Chapter Twenty-One
Vine Street
A s they drove up and down Vine, there could only be one place that the janitor had meant, and it had to be the same place Marissa was staying. All the other buildings didn’t fit the description.
Besides, it made sense, in a way, that the pimp would keep his girls close. It only brought up the question of what was going on in the basement?
They were curious.
It was likely the cop in all of them.
Once there, after checking the whole street, it had to be it.
As they got out of their ride, there were hookers and what looked to be pimps hanging at the corner.
Before going in there, they’d ask a few questions.
Who knew what they’d find out?
When Emma told him her plan, Greyson agreed to let his wife do her thing. As she headed toward the gaggle of girls, they all turned to check her out.
Immediately, they tried to walk away.
“I will shoot you all, and since I’m not a cop, no one will find your bodies.”
That had their attention.
It also made Chris and Greyson nearly laugh. Emma wouldn’t shoot them, but clearly, they bought into the hype of the mob family.
The men moved forward.
“Hey, red! I saw you and the chubby one on the news. You like getting your grove on? You can pick a girl and have a foursome.”
“Did he just call me chubby?” Chris asked Greyson. “Really?”
Greyson patted his chest. “It’s the body armor. It does make you look a little…fat.”
“Jesus. What will I do now? A pimp thinks I’m chunky. How will I go on tomorrow? Now who’s going to shoot who?” he asked, pulling back his suit jacket to show off his gun.
“My bad. Chill.”
Emma could see Chris was trying not to laugh. Clearly, he didn’t give a shit on the man’s opinion. The guy looked like he had at least ten diseases, starting with liver failure. He looked a little orange.
“Maybe you can stop checking out his body and focus?” Emma asked.
“Maybe.”
“I pay for information,” she said, taking Greyson’s wallet from him. She pulled out a hundred-dollar bill.
“Who’s up first?”
One girl moved toward her. “You legit?”
“Yep. I’m looking for information on this girl. Do you know her?” she asked, as Chris held his phone up for them to see.
“That’s Julie, but we call her Jewels. She was the gem in her pimp’s crown. She copped a squat here. Fifth floor,” she said.
Emma knew she needed to buy their trust. She handed her a hundred. “What’s your real name? Not street BS.”
“Gabby Del Hoya.”
“Okay, Gabby. Here’s the big question. Did you see her here with her pimp, Gerald?”
She nodded. “He has a place downstairs. He came here on rainy days when they couldn’t do the stroll.”
She knew in Vegas, when people were in for the weather, they headed to hotels, or flops, to play indoors.
As she paid the girl again, they all moved closer. The hookers seemed to think she was legit.
“Who can tell me more about Julie and what she was like?” Emma asked.
The next hooker stepped forward. “I can. We worked together at ‘The Pink Kitty’. I dance there when the weather is bad, or the cops are on the prowl.”
“Well, I’m not a cop. Name?”
“Goldy Byers.”
They all looked at her.
She had big blonde curls.
Emma shook her head. “No, real name.”
“I swear. Hand to God. That’s my name. I use it to strip because it’s…what’s the word?”
“Ironic?” Greyson asked. “Goldie Locks and the three bears?”
“You got it. You’re smart.”
He simply nodded. The streets of Vegas were a mess. Here was the proof. This girl… she was young—too young.
Emma waved a hundred, since the girl was about ready to drool all over her sexy cave-Croft.
“Focus on Ben, not my husband. You won’t ever get a shot at handling his junk, so let it go.”
The woman did that.
“Was anyone hassling her?”
“Other than Gerald? He was an asshole,” Goldy said. “He made her degrade herself. I know you’re thinking…she’s a hooker, she’s degrading herself, but Gerald was a scumbag.”
Croft met him.
He agreed.
“Did he hurt her?”
She nodded.
Emma handed her a bill.
“What else?”
“He’d bring her here with some guy.”
“What guy?” she asked.
“He bounces at the club.”
That had her attention. “Roscoe McKinney?”
She smiled. “YEAH! He’s a letch. He’s always asking for freebies, and frankly, I’d rather fuck a snake.”
She got it.
He skeeved her out too.
It also intrigued her since he was pretty adamant that he didn’t touch her. Not that she believed him at the time, but still…
“So, he knew this place intimately?”
One of the pimps laughed. “Oh yeah. Gerald, and don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he’s gone, has a set up down there.”
She didn’t want to know.
Emma could imagine.
“Name?” she asked.
“Fast Louie.”
She stared at him.
