Page 102 of Collide

“Okay,” I managed to say in a shaky voice. Kai held my gaze foranother beat before he nodded once and then stepped back, allowing me to go to my room. I quickly ran down the hallway draped in his bed sheet, worrying I had bitten off far more than I could chew.

Less than five minutes later, I emerged from my room dressed injeans and a vest to find Kai waiting for me. He didn’t say anything, didn’t rake his eyes down my curves like he usually did. He turned on his heel and started down the hallway to the elevator.

“You sure you want to do this?” Kai finally said once we were in theelevator and plummeting to the basement. His intense stare was burning into me like it always did, but I couldn’t look at him, my mind was running away with the anticipation of what the hell was about to happen, and my stomach lurched with nerves. Instead, I kept my eyes glued to the doors when I gave my reply.

“Yes.”

Kai’s phone pinged in his pocket right then, cutting off any retort hemay have had to my feeble response. From the corner of my eye, I saw him take out his phone and read a message. His lips twitched into the smallest hint of a smile before he wiped it from his face and returned to his stern look before putting his phone away.

The elevator came to a smooth stop and the doors slid open to reveala small hallway I had never seen before. Danny had told me about the basement when he had given me the tour of the apartment and I’d thought at the time that I would never want to find myself down here. My heart pounded furiously in my chest as anxiety kicked in.

At the end of the hallway, a man I’d never seen before stood in frontof a closed door, his arms folded across his broad chest.

It must have been in the job description that to work for Kai, you hadto be the size of a house and have the strength to squeeze the life out of a person with your bare hands. All of Kai’s security guards were built with walls of solid muscles, and the man guarding the door was no exception. He looked like a mean motherfucker with dark and brooding features and arms the size of tree trunks.

“Boss.” The man bobbed his head at Kai and then placed hisfingerprint on the pad by the door before standing aside to let us through.

I’d bet any money there was another fingerprint pad on the other sideof the door to give an extra layer of security. If anyone managed to escape from Kai’s basement of doom, they’d not only have to get through this door, pass the big scary bastard standing guard, and then access the elevator before someone realized they had escaped. No easy task, especially with the glaringly obvious camera aimeddirectly at the door.

I trailed into the room behind Kai feeling like a little lost sheep andseriously regretting my decision, but the second I saw Toby strung up by his arms, hanging by his wrists from a hook in the ceiling, his feet barely touching the floor, and dried blood on his face from a wound to his eye, my fear turned to outright rage.

“What the fuck, Kai?” I barged passed him and stomped over to Toby,refusing to acknowledge Hendrix, Danny, and one of the goons from the club last night, who were all standing in the room. I’m pretty sure one of them snorted a laugh when I reached Toby and saw that not only did he have a cut to his eyebrow, but he also had two black eyes and a swollen lip.

Fucking animals.

Gently, I reached out and touched Toby’s chin, his closed eyesfluttered open, and despite the situation he was in, he gave me a soft smile. The growl from behind me echoed around the room and made me instantly drop Toby’s chin. I’d just unintentionally pissed Kai off even more.

Shit.

I turned back to face him, catching Hendrix leaning against the wallwith his arms folded and that fucking irritating smug smirk on his face. Danny stood next to him, he at least had the good graces to look slightly ashamed of his actions. Only slightly though.

The other goon stood by the door, standing as if he was ready topounce on Toby if he managed to break free from his restraints and make a beeline for the door. Which was highly fucking unlikely.

“I’m only going to tell you this once, Riley. Do not lay another fuckingfinger on him ever again,” Kai hissed, his face twisted into a scowl, and fire raged behind his black eyes.

Jeez, he was one hell of a possessive asshole.

“Did they really need to rough him up?” I asked, raising a brow. Iwithered under the heated stare from Kai, he looked like he was ten seconds away from snapping Toby’s neck.

Followed by mine, probably.

“He wouldn’t come quietly,” Hendrix shrugged before Kai couldrespond, leaving his place against the wall to come and stand by Kai’s side like a good little pet.

God, I hated him.

“That’s bullshit and you know it,” Toby winced, his voice scratchy. Hendrix opened his mouth to reply, but Kai held up a hand.

“Enough.”

There was an air of finality to Kai’s tone and both Hendrix and Tobymust have heard it too as they both fell quiet.

Kai faced me, and a shudder ran down my spine at the coldness in his eyes. Gone was the man who less than half an hour ago was affectionate and caring. This was his work mode and fucking hell, was it scary.

“You wanted to be here for this, Riley. Just remember you were theone who insisted on witnessing this,” he reminded me, his tone was cruel and unkind and the feelings I had for him when I first met him, the ones of pure hatred, stirred in my belly.

This was not the man I had spent the last couple of weeks with, theman I was falling for. How had I allowed myself to forget that deep down, under all the pretend bullshit, Kai was a cold-hearted murderer?I narrowed my eyes at him but kept my mouth shut. It would do Tobyno good if I antagonized Kai intentionally or unintentionally, and the purpose of me coming down here was to help Toby out of this mess, not make it worse for him. When this was over, I’d have to pick through the confused emotions I was feeling, but right now I had to focus on getting Toby out of here.

I gave Kai a nod and then walked my ass over to the wall behindwhere Kai stood, ignoring the urge to ask him to let Toby down from his ceiling restraints.

---