Page 26 of Marked

Chapter 16

Cain

An unreadable expression rests on her face as I stand before her, fiddling with the tiny ear plug in my hands. She hasn’t said a word since I brought her upstairs, only nodded in appreciation when I complimented her looks. We are sending her to a bar on a Saturday night, but her getup doesn’t reflect the kind of party night I remember from the short time in my life when I felt free enough to be out and about, mingling with a crowd that had too much money and few creative ways to spend it. The girls in that environment paraded their tight bodies in short dresses and revealing necklines, stumbling through the club in high heels as the alcohol took a toll on their ability to move gracefully.

Riley, however, is dressed in a pair of tight-fitting jeans, a printed shirt and a black cardigan, along with a brand-new pair of sneakers, which kindled a smile on her face that made me weak to the core.

A light scarf is wrapped around her neck, covering the blue spot that blemishes her pale skin on the back below her ear. It’s covered by her hair and the scarf, but noticeable nonetheless—and it worries me more than the plug in her ear. What if Charlie notices the hickey on her? Would he go for a girl who has been marked by someone else?

There’s a part in me that hopes he won’t, even though it would endanger the whole operation. Riley is mine, and the mark on her skin is a clear telltale of that.

“What if he notices it?”

I’m startled by her question, wondering if she can read my mind, before I realize she’s not speaking about the hickey, but the ear plug in my hand, concern marking her face with deep lines.

“He won’t.”

“But what if he d—”

“Riley.”

She meets my gaze, the hint of a frown emerging between her brows.

“You need to stop worrying about worst-case scenarios. These things are built to be hidden, and there’s absolutely no way Charlie—or anyone—could possibly notice this,” I reassure her. “Especially if you wear your hair down like this.”

Her face softens when I reach up and run my fingers through the dark strands at the side of her face. However, it is nothing but a momentary lapse replaced by her former frown when she seems to remember the task at hand.

“Almost time to leave,” Kyle announces from the other side of the room, startling both of us with his sudden appearance. “She ready?”

Riley’s face hardens and I throw him a short look.

“We’ll be out in a few,” I tell him, jutting my chin forward to incline him to leave us alone.

He nods and disappears as quickly as he showed up.

“Put it in yourself, make sure it fits properly,” I say, handing her the little ear plug.

She takes it between two fingers and holds it up before her eyes, squinting as if she were examining a tiny gem for its purity.

I watch as she places it in her right ear, shoving it in with so much force that I’m just about to intervene so she won’t hurt herself. She whips her head from side to side, like someone who went swimming and is trying to get some water out of their ear canal.

The sight makes me chuckle, and much to my surprise, she reciprocates it.

Riley seemed relieved when I told her about the change of plans, possibly because she doesn’t understand the danger that this new plan of action might put her in.

“I don’t have to go home with him?” she asked, exhaling a low sigh of relief when I affirmed.

I didn’t share my concerns with her. It’s better this way. While she is the major key to execute this mission, she’s also the only one among us who won’t be armed and who has no experience with this kind of situation.

And if everything goes according to my plan, she will never realize what danger lurks in the shadows of tonight’s events.

“Does it sit securely?” I ask after she’s been bobbing and shaking her head from side to side for a while.

“I think so,” she murmurs.

“Now, let’s go through it one more time.” I grab her by the shoulders, waiting until she has locked eyes with me before I continue.

“You’ll go in, introduce yourself to the group. If possible, you try to sit as closely to Charlie as possible, maybe even next to him. But don’t push it, don’t seem too eager to be close to him. We know the group usually orders their drinks in rounds, and Charlie isn’t shy when it comes to drinking. He always has a beer in front of him. Don’t spike it before you’ve come closer to him. Give it a few minutes before you engage him in a conversation. Be nice, fl—”

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