Chapter 18 - Riggs

CHAPTER 18 - RIGGS

I wake up hours later . I can tell by the light filtering in from the sheer drapes along the wall of windows to my right. Blackberry Hill has a rather outdated circadian program, so the changing nature of the light outside isn't as subtle as what I grew up with. But it's good enough to know it's definitely some time in the afternoon and Clover and I are still in bed.

The funny thing is, I'm still tired. It's more of an exhaustion, really. And I suspect that Clover is feeling this way as well, because even though she turns over and cracks an eye open to look at me, she closes it back up just as quickly. A signal, if ever there was one, that she's not even close to being ready to get out of this bed.

"We've got all day," I tell her.

She huffs out a little breath of air and then her response comes out sleepy and slow. "It feels a little wasteful, doesn't it?"

I slip my arm underneath her shoulders, then draw her in tight to my chest, resting my mouth on that fleshy muscle I like to bite, suddenly having an urge to do it again. But I restrain myself. "What's wasteful about spending a day in bed?"

"We only get the one, ya know. This is it for us."

"Yup. We're doomed."

"So maybe we should put a little more thought into our last day."

"What do you wanna do? Go be a tourist?"

"I dunno. I just don't wanna waste it."

She's right, I know this. I just don't wanna get out of bed. "All right. Let's play a little game. It's called… Truth or Fantasy."

She peeks over her shoulder, squinting one sleepy eye at me. "Never heard of it."

"It's just like Truth or Dare, but for people who are already naked."

Clover laughs and turns around. And my God, her smile lights me up. "Truth or Dare for naked people?"

"Yeah. So, like… there's no weird consequences. When you dare someone, it comes with a level of angst and discomfort. But my version of the game is a fantasy. Truth or Fantasy. We all know what truth is. I ask you a question and you answer. Fantasy is… I give you a command."

She laughs again. "How is that not like a dare?"

"Well, it's entirely sexual."

Clover laughs. "It's the grown-up version of Truth or Dare."

"Exactly. But there's a catch."

"Of course there is."

"You get to choose truth or fantasy for me and I get to choose truth or fantasy for you."

"OK, so if I choose truth for you, then I ask you anything I want."

"No."

"No? How is that a no? That's how it works."

"That's how Truth or Dare works. Truth or Fantasy is the opposite. If you choose fantasy for me, then I get to have my fantasy with you."

"Hmm." She thinks about this for a moment. "And if you choose fantasy for me, I get to have my fantasy with you. For instance, I could make you kiss my toes."

I smile. "You could."

Her face screws up a little as she thinks. "I could make you… brush my hair."

"You could do that too."

"OK. I'm ready. Can I go first?"

"Please do."

"You choose…" She blushes, so I already know. "Fantasy." Her blue eyes are practically dancing right now. Like she's about to win a prize.

"You do realize I can make you do anything I want?"

"I do."

"You do realize this is a sex game?"

Her chuckle is immediate. "I get it. Now go. Fantasy."

Well… shit. I was expecting to ease into this so I'm not ready with a fantasy. I mean, I could make her suck my dick, that would feel pretty good. But that's too easy. That feels like an immediate payoff and if I just wanted to get down to business, I'd flip her over and fuck her.

That's not what I want. I want this afternoon to linger. I get one day with this woman so I'm gonna make the most of it. "All right. My fantasy is… you have to push the cover off and lie naked on top of it."

Her grin is lopsided. "You're going easy on me."

"I might be. But it's not for your benefit."

"No?"

"Nah. I just want to drive you a little crazy." I nod my head at the comforter. "Off with it."

She throws it aside, gets up on her knees—subtly flaunting her tits in my face—and then smooths the comforter out and places herself on top of it. She's propping herself up with an elbow, lying on her side, accentuating the curve of her hips. "There you go. Your fantasy, good sir."

I smile with appreciation. "Nice."

"All right. My fantasy is?—"

"Woman," I cut her off. "I want truth."

"What? Truth is boring. I'm ready for the fantasy."

"I know. That's why I'm asking for truth."

She tsks her tongue. "Our objectives here do not seem to match up. I'm trying to please you and you're out to deny me."

"It's a game, Clover. You could deny me too."

