“Sometimes I forget how scary good you are at reading people. I have some not so great news. I promise I will tell you more tonight after Alex is done with his meetings, but right now, the general is forcing you to sit this one out.” The words come in a rush that he can’t stop.
“He can’t fucking do that,” Liz shouts, forgetting where they are.
“He can. He is our commanding officer, and if that is what he orders, then that is what will happen.” Mikey leaves no room for argument. She can see in his eyes how much he wishes things were different. “It gets worse, darlin. He says you still need to be supervised by someone who can get you to and from base and keep upwith your training. I’ll give you one guess as to who that is.” His tone is much lower this time, knowing how much it’s going to upset her.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” she angrily whispers. “You know why he is doing this, right? He is not coming to our house; I won’t let him.”
“It’s not safe to talk about this here. I will tell you everything at home, but I think we need to consider moving back to base for a while. Alex and Tyler already have a room, and they pulled some strings to get us one, too.”
Liz is fuming by the time they finish their cardio. Mikey decides to cut the workout short, knowing there is too much for them to talk about once they leave. He needs to get everything out on the table before they can have their fun.
CHAPTER 7
The moment the elevator door groans open, Liz sees what has been laid out before her. She can’t stop the shriek that rips from her chest. Mikey stumbles back as she launches herself into his arms, landing in a laughing pile on the floor. Scrambling to her feet, Liz stands in awe of the sheer amount of planning and effort her friend put into his surprise. The already plush couch is covered in thick, luxurious looking throw blankets. The coffee table is littered with all her favorite snacks and candies, a bottle of her favorite white wine sitting in the middle. Before she can throw herself over the back of the couch and get lost in the expanse of blankets, two hands land on her shoulders, guiding her to the table.
“I told you, talk first, slumber party later.”
Liz slinks into her chair, pretending to pout even though she knows whatever he needs to say is far more important than any plans they have for fun. “Okay, quick like a band-aid. Tell me everything you need to tell me. I won’t say a word until you’re done,” she says, wanting to get the conversation over with.
“Cool, that works. Things are weird, and I mean unsafe weird.We have our own guy on the inside, and he won’t talk to the general, says he doesn’t trust him. Well, turns out, he knew the camp we raided was empty. Dmitri pulled his men a week before we showed up. Scott told us he got satellite images of the town crawling with KEIM followers the day before we left. His info may have been wrong, but something feels off about it. I guess when Alex brought it up, Scott argued that you must have sent word back to your ‘Russian lover’ and made him pull his men. He wants you sitting this mission out, and he wants one of his guys to keep an eye on you. I already assumed that was why Matt got added to the team, but now it’s obvious.” He pauses for only a moment, watching her to make sure she isn’t too overloaded with information. He can almost see the gears turning in her head when he starts again.
“I know you are really against it, but I think moving back onto base is for the best. It’s only temporary. You and I will bunk together. Tyler made sure to get rooms across the hall from each other, so we can all stick close.
When Ry comes home, they are going to force him to stay for a medical evaluation, then he will have a psychological decompression. It’s better to be prepared and have a secure space waiting for him so he isn’t kept in the medical building. Luckily, this has happened before, and he has had extensive psychological and resistance to interrogation training, so he should bounce back faster.”
“Is that all?” Liz sarcastically asks, so quiet he almost missed it.
“Almost. This needs to stay between us, and I mean you and I us, not the team us.” Mikey waits for Liz to nod in agreement before continuing. “Do you remember what you did before you tried to murder me in cold blood?” he asks, smiling as the color drains from her face.
“I told you I was sorry, and I remember everything perfectly. I just don’t know what you’re getting at here,”” she says with a smallshrug. Being reminded of how awful she was to him isn’t making this any easier. She is amazed at how far they have come in just under six months.
“You know how you pushed past wanting to stab us in the eyes every time we talked to you and pretended to play nice?”
“How the hell do you know that?” she shrieks.
“Shh, you said no talking until the end. We’re highly trained military operatives, of course we knew that the woman who was just rescued from captivity wasn’t going to be okay with us after only a few days. We never expected you to try and use us, but we knew what you were doing the whole time. Lucky for us, you are good at reading people, and realized we were never going to hurt you. So, you opened up, and ended up getting close to us really fast. I need you to do that with Matt, maybe ease in a little slower, but I need you to play nice. Apologize to him, lie to him, whatever, but I need to know why he was so interested in joining our unit. I know Scott loves the kid and that’s how he got on the team, but he is a low rank, yet the general trusts him more than anyone. Something is off about the whole situation.”
