Page 104 of Riot

“If he was, your mom would’ve been insistent you leave tonight. She wasn’t, right?”

“No, she just said he’d had a turn.”

“If you want to go tonight, we can.”

I grab my phone. “I have to find some accommodation for us, staying at my parents’ house isn’t an option.”

“I can do that.”

I glance up at him. “It’ll give me something to do when we get home, take my mind off things.”

He brings my hand to his mouth, kissing my knuckles. “I’ll take your mind off things another way.”

I smirk. “I’m sure you can.”

I tingle when I think about what he did to me on the couch when I gave him the breathing otter. It was so freaking hot. The man has a sex drive like I’ve never known and I’m here for it. The fact he loved the stuffed toy, and he didn’t find it dumb, makes me feel ten feet tall. But that’s just Riot; he’s the whole package. No matter what my family thinks about him, or more his part in the NOLA Rebels, I’m not going to let them pick Riot apart. Or me. I’m done with their narrow mindedness, and maybe it’s time I started voicing things a little better. I don’t need to get mad. I don’t need to yell. I just need to set the record straight. Dad may not be in a position to hear it, but Mom certainly is. After what they put me through and the emotional trauma of almost forcing me on this arrogant asshole, I’m newly entitled to tell them that they’re not going to rule my life anymore. I’m a grown ass woman and I’ve proved I can stand on my own two feet.

He nods to my half-eaten bowl. “Did you want to take that with us?”

I nod. “I can reheat it later if I get hungry. My appetite is just kind of off right now.”

“I’ll get the check and we can wrap that up.”

I smile gratefully, excusing myself to the ladies’ room so I can have a private panic in there by myself. My dad’s health is paramount, and while my parents aren’t getting any younger, he’s always been pretty fit and healthy.

I shoot him a text.

Me:

Hey Dad, Mom just called. I’m sorry you’ve been unwell. I’ll be home in the morning to see you x

I hit send before I chicken out. I don’t expect him to reply, but it’s the right thing to do. If anything ever happened and we never got to talk again, I’d never forgive myself. Sometimes. you just have to be the bigger person.

I send a silent prayer that everything will be okay and I pull myself together.

I check the doggie cam while I’m in the bathroom and I smile when I see Cookie making his way to his water bowl, has a big boy’s drink and meanders back to his fluffy bed. How can you miss a dog you’ve barely even known? But I do. I miss him after a couple of hours of being out. I need to get back to my dog. He’s my version of the breathing otter. Maybe we were brought into each other's lives for that very reason; maybe Cookie was sent to glue the foundations together. I smile when I think about that; about our newly formed little family.

It’s going to be okay,I tell myself.It’ll all be okay.

I lay against Riot’s back in the bath, enjoying the hot suds and steam. Cookie’s lying on the bathmat just next to us, and he’s snoring.

“Did you ever have any pets growing up?” I ask.

Riot’s hands are at my hips, my back to his front. It feels so natural lying like this, so normal. “Charles had a dog, but he was old and grumpy. He lived till he was eighteen. Some watchdog,” Riot chuckles. “I always liked dogs though. I never had one of my own before because I was always movin’ around and had no stability — that wouldn’t be fair and frankly, I didn’t wanna get too attached to anyone or anythin’. It made the job easier.”

“Do you miss it?”

“Not as much as I thought I would.”

“So it’s not hard? Killing people?”

“When you say it like that, it sounds pretty bad, but you gotta remember these people weren’t the pillars of society. They were bad people.”

“Then you were doing the world a service?”

“I like to think so.” He slides his hand over my stomach; an area I try to avoid bringing attention to because I have a tummy. Riot doesn't seem to mind though. “I like to think that the world is a better place because I offed a few drug cartel leaders, corrupt politicians and underworld figures. Doesn’t mean they don’t pop up out of the woodwork somewhere else, but it all helps.”

“Does the fact there’s been a prospect tailing us have anything to do with that?”

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