Page 60 of The One Night Match
I’m not sure how, seeing as he’s been obsessed with Lexi since we were kids, to the point I’ve never seen him so much as look at another woman. But I’m grateful for it, nonetheless. One of us needs a cool head, and it’s not going to be me.
I drag in a shaky breath as I run straight through a red light, ignoring the horns and angry motorists as I follow the GPS to their last known location.
Colten dials a number on his phone, but it goes straight to voicemail, only making the tension in the car skyrocket.
I tap the steering wheel a few times until it dials Riley, and I hold my breath with each ring of the dial tone.
“Cruz?” Riley’s shaky voice comes through the car speakers, and my entire body relaxes at the sound. Tension still coils through every muscle and will until she’s safely back in my arms, where she belongs.
“Riley, are you okay? Is Lexi okay?” I rush out.
“We’re okay. We got hit. Twice a think. I don’t know. It happened so fast.” She’s rattled, that much is clear even through the phone line, but all that matters is that she’s alive and unharmed.
“Where are you, Kitten? We’re coming for you right now.”
“Hold on,” she murmurs, and the line goes quiet for a handful of seconds that have a new wave of panic washing over me. “Corner of Fourth and Madison. Ben’s just driven us into a parking lot to hide out until you can get here.”
“We’ll be there soon, Riley. Just sit tight, okay?”
THIRTY-ONE
RILEY
I’d almost forgotten what it was like living life as a pawn in someone else’s game.
The years I spent at college and then living my own life feel like a distant memory as Lexi clutches my hand like her life depends on it. We’re crowded on the floor of the town car, where Ben told us to hide, and my stomach hasn’t stopped rioting since the first hit.
I’m vaguely aware of the blood dripping down my face, but I can’t register pain, not while my body is in this state of fight-or-flight.
Lexi clutches her other wrist to her chest, the appendage already swollen, but she’s in the same mode I am. Waiting for the threat, ready to fight if we have to.
There’s a short commotion outside, and I hold the pepper spray from my purse toward the door, ready to do whatever it takes to protect us, even if it feels menial and ridiculous compared to a gun, but when the door swings open, my entire body hunches as relief slams into me.
A choked sob tears from my throat a moment before I throw myself into Cruz’s arms, locking my body around his without conscious thought.
“You’re okay, Riley. I’ve got you, you’re okay,” he murmurs softly, holding me as tight as I am him.
Carefully, he lifts me from the car, making way for Colten to wrap Lexi in his embrace and showing me what I hadn’t noticed until right now—his very obvious attraction to his best friend’s sister.
The way he relaxes when she’s safe in his arms, the same way Cruz did when I was in his, is all the evidence I need, and I make a note to ask her about it the next time we’re alone. Although I have a feeling it’ll be awhile before Cruz lets me out of his sight.
I bury my face in his throat, sucking in his scent to calm my rioting emotions.
“You’re safe now, Kitten. Nothing is going to hurt you. Not ever again,” he promises, never allowing his grip on me to slip, and I realize we must look a real sight with me bleeding all over the ruthless-looking man in an all-black suit.
“I’m so sorry, Mr. De Luca. They came out of nowhere. There was nothing I could do to avoid them,” Ben says from beside us, and I lift my head to look him over.
He, like me, seems to have hit his head, but apart from that, he’s unscathed. I open my mouth to tell him it’s not his fault, but I don’t get a chance.
Cruz lifts an arm from around me, still holding me with the other, and wraps it around the older man, tugging him into our embrace. “You got my wife and sister out of there. You saved them. You have nothing to apologize for.”
He looks ready to argue when Colten lifts a rattled Lexi from the car, her position mirroring mine as she grips onto him for dear life.
“He needs a raise,” Colten grunts.
“Agreed. I’ll talk to the accountant once everyone has been seen by a doctor.” Cruz nods, and I can’t help but smile against his shoulder.
To the rest of the world, he might be a scary motherfucker, but to the people closest to him, Cruz De Luca is the complete opposite, and if I weren’t already falling for him, I sure as hell would be now.
