Chapter 46
“Rise and shine, you dirty little whores!” Mikey shouts as he bursts into Riley’s room. Liz and Riley both shoot up, startling awake. The look on their faces has Mikey rethinking his wake-up call.
“If you survive today… I’m going to fucking kill you,” Riley says to him.
“We… We are going to fucking kill you,” Liz adds as she lays her head back down.
“It was either me or the general,” Mikey says to them adding, “By the way… General’s here. Dmitri is on the move, and everyone is waiting on you two, okay, bye.”
Mikey turns and walks back out the door, closing it behind him.
Liz rolls over and kisses Riley’s chest, wrapping her arm around him, not yet ready to leave the comfort of his embrace.
She can’t leave him yet. It has been two long years without this kind of joy in her life and that could all be taken from her today, she needs to hold on to this moment just a little while longer.
He brings his arm around her, holding her tight, placing soft kisses on the top of her head while her hands trace the hard lines of his abdomen. They stay there, wrapped in each other's arms letting the minutes tick by.
“Good morning, princess,” he finally says to her.
“Good morning, sunshine,” she says, yawning.
Reluctantly, Liz peels herself away from Riley’s warmth, stretching as she does, quickly realizing that’s the best night of sleep she’s gotten in years.
Riley follows her lead and climbs out of bed, walking over to his dresser and pulling out clothes for himself.
Liz scoots to the edge and stretches one more time before standing and picking her clothes up off the floor.
“You ready for today?” Riley asks, pulling a tight black long-sleeved shirt over his head.
“No… but I guess I have to be, right?” she says, heading to the door so she can go get prepared. She turns the squeaky handle, but before she can pull the door open, Riley’s arms wrap around her, pulling her back against him.
“Will you come back when you’re ready?” he asks quietly, nuzzling his head against her neck.
Liz giggles as his warm breath tickles her ear. She twists around, bringing her arms to wrap around his waist. She lifts herself onto her tiptoes and gives him a quick kiss. “Always,” she says, sinking back onto her feet.
Riley lets her go and she rushes out the door and across the hall into her room, closing the door behind her.
Liz takes a quick shower, sad about washing the smell of Riley off of her.
When she’s done, she pulls her hair into a braid hanging down the center of her back.
She moves over to her closet, water dripping off her and onto the tile floors.
Liz picks out a pair of plain black pants and matching long sleeve black shirt, quickly throwing them on before stuffing her feet into her black combat boots and lacing them.
She walks over to the mirror, footsteps echoing in the small room.
Looking at herself, she doesn’t recognize the person staring back at her, but she doesn’t hate her reflection anymore.
Liz gives herself a minute to take in her new look; she looks stronger, more sure of herself.
She swears she can even see a little light behind her eyes again.
Liz hurries back into Riley’s room, prancing to his bed and plopping herself down, ready to watch the show that is him checking his gear. He shoots her a confused look, and she simply shrugs her shoulders, telling him, “It’s kind of hot when you’re pulling at all those straps.”
He just pulls on another one in response, winking at her.
Liz shakes her head and stands, pacing around his room, full of nervous energy.
He follows her with his eyes as he finishes checking his gear.
When he’s done, he goes to his closet and pulls out a small box.
Riley brings it over to where Liz paces and holds it out to her, making her stop.
She eyes him, but slowly pulls the lid off, revealing what looks like a holster. She lifts the straps out of the box, seeing two small handguns sitting underneath.
“It’s the best I could do on such short notice,” Riley says, reaching for the handful of fabric Liz holds.
He gets on one knee and wraps the harness around her waist, buckling it in the front.
He moves onto her legs, buckling each double-leg strap and tightening them for her.
Liz takes the guns out of the box and slides them into their holsters, looking down while she does a little happy dance.
He reaches back into the box and pulls out two small knives, sliding them into a hidden sheath built into the holster.
“There’s a mirror in the bathroom,” he says, his smile lighting up his face.