“Um, okay, I have some thoughts, but I don’t even know where to start.” She inhales deeply, running all the information through her head again, trying to figure out what she can even say at this point. “I guess, first, if you think moving to the base is a good idea and will be what’s best for Riley, then we can, but I’m not going to lie and say I’m fine with it. It terrifies me to be back there with so many people. In Nevada, Riley’s room was safe, it washis, this one won’t be. Also, I have been telling you guys there is something up with that asshole. You said it yourself, I’m really fucking good at reading people, and Scott is not a good person. I want as many updates while you're gone as possible. If you’re going where general fuck face is sending you, I can almost guarantee Ry won’t be there.” She tries to mask the pain in her voice,but it’s no use. Mikey is her best friend, and he always seems to know when she is hurting.
Horrible conversation finally out of the way, Liz rushes to her room to find a new set of silky pajamas resting on her bed. She takes a quick shower to wash the sweat off before she slips on the black and white cow print shorts and matching tank, rushing back into the living room.
Finally, throwing herself over the back of the couch, she gleefully giggles when she lands smack dab on top of Mikey who’s wearing a matching pair of pajama pants. Scrambling off his bare chest, Liz grabs the fluffiest blanket she can get her hands on and curls up in the corner, flicking on Netflix. When she finally finds the perfect girls night movie, her feet get propped on Mikey’s lap. A bright pink bag lands in her lap and she happily digs into it.
“Really, darlin? Twilight?” Mikey asks, pretending to not be thrilled with her choice.
“It’s the best worst movie. Perfect for a slumber party when you don’t actually want to watch the movie. Now you’re free to paint my nails and tell me stories, starting with what happened when I exploded.” She pops a rainbow candy into her mouth, wiggling her bare toes at him. He plucks the bottle of bright red polish off the table and gets to work.
“Once upon a time, there was a small pain in the ass who fell in love with a big pain in the ass. Both of them loved to get captured–” He is interrupted by a foot kicking him in the stomach, the woman attached to the foot giggling beside him. “Fine, but I thought that was a great start. I’ll be honest, not a lot happened, and some of it you need to hear from him, but the general fired an RPG at you. We think. It was somewhere between you and Ry. The fear in his eyes still haunts me. I ran for you, because I’m the best at field dressing wounds, so you became top priority, but I could still see him. He picked up thatgun with superhuman speed, and killed anyone in his path to you.” He finishes painting her last toe, placing her foot to the side, and picking up the next, ready to get to work. “He picked you up like a rag doll and ran you through the damn firefight, begging you to stay with him. I thought he was going to leave with you, but he told me he needed to make sure Dmitri is never able to hurt you again. Holding your lifeless body, kissing your head, begging you not to die, that was the first time I have ever seen that man shed a tear.” He looks up to find tears streaming down her face. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea for their night off.
“Do you think things will be different when we find him? It’s ironic that after he saved me, he gets taken, and I help to save him, but is he going to see that we did the same thing and stop feeling so guilty? What happens to us if he does? I know it’s stupid, but every single day I think about those things he told Dmitri. I want so badly to believe it wasn’t true, but there is a stupid, nagging voice telling me it is,” Liz finally confesses.
It has been weeks of Liz pretending they are in a relationship. Even if Riley hadn’t been taken, they never talked about what they were. There has always been a seed of doubt growing roots in her mind, and no matter how hard she tries to smother it, it remains.
“I told you, some things need to come from him, but if you could have seen what I did that day, you would see that you two are soulmates. Now, this is supposed to be a night off. No more sad stories,” he says, capping the bottle and tossing it aside.
Enthralled in the movie playing in front of him, Mikey absentmindedly pours two glasses of wine, grabs an armful of snacks, dumps them on the couch between them, and gets himself settled in.
“Tell me another story. How did you guys meet?” Mikey adjusts himself, sprawling across the oversized couch. Her freezingfingers pick up his feet, placing them into her lap so she can begin painting the hottest pink he has ever seen onto his toes.
