Riley

Chapter 32

Peters POV
What the heck did I just witness? This man spoke to her as if he has known her for all her life and after being separated, has just been reunited with her.

He said he went to go get refreshments. It's probably some type of poisonous lemonade...

"What was that?" Daniel asks gaining attention from all.

"What?" The man next to him asks

"That little..." He waves his hands at Riley "interaction"

"Look don't ask questions here. We asks the questions." He motions towards the other men. "And you comply with why we say and ask." He pokes Daniel hard in the chest.

"What he means." the man on the near Riley starts "Is that we don't know. We were just told to bring the girl here. And since you two were with her, we had to grab you guys too."

"Well what benefit is it for you guys?" Riley asks confused.

"We all get paid ..." the man to my left starts but is cut off

"I have refreshments!" The strange man walks back into the room holding a tray of 3 glasses. One glass has light brown liquid and the other two look like water with bubbles, maybe sprite.

He's so strange, he talks to Riley like he knows her and he's now offering us drinks.

Walking up to Riley first he hands her a glass cup filled with light brown liquid. She stares at it skeptically before taking it from his hand.

"Coffee..." She murmurs, smelling it.

He hand Daniel a cup and then walks to give me a cup. I smell it, its definitely sprite.

None of us drink it though, It's to strange. Riley's grandfather gets shot, Riley mom Lorraine's plane gets shot down after she boards it, and Daniel, riley, and I get shot at and kidnapped to come here for drinks?

"Don't worry it's safe to drink." He moves to stand before us, back in front of the wall of weapons. "I thought I told you all to sit. "

"We didn't want to sit." Daniel says

"I SAID SIT!" He screams and pulls a handgun from the wall of weapons.

Daniel, Riley and I all hastily sit on the ground. My sprite spills slightly on my pants in the process.

"Okay, now go ahead and drink up. " He puts the gun back and rocks on his heels.

"Go ahead Riley, it's your favorite. I put just the amount of sugar in it. "

She sips it and her face knits in confusion and pain. She swallows hard.

"It's delicious. " She says barely above a whisper.

If it weren't so quiet in here, I wouldn't have heard it.

"So how are you? " He sits cross legged directly in front of Riley and folds his hands in his lap.

"I'm alive." Was Riley's response.

"I'm quite happy that your alive. " He nods to himself.

He just sits and stares at her. It's so deadly silent in the room.

"Drink you sprite! You two ungrateful human beings." He suddenly yells making Riley jump. " I get up and take my time to pour it for you, because you guys are Riley's friends, and you don't drink it! The audacity you two have!" He looks back and forth from me to Daniel.

I down my cup of sprite. Good thing it tastes like regular sprite. I look at Daniel who eyes his cup.

"And you still don't drink it! It's a clean cup I promise!" He sounds like he's on the verge of crying.

"Please drink it. I poured it for you...out of the kindness of my heart. It hurts my feelings that you won't drink it..." He says. This man is clearly out of his mind.

What the heck is this guys problem?

Daniel sips it and then drinks it all.

"Are you going to say thank you for the drink!" He jumps up and goes back to the wall and picks up the handgun again.

He points it at Daniel and Riley jumps to her feet and puts herself between this psycho and Daniel.

"Thank you sir, and Riley, move out of the way." I say calmly not wanting to trigger some loose wire in this psychos brain.

He clicks the gun.
"Riley!" I say more urgently, starting to panic.

The psycho starts to heave in and out at if he will explode with anger.

"Boss...don't." The shorter stocky man says that was next to Riley.

"SHUDDUP!" He yells. "Nobody tells me what to do!"

He turns the gun and shoots the man who spoke, in his foot. He yells out in pain and falls to the floor.

He clicks the gun again and moves around Riley to get to Daniel. Riley positions herself between them again.

"Please don't shoot him. " She pleads. "He will thank you for the drink."

He takes a deep steadying breath and lowers the gun.

"Okay. " He says in a cheery voice as if he wasn't just angry enough to kill someone to seconds ago.

"Thank you for the drink." Daniel says in a clear unwavering and hateful tone.

"Your welcome. Okay now where was I...oh you can sit again Riley. "

She moves slowly and sits back down with her legs to the side, from where she moved from. He takes a breath and sits in front her her crossed legged again as before, but this time the gun is on the side of him.

The man he shot is quietly on the floor holding his foot, the blood pooling around him. He needs help.

"Excuse me sir?" I raise my hand as if I'm at school.

"Yes." He asks turning his head slowly.

"May I help the bleeding man?" I point to him.

"Sure, go ahead. That's nice of you." He says nodding.

He turns back to Riley. "Okay, so Riley." He starts

I move to the man and take my button down shirt off and wrap it around is bleeding wound. I'm not sure what to do about the bullet in it. I tie it tightly with the sleeves.

"I want you to move in with me." I stop breathing. Daniel audibly gasps

I turn to look at him incredulously, he can't be serious. Riley doesn't answer.

"You can still see your friends if you want. " He motions towards me and Daniel. "But I want us to live under the same roof."

I move and sit near Riley. He doesn't look up or acknowledge my presence.

He takes her hands and she cringes. His eyes flash of anger for a second, which puts me on edge. "It'll be just like old times."

"You keep saying my name and saying how I've grown like you know me. And now 'just like old times', who are you?"

He blinks and it gets silent again. It's like this for about 2 minutes.

"I'm your father. "