Page 29 of Dangerous Love

I clenched my jaw, my teeth biting into the inside of my cheek. The taste of metal filled my mouth, and I took a settling breath, fighting the urge to scream my rage to the universe. “How did he have time to do all that in thirty minutes?”

Jarryd’s face changed. “I don’t think he did. The sheet was perfectly tied.” He wiped his palms on his pants. “He made the decision well beforehand. Sometimes the human heart can’t recover from years of trauma, even if the body can.”

Tears pooled behind my eyelids, and I counted backwards until my heart rate steadied. “Thank you for trying to help him.”

His hand landed on my back. “Riley, I’m so sorry. I’m sorting out all the paperwork and administrative details. You don’t worry about this for now.”

I hissed, “I’ll be damned if I let Hal take his body.” My muscles tensed at the thought of Seth’s final resting place being with the man who crushed his spirit.

Jarryd shook his head. “Trey’s his next of kin, and he isn’t in good shape—as expected. If Cooper tries to come near Seth, it won’t end well for the old man.”

“Okay,” I murmured, my head buzzing. My body hurt everywhere, like I’d run a marathon to hell and back. “Can we talk more tomorrow? I don’t feel so good.”

Jarryd pushed to his feet, a palm on my shoulder as he helped me up. “You go. Let your brain digest overnight.” He held on to me longer than usual, his face studying mine as his arms embraced me in a bear hug. “I love you, mate. I can stay with you for a while if you want.”

Sienna’s hand latched on to mine. “Jarryd, would it be okay if I stayed with him?”

Jarryd nodded, and as if I’d lost all sense of direction, Sienna guided me to my room in silence. Once inside, she pulled my hand until I was sitting on my bed. She knelt down, her small frame much lower than mine, and one after the other, she removed my shoes. She pulled on my socks and carefully placed them in my boots. Then, she got up and gently lifted my shirt over my head and dropped it on the chair. Finally, she slid her fingers along my belt buckle. And when I lifted my eyes towards her, pain and exhaustion lining my features, she said, “I just want you to be comfortable.” She kissed me briefly before she had my pants sitting with my shirt.

Like a first-time mother protecting her newborn with her life, she pushed me back on the bed until almost every inch of me was tucked under the blanket. I studied her from where she stood. Then she slid over me until her body spooned mine under the covers. Her arms snaked around my waist, her chest to my back, before she pressed a kiss between my shoulder blades.

“Close your eyes, Riley. I’m not leaving you.”

A mix of sadness and gratitude filled me as my hands gripped onto her forearms. My breaths evened out, and my mind suspended the monologue screaming revenge in the pits of my desperate soul. In the limbo between sleep and consciousness, I stirred, flashbacks once again invading my vision.

Every time the darkness pulled me under, my guardian angel lit my way until my pain was more bearable.

She smelled like coconut.

CHAPTER15

Sienna

The last two days were hard. Not just because I’d watched Riley bury his brother, but because he’d completely shut down. According to Jarryd, he barely ate, hadn’t worked half his shifts at the centre, nor turned up at all for his Friday night gigs.

Riley might have been alive, physically, but he wandered around his own version of hell as if he hoped to find redemption. And even I struggled to get him to answer my texts.

My whole body shook as I braced myself to knock on Trey Cooper’s door. The last time I’d eyed the guy, I was fourteen, and he had tried everything imaginable to drag me deeper into both his pantsandhis father’s drug ring. But this was where Riley was staying, so this was where I needed to be, until I could get him back to us. Riley had been there for me. Now it was my turn, no matter how much my stomach threatened to spill.

I took a deep breath before my fingers rasped on the chipped wood. “Hello?” I called out.

The door flung open. “What?” A deep voice yelled back.

On the other side of the threshold, a much older version of Trey stared at me. Deep lines ran across his forehead, his jaw so tense it looked like it might shatter. Five years ago, he was at the prime of his life, bigger and bolder than the rest of his brothers. Today, a broken shell glared at me.

“Sienna?” Trey asked, his head tilting. “Wow. You’re all grown up.”

So, now we notice the difference between girls and women?“Is Riley here?” I ignored his comment, my chest tight from my memories in Cooper’s gang.

“Why don’t you come in?” He pulled the door wider, moving sideways until the interior of his apartment came into full view. Empty boxes of food, forgotten beer bottles, and dirty clothes lay throughout the place. Based on the number of half-filled glasses on the coffee table, Trey hadn’t drunk himself stupid on his own.

I shook my head. “I’d rather stay outside if that’s okay.” Not that I wanted to offend him, but I wasn’t completely reckless either.Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, yada, yada, yada.He motioned to the concrete steps below us, and when he led the way, I followed. “I’m sorry about Seth.”

He shrugged. “He’s in a better place. He has to be.”

“Riley said you looked after him a lot.”

Trey pulled his hands together and braced them over his knees. “Too little, too fucking late. “

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