Dare to Love (Dare to Love 1)

“He attacked her in the street,” the shop owner said, gesturing to Riley’s father.

“You’re the one who called it in?” the cop asked.

The other man nodded.

With a grim expression, the

cop pulled her father’s hands behind his back and cuffed him while reading him his rights. Then he turned to the guy from the store. “Wait here. We’ll need to take your statement.”

With her father subdued, Ian turned to focus on Riley. He saw her on the ground, Alex holding her in his arms.

He gritted his teeth and walked over to them. “She okay?” he asked.

Alex met his gaze, a warning look in the other man’s eyes.

Right. Like Ian was going to start a fight with her now. Thanks for the faith, he thought with disgust.

One of the cops came up beside Ian.

“Ri?” Alex eased her away from him. “The police are here.”

“Does this belong to you?” The cop held out the necklace Ian had given her. “He had it clutched in his hand.”

She nodded then groaned and grabbed her head. “Yes,” she said, not meeting Ian’s gaze.

“It’s evidence for now, but you’ll get it back when the case is over. Did you hit your head?” the officer asked.

“He slapped me, and I slammed into the wall in the alley,” Riley said, her voice hoarse from screaming.

Ian winced and wished he’d done more than restrained the son of a bitch for the police.

“An ambulance is on its way. You’re going to need to be checked for a concussion.”

“But—”

“No arguing,” Alex said, helping her rise to her feet.

She raised her tear-stained face to Ian’s for the first time. “Stay with me?” she asked him.

He couldn’t say no.

Didn’t want to.

But the pain over her putting herself through this when she could have turned to him devastated him. He’d asked her for one thing if they were going to go forward, and at the most crucial moment, she hadn’t kept her promise.

An hour later, he and Alex sat in the hospital waiting room while Riley was taken in for tests.

“You’ll take her home from here?” Alex asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

Ian shifted in his seat. “Actually I was going to ask you to do it.”

The other man narrowed his gaze. “I don’t get it.”

Ian studied his hands, trying to figure out how to explain his most personal feelings to a guy he barely knew. “After the fundraiser, I thought Riley and I had come to an understanding.”

You either trust me or you don’t. You either instinctively come to me first or there is no us. On that, I can’t compromise, he’d told her.

“Yet at the first sign of trouble, she went off on her own,” Ian said.