Maria Vetti,” Rosie said. “Carlo’s sister. 2018. She pulled Leo out of a fire. He claimed her. She tried to marry someone else. The fiancé got hit by a bus. She hung herself a month later. Or Leo hung her.”

“Stop,” Dominic said again.

“You know where the bodies are,” I said to Rosie. “That’s what you meant.”

“I know where three are,” Rosie said. “There are more. Leo keeps a ledger. Not money. Names. Women who saved Blackwoods. Women who got flagged. Women who died when they stopped being grateful. Mom. Sarah. Maria. All 9.2. All dead.”

Dominic pushed the blanket off. Swung his legs over the side of the bed. Stood up. Too fast. He swayed. Caught himself on the bedrail. His face went white. The bandage had a spot of red on it. Fresh. “You’re scaring her.”

“I’m saving her,” Rosie said. “Like you should have saved Mom.”

“I was powerless,” he said. “What was I supposed to do?”

“Not become him,” Rosie said. “But you did. You look just like him. You sound just like him. And now you’re doing exactly what he did.”

Dominic looked at me. Ignored the blood on his shirt. Ignored Rosie. “Aliyah. Look at me.”

I did.

“I didn’t activate 9.2. I didn’t want you flagged. I didn’t want you in the ledger. I paid your tuition because you bled for me. I asked you to dinner because I want to talk to you. That’s it. Everything else is my uncle. And I will burn it. All of it. For you. For Mom. For Sarah. For Maria. But you have to trust me for three days.”

“Three days,” I said. “Until Friday.”

“Yes.”

“Until you take the chair.”

“Yes.”

“What chair?”

He didn’t answer. Rosie did.

“The head of the family,” she said. “When he takes the chair, he becomes Leo. Officially. Legally. Totally. And then Directive 9.2 won’t be his uncle’s. It’ll be his.”

My phone buzzed. In his hand. He looked down.

His jaw went tight. He didn’t turn the screen to me this time.

“What?” I said.

“Nothing,” he said. “Just Leo.”

“Let me see.”

“No.”

“Dominic.”

He met my eyes. “He flagged the hospital. All of it. As of ten seconds ago. Anyone on 9.2 who enters gets detained. Anyone who leaves gets followed.”

“So I can’t leave,” I said.

“No,” he said. “You can’t leave.”

“Then we’re trapped,” I said.

“No,” he said. “We’re together. For three days.”

He set the phone down. Screen up.

I saw the text.

_Asset confined with primary. Classification upgraded: Collateral. Termination authorized upon chair transition. —L_

Chair transition. Friday.

When Dominic took the chair, I died.

Unless he burned it first.

“And if you don’t take the chair?” I asked.

“Then Leo keeps it,” Dominic said. “And you die anyway. So does Rosie. So does anyone I look at for more than two seconds.”

Rosie grabbed my wrist. “We’re going. Now. Before he locks the whole building.”

“You can’t,” Antonio said from the door. “He already did. Service elevator’s dead. Stairs are manned. We’re sealed in. 901 is a vault now.”

Rosie turned on Dominic. “You knew he’d do this.”

“I knew he’d try,” Dominic said. “I didn’t know he’d move this fast. Not until you walked in. Not until you tried to take her. That’s why you’re a threat now. Because you proved you can take things from him.”

“So it’s my fault,” Rosie said.

“No,” I said. “It’s his. Leo’s. He killed your mom two years ago because she tried to leave with you. He killed Sarah because she quit. He killed Maria because she chose someone else. And now he wants to kill you because you chose me over him.”

Dominic was watching me. Like he was cataloguing again. Not my hands. Not my face. My words.

“Aliyah,” Rosie said. Softer now. “If we stay, we’re betting your life that he’s different from Leo. And if you’re wrong—”

“Then I die,” I said. “But I was already dying. Student loans. Graduation hold. No future. He paid it. Now I have three days to see if that future’s real or if it’s just another kind of debt.”

Rosie closed her eyes. Opened them. Looked at Dominic. “If she dies, I’ll kill you myself. Directive or no directive.”

“If she dies,” Dominic said, “you won’t have to. I’ll do it myself.”

Antonio cleared his throat. “We have three days. Six men. Food. Water. Meds. No exit. Leo can’t get in without starting a war. But when Friday hits, when you take the chair, that text becomes an order. To everyone on the ledger.”

“Then we burn the ledger first,” I said.

Dominic looked at me. “How?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But you said three days. So we figure it out in three days.”

He nodded. Once.

And the lights went out.

Emergency lighting kicked in. Red. Low. The door locks cycled. Heavy. Final.

Antonio checked his phone. “Comms are down. We’re dark.”

Dominic looked at the two men on the floor. Then at me. “Welcome to Directive 9.2, Aliyah.”

“Is this how it started for your mom?” I asked. “Locked in? Lights out? Leo on the other side?”

“Yes,” Rosie said. “Except she was alone.”

I looked at Dominic. He was bleeding. Rosie was flagged. I was collateral.

“But I’m not,” I said.