Page 105 of Collide

“Markus knew that,” Toby replied, and then he kept his eyesdowncast when he said, “but he was hoping I’d be able to talk her into sneaking out, he thought I could use our old connection to convince her to meet me. He could tell that even after this time had passed, I still cared for her.”

A lone tear slid down my cheek at his words. The sad thing was, hewas probably right. I never would have given it a second thought that Toby would hurt me, I would have gone with him willingly like a lamb to the slaughter.

When Kai didn’t say anything, Toby spoke again. “I swear to you, Mr.Wolfe, I wasn’t going to let anything happen to her, I was going to warn her, you’ve got to believe me!”

Once again, Kai leaped forward and grabbed Toby around the throat.His shoulders hunched up with rage and even Danny looked like hewanted an ounce of Toby’s flesh.

“Believe you? Why the fuck would I believe you?” Kai sneered intoToby’s face.

This time, at the sight of seeing Toby being strangled, I didn’t react.My whole body was stunned into numbness from his admission, and a little part of me wanted Toby to feel fear, the same fear I had when Detective Anderson had grabbed me at the ball, the fear of not knowing if I was going to live or die.

“I’m...telling...the truth,” Toby managed to wheeze out, his lipsbeginning to turn purple the longer Kai held onto him.

“Who is he? Who the fuck is the big boss?” Kai dropped his hand,allowing Toby to answer unrestricted.

“I don’t know, I never met him. He stays hidden, no one knows whohe is, not even Carlos. He puts out his order through his generals. I told you man, I’m not high up enough to know the details.”

Toby swayed by his wrists from the motion of being let go by Kai andlooked at me. Not just braving a glance at me this time, no, he stared at me, letting me see the raw emotion written all over his face and that he was telling the truth.

“Riley, girl, I’m so sorry. I’d never hurt you, you know I would never doanything to hurt you.” His voice was shaky and sounded rougher than what he had at the start of this joyful discussion.

I tried to swallow past the thick lump lodged in my throat and pusheddown the little part of me that wanted Toby to hurt the way I was hurting now.

Did I believe him?

The boy who helped me survive when I was so alone, who taught mehow to look after myself and was so gentle with me when I gave him my innocence? The boy who spent many nights cuddled up to me so I could stay warm, or who held me when I cried over my guilt for dragging Angel away from a better life.

I stared at the man he had become and underneath the muscle andthe tattoos, I could see the little boy he once was, the one who was trying to make it through life as best he could, and I knew deep down, he would never have done anything to hurt me.

“I believe you,” I whispered, stepping forward.

Kai twisted to face me, his face was contorted into a menacing snarl.

“You can’t be fucking serious,” he roared at me, making me flinch. “He’s just fucking admitted to being involved in an attempt to kidnapyou, and you believe he was going to warn you? Don’t be so fucking naive, Riley.”

Urgh, how I was going to get this man to see reason, I did not know,he was wild with rage.

His words pissed me off. Yeah, sometimes I could be naive and Ididn’t care how much time had passed since I last saw Toby, I still knew deep down he wasn’t capable of hurting me.

“I am being serious. Toby wouldn’t hurt me, he’s not lying.” I held mynerve, not letting the fear or anger I was feeling underneath show. Both Kai and Danny glared at me like they couldn’t believe what I was saying.

“Riley, you haven’t seen this fucker for five years,” Kai replied,disbelief in his voice. “You don’t know him, you don’t know what he’s capable of. You don’t know what kind of shit people like him will do to get ahead in their gangs.”

“You’d know all about that wouldn’t you, Kai,” I hit back, resentmentthick in my tone.

It was a weak argument, of course he was capable of all kinds of shit,how else would he be in the position he was in now, but my head was spinning, and I didn’t know what else I could say at this point.

Kai ran a hand down his shirt, a habit he did regularly even thoughhis shirts were always pristine, not even a tiny crease could be seen.

“Exactly. I knowexactlywhat people do to manipulate others to getwhat they want,“ he sneered at me, raking his eyes up and down my body and making his point that he had manipulated me into thinking he was some kind of saint instead of the devil he really was. He even had the audacity to look proud of himself.

Low fucking blow.

The absolute asshole.

“He’s not lying,” I gritted out, desperately trying to hold my tongue andnot lose my temper at Kai. There would be one heck of a fallout from his comment when this shit was done and dusted but for now, I focused on my sole mission of getting Toby out of here.

“Don’t be so fucking naive, Star,” Kai growled at me and I wanted topunch him in the gut for daring to use my nickname. “What did he tell you when you ‘bumped’ into him last night?” He used his fingers to quote ‘bumped,’ highlighting the point that my reacquaintance with Toby was not accidental.

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