“I don’t have to give you shit, red. You are going to pay them, and they will pay me.”
“Chris. Greyson?” she said.
Both men headed his way.
He looked worried.
Then he took a fist to the gut, one to the face, and he hit the ground.
“Not bad for being chubby, right?”
Emma laughed. “We aren’t the cops. You call them, you turn up in the water treatment plant in the chemical bath. You’re as good as dead. You might want to learn some manners. Red has a temper.”
Greyson lifted a brow. ‘Really?’ he mouthed.
Where did his wife get this stuff?
The chemical bath?
Red has a temper?
She almost laughed out loud.
“Jesus! Okay,” he said, as the girls helped him up. “My name is Casey Fields. I took over Gerald’s corral. I didn’t have to, but I wanted to help the girls out.”
They didn’t buy his kindness at all. He wanted more pussy to sell. They weren’t stupid, but at least now he was scared and he might talk.
“Well, Casey, have any of the girls talked about that basement?”
He shook his head.
“No, but there was one person who sent her girls there to talk to clients. By ‘talk’ I meant with their bodies.”
She got it.
“Who?”
“Stephanie Phelps.”
Emma knew that name sounded familiar. “Grey?”
“She’s the madam who sent Marissa,” he said, keeping his voice low. He was cautious not to use Dimitri’s name. People talked, and he’d protect his friend.
“She sends girls there?”
“She has a clientele that likes certain things of an eclectic manner. That place caters to men who like…domination of sort, and other things.”
They got the picture.
Goldy agreed. “I tried to work for her. It’s safer on the streets. She sends her regulars the new girls first, and then, if they don’t do their job, they get released. That always means a pimp. In this case, Gerald. She has a high turnover.”
“Who gets sent there?” she asked, pointing to the building.
“Anyone Gerald tagged as ‘special’.”
This basement sounded worse and worse.
She handed Goldy money.
“Looks like we’re taking a trip to see a madam,” Emma stated.
“Kinky, red,” stated Casey.
“Fast Louie, if you want to be Dead Louie, keep it up,” Greyson stated.
The man clammed up.
Emma was lost in thought. She could tie a madam to a pimp, who sent her castaways to Gerald, and they ended up at the playpen. Julie worked for Stephanie, and she’s stripped at ‘The Pink Kitty. Then, she was Gerald’s girl who was sold into the sex trade.
Why?
Emma needed to see how they connected, other than that strip club.
Greyson had a question.
“Have you ever seen these girls here?” he asked, thinking about the Jane Does they’d connected to the case.
He showed them the pictures.
“Yeah, they were here. They hung with Gerald and then they just disappeared,” Goldy offered.
That told him everything.
He was the link, his death wasn’t an accident, and he was likely selling the girls off, but how?
There was a player no one was mentioning, but they believed he played a huge role. Anthony Delmarco must have brought them here.
He was the mule for Gerald and the sex ring.
“Thanks for your help,” he said.
Emma handed Goldy more money and headed toward the apartment building.
They were going to go in, kick in a door, and raid the place. All illegally, but it was still going to happen.
“When we leave, we bring Marissa,” she said. “I don’t like it here. This place…it’s the epicenter. Gerald was here, Julie was here, and we need to know how Stephanie, the madam, connects.”
He agreed.
“We also have to figure out how Anthony Delmarco fits this, and what got him shanked. Were they over it? How does Louis Mateo fit this?”
Emma didn’t know.
YET.
But she would. She was on the trail of this sex ring.
“Let’s go see what’s in this creep’s playroom.”
There was one thing he knew.
It wasn’t going to be good.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Across Vegas
Dimitri finally managed to get the doctor to sign out Curtis into his care. All it took was a fistful of cash to persuade him that the man would be in good hands.
It was just more proof that everyone in Vegas was on the take.
Cash was king.
As he was getting them loaded up in an ambulance, his cell rang. It was the house phone and his heart began thumping in his chest.
“Dad, it’s me,” came the innocent voice.
“Are you okay, Sam?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m good. Natasha is here, and I wanted to order a pizza, but she said I had to ask you first if it was okay. I didn’t want to make you mad.”
“First off, you can’t make me angry for wanting food, Sam, so stop worrying about it. Secondly, order a few pizzas for everyone. I’m on my way home with Curtis.”
It got quiet.
“Is he okay? He’s not going to die, right? I like Curtis a lot.”
Dimitri was touched by the affection in his voice for the young man. It proved he was assimilating into the family like he should be.
How could he run?
It would mean taking Sam, too, and that wouldn’t be fair to him.
