“I’ll be right back, princess,” he says, placing a kiss on her forehead and sliding the gun into the waistband of his pants. She snatches his hand, stopping him from taking another step.
“Dude, you can’t go shoot him,” Mikey says, his voice raising slightly. “He fucked up, and we will handle it, but you can’t fucking murder him.”
“Why?” Riley shouts. “The fucker already told everyone I beat her. Because of him, they think I’m unstable and too dangerous to re-join the unit. I can let that shit slide, but this?” he gestures to Liz, watching her with a cloth pressed to her lip. “Look at her, Mikey. Everyone seems to forget how far I will go to make sure she is safe,” he screams.
“I do know! I also know you will be court-martialed and they will throw your ass in jail. You want her to watch that? We both know what they will do to her with you gone,” he shouts right back. The death glare on Liz’s face has him grumbling to himself, walking away from the situation.
“He’s right, sweetie. I need you here with me, especially if I need stitches. You know how I am with needles,” she says, eyes pleading him to stay. There is no question that he is torn. “There is too much at stake. If you go, we will never find out what Scott is up to, we will never catch Dmitri, and I think this goes without saying, but I can’t live without you. I won’t.”
A sharp knock on the door cuts through the silence. One glance at the terrified look on Liz’s face, he knows he can’t leave her, even if every fiber of his being screams at him to hurt Matt worse than he hurt her.
Mikey emerges from his room, seemingly done pouting, marching straight to the door to let the doctor in. Riley sits back down, pulling Liz from her seat and into his lap, rubbing idle circles on her back to keep her calm as the doctor sets up everything he will need to sew her swollen brow shut. Riley doesn’t let her move, holding her steady while the medic gets to work.
CHAPTER 20
Liz prods her bruised, and still slightly swollen eye, in the bathroom mirror the next morning. The stitches holding the split in her brow together makes her nauseous as she thinks about the feel of her skin being tugged back together. Her entire left eye has shifted into a deep shade of purple. A bruise covers half her jaw, paired with a split lip.
While working on making herself as presentable as possible, she tries to listen in on the conversation in the other room. She can only catch small snippets of what happened in his meeting with the general, but when her name comes up, Liz does her best to act nonchalant walking into the room.
“Come to hear the plan? It’s all on you today,” Mikey says proudly.
“Why me?” she asks, puzzled.
“Tyler has some suspicions about whatever is on Scott’s computer. Lucky for us, he should be heading off base any minute,” Riley says, tossing her a small earpiece she quickly puts in her ear, stealing glances at the new mask he’s wearing while shedoes, hating he has to go back to wearing it. Now that Scott has people watching them, Riley needs to be careful.
“Ty is across the hall, getting his shit set up. He is going to walk you through getting into the office and make sure the cameras stay off of you while you get this into his computer, it’s your time to shine, baby.” He sets a small flash drive on the table. She picks it up and puts it in her pocket for safekeeping, giving the men a puzzled look, hoping they will explain what she is meant to do with it.
“Don’t ask us how his nerd shit works––” A knock cuts Mikey off mid-sentence. “That’s probably him coming to explain,” he says, pulling the door open, not revealing their friend, but the man everyone is ready to fire a round of bullets into. Liz’s nose crinkles in disgust as he invites himself in holding a bouquet of rainbow roses.
“Why are you always around?” Liz snaps.
“I came to apologize.” Matt holds the flowers out to Liz. “I swear I did not mean to hit you like that. My mind was ready to swing when he said stop. I fucked up, and you have every right to be pissed, but I was hoping you would let me take you out to lunch to make it up to you,” he says, eyes darting from Mikey to Riley as they approach to stand behind her.
“You think lunch is going to make up for three stitches and a split lip?” Riley asks, donning a mask of cool indifference, even though Liz can sense the tension building. “She’s busy.”
“At least I didn’t mean to hurt her, and I’m trying to make amends,” Matt stupidly snaps.
Liz drops her chin to her chest, knowing the all-out brawl he is about to start. To everyone’s surprise, Riley just laughs, not his normal, lighthearted laugh reserved for her, but one that makes every hair on the back of her neck stand up.
“Paula is waiting for you, princess. Don’t want to keep her waiting,” he says, stepping up next to her.
His voice in her ear sends chills across her neck and shoulders while Matt looks at them bewildered. “As for you,” he says, eyes narrowing on the man in the doorway, still clinging to the gaudy flowers, “You can stay, get everything off your chest, maybe you’ll even get it all out before I put a bullet between your eyes.”
“No murder,” Liz says whirling on him. Knowing she can’t kiss him, despite desperately needing to. She steps around the group of raging testosterone and disappears down the hall, sending one quick text to Riley to make sure he keeps Matt distracted.
As soon as Liz is gone, Mikey excuses himself, knowing this is not his battle to fight. Riley will do what he wants whether he is there or not, and he is smart enough to not get in the middle of a pissing contest over a girl.
He ducks out of the room, darting across the hall to tell Tyler everything and make sure he starts helping her get to where she needs to go. The unexpected guest may have thrown a wrench into their plans, but they still need it to be done.
Riley stalks back to the table, slumping into one of the chairs, watching to see if Matt will follow suit, or turn and run. He doesn’t bother trying to hide his shock when the man pulls out a seat on the opposite side.
“Now’s your shot, kid. You have something you want to say to me, fuckin’ say it.” His tone is pure ice despite trying to stay the composed leader he’s supposed to be.
“Why? So you can kill me? You know what will happen if you do it, right?” Matt snaps.
“Relax. If I was going to kill you, you would already be dead. I don’t give a fuck about being thrown in jail. The only reason youare still breathing is because Liz is allowing it,” Riley says, fighting the urge to wipe the smirk right off his face.
“I don’t get you two. She clearly has feelings for you. You have a pet name for her. You would kill me for her. You make it seem like you have feelings, yet you put your hands on her because she questions your relationship. You make no sense,” Matt admits.