She huffs out some air. "My truth is…"

Her eyes lock on mine and they stay that way for nearly ten seconds. Long enough for things to get serious again. I want to caution her here to keep it light, but it's her truth, so she can say whatever she wants.

"My truth is… you're the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me."

I smile. "Well, I'm glad that this kidnapping, and your subsequent Stockholm syndrome, has turned out so well for you."

She slaps my shoulder. "It's not Stockholm syndrome."

Which makes me wince. "It most likely is."

"Well, fine then. I don't really like you. I'm suffering from a mental condition. But that doesn't explain why you like me."

"My turn."

Her eyes narrow and I know she's thinking about giving me truth, but she can't help herself. "Fantasy."

"My God, you're killing me here."

"Well, you see… this denial thing? It goes both ways. You can deny me, but you're only denying yourself in the end if you do."

"We'll see." I think for a moment, because she's caught on. If I deny her, I deny myself. "Flip around so your head is at the bottom of the bed, and then open your legs."

Her eyebrows go up. "That's provocative."

"It's meant to be."

She gets up, flaunts her perfectly round ass at me, crawls down to the end of the bed, and does just as I asked. "How wide do you want them?"

"Dirty."

"Hey, it's your fantasy, not mine. So how wide?"

"Just wide enough to get a peek."

She goes red. I'm talking bright red. But she plays it off by teasing me, sliding her legs together a few times before just barely opening them up. "Is that a good peek?"

I lick my lips and shake my head as I exhale. "Damn. I'm gonna lose."

This makes her giggle. "OK. My turn. And if you choose?—"

"Truth."

"You bastard!"

"What? I've got you all posed, Clover. I've got an endgame in mind here. I can't fuck it up by making you move."

"Hmm." She's smiling big. "That's clever. If we ever play again, I'm gonna use that tactic. But I'm gonna pose you like we're playing Twister when I do."

"Oh, we'll just play that for real. I'll get your ass in the air, put it right in front of my face and then?—"

"My truth is…" she interrupts, propping her upper body up on both elbows so she can see me. "I'm… gonna miss you."

I let out a long sigh. "Yeah. I think the feeling is gonna be mutual."

"All right, I'm in it to win it now. So you want truth. But I get to ask the question."

"That's not how it works."

"I'm rewriting the rules. My question is what is going on with you and Collin? I mean, why do you hate him so much?"

"This is your question? Isn't there something more pressing on your mind than why I hate Collin Creed?"

She closes her legs and crawls back up the bed towards me, settling right down in front of my chest so when she turns her head up to see me, her eyes are big and close. "There are a lot of things about you that I don't understand, Riggs. Most of them I'm probably not capable of understanding. But if you tell me about this, it will make sense. I know it."

"I'm not sure it will, Clover. Because it hardly makes sense to me."

"Just tell me."

"He's a traitor, that's all."

"To who, though?"

I scoff. "To me ."

"You were friends? And he betrayed you?"

"Yeah. I mean, there's a lot more to it than that, but yeah." I haven't thought about the actual reason I hate Collin Creed since my father offered me this job as a sort of salvation. While I was standing there in his office I did conjure up several ways in which I might pay Collin back for what he did to me. But then I let it go. Rage is a powerful motivator and has carried many a man across the finish line of whatever mission he was on, but it comes at the expense of precision and I wasn't in a place where I could afford to be sloppy.

A huff comes out of my mouth and along with it, a laugh. Because there is nothing neat and tidy about the naked woman in bed with me.

"What?" Clover asks. "What are you thinking that you're not telling me?"

"It's nothing."

"But I want to know about you and Collin. How did you meet him?"

"It doesn't matter. All you need to know is that he betrayed me. And I was fuckin' loyal, too. Collin Creed was on our list. I could've?—"

"Wait. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. Collin Creed was on what list?"

"Our list. Hattie's and mine."

"Hattie's and yours? What, were you two partners, or something?"

"Oh, fuck. I guess I left that part out."

Clover sits all the way up in bed now, pulling the comforter around herself to cover her breasts.

I point at her. "Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't look at me like that and don't act like you're all shocked, or whatever."

"You gave me a few hand-picked details, but you never mentioned you were hunting partners. So you were a bounty hunter for the Colonies?"

