Page 71 of Dangerous Love

“I’m never letting you go, Si. You’re my baby girl.”

She cupped my face, stray tears glistening behind her eyelids. “Riley,” she murmured, her voice wavering. “I have to tell you something.”

I stroked her cheek as I nodded. “Anything.”

She inhaled, the remnant of her sob lingering in her chest. “The guy I was talking to…”

“You can tell me,” I said.

“I’m living with him.”

Another pang of jealousy stung me as I visualised him holding her hands. I forced a smile and nodded again, urging her to continue. “It’s okay, Sienna. Just tell me.”

A tear ran down her cheek, and she wiped it with the back of her hand. “His name’s Michael. He’s a great guy. He’s one of the managers. He picked me up after I left the wedding. That’s where I’ve been staying.”

That’s why we couldn’t track her down. I’d never heard of this guy before. I tensed, my mind running every wild scenario in my head. “Has he hurt you?”

“No.” Her tone rose. “Michael is a really good guy. I’ve got my own room. He’s never forced me to do anything I didn’t want to do.”

Anything I didn’t want to do.I clenched my fists as my brain tried to ignore what that actually meant. Rather, I focused on the relief that he hadn’t taken advantage of her. I sighed. “It’s okay, Si. I have no right to be angry that you’ve found comfort in another guy’s bed after the way I treated you.”

Her eyes grew wide, and she shook her head faster than a freight train derailing from its course. “Riley, no. I didn’t sleep with him.”

I kissed her on her nose, our foreheads touching. “It wouldn’t matter anyway. I love you no matter what. I screwed up. I know that now.”

She avoided my eyes, her voice low as she added, “But we kissed twice.”

I cupped her face before pulling her closer against me. “I don’t want to lose you, Si. But if you have feelings for this guy and you need me to go, I will.” I inhaled, the pain of my words cutting through my body like a chainsaw on full speed. “I don’t want to. But I want you happy, and if it’s this Michael who can—”

“Don’t let me go, ever, Riley.” She squeezed me hard. “There’s only room for you in my heart.” She leaned in closer until her lips were on mine. “But I have to tell him to his face because he’s an amazing guy.”

I nodded. “Do you want me to come with you?”

She ran her hand through my hair. “No. But I don’t think it would be right for me to stay there now.”

My love for her exploded in my chest, dreams of our forever slowly building in front of me. “You can stay with me at Jarryd’s house, or we can stay with Trey. God, we can get our own place even, but trust me, I want you in my bed every morning and every night. Move in with me, Sienna.”

Her smile curled her lips until her pupils beamed as much as the grin on her face. “Really?” she murmured. “You’d move in with me?”

“Shit, that’s just the beginning, baby girl,” I said as I pressed a kiss on her mouth. “I want so much more for us.”

She hugged me again before she sighed. “There’s one thing I have to do first. Can you pick me up from Michael’s house tonight?”

“For sure. I’ll let you do what you need to do, and I’ve got something I have to do too. Then, it’s just me and you, Sienna, I swear.” After she’d wrapped things up with Michael, there would only be one obstacle standing between us, and that was Hal’s obsession with his precious underground empire.

As I started the car, my decision already made, I headed back towards Jarryd’s. My mental GPS knew exactly where to find all the intel we held against my genetic sperm donor. If it took his ego being restored for him to forget about us, then that’s what would happen.

I’d bow down to him, show him he was still the king of the underworld, and that we were no longer threats to his reign. He could run hell from his throne on Hope Island for all I cared. Because as long as he stayed away from us, that’s all that mattered.

CHAPTER35

Sienna

My whole being bounced from one extreme to another as Michael pulled up in his driveway. He’d been his usual self, somewhat, though there was a dash of something else as we exchanged one word to each other on the drive home.

Home.His silence spoke volumes. I guessed he might have known who Riley was and where this was headed when I told him we needed to speak. As the tension rose, I wondered if maybe Ishouldhave let Riley come with me.

Anxiety coursed through me as we stepped into the house, Michael’s keys resonating loudly as he tossed them across the kitchen bench and dropped his runners to the ground from the top of the couch. I met him in the lounge room and settled on the armchair across from him. “How was your day?”

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