R I L E Y

When Jaxon had set up a meeting with one of his weapon-dealer friends, I hadn't known forcing Kane along with me would be so entertaining. Because Jaxon had to make some changes to his metal arm, he'd asked me to go in his place to receive the weapons. And naturally, Kane had been easy to persuade.

Maybe he really would do anything for me.

The thought made dark triumph bloom in my chest. It awakened strange feeling within the heart I'd always thought to be cold and black.

I looked up at him as we strode cautiously through the maze-like alleyways enveloping our hideout. The gray mid-morning sky mirrored his mood. As usual, he wore a flat scowl.

"It wouldn't kill you to smile once in a while, you know," I said, wondering how much nicer he'd look happy.

"It wouldn't kill you to be subtle once in a while, you know."

I scoffed at his slight. "I'm serious. You look like you're trying to turn everything your gaze touches to stone."

He looked directly at me. "If only."

"Whatever." I tossed my hair. "Just remember that you agreed to this."

"I only agreed because I knew you going out alone like this would end in one of two ways: you starting a city-wide fight or you flirting your way into trouble with Jaxon's friend."

"Who says I only have to do one? You know I don't like to limit myself."

"Exactly." Hands sliding into his pockets, he nodded to my gleeful face. "This is why I came along."

"I'll remind you of that when I flirt with Jaxon's friend and he becomes interested."

"He won't be interested."

"You don't sound convinced." We were on the open road now, walking beside the busy street and doing our best to look inconspicuous.

He sighed. "Why does it always have to end in flirtation with you?"

Shrugging, I answered, "You never seem affected by it. I need to make sure I still have enough charm."

Kane didn't look at me, kept his gaze straight forward and kept walking along, leaving me to try to match his wide strides. "That's because I'm not affected."

A twist of my lips. "You sure seemed affected when I was naked in the dressing room the other day."

"That was different." His eyes were dark with annoyance.

"You couldn't stop staring at the floor, practically blushing," I crowed, not caring who heard me. "How does it feel to be so easily affected?"

"I was not blushing. I was being polite." He shot a dirty look at me. "That's more than I can say for you, stripping naked in front of a stranger."

"So you were looking." I feigned disgust. "How impolite."

It was his turn to turn away, scoffing. "There's nothing to look at."

"That's the biggest lie you've told today, and you know it."

There was a quiet that followed and I smiled, knowing he had nothing more to say. Delphinium was right—I had this boy wrapped around my finger.

"There he is." The subject change didn't escape me. "In the black shirt."

I squinted my eyes. "The good-looking one? I see him."

Brows lowered, Kane didn't acknowledge my first comment, though he did give the subject a bit of a sharper glare. "Just let me do the talking." I raised my eyebrows, knowing he'd never said that before. Perhaps I'd annoyed him so much that he'd temporarily overcome his quietness.

The man's dark eyes narrowed as soon as he beheld us approaching. There was a bag on the ground next to him, undoubtedly carrying the guns we came for.

"You with Jaxon?" He asked, looking as though he was ready to pull a gun out of the bag and shoot us down if we weren't.

"Yes," Kane answered curtly. "I assume you are too."

The man nodded and Kane shot me a glance, silently asking if I had a reason we shouldn't continue. I shrugged as if he'd asked me aloud and let my eyes run down the man's body just to spite Kane. "I think he looks...trustworthy."

Kane folded his muscular arms as the weapons dealer's smile grew unsurely, trying to figure out what I really meant. "The weapons," the strongman demanded, nothing in his stony demeanor changing.

Tearing his eyes off me, the man went to the bag of firearms at his feet like he'd temporarily forgotten it was there. "Four guns—a pistol and three semi-automatic rifles." To Kane's dismay, he held the bag out to me. I shouldered the bag, noting how the firearms knocked against each other inside.

Wordlessly, Kane offered him a wad of cash, but the weapons dealer shook his head. "I owed Jaxon a favor." His dark eyes flicked to me. "Take them."

Keeping an eye on Kane's expression from my peripheral vision, I said, "How generous. I always love a good businessman."

When I didn't immediately step away, Kane grabbed my arm and gently led me back to the street. As soon as the man was out of earshot, I grinned up at him and said, "I'd say that went well." He immediately let go of me.

"Yeah," he grumbled. "Somehow I got the feeling he would have made me pay had you not been there."

"Did you?" I asked, pasting a look of innocence across my face. "Perhaps he was interested."

"Perhaps." He didn't sound quite as enthused as I was.

