Page 69 of Riot’s Revenge

A dark chorus of agreement moved through the room.

Outside, cold air hit hard after the suffocating heat inside the building.

Ghost lit a cigarette immediately while Reaper leaned against the bikes, holding his ribs like stubbornness alone was keeping him upright.

“Told you idiots they were stupid enough to stay,” Reaper muttered.

Ghost snorted smoke toward him. “Yeah, real tactical genius from the guy who got folded by a crowbar three weeks ago.”

“Still prettier than you.”

“Uh, don’t think so.” Ghost smirked and winked at Reaper.

“That concussion made your standards worse,” Reaper replied, with a look of mock disgust on his face.

There was a slight pause before laughter broke loose around the brothers. Even I laughed.

Then pain thumped in my shoulder. Bad enough that my smile immediately faded as dizziness washed over me hard enough to blur the lot sideways for a second.

I looked down slowly to see that blood had soaked through my shirt beneath my hand almost instantly.

Huh.

“That ain’t ideal,” I muttered.

Ghost frowned first. “Riot?”

I pulled my hand away slightly and stared at the blood coating my palm beneath the security lights. Too much blood. The world tilted hard sideways.

“Ah,” I said thickly. “Well, that explains the dizziness.”

Then, the ground slammed into me.

29

MARIA

Riot had left me alone since the morning at the bakery.

There were no calls, no texts, and no random appearances outside the clinic pretending he just happened to be nearby. A couple of times I’d seen bikes slow near the apartment or outside work, and every stupid part of me had looked automatically, hoping to see him sitting there smoking with that calm expression like nothing in the world could touch him.

It never was.

I kept telling myself the distance was probably for the best. I’d asked him to leave me alone, and he had. That didn’t stop me checking every black bike that passed.

The clinic had been steady all night. Nothing dramatic. Mostly flu symptoms, a broken wrist from a drunk guy falling down stairs and an elderly woman who kept trying to flirt with one of the interns while I checked her blood pressure.

Quiet enough that my thoughts kept drifting to places I didn’t want them to. I was halfway through updating charts when my phone vibrated across the desk.

Unknown number. Normally, I ignored those calls, but something made me answer anyway.

“Maria?”

Reaper. The worry in his voice hit me immediately.

“What happened?”

Road noise and wind crackled through the line, followed by somebody swearing in the background.