Page 78 of The One Night Match
“Riley?” the voice says, and it’s familiar. So familiar, but I’m lost to the swimming darkness, the promise of rest beckoning me toward unconsciousness.
There’s a scuffle outside the car, but I’m too far gone as I allow my body and mind to fall into the darkness.
FORTY-ONE
CRUZ
This woman is going to give me a heart attack.
At thirty-one years old, I’m in peak physical shape. I spend an hour in the gym every morning, my last health check returned a perfect report, and I can’t remember the last time I had so much as a cold.
But fuck, being married to Riley is going to send me to an early grave.
Not because of anything she’s done, because she’s not a particularly reckless person, but because the constant danger that hangs over her head is making it hard to think rationally as Colten and I rush back to the ballroom.
How the fuck did this happen?
Where is she?
Lexi and Mom have searched all the bathrooms and closets, initially sure she’d just gone for a breather.
At first, I wondered if her anxiety was riding her hard and she just needed a few minutes to herself, but when they couldn’t find her, the possibility that she may have been taken secured itself in my mind.
Jenny and Julie, the wives of my guys who run some of our legitimate businesses, said she was talking to them when sheseemed to get dizzy. They tried to help her, but she was out of it, which tells me she was more than likely drugged.
Who the fuck is cocky enough to drug my wife at a family event?
We burst through the doors to the hotel, ignoring the strange looks we get as we sprint down the hallway toward the ballroom, only to come up short when Lexi and Mom come into view.
“Anything?” I ask, my voice giving away every emotion bursting through my veins.
Lexi shakes her head, her brow dipped in worry, which only makes mine peak. My sister is famously positive and perky. Nothing bothers her. Nothing shakes her. But this last week, being run off the road, and now Riley going missing, seems to have shaken her in a way nothing has in many years. “We’ve looked everywhere, Cruz. I’m so sorry. I was watching her. She was talking to Danny’s wife. She was fine and safe, so I thought it would be okay for me to go to the restroom, but when I came back, she was gone.”
Tears brim in her eyes, and I tug her against me, engulfing her in my arms. I tell myself it’s to comfort her, to show her this isn’t her fault, but I’m lying to myself.
I need the comfort just as badly. I need the reassurance that I’m not going to lose Riley when I’ve only just convinced her to give us a real shot.
“I don’t think whoever has her has left yet,” Colten says, but doesn’t bother looking up from his phone. “The traffic cameras in the area have been fairly quiet.”
It doesn’t make me feel any better, but it does allow hope to ease into my chest right alongside the dread.
“Let’s check the alley behind the hotel. There are no cameras back there, so it’s the only way they could take her out without being seen.” Colten points toward the far end of the hall, and I nod, taking off in that direction.
I’m both the most focused I’ve ever been, while also completely out of control.
We burst out into the cold night, and it takes long seconds for me to process the sight in front of me.
Ben holding a squirming Timothy to the ground.
Riley unconscious in the back seat of an old, beat-up sedan.
Monica trying to wake her, tears streaming down her face.
I rush to Riley, ignoring the voice in my head telling me it’s not the right thing to do for the business. But the business can go fuck itself right now. I couldn’t care less about the De Luca family when the center of my universe is passed out and potentially injured.
Monica looks up at me, her cheeks stained with black. “He made me help him. He told me he would kill me himself if I didn’t.”
“You lying bitch!” Timothy screams, followed by a sharp grunt when one of them hits him, but I don’t bother turning to find out who. It doesn’t matter. I’ll deal with him once I’m sure my wife is okay.
