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“I want better.”
For one long second, she just stared at me. Then she whispered, “Okay.”
I still didn’t touch her and apparently that annoyed her.
Maria rolled her eyes. “Riot.”
“What?”
“You can kiss me now.”
That was all I fucking needed. I caught her face between my hands and kissed her. Not the way I used to when I wanted to turn every emotion between us into sex before either of us had to talk about it. That one was slow and careful, I just got her back, I didn’t want to scare her away.
Maria’s fingers curled into the front of my shirt.
When I pulled back, I rested my forehead against hers. “Happy birthday.”
She laughed softly. “Bit dramatic for a birthday present.”
“Got you an actual present too.”
Her head pulled back. “What is it?”
“Not telling you.”
“Riot.”
I grinned. There she was. My girl. Except . . . not yet, and maybe not for a while. I was okay with that, because she was giving me another chance and I wasn’t going to waste a fucking second of it.
32
MARIA
Music blasted through the speakers while brothers crowded around the bar and women drifted between tables carrying drinks. I’d been sitting beside Riot, nursing a beer and pretending I wasn’t watching him every few minutes. It had been two weeks since my birthday, things were still strained between us, and I was finding it hard to fully let myself go with him.
One moment I was sitting beside Riot half-listening to an argument between Reaper and Ghost, and the next the front window shattered with a deafening crack. Glass sprayed across the floor as somebody screamed near the bar. For a moment, I just stared, unable to process what I’d seen, while the music cut off mid-song and chaos erupted around me.
Brothers were on their feet before I’d even processed the gunshot. Chairs crashed backwards. Women scrambled for cover. Somebody yelled a warning that disappeared beneath another burst of gunfire.
My heart lurched into my throat as shouting erupted around me. Riot was already on his feet, and I barely recognized him. The man who had been teasing me moments earlier had vanished completely. I’d seen him angry before. I’d seen him laugh, smirk, flirt and lose his temper, but this was something else entirely. Every trace of emotion had disappeared from his face, leaving behind a cold focus that sent a chill down my spine.
“Go out the back.”
I thought I’d misheard him. “What?”
Another gunshot sounded somewhere beyond the front doors and my entire body jerked. Riot stepped in front of me, blocking out the chaos unfolding around us, and closed his hands around my shoulders. The look on his face made my stomach knot.
“Maria, I need you to listen to me. Go upstairs, lock yourself in one of the rooms and don’t come out until I come for you.”
“What about you?”
“Maria.”
The single word stopped me cold. It wasn’t anger that made my stomach drop. It was the fact that, for the first time since I’d met him, Riot sounded afraid.
My mouth went dry as I stared up at him. The noise around us seemed to fade into the background, leaving only the two of us standing in the middle of the chaos.
“Riot . . .”
