Page 82 of Riot

She let out a slow exhale and dropped her tablet onto a side table. “Thanks, Riot. Really.”

I nodded once, and before I could respond, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I checked the screen and saw that it was Creed calling.

“Gimme a second,” I told her, stepping outside and taking the call.

“Yo.”

“She agreed,” Creed said on the other end. “Mama’s gonna check in to St. August on Friday.”

I closed my eyes for a moment, pressing my fingers to the bridge of my nose. “Damn. For real?”

“Yeah. Took some convincing. I think she’s more scared than she lets on. But she’s tired.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

There was a silence on the line. A heavy one.

“I feel like we failed her,” I admitted. “We let her carry too much for too long. I feel guilty because I’m the one that pulled the trigger.”

“You think I don’t feel that shit every day? We can’t do that to ourselves. I knew when I caught pops and kidnapped his nastyass that there would be fall out. I didn’t think Mama would lose her mind though.” Creed said. “But she’s still here. That means we got time to make it right. Let’s just start with this.”

I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. “I’ll be there Friday.”

“Good. She’ll need both of us.”

We hung up, and I stood there for a moment, staring out across the vineyard.

The sky was starting to turn, a wash of gray cutting through the blue. The storm was coming, in more ways than one.

Boaz.

Mama.

Allure.

They were all wrapped around the same wire inside me, pulling me in every direction.

And somehow, I had to hold it all together without breaking.

But for her, for them, I’d try like hell.

Chapter 25

ALLURE

Riot had become my sanctuary.

I hadn’t meant for it to happen, but it did. The more days that passed, the more I felt tethered to him. Not just because he saved me, not just because he gave me a place to feel human again—but because, somehow, he made me feel safe. Like I could breathe without glancing over my shoulder. Like I wasn’t prey anymore.

But that safety came with questions I hadn’t answered yet. Was I falling for a man who lived by violence? A man with blood on his hands and enemies at every corner? Maybe. But even that truth didn’t shake the strange calm I felt whenever he was near. And yet, a part of me—deep, quiet—kept whispering: be careful.

I couldn’t afford to depend on someone else to give me peace. I wanted to build a life of my own now that I was free. I wanted to make something that belonged to me and no one else. I really wanted my fashion empire and a place of my own. There was no way I could go from being a captive of Boaz to living off anotherman. I was grateful for Riot and I was falling for him. But I wanted to see what it was like to be on my own for a bit.

I also wanted to know what really happened to my father. Who took him from me? Why did no one came looking? I couldn’t move forward until I had those answers.

I left Riot’s room and wandered through the hallways until I reached the glass room, his sanctuary of another kind. The terrarium and aquarium room. The temperature dropped the second I stepped in, cool and thick with moisture. The sound of slow-moving water trickled from one of the tanks.

Exotic fish glided through neon-lit tanks, their scales catching every color like living jewels. To the right, massive glass terrariums stretched wall to wall. Inside one, a large emerald green python uncoiled itself, lifting its head, tongue flicking the air.

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