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She doesn’t need me to sugarcoat it. She needs the unvarnished truth.
“Yeah, we are,” I say, giving it to her. “Riley’s coming home tomorrow.”
It’s more than the truth. It’s a promise. A motherfucking vow.
No matter who we have to take out to make it happen.
7
RILEY
I arch my back,reaching for the ceiling, then let out a long, slow breath as I reverse it and bend forward, folding at the waist until I’ve got my arms wrapped around my calves and my chest pressed against my thighs. Then I let out a stream of viciously muttered fucks and flop backward onto the piece of shit bed West Point has so generously provided for me, staring up at the pattern of textured bumps that I can probably draw in my sleep by now.
If Icouldsleep.
“Fuck,” I whisper again, squeezing my eyes closed.
It doesn’t help.
I’ve been on edge and feeling anxious ever since Austin dragged me out of this windowless cell of a room and forced me to listen in on that call he made to Maddoc yesterday. But even with my eyes closed, I can still see the look on Austin’s face as he taunted Maddoc over the phone, trying to hurt him. Threatening to hurtmeif I so much as made a sound or attempted to let the Reapers know I was there.
West Point’s leader truly is a sadistic fuck. It’s the only reason he had me listen in like that, and the smirk he wore the whole time just confirmed it.
Austin made sure to hold the phone away from his ear as the two of them spoke so I could hear the muted sound of Maddoc’s voice, and my heart clenches all over again as I remember the leashed fury behind Maddoc’s words as he demanded to know where I was.
He didn’t even hesitate before agreeing to trade his life for mine.
I never expected that.
“You asshole, Maddoc,” I whisper into the stale air, my throat tight with a wave of emotion that threatens to overwhelm me.
I came here to protecthim. All of them. But even when Austin told me he was going to use me against the Reapers, I didn’t anticipate the fucked-up terms he offered them, or I would have fought it like hell.
And I couldn’t have prepared myself for how it felt when Maddoc said yes to those terms.
I can’t be the reason Austin hurts him.
That thought sends my emotion bubbling over, and they burst out of me in a short, sharp laugh that sounds almost hysterical. It’s got nothing to do with humor and feels all too close to tears, and I quickly slap a hand over my mouth to stifle it because, even all alone in here, I can’t stand to hear it.
And I won’t be alone in here for long. Even though I can’t properly tell time with absolutely nothing in here to tell me how quickly it’s passing, I know the hand-off will be soon… and I’m torn.
I don’t want my men in danger.
I can’t stand the idea of Maddoc giving himself up for me.
But I want to see them again. I want it so badly it almost scares me.
I think I’ve been falling for them from the start. The feelings between all of us grew slowly, and sometimes they felt a lot more like hate and terror along the way, but even when I couldn’t see it and didn’t want to admit it, the connection I feel with each of them has become the one thing, besides Chloe, that matters most to me. The one thing that’s sustained me in this West Point hell over the last couple of weeks.
I was willing to give up everything for my men, and the idea that Maddoc is about to do the same for me is overwhelming. It shows me the true breadth of these feelings—mine for them, and theirs for me—and suddenly I’m not fighting off tears. I’m pissed the fuck off at Austin for daring to threaten it.
And pissed off is better, because caring this much makes it really fucking hard to stay strong. If I let myself think too much about how hard Maddoc, Dante, and Logan are willing to fight for me, it’s going to knock me right over and make me even more terrified about what’s going to happen when we all show up to make that trade.
I don’t trust Austin. Not even a little bit.
But I’m powerless against him right now, and the only hope I have to cling to is knowing that the Reapers trust him even less than I do. Whatever happens, even if it all goes to shit, they won’t let him win.
The door to my room opens so suddenly that it sends my heart into my throat, and I leap to my feet, my pulse pounding. Austin stands in the doorway, and I can see a couple of his henchmen and Sienna waiting in the hallway behind him.
