Chapter 42
They pull up to the lake and Riley parks the car, opting to leave it running for the headlights, knowing it will be dark soon. He grabs their blanket from the back seat and gets out, walking to their spot… alone.
She quickly gets out and meets him on the blanket, feeling a little guilty herself for ruining the nice evening he had planned. They sit, watching the waterfall, not daring to speak.
“You’re wrong, love. I’m not trying to make up some new life for you,” Riley blurts out, looking over to Liz.
“What?” she asks, confused after not speaking for so long.
“I know I could have stopped it, I will always blame myself for you getting taken, but I’m glad they took you. I mean… I hate what they di—”
“You’re happy… that my brother handed me over to a terrorist, to be used as his personal punching bag?” Liz shouts at him, seeing red.
“That’s not what I mean. If Dmitri never took you, none of this would have happened.”
“Well, I’m sorry my getting kidnapped caused so many problems for you,” she seethes, anger flooding her.
“Will you fucking listen, princess,” he snaps, standing and pacing in front of where Liz sits as she tracks him with her eyes.
“If you had never gotten taken, you would have gone through with it, you would be dead right now. I would have never found you, never gotten to know you, never fell in love with you. The only thing I feel guilty about anymore is hoping I would be enough to make you want to stay alive,” he says, voice cracking with emotion.
“I may have found you out of guilt but that guilt was gone the second you told me what you planned to do. Everything I’ve done for you, every meal, every look, every conversation has been because I stupidly let myself get close.
Even when I thought you would be going home to a family, I couldn’t stop the feelings for you from building. ” Riley lets out a deep breath.
He turns again, only to find Liz standing in his path. He paces back to where she is, watching the ground. Riley reaches out, taking her delicate face in his hand and tips her head up to look at him before dropping his hand.
“I hate myself for not telling you the whole truth and I know I should have done it sooner, but the way I treat you is because of the way you make me feel, that’s it. The only guilt I have is for wanting you to feel the same way about me after losing the two most important people in your life.”
Liz takes one small step into him, her arms wrapping tightly around his waist. She rests her head on his chest, listening to his heart beat wildly. Finally, he slowly lifts his arms and wraps them around her, pulling her in as tight as he possibly can.
“Thank you for saving me, in every way possible,” she says, face still buried in his chest.
They stay like that, holding each other, emotions high, until the sun begins to set. Liz drops her arms from Riley’s waist and steps back. She doesn’t miss the sadness in his eyes before it’s gone. Liz bends down and slips out of her shoes, tossing them onto the blanket.
“What are you doing?” Riley asks.
Remembering the reason they are there, Liz turns to him and says, “If we’re going to leave soon, I’m jumping off that fucking waterfall.”