Page 61 of Collide

“Did he rape her?”Riley had been quiet up to that point throughout the exchangebetween Miles and me, but now she spoke up, sounding a heck of a lot more confident than she looked.

Miles looked back up and met her eyes, giving her an apologetic look. His mouth tightened into a thin line and he nodded.She let out a small gasp which echoed around the room and everyfucker in the room stopped what they were doing to look at her.

I didnotlike them looking at my girl.

“How old is she?” she asked quietly, her eyes filled with horror.

“Sixteen, I think,” Miles replied.

Her whole body tensed. I dropped her hand and instead put my armaround her shoulders and pulled her close against my chest. She’d already had to deal with enough shock for one night and I cursed internally at bringing her here, but with Riley, I couldn’t always think straight with her around.

“Where’s the girl now?” I asked Miles.

“She’s in her room. She kept saying she is going to go to the ATF.”

This was going from bad to worse.

The fucking Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Departmenthad been snooping around these past few months, I’d managed to hold them off for the time being thanks to my hold over Hollows Bay Police Department, but all they needed was the tip-off they’d been waiting for.

It was rapidly looking like I was going to have no choice but to endtwo lives tonight, not that the girl deserved to die but I had to protect my business.

“And Luis?”

“He’s in there.” Miles tilted his head to the side and indicated theroom that had two armed guards standing outside. The fucker wouldn’t be going anywhere.

Unless it was in a body bag.

“Fuck, Miles, you really fucking screwed up with this,” I huffed. Heducked his head, having the good sense not to answer back.

Options swam around in my head. But every option came back to theone that would have to happen.

The girl would have to die.

As if reading my mind, Riley pulled out of my grasp.

“Let me talk to her,” she said with pure determination. She didn’t ask,and if shit wasn’t happening right now, I’d find it amusing she thought she could demand anything from me.

“No,” I told her firmly.

She knew, shefucking knewwhere my mind was going and if I wentdown that route, it would undo the progress I’d made with her today. But I couldn’t let Riley be my weakness, and I couldn’t let my attraction to her dictate how I dealt with my issues.

“Kai, please. Let me talk to her, I can talk her out of wanting to go tothe authorities. She doesn’t deserve this.”

Her eyes filled with tears and her voice shook, losing the burst ofconfidence she had just had. Once again, I kicked myself for bringing her here.

I’d have to deal with her undermining my decisions, especially in frontof my staff, I couldn’t let it happen.

I was about to tell Frank, who had been waiting by the door we’dcome in, to take her back to the car when Miles opened his stupid fucking mouth.

“Boss, for what it’s worth, the girl wants out of here. For the rightprice, I think she could be paid to keep her mouth shut.”

I gave him my death glare for daring to fucking interfere and hemuttered an apology under his breath before looking down again.

“Riley, she could ruin everything if she goes to the ATF.”

I glanced down at my Star who was wearing that look on her face, thelook she had worn a few nights ago when she was refusing to come willingly with me. Despite the tears shining in her eyes, she wasn’t going to back down.

Stubborn little minx.

---