Page 167 of Riordan's Revenge

There was nothing in her expression but rage.

I couldn’t let her risk her life. Not for revenge I’d needed and had taken. I rushed him, grasping for the weapon.

He swung around, trying to throw Cassie off, and then the mayor fell onto me and the three of us tumbled down the slope towards the water.

Everything that happened next went by in a split second. No slow motion. No time stopping so I could see it in freeze-frame details. No recognition of how this resembled my dream but deviated in key details.

All I knew was the hard hit. The desperation to protect the woman I loved.

And the explosion as the gun in the mayor’s hand went off.

Chapter 52

Cassie

The blast tore through the night. I screamed in fear and wrestled myself free from under the mayor’s arm to sit astride his body.

His eyes danced, and he bucked up against me, both hands flying to my hips. “Get off me or I’ll make him watch his little bitch scream as I fuck her over his corpse.”

Without pause, I raised my jewelled dagger above my head and smacked it down into his chest, just as I’d done with Moniqua.

It pierced skin and bone.

Under me, the man went still, his amazed face draining of blood while red bloomed on his chest.

I loved it, how they didn’t expect me. They made one quick assessment and decided I was harmless. The steel in the mayor’s heart changed his tune fast.

Jumping back, I grasped the gun from his hand and threw it as hard as I could in an arc across the fast-flowing DeadwaterRiver. It disappeared beneath the rippling surface without a sound.

Only then did I chance a look at Riordan.

My imagination threw a hundred images at me. Of his precious blood spilling. Of a deadly head wound. Of a ruined heart.

Instead, I found an intact, unbloodied man.

Riordan had been knocked on his arse, but there was no visible injury. He leapt up and ran to me, grabbing me away from the man gurgling at my feet, under the watch of Arran and Shade who’d sprinted to the edge of the slope.

Dizzy, I touched Riordan’s face. “The bullet didn’t hit ye?”

He palmed my cheek, his other hand gripping my waist, and his expression furious. “It grazed my shoulder and tore another fucking hole in my leather jacket. What the hell were you doing?”

I sobbed and fell against him. “I thought he’d killed ye. I was so sure. I almost couldn’t check.”

I’d wanted to jump the man from the moment Sin had dragged me into the shadows around the warehouse. It had taken everything in me to convince him to let me go.

Riordan gave a growl of deep emotion and enclosed me in his arms. “I thought the same about you. You reckless, beautiful, wild girl.”

He kissed me, hard and with total ownership over the way we connected. I sank into the embrace, and happiness replaced my other thousand more stressful emotions.

At a gurgle from the man behind us, I reared back so I could see Riordan’s face. “Look, I saved him for ye. He isn’t gone yet. Finish him. Take your revenge over the man who wanted ye dead.”

Just like with Moniqua, the river conditions were perfect for taking a body straight out to sea.

“There’s half a dozen police officers up there.”

“And twice that number of residents who will lie on my command. Kenney will go wherever we pull his strings. They can’t see us now, but this arsehole tried to shoot ye. He pimped out his daughter. From what he was yelling, he wants to end the crew ye committed to. Do your thing, then we’ll walk away. I promise you we’ll be fine.”

Riordan held my gaze for a moment, consideration in his green eyes.

---