Page 7 of Capture
“Dirty cops?” I questioned, unsurprised.
She nodded. “I think so. They…she…actually, I’m unsure how many people are involved in this…whatever it is, but I see only two faces.”
“The blond cop,” I replied bluntly, and she flinched at the tone of my voice. “We know who she is, but how do you know her? How did you become recruited into their little schemes?”
“She bribed me,” Riley replied, picking up her glasses, playing with them between her fingers, then swinging them around mindlessly.
“With what?” I was on a roll, so I might as well keep persisting with my line of questioning.
“To take my brother away from his family,” she replied, voice cracking again, and I could tell she wasn’t faking it. This was genuine emotional stress.
“You have a brother?” I exclaimed curiously. “I don’t remember you mentioning a brother.” Yet I knew Annika had a brother who was about six or seven years old and was living a happy life with his adopted family. But Riley hadn’t mentioned a brother, so had she tripped herself up, or was she going to come up with another tale off the top of her head?
She swallowed again, hesitating. “Yes. A younger brother. They threatened to hurt him.”
“Where is he?” I was losing patience with her storytelling, but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, as perhaps she’ll lead me to the truth.
“Um, I don’t know,” she sighed, rubbing her eyes.
“Look, I don’t know if you plan to tell us the truth or not, or string us along, but we already know about your brother. And we already know where he is. The Kaiser trust protects him. Nothing is going to happen to him,” I explained.
“How do you know my brother?” she screwed her face up.
Fuck, she’s still playing along, and I exhaled to relieve the tension building in my chest. “Drop the bullshit, Riley. Or should I call you by your real name? We know who you are. I just want you to say it. Say your name. Say it.”
Fear crawled across her face as her pupils widened and her mouth parted. “I don’t know what you mean? You’re confusing me with someone else.”
“C’mon, Riley. Stop bullshitting me. This,” I drew a circle in the air, “is fake. Everything about you is fake. Now is the time to drop the façade and reveal who you are.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know what you mean,” she sobbed, and I groaned as guilt and doubt stormed my conscience.
Was I wrong about this? Or was she so stubborn and afraid that she found it difficult to relinquish her disguise? Perhaps she had been playing the role of Riley Laws for so long that she had forgotten how to be Annika.
“How do you know about my brother when I haven’t told you about him?” she asked, and again I questioned whether I was right about her.
My eyes found a spot on the ceiling as I tried to cool my jets and decided to go along with her bullshit. “We know everything about you. I’m your stalker, remember, I did my research. Your brother is protected and always has been, so the Larsson cops were lying to you to force you to be their mole.”
She clammed up, lay back down, and turned on her side away from me. The room fell silent, and I considered leaving, but myfeet were glued to the floor. The curve of her body lured me in like an addiction that I couldn’t beat.
I slipped my shoes off, took the empty food tray off the bed, placed it on the floor by the door, and knelt on the bed. Her cheeks were wet with tears, and I leaned over her, wiping those streaks away with my thumb. Then I lay beside her, nestled into her curves, her butt cheeks pressed against my crotch. She didn’t move or try to push me away. Instead, she relaxed into me as I stroked her hair.
“I’m sorry it has come to this,” I whispered against her soft skin.
She exhaled as her body trembled, not because it was cold in here, but because she was grieving. A breathy sigh escaped her lips before she softly spoke, “I’m sorry I did this to you. You don’t deserve it. None of you deserves it.”
Pain surged through my chest, and my muscles tensed at her admission, yet I still needed her to say her name. “What does that cop want?”
“Evidence to put Mr. Kaiser back in prison again,” she replied, and I squinted because once again, she was admitting who she was, without actually saying it.
“Just say it, Riley. Say your name,” I was almost begging. I needed to hear that name drop from her lips. The name of my foster sister, the girl who lit up my world when she smiled. The girl that my parents saved from a life of hell. “Say it. Say your real name.”
My fist found her cool cheek, and I brushed over the tears that continued to stream as my heart turned to jelly. I wore a shell of black as armor to protect my soft heart from the cruelty of the world. Yet, this girl, who squeezed against me, could destroy me with one word:Say it.
A sigh escaped her lips as her fingers clasped my wrist and she pressed her lips against my palm. “I’m so sorry,” she said in a hushed tone.
My lips found the curve of her neck as she turned her face to meet my lips. “Say it,” I demand in a whisper, drilling into her green eyes that were blue underneath those contact lenses.
She raised her head, so our lips met, and that’s all it took. One touch from this girl and I was under her spell. Claimed. Annika could control me with one look, one smile, one flirtatious twirling of her golden hair around her finger. Every day as a growing man and brother, I fought against my deepening feelings for her, and now she has finally returned to me, and she won’t say her name.
