Page 139 of Ride or Die

She pulled out her phone and dialled Saint.

“Hey, everything okay?”

Breathing seemed a bit easier with him on the line.

“Hi, everything is fine. Better than fine, actually. Are you busy today?”

“Not for you.”

Riley smiled as several people walked by. “I quit today.”

“Yeah?”

She nodded. “Yeah. It was time.”

A soft snort landed in her ear. “It was past time.”

“Don’t be salty. Now I can hold that flashlight all day.”

He laughed, and it warmed her in a way nothing else did.

Maybe she was overthinking it.

“I’ll come over later, okay?”

“Okay.”

She could hear him smiling through the phone.

Chapter 42

Riley

“Maybe it was a message.”

Wheeler and Aaron sat across the table from Riley and debriefed the explosion and Cooper’s “visit,” well-practiced and methodical. Saint sat next to her, and Dante lurked in the kitchen.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up every time he was out of sight, but if she ignored him, it was surprisingly domestic.

Cookie didn’t hate Dante, so he couldn’t be that bad.

“A message for who?” she asked, glancing around the three faces at the table.

“That’s the question,” Saint rumbled next to her. He wiped his hands and then draped an arm around the back of her chair. He and Aaron locked eyes, and silence settled over the table while Wheeler ate his pizza happily.

“Can you fucking stop with the telepathy and talk like normal people? It’s beyond irritating,” Dante snapped from behind her, and she jumped. She forced herself to relax. Dante did it on purpose. He smirked at her every time she startled.

He was beyond irritating.

Wheeler laughed and put more pizza on his plate. He had eaten an entire one already, and Riley had no idea where it all went. He was big, but not that big.

“Pretty sure that’s Kristi’s line,” Wheeler said. He looked across the table to Riley. “Speaking of, where is Chaos Barbie? Seems like she should be here for celebratory pizza. Quitting a job should always come with pizza. It can be a new tradition.”

Saint’s smile was soft, and Aaron rolled his eyes at Wheeler.

“It sounds like a good tradition. And I talked to her already. She might make it a bit later,” Riley said and leaned back in her chair. She opened the top button of her jeans and then pulled her sweater lower over her belly.

Don’t overthink it.