Page 95 of Collide

His once long afro hair was now shaved, and his dark skin wascovered in a variety of tattoos, too many for me to get a look at. He looked good, and whatever he had been doing since leaving Hollows Bay had done wonders for him.

He’d left the city about a month after Angel and I went to live with Joeand I’d been sad to say goodbye to the only friend I had. Every so often he popped into my head, and I had always wondered where he was and what he was doing.

Clearly jumping into his arms was the wrong thing to do because thesecond his arms curled around me, I heard the clicking of three sets of guns being cocked. I spun around in Toby’s arms to find Danny and the two goons with their guns pointing at Toby.

Thankfully, they couldn’t shoot.Mainly because we were surrounded by shocked partygoers who hadcome to a standstill to watch the drama unfold, and for another, I stood directly in front of Toby, preventing any of them from taking a clean shot at my old friend.

“Wow,” Toby said behind me as he raised his hands above his head. Irolled my eyes.

“Fuck sake, put the guns down. He’s a friend of mine,” I huffed atDanny. He glared at me for a minute, and when I put my hands on my hips and raised an eyebrow as if to say,‘It’s not like you can shoot with me standing here’, he finally lowered his gun, followed by the other two macho morons.

“Say goodbye to your friend, Riley, it’s time to go,” Danny growled, hisbeady eyes fixed on Toby. But if he thought I was going to walk away from someone who I hadn’t seen inyears, he had another thing coming.

“Yeah, yeah, in a minute.” I waved my hand dismissively and turnedback to Toby.

Danny cussed behind me as Toby nervously lowered his hands. “What are you doing here, Toby? You look great.” I beamed up at him,he was taller than what I remembered. Maybe it was because he had beefed up, but he seemed to tower over me. He had a hard edge to his face like he’d dealt with a lot of shit over the years, but his eyes were the same. Kind and warm and filled with a fondness towards me like they had been the very first time he’d laid eyes on me.

Toby had helped me so much when I first arrived in the city, okay, sohe had taught me to shoplift, but if he hadn’t, Angel and I would have starved. I owed him a lot and he became a good friend, perhaps that’s why I’d given him my virginity one chilly evening after he ‘borrowed’a car and had driven the two of us out to a secluded wooded area with a bottle of cheap wine.

“I could say the same about you, girl, you look incredible.” His eyes roamed up and down my body, but it didn’t feel like he wasdoing it in a sleazy way, more like making sure I was okay. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s a long story,” I laughed and waved my hand casually. “I thoughtyou’d moved from Hollows Bay?”

“I did, but I’m back visiting family,” he said.

A little voice in the back of my head reminded me that Toby didn’thave a family, he’d been a kid in the system years before I was because his parents were killed in a car crash and there was no one else he could stay with. Before I could ask how he’d found family, he spoke again.

“I’ve got a kid now, a little girl named Jess.”

“Oh, Toby, that’s great,” I grinned at him, distracting me from askingabout his family. Good for Toby, he deserved to be happy.

“So how come you’re here in this club?” I asked, briefly wonderingwhy Toby would be in West Bay when he had previously lived in East Bay.

“What I would like to know is,” a deep voice rumbled from behind me,one I’d recognize in my sleep. A strong arm wrapped around my belly and pulled me back against a solid chest and the scent of Kai wrapped around me, sending goosebumps across my skin. “Why the fuck you had your hands on my girl.”

Oh fuck.

Chapter 26

Kai

TheimageofRileythrowing her arms around the cunt was burnedinto my mind as I stormed from my office and headed towards the tunnel she was currently in.

I’d only stopped into my office to check the cameras to see whereRiley and Danny were after he texted me to say he was showing her around the club.It would have been bad enough if it was just some random prick, butimagine my surprise when I zoomed in on the footage and saw the stag tattoo on his neck.

What were the chances of a random gang member from the city I hadjust spent the last four days suddenly appearing in my club? A club where I knew and approvedeveryfucking member.

Thoughts raced through my head, barely noticing Hendrix and Mileswere right behind me as I thundered along the corridor heading towards the door that would take me into the champagne bar.

I’d been back in Hollows Bay for less than ten goddamn minutes onlyto come back to this shit. I was already agitated, needing to get my hands on Riley, and the entire journey had been fucking torture.

We’d wasted another day in Huntsville trying to get information out ofAnderson’s ex-girlfriend, but it was pointless. The only thing she was able to tell us was Anderson was clinically unstable, something of which I was already well fucking aware of. She hadn’t been able to give us any indication of his current whereabouts nor why he would be involved in the murder of Theo, as far as she could remember Anderson had never mentioned the city of Hollows Bay.

Pinning my hopes that Miles would be able to get somewhere withthe phone he had found, we set off on the journey home.

The whole way, I’d been thinking about my Star. I’d let Dannytake her to Sapphire knowing my little minx wasn’t doing so well being cooped up in the penthouse.Someone like Riley wasn’t designed to be locked up in a cage, evenif it was a golden one. Sapphire was the only other safe place she could be, I had eyes and ears everywhere, and I knew Kimmy would take care of Riley until I got there.

I wanted to surprise her, the entire way home I’d been imagining herreaction when I walked into the champagne bar where I'd told Danny to bring her, she’d see me, come running over, and throw herself into my arms. I’d give her a deep, bruising kiss, letting every fucker in the place know Riley belonged to me.

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