“No, he’s not going to die. He’s actually doing good. Do you want to talk to him?” Dimitri knew the boy worried about losing any of them. He’d finally found a home, and he was scared.
“Okay.”
He handed his phone to Curtis, who was clearly in pain. “Sam wants to talk.”
He put on a strong face and tried to keep his voice neutral so the child didn’t worry.
“Hey! How’s it going, little buddy? Are you okay?” Curtis asked.
“Are you going to die?”
Curtis laughed. “I’m not dying. In fact, once I’m better, you’re dying in that new game.”
“No way.”
“Yeah, way. Make sure you order a pizza with pepperoni. I need my grease. They wanted to feed me green Jell-O. Who does that to a person?”
The kid laughed. “Total torture. It’s like Emma feeding me yogurt.”
Curtis flinched when the ambulance hit a bump. “Yeah, it is. She’s totally a mom.”
That had Sam relaxing.
“Can I talk to my dad?” he asked.
Dimitri took the phone.
“Yes?”
“Cash or charge?” he asked.
“Tell the housekeeper to use the credit card. I want you and Natasha to stay inside. You’re in charge of protecting her, okay? We have someone coming after us, and I need you to follow her around.”
Dimitri knew it would help Sam to have a job. When he was trying to get Natasha and Katerina to heal, he had to give them something to keep them focused.”
“I’ll keep her safe. You can count on me, Dad!”
“There was never a doubt in my mind, Sam. I’ll be home within the hour. No pizza until we get there.”
“Aww!”
“It’s polite to wait, Sam.”
He sighed. “Okay, Dad. I love you.”
His heart skipped.
“I love you, too, Sam. Be good to your sister and be the man of the house until I get there.”
He hung up.
His heart actually hurt.
Curtis was watching him. “You look upset. What’s going on?”
“I need a favor.”
Curtis lifted a brow and so did Katerina. It wasn’t like this man to ever ask anything from anyone.
He could see it was serious.
“Okay. What?”
“If anything happens to me, I need you both to adopt him and make sure he’s okay. No matter what, you give him love. Please.”
“Dimitri.”
Tears filled Katerina’s eyes. “You can’t say stuff like that, Dimitri. Nothing can happen to you. If you die…”
She couldn’t finish.
Dimitri wrapped his arms around her and whispered in her ear in Russian.
She nodded.
Curtis didn’t want to hear any of this. “You’re going to be fine. Emma and Greyson…”
Dimitri stopped him.
“My blood put that hole in you to get to my sister. He’s not done. He’s going to risk everything. I’m going to be next, after he takes her and Natasha out. He’s going to make me want to suffer. The only way to do that is to hurt my sisters.”
It was true. He’d been tortured, abused, betrayed, and broken, and his soul didn’t matter. He could handle anything the man threw at him.
He couldn’t handle them being hurt.
“Dimitri.”
“Promise me. You’re my favorite.”
Curtis got it.
Greyson had once asked him to take care of Emma if he went down.
“If something happens, I’ll do it. He’ll have me.”
Dimitri did something Curtis didn’t expect. He gave him a kiss on the forehead before leaning into the opening between the driver and the passenger seat of the ambulance.
“Let me out. Take them to the house,” he said, as the Ambulance slowed down.
“Where are you going?” Curtis asked.
“I have something to handle,” he said, as he opened the back doors. When he jumped down, he stared at his sister.
“Get your husband home and stay inside. I’ll be back later.”
He slammed the door, and there was a tap on the ambulance.
Katerina slid to the window to stare out.
He was gone.
“What the hell is he thinking?” Curtis said, seeing the panic in his wife’s eyes.
“I don’t know. I don’t think he is thinking.”
And that worried them.
A lot.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Vine Street
Apartment
Building
There was only one door with a number on it in the basement, so they figured that had to be it. Taking precautions, they knocked.
Nothing.
“This has to be it. Kick it in,” Emma stated.
Greyson stepped back and let Chris have the door. He pulled a gun, and so did Emma.
That was new.
Emma hadn’t carried a sidearm in a while. Clearly, she felt the need to have one. That spoke volumes of the atmosphere in Vegas.
Emma held up her fingers.
Three.
Two.
One.
Chris kicked the door in, and the place was dark, dank, and miserable. Emma hit the light switch and the place flooded with shitty UV light.
That’s when she saw it.
God!
She wished she hadn’t.
There were cages lining the wall.
“I need to think those were for dogs,” Emma said, before anyone could say anything. “Let me pretend and no one destroy that illusion.”
