Page 74 of Collide

Headlights lit up the car park and I saw my Rolls being driven in. Ihoisted Riley into my arms as I stood, she weighed as much as a bag of feathers and still, she didn’t let go of me. She was quiet in my arms and I wasn’t sure if that was worse than when she had been whimpering.Frank got out of the driver's side and opened the rear door, a somberlook on his face. As I was about to get in with her, Hendrix and Danny reappeared.

They were both panting and disheveled, their shirts untucked andHendrix was missing his bow tie. Both men looked frustrated, and while the rational part of me knew they both would have given it their all to catch the man, I still wanted to tear them both a new asshole.

“Get back to the office, I want a full report of what the fuck happenedhere tonight. I want CCTV, I want that van torn apart.” I nodded to the single vehicle parked in the corner, “and I want a fucking explanation as to why that cunt isn’t hanging by his balls in my basement.”I didn’t know for certain if the van was involved but given that it wasthe only other vehicle in the car park, it was a safe bet it was Anderson’s getaway vehicle. But if that was the case, then whose vehicle did he get into?

Questions churned through my head the entire way home and all thewhile Riley didn’t make a sound. I didn’t let her out of my arms until we were back in her room at my apartment where Doc Harris had been waiting with a worried looking Jacqueline.I laid Riley down on her bed but she quickly grabbed my handand silently begged me not to leave her.

And so, I sat with her while Harris examined her, running my thumbover her knuckles in the only way I knew to comfort her. She winced several times as he moved her neck from one side to the other, and then looked down her throat with a little light.Throughout the examination, my hand that wasn’t holding Riley’s wasclenched tightly into a fist, ready to fly at the first person who pissed me off.

“I don’t believe there is any permanent damage, just bruising wherehe grabbed you,” the doctor said to Riley without any emotion, like this was an everyday occurrence. Although, it kinda was.

He’d worked for my family for years so he was used to the late nightphone calls to come and patch up one of my men who had been wounded one way or another. There were even a few times he’d had to patch me up.

“You’ll probably be sore for a few days but I can give you some painrelief.”When Riley didn’t say anything, I stood up and shook his hand.

“She’s not been sleeping well, is there anything you can give her tohelp?” I asked, looking back at Riley who didn’t flinch at my confession that I knew she hadn’t slept a full night in over a week.

I’d been checking in on her each night using the hidden cameras inher room. Since the shit with Luis, she’d been having trouble sleeping.

“I can give her a mild sedative,” Harris said before rummaging in hisbag. He pulled out a couple of pill pots and explained one was for pain relief and the other would help her sleep before saying his goodbyes and telling me to expect his bill.

Money grabbing asshole.

“You need to get some rest, Riley,” I ordered her once the door closedbehind Harris. She looked exhausted, and as I ran my thumb down her uninjured cheeks, her eyelids fluttered closed. “Jacqueline will help you get undressed and I’ll come back to check on you shortly.”

“I don’t want to be alone, Kai.” Her eyes flew open and were filledwith fear. And fuck, I wanted nothing more than to forget this mess until the morning and stay with her all night, but I needed to find out what the fuck had happened to her and we needed to locate Anderson before the trail went cold for a second time.

“I promise you, Riley, no one will have access to your room exceptme and Jacqueline and I trust her with my life. I won’t let anyone hurt you ever again.”

I tried to be reassuring and it must have worked because she didn’targue. Either that or she really was justthatexhausted. I kissed her on the forehead and then stood to leave the room.

“Look after her, Jacqueline.” I looked at the woman who had workedfor my family for pretty much her entire life, hell she had even helped raise me as a child. She gave me a small smile, something she hadn’t done since the day I took over from my father, but for her to do that now, she must have known what Riley meant to me.

“Of course, Mr. Wolfe,” the maid replied curtly, and as I left the room,she carefully helped Riley into a sitting position to help her out of her dress.

I closed the door softly, taking a minute to calm the white-hot ragebubbling underneath the surface. I needed to keep a cool head if I wanted to get to the bottom of this shitshow.

The problem was, when it came to Riley, I was likely to shoot first,ask questions later.

Making my way to my office, I found Hendrix, Danny, and Milesalready waiting, all three looking solemn.

Hendrix and Danny were seated in the chairs opposite my desk,Hendrix held a glass of whiskey while Danny had the deepest scowl set on his face. Miles stood, leaning against the wall with his head back, staring at the ceiling. None of them had changed from their tuxes but they’d all ditched their bow ties. Their eyes fell on me as I walked in and made my way around to myside of the desk.

“How is she?” Miles asked timidly.

It was like holding a red rag to a bull.

“How the fuck do you think she is? That prick throttled her to the pointwhere she was barely conscious and you-” I pointed at him so there was no mistaking that I was holding him personally responsible, “were supposed to be watching her! What the fuck happened?”

I was seething, so much that my hand shook. I grabbed the crystalwhiskey decanter that sat on my desk and poured myself a glass to try and quell some of the fury thrumming in my veins. It took an awful lot of control to not launch the decanter at Miles’ head.

“Someone hacked the feed, Boss. They set up a loop to play a clip ofthe empty corridor,” Miles said sheepishly.

“Explain that to me again, Miles, because you are supposedly thebest fucking hacker money can buy and yet you’re telling me someone what, out hacked you?”

“I had no way of knowing, Boss,” he said quietly. “It was only when Ihacked back into the system, I could see there had been an overwrite from an anonymous source. There was no way of knowing someone had done that.”

I didn’t understand all the tech shit he spoke about, I didn’t need toknow, that’s why I employed him. And as much as I didn’t want to admit it because it was far easier to blame Miles for this fuck up, but he really was damn good at his job and I believed him when he said there was no way he would have known.

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