Ninety-Four

ZORA'S POV

The room was silent for a long moment. The tension in it was thick enough to be cut with a knife. I could feel strain rolling in waves all over me. Trey was muttering under his breath, his eyes darting here and there.

"How the hell did we get here?" he ground out. He looked from me to Cheryl and back again. "In the past, things have been bad, no doubt, but not this bad, damnit! Not like this."

He banged his fist on the table so hard that the things on it rattled. He seemed to realize what he had just done, and snatched his hand back. He sighed tiredly.

"How does this all get to go away?" he said, half to himself.

He looked to Cheryl again. She looked clueless, probably the exact same way I looked. Her shoulders were hunched and she kept mussing up her perfect beauty shop curls in her agitation. Now that things had gone out of hand, I had to inform Cheryl and Trey about what was happening with the CSP. Cheryl had known that something was afoot, of course, but had beensho