Liz sprints to the bathroom, squealing at herself when she sees her reflection with the new accessories Riley gifted her. She runs back out, getting into her firing stance, using both hands to make a pretend gun. “Do I look like a badass?” she asks.
“You look incredible, Baby” Riley says, eyes roaming over every inch of her, her excitement sending his heart racing.
Riley reaches out his hand and Liz takes it, interlocking their fingers. As he leads her to the door, she takes a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. Liz knows no matter what happens today, everything is going to change.
They walk out and head right to the group of men sitting at the table, quietly bickering to themselves.
Liz grips his hand tighter at the sight of the general sitting there with the rest of the men she almost considers friends.
As soon as they get closer, it becomes obvious something isn’t right. The energy of the room is off.
“They know about the ambush. We need to change plans, quickly,” the general says, wrinkling his nose at the sight of their connected hands.
Without any hesitation, they sit and join the debate on what their next steps should be.
After two grueling hours of back and forth leading nowhere, Liz decides it’s finally time to share her thoughts.
She held off as long as she could, knowing she doesn’t know a single thing about strategy and battle plans.
She looks at Riley, heart breaking, knowing he is going to fight her on what she’s about to say.
“What if I go alone?” she says timidly. All eyes snap to her, and before Riley gets the chance to object, she adds, “He needs me alive. We all saw those messages my brother sent. He thinks I can bring him to his missiles. If I go alone, he may think I’m running from everything.
There’s no chance he won’t come after me. ”
Liz looks around the table, everyone looks to be considering what she says, even the general looks like he may think it’s a usable idea.
“Not a fucking chance in hell I’ll let you do that,” Riley snaps.
“That’s not for you to decide. You didn’t even let me tell you my plan,” Liz snaps back, challenging him to tell her no again.
“Fine, tell me, either way it’s not happening,” he says through gritted teeth. He can’t bring himself to look at her, so full of anger at her willingness to put herself in danger.
“Call whoever you guys keep getting info from. Tell him I found out Riley was using me to get to Dmitri and that I’m done.
If he can get that intel to someone higher in their little crime circle, Dmitri will make a move.
I’ll leave, make a big show of it, and go to the bar or something.
You can send the guy working for you some recording of the fight; he can make it seem like they found us. ”
Liz looks around the group, waiting for someone to object or tell her the plan will never work. To her surprise, everyone keeps their thoughts to themselves, allowing her to finish.
“Once they see the tracker away from the dead zone, I’m sure one of his goons will find me, report to him I’m alone, and he will come looking for me.
The sudden change will make him scramble, so you can send a team to deal with the men at the lake.
If the guys at the lake don’t see me with Riley, it will only strengthen the story that I left. ”
“Are you fucking insane? I thought you moved passed being suicidal!” Riley shouts at her, standing and breathing heavy. He looks at her, waiting for her to respond to his outburst.
Matching his energy, Liz gets out of her chair, stepping up toe to toe with Riley. Looking up at him and crossing her arms. The rest of the table looks on in shock, never having met someone so willing to face off against Reaper.
“You do realize you have been training me for this right?” she asks, hoping he’s smart enough to not answer. She rolls his eyes when he’s not.
“That’s not the po—” he starts to say before being cut off.
“The only thing coming out of your mouth should be ‘yes dear’. You and Mikey have been training me for months. This is exactly what I have been trained to do,” she says, voice raising in anger.
She takes another step toward him, taking a deep breath to calm herself.
Seeing the hurt and fear on Riley’s face, she drops her hands to her sides.
Trying to be understanding of what he may be feeling, Liz looks into his deep amber eyes, forgetting the small team watching them.
“Look, I love you, and I appreciate you wanting to keep me safe… but… if this is ever going to work, you need to trust I can handle myself and let me help. I can’t go back to being locked away. Keeping me from fighting is just another prison, Riley.”
He looks down at her, eyes softening at her confession. Riley opens his mouth to talk, needing to know if she meant what she just said. He looks at all the eyes on them, quickly realizing he needs to focus on the rest of what she told him.
“You’re right,” he says, backing down, still trying to process everything.