I shrug with my hands. "Is that a big deal?"

"Well, it implies a certain level of loyalty to your government, doesn't it?"

"I am the general's son, Clover. I was twenty years old when I got sent up top with Hattie. Why wouldn't I be loyal to my own father when I had been force-fed a menu of lies my entire life?"

She draws in a long breath, then slowly lets it out. "OK. I guess that makes sense." Then she settles back down into the pillow, but our little Truth or Fantasy game is over because she doesn't uncover herself. "Keep going. Collin Creed was on your list and you could've… what? What could you have done to him?"

"Well, handed him over, of course."

"This implies that you had access to him."

"I did. I worked with him the entire year I was on the run from Hattie."

"This doesn't make sense. Why did you run and how did you get involved with Collin in the first place?"

I hesitate here and Clover sees it. "Don't." She's pointing her finger at me now.

"Don't what?"

"Lie to me."

"I wasn't gonna lie."

"You were gonna find a way around the truth, Riggs. I saw it in your eyes. How did you get involved with Collin in the first place?"

I need to make a choice here. Because Clover is way too smart for her own good. She's like a little lie detector, this woman. Which means I need to tell her the truth.

At least a little bit of it.

"OK. I'll tell you. But you need to give me the benefit of the doubt."

She squints her eyes a little. "Okaaaay. I will."

"I was sent…" I can't believe I'm gonna admit to this.

She rolls her hand at me. "Keep going."

"I was sent to infiltrate Collin's outfit."

"Why though? What is so damn special about Collin Creed?"

"You tell me. You're the one who thinks he's a nine point seven five."

Clover smiles. "You're a nine point seven five too."

"Anyway. Collin is… I dunno. Fuckin' talented, I guess. He just gets the job done. The point is, Hattie and I were sent up top to infiltrate Collin's outfit."

"All right. So… you did that, I guess? I mean, you were working for him."

"Kind of. I did work with him. I was on his team that whole year I was running from Hattie."

"Well, that's not a ‘kind of', Riggs, that's a ‘yes'."

"But it comes with a disclaimer. Because I wasn't there as an infiltrator, I was approached and offered a defection package from the American government. Like the legit American government, not the shady one down below. You see, there's a bit of a civil war going on between the underground and the surface." Clover opens her mouth to start asking questions about this, but I'm not gonna answer those questions, so I put up a hand. "Let me finish."

She sighs. "OK. Keep going."

"I accepted this defection package and went to work for the American government. I didn't infiltrate Collin's outfit, I was placed there by my defection coordinator."

Her eyes are darting back and forth, looking straight into mine. "And you left Hattie Miller behind without telling her?"

I nod. "Yep."

"Wow." She blinks at me. "First. How pissed was your father?"

"Six years, Clover. Six fucking years of darkness. That's how pissed."

Her mouth goes crooked just thinking about it. "Yeah. Pissed probably doesn't even cover it. Second. How pissed was Hattie?"

"Pissed enough to set me up."

"What do you mean?"

"She's the one who told Collin I was a spy. Which I wasn't. And then he sold me out. She made a deal with him. He set me up to be captured by Hattie and… well, the rest is history."

Clover shakes her head and makes a face. "What? But why would he believe her ? I mean, Collin comes off as a pretty rational person." I nearly guffaw, only just managing to hold it in. "He's a thinker, Riggs. If you spent a year with him, you know that. He's not impulsive."

"No. I guess not. But you don't know Hattie. She's… formidable. And she got to him. I'm not sure how, but she got to him. And then she told him I was there to infiltrate?—"

Clover points at me. "Because technically, you were."

"Technically, I guess. It started that way. But I took a defection package, Clover. I wasn't there to spy. I was on the team, for fuck's sake. I didn't have to risk my life for him for the whole year. If I was there to spy I could've delivered Collin Creed to my father per my original mission in the first week. He'd be dead now if I had done that, by the way."

She presses her lips together, thinking. Does she believe me? Or is she suspicious? "How did you get away from her? Hattie, I mean. How did that happen?"

"Why do you wanna know this?"

"Because I need details, Riggs. And you're not really giving me any."

