Chapter 23 #2
His hand drops to his side, forced to make an impossible choice.
That choice is made for him when he looks into her eyes.
Riley goes back, plucks the gun from her hand, and places it on the table alongside his, rushing back to her side.
He holds his arms open for her, not sure if she is comfortable with being touched or not.
He lets it be her choice, breathing a sigh of relief when she steps into him.
“Talk to me, love. I need to know what happened,” he urges, stroking his hand down the length of her hair.
“He got drunk and told me everything,” she says, sniffling.
“You know that’s not what I mean.”
“I don’t want to talk about it right now, Ry. I haven’t even had time to process what just happened,” she says, hands trembling, wiping her tears from his chest.
“He just did—whatever he did to you?” he growls.
She nods again. “We got back a few minutes ago. Matt was really drunk, so I walked him to his room. I am so fucking stupid.”
He is gone as soon as the words fall from her lips.
The sharp smack of his hand slamming into the door echoes through the hall, sounding too much like the way her head sounded moments ago.
She turns to find a groggy Tyler pulling his door open, glancing around with wild eyes when he sees the state Riley is in.
“Can you get access to the hall cameras?” Riley asks.
“Uh, yeah? Why? What’s going on?” Tyler responds, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“Don’t worry about it. Find when Liz and Matt make it back. Should only be a few minutes ago. Come get me when you do,” he orders, turning back around and slamming the door shut.
He goes to her and drops to his knees at her feet.
He loosens the ties behind her legs, letting the thick ribbons of her heels fall around her ankles before carefully slipping each foot free.
He starts to drag his hand up her leg, stopping at the base of her thigh.
“Did he—” Riley starts, unable to get the rest of the words out for fear of what she will say.
“No, thank fucking god,” she says, peering down at him. “I would have blown his fucking brains out before it got that far.” Her cheeks warm, flushing a bright shade of pink at seeing him kneel before her, every muscle on full display.
“Tell me if this is too much.” His hands creep further, fumbling with the buckles on her holster until it clatters to the ground. “I would help you change, but I don’t want to make things worse,” he says, scooping the straps off the floor and walking them to where their guns rest on the table.
“I’m fine. Well—better now that I’m with you. I’ve dealt with worse. I’m just in shock,” she mumbles, walking into their room.
He follows close behind, not wanting her out of his sight. Liz overloads her toothbrush with toothpaste, and violently scrubs every inch of her mouth, wincing when her lip starts bleeding again.
His stomach turns sour as he lowers himself on the bed, knowing at least a small part of what happened with the way she is brushing. He can’t tear his gaze away, watching heartbroken as she rinses and spits mouthwash no less than four times.
“Ry!” Tyler yells, entering their apartment. “I got it.”
That’s all he needs to hear. He storms into the room, his anger reignited, ready to find out exactly what Matt did.
Liz follows, pulling her hair up into a messy bun, still in the dress that swishes with every step. She storms over to the table where they sit hunched over a computer, pushing it closed as she does.
“You need to hear what he told me before you watch that. I’m not kidding, Ry. If you go after him, everything will be ruined,” she demands. “Should we wait for the guys?”
“Mikey’s out with Lauren. I’m not pulling him from that,” he states.
“Alex won’t care if I tell him everything later,” Tyler adds.
“Okay, well, buckle the fuck up,” she says, pulling her phone out of her dress pocket. “There has been a lot of bullshit happening. Apparently, Scott has him convinced you guys are holding me hostage because he wants to save me. I’m your bargaining chip, I guess.”
“What?” Riley chokes out.
“Yeah. He said you want to kill me, but General Grievous wants me safe, so he is playing nice. Matt tried to convince me that you guys were the ones who refused to let me go in the beginning, and Scott has been fighting to free me from you this whole time,” Liz explains.
“He does know that Scott has said everything to your face, right?” Tyler asks.
“I don’t know, but he ended up hammered and—just listen,” she says, loading the video on her phone.
She plays back every word he said about how the general was keeping them from finding Riley, and how he was sent to spy on them while their boss figures out a way to get rid of the team permanently.
“Now, I’m not saying Matt doesn’t deserve to die. I think I would prefer it if he did. But doing anything to harm him will give Scott the excuse he is looking for to kill you,” she finishes, standing from the table.
Riley watches her pace the room, waiting for her to say more.
When she doesn’t, he opens the computer and plays the footage.
The men watch in stunned silence, anger twisting their faces while they are forced to watch what happened to her earlier that night.
Clearly having seen enough, Tyler slams the laptop shut.
“How do you expect me to be around him after seeing that?” Riley quietly asks.
She simply responds with a shrug of her shoulders, walking to their bedroom. “The same way I have to after experiencing it.”