“Don’t talk to me like I’m a fucking child, Alex,” Liz seethes, stepping toward him. He may not be entirely wrong with the needing sleep comment, but she will never let him know that. “Someone is out there, watching us, whether you believe me or not.” A strong arm comes around her waist. His hand grips her hip, stopping her from taking another step.
“Why are we not believing her?” Mikey’s voice booms next to her head. Liz looks for Riley as soon as she realizes it's Mikey’s arm around her waist. She finds him leaning against the wall, arms crossed watching her. Or rather, Mikey holding her. His jaw is clenched so tight it looks as if it might break. She shoots him her best “really?” face, smiling softly when she sees his face relax.
“Because there is no one out there,” Alex shoots back, climbing back into his chair at the table, clearly ready to be done with the back and forth.
“So, you already checked?” Mikey asks, slipping his borrowed mask back off his face. She can feel the shift in him. His grip tightens ever so slightly. The playful tone he had earlier is nowhere to be found.
“We don’t need to check. You know as well as I do that there is no one watching us. If there was, the cameras would pick it up,” Tyler says with a shake of his head, still refusing to look up from his current task.
“Why exactly can’t we just go check? It will take ten minutes. Am I the only one who remembers what happened last time we didn’t listen to her?” he asks, pulling the front of her sweatshirt down just enough to expose the long scar across her neck. A permanent reminder that she notices things they don’t.
If they had listened to her that day, she may have never gotten her throat slit, and Riley may have never been taken.
Liz looks at Riley from the corner of her eye. His face is softer now. His eyes linger on her neck before dropping to the arm still holding her around the waist. Unable to look away, she watches him slip his mask over his face, walking to her like he forgot they aren’t alone.
“And you,” Mikey says, turning to Riley the moment he attempts to pull Liz from his grasp. “I thought you would be the first one out thedoor.”
“I would have been if I wasn’t fighting past the urge to break your arm for wrapping it around her like that,” he says, firmly tugging Liz out of his grasp. “If they don’t want to go, they can stay here. The three of us can handle a perimeter check. And what the fuck is up with the masks?”
“I thought we would look cool, and I was right,” Mikey says, shrugging his shoulders as if forcing the three of them to wear matching masks is a completely normal thing. “Maybe you should giveeveryonesuper cool gear and not just your favorite.”
Responding with a giggle, Liz slips the mask over her head, ready to face whoever is waiting on the other side of the door. She doesn’t make it far. Her cheeks flush at the sight of Riley. He looks just like he did when she was rescued, the only difference is he is no longer trying to hide his attraction to her. She looks away, heading to the door before she stares for much longer.
The trio slips out into the cool night air, cautiously eyeing the forest surrounding the house. Riley signals each of them to go in separate directions. Guns drawn, they start a slow sweep of the perimeter, looking for whatever is waiting for them.
Liz bumps into Mikey at the back of the house, both of them coming up empty handed. Liz wonders to herself if Alex was right. Maybe she is just over tired and imagining things. Tail tucked between her legs, she marches back to the front of the house, ready to go in and admit she was wrong as soon as they find Riley. When they reach the porch, Liz was expecting to see him waiting. Fear claws at her when he is nowhere to be seen.
“I’m sure he’s just being extra thorough. You know how Ry is,” he says, slipping his pinky into hers. The minutes tick by. Sitting under the moonlight, Liz listens to the bugs singing around her, trying to convince herself Riley is fine. A twig snaps in front of them, concealed by the thick trees. Liz instinctively raises her gun,aiming it in the direction of the noise, Mikey doing the same. Ready to put a hole in whatever emerges from the dark.
She stays prepared, listening to the crunching of leaves drawing closer and closer until an all too familiar face steps into the light. Nausea churns in her belly. Standing before them is Matt, hands held up in surrender, Riley right behind with a gun pressed to the back of Matt’s head.
Like a bad car accident, she can’t look away. She and Mikey rush off the porch, keeping Matt at gunpoint. Her eyes remain glued to Matt, watching for even the slightest twitch while Riley holsters his weapon and uses zip ties to force Matt’s wrists together.
Mikey and Liz step aside, letting Riley lead their prisoner into the house while they follow behind, weapons still aimed. Alex’s eyes go wide as he jumps up from his chair when Riley shoves Matt through the door.
“I told you, dickwad!” Liz shouts, unable to help herself after their spat. Pursing her lips as five sets of eyes all turn on her, she quickly adds, “Sorry, that was too much. You’re not a dickwad, but I was right, and we need to go.”
“No, you don’t,” Matt says, finally speaking.
Riley leads him to the table, roughly shoving him down into one of the chairs. The table shakes with the force. Riley rushes to Liz’s side, wrapping one arm around her shoulder and pulling his gun back out with the other. “I tried to tell your fearsome leader, my aunt sent me.”
“Why the hell would she send you?” Liz snaps. Paula knows their history with her nephew. There is no way she would send him of all people.
“I’m not alone,” he starts, flinching at Mikey storming toward him. “Thats not a fucking threat. Jesus Christ, just let me explain.”
“Why? So, you can stall? Buy your fucking master some time?” Alex argues.
“Isn’t that exactly what you’re doing?” Matt shoots back.
“You have thirty seconds to talk before I put a new hole in your face,” Riley says in a tone that is all Reaper.
“I see you went back to hiding,” Matt says, glaring over his shoulder at Riley.
“Twenty-six seconds,” Tyler says.
“Scott was going to kill your friends. Aunt Paula got them out before he could,” he explains.
“If that’s true, why are you here and not them?” Liz asks, refusing to say the names of anyone she considered a friend in the likely case that this is all a ploy.
