Chapter 35
Athrobbing pain settles deep behind Liz’s eyes, the whirring of old computers doing nothing but making her headache worse. The five of them have been hovering around the table, all staring at screens for hours with no luck, the same cycle repeating over and over again.
Tyler works his magic, pulling documents out of wherever they come from and sending them to one of them.
Whoever is lucky enough to get said file proceeds to go through it, reading each and every word, scanning for any scrap of information they can use against their tyrant general.
Everyone seems to be on edge. Liz wonders if, like her, they are thinking of the car that had followed them, or if there is something more they are not telling her.
Still, she pushes through, reading every boring email sent her way.
Liz knows exactly why she is getting the mundane ones, and it makes her want to scream.
She and Tyler have never been particularly close, not in the way she is with Riley and Mikey, or even Alex, more recently.
But he has always been the quiet, rational one, directing Alex’s anger away from her and making sure she stays safe in his own way.
Close or not, he cares for her to some extent.
That thought alone keeps her jaw clenched, holding her mouth firmly shut while she reads.
Her spine cracks as she stands, stretching her arms above her head to relieve some of the tension settling deep into her back and shoulders. She needs to move.
Compared to her, the guys have had a lifetime to prepare for this type of work. Riley had explained that this isn’t their first time spending weeks collecting intel, and it won’t be their last.
Liz steps out onto the porch, letting the crisp night air wash away the sounds emanating from inside. Four tired, hungry, men forced to huddle around screens and read for hours on end does not make for good company. She leans on the railing, letting her head rest against the chipping wood.
The night hums around her. Crickets and tree frogs form a steady rhythm while somewhere far in the distance coyotes let out bone-chilling yelps. She listens to the sounds, letting it ground her before forcing herself back indoors.
The hairs on the back of her neck prickle, shooting her head up.
Liz reaches for the gun on her leg only to be met with air.
Goosebumps crawl up her arms. Squinting, she tries to focus her eyes in the dark, scanning the near pitch-black tree line.
She can feel it, that eerie, unexplainable way you know you are being watched.
Something is out there, watching, waiting. Not daring to turn her back on whatever, or whoever, is hiding in the woods, Liz backs her way inside. Her eyes don’t stop scanning the dense trees until the door is shut and locked. Only then does she let her panic show
“Someone’s out there,” she announces to the men, fighting to keep her voice steady.
Her guns are being strapped on without having to think about it thanks to muscle memory.
Tyler pulls up the security system as Mikey sprints down the hall, legs kicking out from under him, nearly sending him tumbling across the floor.
“I’m not seeing anything. No motion has been detected. No vehicles are around. Nothing,” Tyler informs them. His eyes never leave his screen, clicking through each and every camera, looking for signs of life.
“What exactly did you see?” Riley asks while strapping his own weapons to his body. Liz sucks a sharp breath in, thinking maybe she shouldn’t have said anything. They are going to think she is crazy the second she explains what happened.
“Nothing, really,” she starts, wanting to scream when she sees Alex’s shoulders slump. It’s obvious he has all but written her off.
“I know someone is out there. You know that feeling when you’re being watched? Like you can feel their eyes on you even though you can’t see them? I felt that outside. I was getting air, fine one minute, freaked out the next,” she explains.
Her eyes snap to Mikey as he sprints back into the room, nearly tripping on the ripped carpet. Wearing all black and one of Riley’s masks, he shoves her own mask into her hands before turning to Riley and doing the same. If anyone will believe her, it’s him.
“There is no one out there, Liz. We are in one of the most remote safehouses at our disposal. They may suck, but we have cameras everywhere, and no one has seen or heard anything. I think you’re still just paranoid about the car from earlier.
No one will blame you if you need to get some rest,” Alex says.
“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 the door.”
“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 give everyone super 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.
“Scott knows I sent him to the wrong house. He was going to kill me, so Lauren brought me with them. I assumed you would shoot first, ask questions later, so I volunteered to go in alone so they could stay safe. On the off chance you let me live long enough to explain, I have the coordinates where the rest of the crew is waiting. I am supposed to call if I manage to stay alive,” he says, letting the words out in one big rush, no doubt taking Riley’s threat to heart.
“Do you believe him, Liz?” Alex asks, looking at her like she is their built-in lie detector.
“I, um, I don’t know. I want to say yes. He seems genuine. And he didn’t fight. But he may know he has backup coming, so compliance is all a part of his plan,” she says, growing increasingly uncomfortable that their safety is resting on her shoulders. “Exactly who is with you?”
“A few people who helped you get Reaper back. Lauren, Neil, John, and Liam. Lauren also forced Maya to run with us. They were the ones in immediate danger because they are all high ranking and friends with at least one of you. I sent Aunt Paula a picture of his hit list, and she had them ready to evacuate within an hour,” Matt explains.
“Stay with him. If he so much as sneezes blow what few brain cells he has out of his fucking head,” Riley orders before leaving the room, typing something into his phone as he does.
They stand watch, waiting for everything to turn. Their suspensions only grow the longer nothing happens. After a minute, Riley marches back into the room, combat knife in hand, heading right for the man with his arms tied together.
Matt scrambles to his feet. Deep red blood drips down his hand from the fresh cut on his wrist thanks to Riley’s not so gentle zip tie removal. Covering his wrist, he eyes every one of them like they are going to pounce at any second. With an audible sigh, Liz walks out of the room.
She returns a minute later with a small first aid kit.
No need for words, the look she gives Matt has him dropping back into his chair, looking anywhere but at her.
Liz makes quick work of cleaning his cut, glaring at Riley when she sees how deep he managed to make it.
He shrugs, not trying to hide the half smile tugging at his lips.
Riley watches her work with a quiet intensity that sets her nerves on fire.
Two butterfly stitches and a gauze wrap later, her work is done.
The rest of Matt’s rag tag team picks the best time to come stumbling into the house.
It’s almost comical. Watching a group of five soldiers barrel through a single door, falling over each other, all shouting not to kill their man, Liz can’t help but smile.
Seeing everyone gathered in the small living room, even while yelling and causing a ruckus, hope swells in her chest. They have backup. Six more people to watch their backs. Six fresh sets of eyes to comb through email after email.
In less than an hour, they have gone from fighting to stay afloat to having a fighting chance. That is all she could have asked for.