The men knew the truth.
Gerald was a sick fuck. There was a word for what happened there, and it wasn’t training.
It was abuse.
He’d locked girls in them, likely for the enjoyment of buyers. It was a good thing he was dead.
If not, Greyson would have killed him.
Chris picked up a box.
“We have about one hundred discs in here. Anyone want to bet what’s on them?”
Greyson knew the answer to that, too, and it turned his stomach at the mere thought of it.
“He filmed them.”
“Looks like we’re watching garbage later,” Emma stated, digging through the things that were in there. The décor was sparse, but there was pile of personal effects. She hoped they’d find something that would help.
In the pile, she found a purse.
Immediately, she dug through it to find some kind of identification.
It was Julie’s.
“She was here. I found a receipt inside. She was going to a clinic.”
“Health or Methadone?” Croft asked.
“We’ll have to check later.”
“Okay, we’ll take that too,” Greyson said to Chris who was holding the box with all the DVDs. “We can’t be here long. It is breaking and entering with weapons.”
She laughed.
Until she saw the big bed with chains on it.
It stole her breath, and she actually had to wipe her eyes from the horrors that flooded her mind.
Those poor girls.
Someone should have saved them, but no one did, and that was the issue.
“Are you okay?” Chris asked, touching her arm.
Was she?
No.
Would she be?
Maybe.
“Yeah, let’s go get Marissa. I want to be a bitch, and you two don’t deserve it. This place is making me angry.”
Well, they got that.
They followed her out, pulling the door closed behind them. Hopefully, no one would use the place again. That was more of a reason they needed to find the people heading the sex ring.
Playpen, their asses.
It was a room of torture and nothing else.
Upstairs, Greyson knocked on the door to Julie’s old apartment. When no one answered, he banged a little harder, in hopes that Marissa was simply asleep or in the shower.
Still, nothing.
Greyson really hoped and prayed the woman wasn’t out trying to find her sister’s killer by herself. After what they found downstairs, it was dangerous.
The last thing they needed was to lose Marissa and have her turn up in the morgue. Dimitri specifically asked that she be brought to Terrace Glen for a reason.
He had to be worried.
He kicked the door, once more hoping the woman would head their way, and they could head home to where it was a little bit safer.
“She’s not answering,” Chris said.
Before he could comment, the apartment beside Julie’s had a head peeking around the door.
“Are you looking for Julie’s sister?” the girl asked, keeping her voice low.
“Yeah, do you know where she went?”
She shook her head.
“No, but I do know she was dressed up in some of her sister’s clothes as she was heading out.”
Chris’s eyes went big.
Emma, was at her breaking point. “I will kick her ass myself.”
Greyson knew why.
This was going to be bad.
Really, really bad.
Dimitri was going to go nuts.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Marissa had seen them talking to the people on the corner from the one window in her sister’s apartment. It pissed her off that they were giving her menial tasks at ‘Aquarius’ and sending her to the apartment like a child.
She could help.
Whether they liked it or not, she was part of the whole thing. While the family seemed to be hellbent on keeping her out, Marissa was done with it.
She figured if they weren’t going to include her in the investigation, she was going to do it on her own. It’s not like she hadn’t done it before.
She was taking matters into her own hands.
She could ask about Julie, and maybe they’d help her out since her sister had been part of that group. So, with her mind made up, she donned stripper gear, and she hit the street the second she’d seen them disappear into the building.
Marissa figured she’d be fine. After all, the killer wasn’t after her.
She’d get to the bottom of this.
Marissa tried to play nice. She’d called Dimitri but he wasn’t answering his phone, and the Crofts were keeping it quiet by not including her.
It pissed her off.
They weren’t working for her.
They were working for themselves. It was probably some glorified cause of theirs, and she wasn’t going to let them ride her sister’s death to more power and fame.
She was going to solve this on her own.
So, she began her questioning. The hookers on the corner didn’t take her seriously. In fact, they mocked her, and one threatened to cut out her reproductive organs to make earrings.
That’s when she heard someone coming up behind her, and the hookers looked scared.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?”
Marissa turned.
It was Greyson Croft, and he wasn’t alone.
“I was…”
He stopped her. “You’re coming with us. We need to get you to our house.”
“I’m an adult. I really don’t think you can make me do anything. I’m not really happy with how you’re handling things. You haven’t given me an update.”
He was about over all of this. He’d seen the look on his wife’s face, and all of them were rubbed raw.
