Insatiable (Completed)

Chapter 17- Vulnerable

Riley

The crowd shouted as the 2 men brawled with each other. I sat, half stunned and half confused at what was happening. I mean, I shouldn't care right? He got himself into this mess so he should be able to get himself out! At first it looked harmless but when I heard fists connecting with jaws I felt my stomach do a somersault.

I hopped off the bar stool and pushed my way through the crowd of bodies that did nothing but stand by and watch. I used my body as a shield just as the guy with a mohawk was about to land a punch. When he saw me he froze and pulled back his arm, his green eyes opening wide at my sudden appearance. His nose was bleeding and a slight bluish discoloration started to form under his eye.

"Riley?" Richard huffed out in surprise behind me, turning me around by my shoulder to face him.

He looked just as bad as the other guy, drunk out of his mind. Blood trickled down the gash above his eyebrow. His lower lip was swollen and blood stained. His mullet styled hair was deshelved and his shirt ruffled, half way unbuttoned and his tie hanging loosely around his next.

"Move!" Mohawk guy shouted, startling me.

"Can we all just calm down?" I shouted back, equally as loud.

By then, security had already arrived. One was dragging out mohawk by the arm and when the other came to escort Richard out of the place I stopped him.

"It's okay, we're leaving," I told the guy and motioned for Richard to follow me out the sushi bar.

We made our way into the hotel in dead silence as we felt intrusive eyes gawking at us.

"Where's your key card?" I asked Richard as we stopped outside his room.

He searched around in the pockets of his slacks and handed it to me. With a swipe I opened the door and stepped aside for Richard to enter first. He stumbled through and headed straight for the bed, looking drained of every ounce of energy he had left.

"You wanna tell me what that was about?" I asked, folding my arms across my chest and waiting for him to answer.

"Oh, so now you're talking to me?" He replied, bitterness marinating his tone.

"You know, I'd really prefer if I wasn't either but what the hell was that Richard?"

"Why the fuck do you care?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's the fact that you're on a GOD DAMN business trip that your father trusted you enough to take charge of and yet you're out here acting like a juvenile delinquent!"

I think the main reason why I found myself so infuriated is because I was the one that vouched for Richard when his dad asked me about how he was adjusting. I guess some part of me felt responsible for ensuring that this trip was a success and now I had Richard over here royally screwing it up.

"Don't talk to me as if I'm a fucking child!"

"Then stop acting like one!" I fired back. "Really, Richard? A bar fight? What the hell were you thinking?"

He was silent as he looked down at the hard wood floors, avoiding all eye contact with me. Urgh, what was I still doing here? Leaving him in the room, I went over to the bathroom and dug around in the cabinets for a first aid kit or something to clean him up. I found a red bag in the small cabinet below the basin along with a little glass bowl. I filled the bowl halfway with water and added in a cap full of the antiseptic liquid from the kit.

"Take off your shirt," I said as I laid the bag out opened on the bed and the bowl next to it.

"What?" He sounded surprised, cocking a brow at me.