Page 32 of Explode
Thoughts ran wild as to where she might be. What if one of The Stags had grabbed her while she was walking brazenly through the streets? What if Thorne or Hendrix had spotted her?
I paced up and down the room we were holding Alex in, resisting theurge to punch my hand through the wall. It was probably a good job he was still unconscious, I wasn’t sure I’d have the restraint to take my time with him with all the pent-up anger I had swirling inside of me.
Just then, the door swung open and Miles marched in. “We foundher,” he said, and relief flooded my body at his words.
“Thank fuck. Where is she?”
He didn’t answer straight away, and relief quickly turned back to fear. “She’s at the Bianchi house.”
I stopped in my tracks. Of all the things I thought Miles would say,that was not one of them.
“Come again?”
“You heard, she’s at the Bianchis,” Miles said, amusement glinting inhis eyes. Why the fucker thought this was a laughing matter, I had no clue.
I knew all about the meeting Miles and Riley were due to have earlierwith old man Bianchi, hell, I’d signed off on it. Like Miles, when he first told me Riley had suggested trying to get the Bianchis on our side, I’d been against it, but when I thought about it, it made a whole lot of sense.
Hendrix knew better than anyone how much the Wolfes and theBianchis despised each other, the last thing he’d think was that we would ask the Bianchis for help. It was something I’d never considered when I’d been informed the Bianchis were preparing to attack. My answer had been for us to strike before they had the chance, even if we weren’t ready. There was no fucking way I was going to see the Bianchis rule over my city.
But this wasexactlywhy I wanted Riley to be part of my reign. Shewas my calm in the storm, she saw things from a different angle. Her answer would always be to help people, my answer would always be to kill people. Together, we balanced each other out.
It was part of the reason I agreed for Miles to not tell Riley the truththe second I woke up after my surgeries. I needed my wife to believe she was in charge of Hollows Bay. I needed her to see that she had the strength in her to make those difficult decisions when she needed to. I needed her to fall in love with ruling the city and see the difference she could make.
But Riley didn’t grow up in my world, and she would have alwaysbeen content to take a back seat and let me deal with things my way. But I didn’t want that, I wanted her by my side, I wanted us to make decisions together.
I wanted Hollows Bay to be ours, not just mine.
Unfortunately for Riley, it meant she had to break before she couldcome back stronger, but fuck me, had she risen to the challenge. She may not have wanted to accept her position, and she may not have realized it, but over the past six months, she was the one who was making all the decisions.
Sure, Miles was making some of the suggestions, but when sheeventually looked back on their time together, she’d seeshewas the one who decided on what course of action to take.
And that’s why I backed my girl when she made the decision to makea new deal with the Bianchis. If she thought she could make a deal, then I trusted her. If anyone could get the Bianchis to agree to a truce, it was my Star.
“Care to tell me why my wife is at the Bianchi house?” I growled,losing my patience.
“Well, cousin. If you hadn’t pulled your little stunt earlier, I would havehad a chance to contact you and tell you Georgio agreed to a deal,” Miles replied, smirking.
“He did?” I asked as pride in my wife took over some of my anger.
“What were the terms?”
“Oh, you’re going to love this,” Miles said, folding his arms across hischest, and losing the smirk. “Bianchi wanted an alliance.”
For the second time in as many minutes, Miles stopped me in mytracks. An alliance between two families meant marriage, and there was no fucking way Riley was marrying one of the Bianchis. Not that she could when she was already married to me, she just wouldn’t have known I was still alive at the time she made the deal.
“Cool your jets, she made it crystal clear she wasn’t marrying anyone.She was loyal to your dead ass,” Miles said, correctly sensing I was about to explode.
I stared at him as the cogs turned, and then realization dawned onme that if Riley wasn’t going to be the link between us and the Bianchis, it must be him.
“You’re going to marry the Bianchi girl?” I said, a sly grin spreading onmy face at the thought of Miles getting married.
“You should be thanking me instead of smirking at me, Kai. Riley wasabout thirty seconds away from telling Georgio to shove his deal up his ass, and you know how that would have ended.”
My smirk grew wider until I couldn’t keep it in any longer. For the firsttime in six months, I laughed. I threw my head back and laughed, a real deep belly laugh at Miles’ expense.
Miles never wanted to settle down. He wasn’t a commitment type ofguy, he was too in love with his technology and snooping into people’s lives to focus on a woman. Not to mention he had certain kinks not every woman was happy to fulfill.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, dickhead,” he hissed, glaring daggers at me.