“Really? Just three nights ago, you stabbed a person. We’ve only been on this case for two whole days. Exactly how many updates do you think you’re getting in forty-eight hours?”
“More than I…”
He stopped her. “We found your sister on day two. How long have you been working this?”
She got angry, but didn’t say anything.
Chris came up beside him.
“She’s insane, isn’t she?” he asked.
“Yeah, she is. She’s trying to find the killer, and she thinks we haven’t updated her enough.”
He laughed. “It’s like day two, isn’t it?”
Granted, it felt like a million years, but that was neither here nor there.
“Exactly. She’s being proactive by playing hooker while a sex ring is going on somewhere in this neighborhood.”
“Well, that’s genius. I mean, she’s playing hooker again, and her sister was a hooker, and look where that got her. Clever.”
Marissa slapped him.
Hard.
Emma had been standing by the ride, but that slap was heard clear over there. Now she was heading their way.
And she was pissed.
“Did you just hit him?” she asked.
“My sister was more than a hooker. She was a human being. You may not care, but I do! She mattered!”
Emma was raw from what she’d seen inside. It killed a piece of her. She didn’t like the game this woman was playing, and she really didn’t like her act of violence.
“Go get in the vehicle. NOW.”
She glared at her. “Fuck you. You’re out for glory and nothing more!”
No.
She.
Didn’t.
Oh, she’d had enough.
Glory?
Curtis had been shot, her family was being torn apart by some sicko, and now this?
She was done.
Emma grabbed her wrist to pull her toward the vehicle, and when Marissa dug her nails into Emma’s arm, to get away, she snapped.
Emma punched her in the face. Luckily for the woman, she pulled her punch or she could have broken her nose.
Both men stared.
Marissa fell back and began crying.
“Listen up, sister. I worked as a cop in this city. I stood in bowels and blood. No one cared more. I should leave your ass here. Only, that would hurt Dimitri. So, get your ass into that vehicle before I put it there.”
Marissa didn’t listen.
“You punched me!”
“You put your hand on my brother, and while he won’t kick your ass, I will. The ONLY things that saved you are that I happen to love Dimitri and that you grew up with a rough life. Anyone else would find their asses in my trunk and on their way to the desert!”
This time, Greyson and Chris actually believed her.
“Chris. Toss her in. We aren’t standing out here so someone can put a bullet into our heads for her. She’s reached her max with compassion.”
“My pleasure,” he said, grabbing the woman and dragging her toward the vehicle.
She began screaming bloody murder.
“I’m going to shoot her,” Emma said, as people began looking out their windows.
Greyson hopped in behind the wheel.
They had to get out of there before the cops arrived. This woman just compromised everything.
“I may just let you.”
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Across Town
Delilah took off her suit for the second time that day and pulled on her sweats. She was beyond mad.
She was frustrated.
She was irritated.
And she wanted to punch some man in his junk.
Unfortunately for her, at that moment, violence wasn’t the answer, and she knew it.
Leaving Riley had been hard for her, even if she’d looked self-assured. The entire time she was kissing him in that interrogation room, she wanted him to hold her, tell her he cared, and that they could fix it.
Only, she knew he wasn’t the kind of man to take control and handle it. In bed, yes, but outside the bedroom, she was the more dominant one.
Honestly, Delilah couldn’t handle the hurt, so she was giving up.
When she heard her doorbell, she was scared shitless. Who would be at her house at that time of the night?
What if this was…?
Then she realized that she had to calm down. A killer wouldn’t ring the bell.
Heading to the door, she peeked out and saw him. It was Riley.
Opening the door, she stared at him. “You should go.”
She tried to close it in his face, but he shoved his boot in the door to stop her.
“Delilah. Wait!”
“Stalking, Detective? You can add that to your list,” she stated. “We have nothing to say. You’re not welcome here. I told you. It was fun, it was fucking, and it is over.”
He didn’t believe that.
He refused.
She’d kissed him in that interrogation room to save his ass, but there was more there. He was good at reading people, and that wasn’t fake.
Delilah had to have some connection to him.
Riley knew he’d hurt her, and he deserved her anger. Only, he had to say what he needed to share, and then he’d leave.
Again, she tried to close the door.
“I’ll tell you about Miles.”
“It’s too late.”
Again, he didn’t buy that.
“He was killed trying to talk a suicidal soldier off a bridge. He was a cop. We all are. We followed in my father’s footsteps and picked up the badge.”
She stopped trying to close the door. His eyes filled with tears as he talked about his brother.