I looked into his scowling face and couldn't hold back a chuckle. "Jealousy suits you, Shires."

"I'm not jealous."

Raising an eyebrow, I answered, "So you wouldn't mind if I went back to him and got to know him better?"

"I don't make decisions for you."

"Good to know. Especially when he was eyeing me like—" Kane went still for a split second and then grabbed my arm again, guiding me to the side of the busy sidewalk. "Rethinking your statement about not being jealous now?"

"Keep your voice down," he said, lips barely moving. I sensed the underlying urgency in his tone and immediately sobered. "There are four ONNT soldiers coming up."

"What?" I craned my head to see. He was right; across the street, four soldiers walked toward us in a line, each boasting a gun on their belt. They hadn't seen us yet, but it was only a matter of seconds before they did.

"We have to turn right here." He nodded to the corner up ahead. Hopefully we could avoid the soldiers entirely that way.

Suddenly, he strode forward, leaving me to scramble behind. Eyes cast down, I hoped we'd get away fast enough to avoid any recognition. As we rounded the corner, I dared a single glance at the soldiers only to see them pushing through the crowd across the street, eyes locked on us.

"They've seen us," I muttered to Kane, heart suddenly hammering.

He picked up his pace and I followed again, watching his tall form as the crowds increased around us. However, I soon found that he walked much faster than me with his longer legs and I struggled to get around the people heading the opposite way. A line of passerby blocked me from going onward and I glanced back at the soldiers, who were gaining on me.

Once again, Kane grabbed my arm and pulled me through the crowd—of course, people made room for someone of his build. I huffed. "Stop pulling me along by my arm like a rag-doll. I have hands, you know."

"Really? At a time like this?" He asked, but I gave no answer. After looking as though he was praying to the heavens for patience, he roughly took ahold of my hand and yanked me away from the incoming soldiers.

I grinned, keeping up with him now that people were moving out of our way. "See? That's not so bad, is it?"

All he did was silently gauge how far behind the soldiers were. We turned down a few more busy streets, hoping to lose them in the masses of people. It was clear that we needed to get to our hideout as soon as possible, but we also couldn't lead the soldiers right to it. So confusing them in the twisting streets was the plan.

My pulse still echoing in my ears, I didn't look behind us again. Would the soldiers shoot us through the crowd if they got desperate enough? And the most frightening question: what would they do with us if we were caught?

It was the last thought I had before a single gunshot sounded, making the crowd scream in sudden terror. Then there was pain—searing, hot pain. I could barely tell where it was emanating from. Blood seeped through my fingers as I clutched at my side.

They were trying to maim me just badly enough to make us easy to capture.

"We can't stop. Hold on," Kane hissed in my ear. "Just hold on long enough for us to lose them." He had a death grip on my hand as he continued to help me forward.

Every step sent fire through my body and I wasn't sure how I'd held on this long. People passing by gave me a wide berth and stared at the blood dripping from my fingers. I didn't look back.

Finally, when I felt seconds away from blacking out, the soldiers no longer followed us—they'd been deterred by the great amounts of people enjoying the morning in the city. Through my red-tinged vision, I saw we were near the others. The trip here had been a blur.

As soon as we emerged in the hideout, Kane's arm wrapped around my waist to help me stand, all the others turned to look at us. "The ONNT soldiers are near," Kane said, recovering quickly. "They saw us. And shot Riley."

Putting down his tools, Jaxon groaned and ran a hand over his face. "Do you at least have my guns?" To the best of my ability, I threw the bag onto his table and he began rooting through it.

Kane pushed me down into one of the chairs surprisingly gently. Under any other circumstances, I would have savored every touching gesture of his, but I was unfortunately preoccupied. Finn hurried over and handed him a small roll of bandages—it was all we had.

"They didn't see you coming here, did they?" Delphinium asked, hands already inching for her blades.

"No. I made sure of that," Kane replied, eyes on the bloody mess of my abdomen. "But now they know we're here." I nearly smiled at the rage in his voice, knowing that he would have destroyed the ONNT soldiers if I wasn't hurt.

"And now that they do, they'll start to narrow in on this place. The noose will tighten," I finished, gritting my teeth against the pain that came when the strongman pressed the bandages to staunch the blood flow. Sadly, this was not how I imagined him touching me. But it would have to do for now.

Finn stared at the ground, deep in thought. "Then we need to draw them away from here. We need to do something so large they'll have no chance to miss it."

His gaze travelled to Arlo, who was already grinning madly. "Don't you worry, dear Finn," he said. "I know exactly what to do."