She doesn't trust me. But I wouldn't trust me either if I was her. I mean, I did just tell her I was sent to infiltrate her friend's kill team. So why I might normally take offense at her lack of trust, I earned this one. So I say, "His name was Clayton Boseman. I poisoned Hattie?—"

"What?" Clover sits up, laughing.

"I'm telling you, Clover. Hattie is no one to fuck with. She's suspicious of everyone. She never let me out of her sight. We slept in the same hotel rooms, we ate every meal together. Hell, I'm lucky she let me use the fuckin' bathroom alone, that's how uptight and suspicious she is."

Clover scoffs. "Couldn't you just tell her off, or whatever? You're the general's son ."

"She's the Sovereign's daughter ."

"What the hell is a Sovereign?"

"The only person who has a higher rank than my father."

Clover's lips slide together into a delightful little pucker. "Ooooooo."

"Yeah," I laugh. "Kinda explains a lot, doesn't it?"

Her face tightens up into a wince. "No wonder she's so uptight. OK. I'm starting to get the picture. So you poisoned her so you could escape. What did you use?"

"To poison her? Just ipecac syrup. She was puking so hard, she didn't even know I left."

"Wow. She hates you."

I laugh. "Ya think?"

"OK. So you got away. Then what happened?"

"You want to know about how I got away?"

"I'm still painting my picture. It's not done yet. So yes."

"Fine. The defection coordinator's name was Clayton Boseman. At least, that's what he was calling himself when we met. He gave me a new name—Raleigh Winston, and sent me in for an interview."

"And Collin liked you."

"I guess he did. I mean, he and I were never ‘friends' per se. Not like he was friends with Amon. But I was on the team. And for the next year, I worked for him."

"What did you guys do?"

"Even if I wanted to tell you that shit—and I don't—I'm not allowed. It's classified."

"What were the guy's names? On the team?"

My eyes narrow down. Because I've been pretty accommodating and yet, she's insisting on more details.

Sensing my building frustration, Clover shrugs. "I'm trusting you with my life, Riggs. The least you can do is trust me with yours."

Which feels fair. "It was a small team of ten, including Collin. There was me, Jimmy, Naveed, Manuel, Roddy, Rick, Amon, Ryan, and Nash. They were doing some serious jobs, Clover. I'm not talking bodyguard kind of jobs, either. Collin was hunting people down, just like I was."

Clover's face darkens with this little revelation about Collin Creed. "Hunting what kind of people?"

"Anyone the government told him to."

She's still looking at me, but her eyes go weird and distant for a moment. Like she's trying to reconcile this revelation.

"And before you go dismissing that, you should know it wasn't us hunting people. It was him . The only reason the rest of us were even there was to set him up for the kill and then, if necessary, cover for him afterward. We were his support team. We were there to save his ass. To make sure he got out no matter what. Five men died for him, Clover. Jimmy, Naveed, Manuel, Roddy, and Rick all died for him. He was the only one who mattered. Charlie Beaufort saw to that."

"Who the hell is Charlie Beaufort?"

"Well, that's who my defection coordinator, Clayton Boseman, really was. He used a fake name to make my offer—just in case I said no, I guess. But I was recruited by one Charlie Beaufort. He's a very dangerous man with the power of the government behind him. Charlie was having a greedy, power-hungry love affair with Collin Creed's killing skills. As far as Charlie was concerned, Collin could do no wrong. Whatever he wanted, he got. Because he was Charlie's loyal little attack dog. That's all Collin was, just a sick fuckin' dog foaming at the mouth for his next kill."

Clover huffs. "Come on, now. That's not Collin. I understand that he is dangerous. But a rabid dog he is not."

"You don't know him like I do."

"Maybe not, but nothing you told me adds up to the hatred you have for him. Who cares if he turned you in? I mean, if he was military and you were military?" She shrugs with her hands. "Who cares? All's fair in love and war, right?"

"Wow." I blink at her. "That's a really fucked-up thing to say."

"It's an expression, that's all."

"Well, to me? It's gross. I hate Collin because I got him out of two messy retreats after his kill shot while I was on the team. I almost ended up like the rest of them. I put my life on the line for him. I was loyal and committed, one-hundred percent, and he sold me out. That's how I got caught. It was Collin who got me sent to those tunnels for six years. Hattie was just the tool he used to do it."