“When he reached the man, that damaged soldier, he got too close. That soldier took his life, only, he took my brother over with him. They fell from the Golden Gate Bridge, and neither survived.”
She opened the door all the way, and she was horrified.
“Do you see why I didn’t tell you? You told me you hate cops because of your brother. My brother was a cop who probably wasn’t so happy falling off that bridge and to his death. We both have different perspectives, but when you talk about yours, you get angry.”
He was right.
She did.
It was raw.
He’d only died two years ago.
Riley continued, “I get angry too. That soldier could have sacrificed himself and left Miles behind. He had a wife, kids, and a life, and on that day, that soldier killed him. I get your anger. I feel it too.”
“Riley,” she said, staring at him.
He didn’t stop.
“After that, my father ended his life. He was a good cop, but he couldn’t handle it. He’d watched one of his kids fall from the bridge, trying to do his job. He was there, Delilah. He raced to the side after they went over, and he watched one of his children fall into that water. He screamed all the way down. They both did.”
She felt horrible.
This was torturing him.
“So, the strongest man I knew ate his gun. My sister isolated herself because she can’t face the truth. She can’t believe that he’s gone too. I call her weekly and leave a message for her. I look like him, and it hurts her to see me. I lost her, too, that night. I lost everyone.”
“I’m sorry for your loss, Riley. I didn’t know. Had I…?”
He kept going.
“My mother died when we were younger. They were all I had left. I left that city when they told me my father was crazy, and it became a scandal. In order not to face the reality of it, and to save money on his comp claim of PTSD, they brushed it under the carpet. They made him sound like he was sick, and that my brother broke the rules and it was his fault he fell. It ended him. It was his only way out.”
That was sad.
“Oh, Riley. I’m sorry.”
He was heartbroken.
It was clear.
“So, every night, I see the video clips in my sleep. I walk into my father’s home to see his brains on a wall and on our family pictures. I don’t talk about it ever. I certainly couldn’t with you.”
“Why?” she asked. “Why couldn’t you tell me? I, of all people, understand. I’ve had the same nightmares.”
Did she really not see it?
“Because of your brother. I got tangled up with a woman who hates cops because her brother, an ex-soldier, committed suicide by cop.”
She let the door go.
“How do I tell her that? How do I basically say a crazy person destroyed my family? Some fucked up soldier who came back broken destroyed all of our lives?”
She wasn’t offended.
“You just tell her. If you think it’s a person you want in your life, then you just tell her, Riley. You look her in the eyes, and you say it.”
He continued, “I wanted to tell you.”
Delilah didn’t move. “You matter. I’m sorry I hurt you. It wasn’t just sex. It mattered.”
She went to touch him.
Only this time, he moved away from her.
“I can’t be with you, Delilah. I can’t have this battle. I’m fighting too many internal ones. You and I won’t work. You didn’t give me a chance to explain, and I would have given you one. I was the enemy. You stared me down, and immediately, you thought the worse. If I’m going to have something with someone, I go in thinking the best. I can’t carry more than I already am. I’m sorry.”
“Riley. Please.”
“I took us seriously. The first time we fell into bed…it meant everything. You’re the one who’s made this a game. You tricked me into sex with the naked stunt. You got angry at me without even letting me try to explain. I didn’t come here to make up with you. I came to tell you the truth because that’s the kind of man I am. Now I’m going to walk away. I can’t do games. That’s not me. Good luck, Delilah. I won’t ever forget about you. We would have had something amazing because I would have given you my all.”
Tears filled her eyes.
Riley had to give her up. What he said was the truth. He couldn’t carry more. So, it was time to walk away.
And he did just that.
Delilah couldn’t believe it. She stared at him as he walked down her sidewalk and toward his truck.
He was right. She’d jumped the gun, tore him a new one, and put up those walls so she wouldn’t be hurt. Only, she’d hurt him instead.
And she regretted it.
Her heart hurt. She’d been horrible to Riley, and he didn’t deserve it.
“Riley!” she shouted, leaving her porch to follow him.
He didn’t look back at her as he got in his truck and pulled away. She watched him drive around the corner, and eventually, his taillights were gone.
Like him.
Riley, quite possibly the best thing that had ever happened to her, was gone.
It broke her heart.
It sucked.
And it hurt.
As she stood there, barefoot in her yard, thinking about what had just gone down, Delilah had learned a valuable lesson.
Humility.
Trust.
Love.
She’d held them all back for too long. She’d become what she wanted the world to see.
So, for the first time in her life, since her brother died, she sat on her steps, and she cried.