Chapter 4

Riley was exhausted. It had been a ridiculously long day and all she wanted to do was take a hot bath, have a cup of chamomile honey tea and fall into bed. Engaging the locks on her '71 Triumph Spitfire, she clutched her pepper spray and ran up the stairs of her outdoor apartment building to her third-floor condo. She let herself in, disarmed the alarm and dumped her purse and spray into the nearest chair. It was her favourite holding shit' instead of actual sitting on armchair. She had one in her bedroom too for clothes that weren't dirty enough to go in the laundry, but not clean enough to go back in the closet. She flipped the light switch on the wall between her living room and her kitchen.

"Holy shit!" she gasped, staring in surprise and dismay at a massive flower arrangement on her countertop. It was a huge assortment of tiger lilies, red, yellow and orange gerberas, and yellow daisies surrounded by greenery. She'd never seen anything like it.

Turning on her heel, Riley quickly relocked the door and set the alarm again. Then she shook her head and swore again, realizing that whoever put the flowers on her counter would have gotten through all of her security anyway.

"Fuck!" she yelled, covering her mouth with one hand.

She grabbed blindly for the pepper spray in case the intruder was still in her condo. Her fingers closed over the can and she held it tightly against her chest and glared at the flowers like they were going to eat her. Then, realizing she had no choice, she reached out and snatched the card from the prong sticking out of the top.

"Please, please, please be from Cilia," she begged out loud, knowing she was asking for the moon. Cilia didn't even give birthday or Christmas presents, let alone random flower arrangements that must have cost a fortune. But Cilia was one of the few people with a key to her place and the code to her alarm system.

The card was handwritten:

Call me.

S

She automatically flipped the card over and saw a phone number on the back. She knew exactly who it was from. Riley stared at it for a full five minutes, her heart thumping in fear and anticipation. Would she be crazy to call the number? Would she be crazy not to? One did not exactly ignore a summons from Soloman Hart. She suspected she knew why he wanted to talk to her and she wasn't too eager to have this conversation. If he found her place then he'd found out who she was. After several more minutes of debate, she picked up her iPhone and punched in the number. It wasn't the same one that they'd used at the shop. Was this his personal cell number?

He answered on the first ring.

"Hello, Riley." His deep, rich voice sent a shiver coursing through her body.

"Soloman," she said coldly.

"You received my flowers."

"Obviously," she said through gritted teeth, glancing sideways at the massive arrangement. "You have a thing for breaking into places uninvited."

He chuckled, but there was little warmth in his voice when he said, "You lied to me, Riley Bancroft. Do you know what happened to the last person that lied to me?"

"No," she whispered, her eyes glued to the bright flowers. She was guessing they hadn't received an expensive gift.

"His family will not have the closure they seek, but I won't go into details since I plan on us spending time together in the future. I don't want you to become too afraid of me. I will tell you that you have tread on my patience in a way I don't allow in others," his voice was quiet, chilling. "I'm warning you not to lie to me again. Do you understand, Riley?"

She could feel the adrenaline spiking through her as he spoke, even though she wasn't in immediate danger. She forced herself to breath as evenly as possibly so she wouldn't pass out. Reaching out, she took hold of the edge of her couch and pulled herself down until she was sitting. Carefully, she set the can of pepper spray between her legs. She knew neither he nor one of his goons would be in her apartment at the moment. Not his style.

"Yes," she gasped into the phone. "I understand."

"Good," he said. "I want you to understand the rules, Riley, so you don't get hurt."

Anger flared within her chest. Fuck him and his rules! She didn't plan on getting any closer to this terrifying mafia asshole. Instead, she said in a tight voice, "Fine, thank you for enlightening me. And thank you for the flowers. Th-they're beautiful."

It nearly choked her to thank him for the flowers, but she'd lived and worked in the criminal world long enough to know how things went with these bosses. Even when they did horrifying things, you thanked them so they didn't do something even worse. God, maybe she should sell the shop, move out of town and go legit. The shop had moved some seriously decent income in its time and for the most part she and her dad had managed to stay out of trouble. The shop had also allowed her to have fun with her obsessions: racing and gaming. She could easily game without the shop, but not so much the races. Still, it wasn't worth her life.

"Have dinner with me Friday night."

"What?" she asked incredulously. She couldn't have heard him right.

"I'm asking you out to dinner," he pressed.

Riley covered her face with her hand and thought hard about his request. More of a command actually. Shit. What should she do? Should she have seen this coming? The man was a fucking predator. She'd felt it in the garage. The way he looked at her and touched her. Everything about him was terrifying. There was no way she could handle a man like him. But did she have a choice? There was only one way to find out.

"I-I don't think so. No," she said, making her voice as strong as she could. She waited breathlessly for his reply, praying he would just accept her answer, like the guys that usually pursued her, and hang up.

"Reconsider, Riley," he instructed her, his quiet, deep voice compelling her to give in.

Oh god. She put her head down on her knees for a moment and then she stiffened her spine. She was not a weakling. She would not let some man, no matter how scary he was, push her into a corner and terrorize her into a date. Glaring at the flowers, she said clearly and coldly, "I said no."

He didn't say anything for a moment and then he said in a warmly amused voice, "Then let the games begin, Riley Bancroft."

What the fuck did that mean?