The Cross (Alliance Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

with the Alliance. Only he couldn’t tell his crew what his plan was, or why he was hunting this group through the woods for all these days. They didn’t know anything about Trina and the deal he made with Hassinger.

    He saw the bandages around Riley’s chest and the bruises on his face long before Drake dropped him to his knees in front of him. And then the girl needing to help him up, him swaying like that, he knew how badly Anders hurt him, only it wasn’t really Anders. It was him that did it with someone else’s hands. But he was still glad Anders was dead now, or he’d try to kill him himself. He didn’t understand at first why Riley had Drake and the girl leave like that, and why he was now handing him the gun, asking him to shoot him. It didn’t make any sense for the longest time. And then it did. Riley really thought he wanted him dead. And he couldn’t blame him for thinking it after the way he was with him. Riley, too, was making a deal for the people he loved, his life for Ella’s and the other girl.

    And he wished he could do this for him, keep everyone safe, and suddenly, he had the makings of a plan in his head that wasn’t there just a moment before. He just had to get Riley angry enough at him to pull the trigger. Ella and the other girl were his only leverage now. He could trade on that for Trina’s life. He couldn’t think of a single reason for them to hold her if he were gone… He just hoped he could get Riley to do what he needed him to do. So when they got to the cave, he told him that he really wished him dead, and he could tell from the way he looked at him that he believed him.

    Only he didn’t, in a million years, expect him to still volunteer to let him kill him on the off chance they got the girls back. It didn’t make sense. He was doing this for him, and it hurt worse than anything to shake his hand after that, and him putting the blanket down for him was too much. It made him feel every kind of wrong just looking at it. He couldn’t sleep anyway, not now, not after what he did to his friend. So he sat there for the longest time, with his eyes closed, trying to find just the right things to say to make it easy for him to pull the trigger.

    He knew asking Riley to do this was the worst kind of thing to ask of anybody, and that he’d fight him on it, even if he did truly hate him for what he had done today and for what he was about to tell him. But short of trying to steal this girl he seemed in love with from him, he couldn’t think of anything else to do, and he couldn’t do that to him. Couldn’t live with himself. So this last play he had left, that’s all he could do… That he could live with. He got up, and walked over to where Riley was lying on his blanket. He was on his back, eyes closed, but he didn’t think he was asleep yet. He was breathing too fast for that.

    “Riley, we need to talk. I’m sorry to wake you, but we have to,” he said softly, not to scare him.
    “All right, but we’ll have to do it outside. I’ll grab us a ray.”
    He watched him go through his bag looking for a wide enough ray for them, and suddenly, he wanted a bit more time alone, time with his thoughts without Riley or Trina in them, so he walked outside the cave to the little clearing, surrounded by birch trees. He has always loved these slender trunks with their strange spots. He sat down, leaning against one of the larger ones, and waited, smelling the delicate, barely there sweetness of birch sap.

    Riley’s ray caught him full in the face, making him shut his eyes for a few seconds to get rid of the red spots behind his eyelids. He watched him slowly sit on the grass across from him, still obviously in pain. Watched him stick the ray into the soil at an angle, so now the light was pointing up and to the side, enough to clearly show his bruised face. He was glad he put a shirt on, so he didn’t have to see anything else he’d done to him.

    “Still don’t want to hit me?