Page 75 of Collide

Instead, I turned my glare to the other two.

“And how the fuck did he get away from you two?” My tone wasdeadly, they had both seen me this angry in the past and it usually resulted in blood being splattered.

Neither one spoke for a minute until Danny found his balls.

“We chased him down the back streets of City Hall, he had a goodthirty seconds on us and it was enough of a head start for him to get into a waiting car.”

I downed my drink and poured myself another one.

“Did you get anything about the car?”

“It was on false plates, just like the van was. Miles has already runthe plates,” Hendrix finally spoke up. “I managed to get a shot off and it shattered the rear window, but it was gone before I could get a decent aim.”

“Fuck,” I sighed and scrubbed my hands down my face.This was a fucking nightmare, I was no closer to finding this fuckingAndersonnow than what I was three months ago when Theo’s body had been found, and now Riley had been targeted.

“I want the CCTV for the ball reviewed, I want to know when that cuntcame in, who he was with and I want a picture of him put out to everyone in our gangs. Put out a $50,000 reward for anyone who gives me information that leads to the cunt being caught alive. Is that understood?”The three of them murmured their acknowledgment. “Good, now get the fuck out of my sight.”

Once I was alone, I stood and stared out the window to my city below,the image of Riley’s petrified face when Anderson had hold of her haunted me. I had never been so fucking scared.

The tiny woman had only been in my life for a little over two weeksand yet she had become my everything. I didn’t know what I would do if I lost her now. She didn’t know it but just being a constant presence was helping to put the shattered fragments of my heart back together after losing Theo, and if I lost that now, I wasn’t sure I would survive.

I didn’t regret anything in my life, but right now, yeah I was regrettingmy path ever colliding with my precious Star.

Chapter 21

Riley

Ididn’ttakethepills the doctor left to help me sleep. I couldn’t, I didn’twant to be left alone.

Yeah, I was being a coward.

But as soon as Jacqueline turned the lights off and left, I didn’t wantto be on my own. I lay there for a few minutes under the covers, trying to tell myself to be brave, and that no one would be able to get to me. But when the events of the evening started playing on my mind and the fog in my head cleared, I was scared.

And then, as I replayed the events a second time around, I bolted upin bed, remembering what Anderson had said.

“You could have just come easily, Riley, my boss won’t kill you justyet. You’re going to be leverage. You’ll regret the day you made that deal with Wolfe.”

It wasn’t sitting right in my head, Kai wasn’t the sort of person to bragabout things, or at least I didn’t think he was. I supposed I didn’t really know him all that well. But Anderson making reference to our deal, it bothered me.

Likereallyfucking bothered me.

Because if Kai had only told a handful of close associates, someonehad betrayed his confidence.

And therefore, his trust.

There was only one way I was ever going to know and that was tospeak to Kai, and I wasn’t going to wait until morning.

Throwing my covers back and grabbing my robe to cover up my sleepshorts and vest, I opened my door and crept out of my room. I still didn’t know where Kai’s room was though so I figured I’d start with his office, he’d only left me an hour or so ago anyway, chances were, he was still going over the details of everything that happened with the three musketeers.

Sure enough, as I padded silently down the hallway, I found a sliverof light coming from where the door to his office stood ajar. As I got closer, I listened for voices, not wanting to interrupt any meetings he may be in the middle of, but I was met with a deathly silence.

Nerves suddenly got the better of me, I don’t know why, maybebecause I wasn’t sure what mood I would find Kai in, or rather howbada mood he would be in. Swallowing down the ball of fear lodged in my throat, I knocked gently on the door.

“Yeah,” came the gruff reply, it sounded like he had the weight of theworld on his shoulders.

I thought maybe this was a bad idea and I should have just goneback to my room but I couldn’t ignore the feeling of something being wrong in my gut. Pulling up my big girl panties, I pushed open the door to find Kai with his back to me, staring out the window.He’d lost his suit jacket and bowtie, his shirt was taut across his broad shouldersand he’d rolled his sleeves up to the elbows, his tattoos on his forearm on full display. Even from behind he was god damn fine.

Kai didn’t turn to look at me, but he knew exactly who had come intohis office.

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