Page 77 of Riot’s Revenge

Her smile disappeared. “Riot, I can’t. I need to get to work.”

“Five minutes.”

“I really don’t have⁠—”

Fuck it. I dropped to my knees. Silence hit the clubhouse so fast it was almost fucking impressive.

Maria’s eyes widened. “What the hell are you doing?” she asked, heat coloring her cheeks a beautiful shade of pink.

“Something I should’ve done a long fuckin’ time ago.”

“Riot.”

“Just give me five minutes.”

Her eyes darted around the room again.

I knew exactly what she saw. My brothers. Shadow. Reaper. Ghost. Prospects. Club girls. Every person who’d known me before her. Which was good because I wanted them to hear it.

“Please get up.”

“No.”

Her eyes widened again.

“You told me you needed proof.”

Something shifted in her expression.

“So, let me start.” I dragged in a breath. “I fucked up.”

Nobody laughed or made a smartass comment.

“I fucked up because I was selfish. Not because I didn’t love you. Not because you weren’t enough. I fucked up because I thought I could have you and still live like I did before you.”

Her eyes started shining.

Fuck.

“I wanted you to be mine while I still acted like I belonged to nobody.”

She looked away.

“I expected loyalty from you while telling myself the rules I’d lived by my whole life still applied to me.” My throat tightened. “They didn’t.”

“Riot—”

“They stopped applying the second I expected you to be mine. I was just too much of a selfish cunt to understand that. You loved me properly, Ria.”

Her eyes closed.

“And I gave you pieces of me and expected you to be grateful for them.”

A tear slipped down her cheek.

My entire body screamed at me to get up, go to her, wipe it away and hold her, but I stayed on my fucking knees.

“You made a life with me. You trusted me. And I made you feel stupid for doing it.”