Page 96 of Explode
“He doesn’t know Kai’s alive though. I only found that out after I triedto end it with him. And then we spent that day together, and I started to like you….I didn’t want to betray you. I thought we could be friends,” she added, her voice wavering. “I’m so sorry, Riley, I had no idea Owen would do something like this. I trusted him.”
She burst into tears again, her wails ringing around the confines ofthe van. I pulled her back into my arms and started stroking her soft skin, whispering words of comfort to her. There was no point being pissed, what was done was done, and the poor girl was beating herself up enough as it was.
As the sound of gunshots died away, the van seemed to pick upspeed as we hurtled towards our destination. Sofia sobbed for the rest of the journey, and I was too lost in thoughts about how the hell to get out of this situation to speak.
I knew without a shadow of a doubt that as soon as Kai got wind ofwhat had happened, he’d want to come to my rescue. It wouldn’t matter if Ash had cracked the system or not, and that was if we were being taken to the apartment building in the first place. It wouldn’t matter whether Kai had enough manpower on his side to take down Hendrix and The Stags. It wouldn’t matter if he died again, so long as he got me free. There would be no stopping Kai.
A deep-rooted fear took hold, strong enough to make my body shake.
I couldn’t lose Kai.
Not again.
No. I wasn’t going to be a damsel in distress, waiting to be rescued.
This time, I was going to save myself so Kai didn’t have to.
How the hell I was going to do that though, I had no fucking clue, butthere had to be a way. Taking a deep breath to stop the tears that wanted to fall, I exhaled slowly, reminding myself who I was.
I was a Wolfe.
Kai believed in me.
Miles believed in me.
I just had to believe in myself.
The van started to slow, and outside, bangs sounded before the vancame to a stop.
“Riley, what’s going to happen?” Sofia asked, her voice hoarse fromwhere she’d been crying so much, but the panic was obvious.
“I don’t know,” I said, gripping her hand as the doors were flung open,and a bright light filled the van, making me squint.
“Get them out of there,” a deep voice bellowed, and a second latertwo men jumped into the back of the van, aiming straight for where Sofia and I were huddled. From the clothes they were wearing, I knew they weren’t the men who had bundled us in the back of the van at the house, and they weren’t wearing balaclavas.
Recognition dawned on me as soon as the second man approachedme.
Ernie.
He grabbed my arm and yanked me up at the same time the otherman pulled Sofia to her feet.
My mind raced.
Had Ernie known about the attack? If he did, why hadn’t he warnedus it was going to happen?
Had Ernie double-crossed us?
The familiar feeling of betrayal seeped through me, followed by adeep sense of helplessness. Could we fucking trust anyone?
The man who had grabbed Sofia pulled her out of the van, ignoringher cries of protest. Her legs gave way, and she fell to the floor, wailing. My heart broke for the poor girl, she was petrified of what was going to happen to her.
“For fuck sake, get her up!” a male voice boomed.
Suddenly, I felt my t-shirt being tugged up at the side, and a coldmetal object pressed against my skin before being tucked into the waistband of my jeans, and my t-shirt pulled back down. My head whipped to the side where I met Ernie’s eyes.
“It’s the best I can do for now, but I’ll come back for you,” Erniewhispered, his voice drowned out by the wails of Sofia.
My eyes widened as a pang of hope shot through me.
