Page 17 of Collide

I had read and re-read the documents given to me by Isaac, myprivate detective, who had spent the last week finding out every little detail about my beautiful Star. I had called him as soon as I finished with Blaze at the warehouse and told him that obtaining information on Riley was to be his priority. Isaac had grumbled, he was in the middle of other cases, but as I said to Riley back at the club, anything is available for the right price. It cost me a pretty penny, but it was worth every cent.

Having read the documents time and time again, I was even moreobsessed and determined to make her mine.

I should have been focusing on finding the cunt who killed mybrother, but I couldn’t focus on anything but her.

She’d gone missing from the city of Richmond at the age of sixteenwith no sign of her or her sister for a few months, they were probably living rough on the streets. That was until some old bastard gave her a job and let her work for him. He’d even been good enough to put a roof over her and her sister’s heads, although until I had more information on this alleged good samaritan, I decided to keep an open mind, most people didn't do things just to be kind, there was usually more to it. I had recognized the name, Joe Mason, but I couldn’t quite place it, so I asked Isaac to do some more digging on him.

I also hadn’t been able to stop staring at the photos Isaac had takenof her every day he had been following her. I hadn’t seen her in the flesh since the night at the club, much to my frustration I’d been too occupied dealing with that druggie Blaze, as well as securing some deals that were going to bring in a shitload of money, and making sure my other lines of business were running well.

Without Theo to help, I was running the show alone and it was takingup far too fucking much of my time. Instead, I’d asked Isaac and his team to trail her. I wanted to know what she was doing every single minute of the day.

She didn’t do a huge amount, it was pathetic really.

A young, gorgeous girl like Riley should be living life to the full, and yet she didn’t seem to have any friends outside of Club Sin, that’s if you could call her co-workers friends, and the only person she spent any time with was her sister.

I had Isaac pull both Riley and Angel’s medical records from the daythey were born, I wanted to know everything about Riley and I needed to find something in her past that I could exploit to get her to comewillinglyinto my life.

My other option was kidnapping the girl, which wasn’t off thetable and I certainly wasn’t averse to going down that route, but that wasn’t the best way to start a relationship.

Because that’s what I wanted with her, I wanted her by my side, Iwanted to make her mine.

To my surprise, the medical records showed that Angel was bornDeaf and I’d watched in sheer fascination video footage of Riley having a full-blown conversation with the younger girl in sign language.

It was impressive.

The medical records also showed Riley had recently takenAngel to an appointment at a private medical clinic to be assessed for a cochlear implant which would cost close to forty thousand dollars.

Based on the intel Isaac had gathered, and from what I had seenfrom photos of the dump the girls called home, there was no way on God’s green earth that either Riley or Angel had that kind of money.

Of course, I saw this as a good fucking opportunity to get her into mylife, just how far would she go for her family?

I would have stopped at nothing to protect mine.

Only, I wasn’t there when Theo did actually need protecting.

The photos Isaac managed to obtain of Riley gave an insight into herdaily routine. She would finish at the club around 4 am when she walked home alone.

That pissed me off to no end. She shouldnotbe walking home alonein a city where monsters lurked everywhere.

I should know, I was the biggest fucking one of them all.

She’d practically run home, as though the devil himself was on herass, and as soon as she stepped inside the communal area of her apartment, even in photos you could tell she was relieved to be somewhere safe.

She’d resurface around 7.30 am with Angel in tow, dressed in schooluniform and they’d take two buses to get Angel to school as it was too far for them to walk.

Riley always had dark bags under her eyes and I’d wondered if she’dhad any sleep from the time she got home until the time she took Angel to school. After dropping her sister off at school, Riley would take the two buses back to their apartment.

Twice during the week, she stopped in the supermarket and emergedcarrying bulky shopping bags which she lugged back to the apartment. After that, she’d disappear inside and not resurface again until the early afternoon when she would then get back on the buses to meet Angel from school. Sometimes they would go to the library for an hour or so, other times they would go straight home. She then wouldn’t make an appearance again until 9 pm when she’d leave the apartment and head to work.

It was evident from Isaac’s observations that no one went to lookafter Angel when Riley went to work, and of course, I saw this as another opportunity to use to my advantage.

Aside from the photos being the only opportunity I had to see herface, they were very telling. In photos with Angel, Riley would smile for her sister and give the impression that all was fine in the world. She was clearly the protector, always holding Angel’s hand, helping her on and off the bus, and kissing her cheek when Angel went inside the school.

When she was alone, however, it was a different story. She wouldwalk with her shoulders hunched, not daring to look at anyone. Her brows were constantly furrowed as if she was trying to solve the world’s hardest mathematical equation.

Alone, Riley looked like she was hauling the weight of the worldaround on her shoulders and I wanted nothing more than to take that weight from her. And I would, I just had to make sure all the pieces of the jigsaw were in place before I made my move.

It had taken a week to get all of those pieces sorted but the time hadfinally come.

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