Page 12 of Taming Riot

“Okay, you know nothing’s wrong with my bike,” he growls, smacking the back of my head when I suggest taking it apart.

“Oh, really? Why did you bring it then?”

He snorts, shaking his head as he shoves me away from his precious baby. “You’re an asshole, you know that, right?”

“I’ve been called that a couple of times, yes,” I snark, grabbing a rag and wiping grease off my fingers before turning to face him. “How is Kayla doing?”

“As well as can be expected,” he says, his eyes going soft at the mention of his girlfriend. “She still hasn’t gotten over the fact that her stepfamily kidnapped her for her inheritance.”

I have known Kayla almost as long as my brother has. When he took her in a year ago, she was a broken little thing that clung to my brother’s side like a lifeline. It was clear to me from the beginning that those two would end up together, but of course, it took them a year to act on the intense sexual tension between them.

“I assume you didn’t come here to talk about Kayla,” I tell Cash.

“Right,” he says, and I notice an unusual hesitation in him.

“What?” I ask gruffly, curiosity getting the better of me.

“So, Priest, Knight, and I went out last night for a ride. Kayla needed some girl time, so we left her with her at the compound with Sky and Rhea. We passed that taco truck a few blocks from the bar, and . . .”

“And?”

“I saw you with someone.”

“I’m still waiting for the point.”

“Riot . . .” he starts. “You know I don’t give a shit who you fuck, right? You could hook up with all of Austin, and I wouldn’t bat an eye.” I stay silent, still unsure where the hell he is going with this, which only seems to frustrate him further. “What I mean to say is, I hope the girl you were with last night was a one-time thing.”

My eyes narrow to slits as I stare at my twin brother. We look alike, but we aren’t identical. His hair is lighter, more a dirty blond, and is neatly kept despite having worn a helmet for the ride over. He is almost as large as I am, but more polished. Civilized.

Our similarities end with our appearances. We live very different lives and mostly see each other at the club. We’re close, and I consider my brother my best friend, but I also feel this need to give him space now that we’ve settled into our adult lives. It isn’t lost on me that despite being the same age, Cash practically raised me, bailing my reckless ass out of trouble more often than not. Still, he’s never tried to tell me how to live my life before now, so I’m caught off guard and angry all at once.

“I didn’t get all up in your face when you moved Kayla into your place the day you met her, did I?” My voice is low, dangerously so.

“Well, Kayla is not the daughter of the freaking Attorney General of Austin, now is she? Kayla’s stepbrothers are a bunch of losers who prance around town in stupid polo shirts and drive cars they cannot afford,” he says. “The girl you were with last night, on the other hand, is city of Austin royalty. She has a brother running for state office. Her mother is the freaking CEO of a fortune 500 company.”

Well, shit.

Yeah, I didn’t know that. Fuck! I thought her name sounded familiar, but I don’t pay attention to politics. Sasha is a literal modern-day princess, surrounded by the last people I would want to get involved with, and yet . . .

“Fuck!”

“You didn’t know that, did you?” Cash’s voice breaks into my thoughts, and when I turn to face him, I expect to find him looking smug, but instead, he seems worried. “That girl, Alexandra Greenwald, is dangerous.”

“She’s just a girl—”

“There is nothing ‘just’ about her, Riot. She is about to start law school and will soon follow in her family’s footsteps.” He walks up to me and puts a hand on my shoulder. “How did you even meet her?”

“At the police station.”

“Jesus Christ,” he snorts. “Only you can meet a woman while under arrest and still get her to go out with you.”

Technically, I wasn’t under arrest, but I don’t think that’s pertinent to this conversation. Even so, Sasha must’ve known what I was doing there, and it didn’t seem to bother her. Christ, I never would have pinned her as the daughter of a powerful family, not that it changes anything.

I still want her.

After what happened last night, I want to make it up to her. I fucked up, and I plan to remedy that. As soon as possible.

“Anyway, it’s a good thing you know now. So, you know to stay away from her.”

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