Page 55 of Riff

“Why? Do you think she’s not deserving of love because of what’s been done to her?” he asked, a hard edge to his voice.

“No. Of course not. That’s not it. It’s… she doesn’t need me panting after her like a dog. She’s been through enough from men.”

“I’m not saying you need to try to hump the woman’s leg,” he said, snorting. “I’m saying that there’s nothing wrong with being there for her, with waiting for her.”

“That’s a lot of pressure to put on her,” I insisted.

“It’s only pressure if you pressure her,” he said, shrugging. “Being there for her, letting her guide things forward, you could do that.”

He was right, I guess.

I mean, we’d been at a bar the night before, and pretty women were a surplus and eligible men were hard to come by, so we’d been prime real estate. But just the thought of putting a hand on one of them made me feel sick to my stomach, like I’d be betraying Vienna.

I was the only one who went back to their room alone. Well, that wasn’t even right. I hung out in the all-night coffee place because Raff brought a woman back to the room we were sharing.

Even just the smell of another woman’s perfume in the room when I got back to it turned my stomach sour.

So, yeah, there was no one else.

And if there wasn’t anyone else, why the fuck did it matter if I waited for Vienna to be ready?

“Yeah,” I agreed, sucking in a deep breath, then instantly regretting it as I probably breathed in millions of fucking mold spores.

“We’ll get these guys for her,” Raff said. “We’re just going to have to get Rook on this, now that we know they’re not here. He’ll find them. He’s good at that shit.”

That was true.

As much as I hated that I couldn’t be done with this, I had to believe that I would find him one day. Then I could enjoy inflicting revenge in Vienna’s name.

“Let’s just take a look around,” Colter said, grimacing at the house. “Make sure they didn’t leave any clues about where they might be heading.”

With that, we spread out.

I didn’t realize I found myself in the leader’s room until I was digging through his closet.

And there in the back, wedged like forgotten trash, I found something that didn’t belong to him.

A woman’s purse.

One of the kind that women wore in the summer, slouchy and crocheted or knitted or some shit like that.

My mind flashed back to the white dress I’d found Vienna in. Definitely a spring or summery dress.

I reached a bit desperately for the bag, yanking back the zipper, and reaching inside to find a wallet.

Inside, sure enough, I found her license, bank card, store loyalty cards.

A growl moved through me as I put the wallet back in. But it wasn’t until I was zipping it back up that I noticed something I’d missed before.

A spot of dark red on the material.

Blood.

I must have growled again, because Colter moved into the room. His gaze slid to the back, then back to me. “Is that hers?”

“Yeah,” I said, jaw aching from clenching it.

“Are you going to give it back to her?” he asked as I followed him back out into the main room.

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