Page 63 of Collide

Backing away from his limp body, I opened the door to find Rileystanding there. She’d evidently been crying if the red tracks and mascara streaks down her cheeks were anything to go by, and as much as I wanted to take her in my arms and comfort her, I didn’t want her getting covered in blood.

She gaped at me, taking in the splatters of blood on my white shirtand my bruised knuckles, and then her gaze darted over my shoulder to where Luis hung. For a minute she didn’t say anything, just stared at him, a sneer taking over her face.

“Star,” I barked, catching her attention. She pulled her gaze awayfrom Luis and fixed on me. “What did she say?”

“She’ll be on a plane first thing in the morning back to Mexico. You’regoing to pay for her and her family to relocate to a safe part of the country and you’re going to pay for her to get an education. Do that, and you have her word you won’t hear from her ever again.”

She stood tall as she relayed the terms, she didn’t stutter and shewas full of confidence and it made me fucking proud. She’d done this for me, despite me being an outright prick to her, she’d done this to help my business.

It made me all the more determined to make her mine.

“You believe her?” I raised a brow in question.

“Yes.”

“Then it’s done,” I told her and her body sagged with relief. Shelooked behind me again and the tears began to well in her eyes once more. I wanted to get this shit over and done with and get her the fuck out of here.

I started removing my gun from my holster, fully intending to turnaround and put a bullet straight between Luis’ eyes.

“Kai, wait,” Riley said, stopping me in my tracks.

She looked at Luis again before looking back at me. I waited for it,waited for her to tell me not to kill him, but this was one job that had to be done. Surely she would fucking realize that after everything she knew about the cunt?

“Don’t kill him,” she said in a whisper.

“Fuck, Riley, you know I can’t let him live.” I hissed.

“I know, but death is too good for him. He deserves to live every dayfor the rest of his miserable life with the knowledge of what he did to that poor girl.”

I put the safety back on my gun and reholstered it, intrigued withwhere she was going with this.

“What do you suggest, Riley?”

For the final time, she looked at Luis, only this time she kept hereyes fixed on him, filled with a look I had never seen from her before, and as a malicious smile curved her lips, she spoke.

“Hurt him, Kai. Take away his ability to ever hurt another womanagain.”

Well. Fuck.

I always knew she was perfect for me.

Chapter 18

Riley

Itwasn'twatchingasKai hacked off Luis' dick that kept me awakethe following nights. Nor the echoes of his screams bouncing off the walls as Kai squished his eyeballs in their sockets with his bare hands.

And it wasn't from the guilt that I had been the one to condemnLuis to the life of hell that kept me tossing and turning each night.

Fuck no, I didn't feel the slightest bit bad for what happened.

Why should I?

The man was a dirty rapist and the pain Kai had caused, well, Luisdeserved to suffer through it every day for the rest of his life, if he even survived the night, which I wasn’t sure he would have given how much blood he lost from his missing appendage, not to mention the beating Kai had given him beforehand.

No, the thing that kept me awake each night was the face of the girlwho had been raped by that evil man. I’d been expecting her to be inconsolable, to beg for Luis to be arrested. But she wasn’tanythinglike that. Her eyes were empty of any emotion, and when she looked at me, it was like she was looking straightthroughme.

It was chilling.

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