Page 27 of Explode
“Riley!” Miles yelled, panic lacing his tone.
I braced myself for the shitstorm about to come my way. Miles hadbeen very vocal about making sure Riley was ready to find out that I was still alive, and we’d been deceiving her all this time. He knew as well as I did that it would be hard for her to take.
Miles’ worried face appeared around the corner, his shouldersslumping in relief when he saw Riley was safe, only to instantly tense when he saw me standing opposite her.
“Kai. What the fuck?” he yelled angrily. But the fact he wasn’tsurprised to see me alive and breathing told Riley all she needed to know.
It took less than two seconds for the penny to drop. She looked fromMiles to me, and then back to Miles again, her lips pressing into a thin, disapproving line.
“You knew, didn’t you?” she said, the hurt evident in her voice.
His shoulders slumped again. “Riley, I can explain-”
“Explain?” she said, cutting him off, as more tears welled in her eyesand slid down her cheeks at the depth of our betrayal. “How can you explain this, Miles? You told me he died. You’ve witnessed my heart breaking every damn day. There’s nothing you could say that can explain-” Her words faltered as grief took over.
Guilt flooded me, and even though it hadn’t been my decision to takethis route initially, I still went along with it when I should have insisted she be told the truth at the first opportunity. I felt like a grade A cunt. I’d hurt my wife, one thing I vowed never to do.
“Riley-” I started, ready to throw myself down and grovel at her feet.
“No,” she snapped, turning her hate-filled eyes on me. “No. I don’twant to hear it. The pair of you can get fucked.”
And with that, she stormed past the two of us. A growl started in mychest and I stepped forward, ready to go after her.
“Save it, Kai,” Miles said, stepping in front of me. “She won’t get far,the guys upstairs won’t let her out of their sight.”
I ground my teeth but I knew he was right, she would need time tocool down. I knew my Star well, whenever I’d done shit to piss her off, she needed time to think things over. Granted, she’d probably need more than a few days given the enormity of this fuck up, but she’d come round.
She would have to, it’s not like she could leave my ass, she was mywife. Even if she tried to run from me, I’d hunt her down to the ends of the earth before bringing her home and tying her to my bed until she saw fucking sense.
“Kai, what the hell were you thinking? What are you even doinghere?” Miles barked, snapping my attention back to him after it had been fixed on the door Riley had stormed through.
I turned my angry gaze on him. “I was thinking I was done with notbeing with my wife anymore.”
“We had a plan-”
“I don’t give a fuck. We’ll come up with a new one.”
“Come up with a new one? Kai, for fuck sake, we’ve spent six monthsplanning this!” Miles yelled.
I can’t say I cared for his tone, and with the anxious knot growingbigger in my gut over how Riley had reacted, his attitude was enough to make me snap. Leaping forward, I gripped him by his shirt.
“Listen here, fuckwit. You might not understand it, but I couldn’t stayaway from her. I didn’t fucking know she was going to be here, I thought you two were at the meeting with the Bianchis. But the second she ran down here, I couldn’t not touch her.”
The anger faded as a rare ball of emotion clogged my throat. Rileywas my weakness, the only person on the planet who could bring these feelings out of me. Miles’ scowling face turned into one of sympathy as he knocked my hands away, and straightened his shirt.
“You’re wrong. I do get it,” he replied with a sigh. “But I hope youknow what you are doing, ‘cos this could ruin everything we’ve been working towards.”
“She’ll come around,” I replied confidently, because Riley would havelittle choice in the matter.
A pause passed between us before he sighed, resignation etched onhis face. “You could have gone about telling her a little better.”
“Probably. But when have you ever known me to do things the rightway?”
He stared at me in disbelief but then chuckled. “Never. You reallythink she’ll come around?”
“She has no choice, I’m her husband,” I replied, earning agroan from Miles.
“You really are something else,” he grumbled before his eyes fell toAlex. “He dead?”
