Page 25 of Driven by Desire

She figured he’d been talking to his wife. Wendell didn’t actually talk to anyone else over the phone, not even his own mother. He was a text only kind of guy. Riley touched his arm soothingly and asked, “What’s up, Wendell? Is she okay?”

“Yeah, for now she is,” he growled, shoving a hand through his sweat-streaked mop of hair. “Your fucking boyfriend showed up at the house.”

“No!” Riley gasped, covering her mouth and stepping back. Her eyes widened and filled with tears. She shook her head. She should have realized this would happen when Wendell disappeared. She had been so stupid! How could she put Treena and the kids in danger like that?

Riley turned on the spot and headed toward the tow truck, then turned back around and reached for the car, then changed her mind again. “Shit, I should have known! I’m so sorry, Wendell. I have to go back. I’ll do it right now. I’ll go to him, I’ll call off his hunt. I won't let him near your family again.”

Wendell reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her around gently to face him. “Riley, stop.”

She shook her head and tried to pull away, but he didn’t let her go. “Wendell, I’ve put your family in danger. I have to go back to him!”

He shook her arm, drawing her attention to him. “No, Riley. Treena’s fine. He didn’t threaten her or anything. Just wanted to know where I was. Treena couldn’t tell him anything because I didn’t tell her. Hell, if anything she feels sorry for the guy. You know how she is, an incurable romantic. She thinks anyone that looks like him, with a past like his must be some kind of tragic soul.”

A bubble of laughter burst out of Riley as she pictured Wendell’s tiny, round wife fawning over the big, bad mob boss, forcing baked goods and sympathy on the man while he grilled her for information. He wouldn't know what hit him. The kids, aged fourteen months and three years would be all over him along with the two cats and two dogs. There was not a shy creature in that household.

“Besides,” Wendell continued, “Treena is first and foremost a huge fan of the Reaper. She would never forgive either of us if you didn’t compete in this race. She has all her splurge money riding on you, babe.”

Riley nodded her head, tears filling her eyes. She grinned up at her best friend. “I don’t know how you convinced that woman to marry you, Wendell, but you are the luckiest guy in the world.”

“Fuck, don't I know it,” he said, grinning back. “She’s about the only wife in the world that would believe I could share a motel room with a woman that looks like you and keep it business only.”

“Yeah,” Riley agreed. “Let’s keep that little fact on the DL because I don't think a certain Mr. Hart is going to see our sharing a room the same way.”

A look of sheer horror crossed Wendell’s ruddy features as though the thought had never crossed his mind before now. “I’m a dead man,” he groaned.

“Yeah, you are,” she laughed. “Can you finish changing the tires before it happens though? I’m so over this.”

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