Drink Me

54. WAIT, WHAT?

WAIT, WHAT?

For the first time since the beginning of the mission, Riley sat in Caroline's office with genuine excitement and anticipation.

"Thanks for coming here gentlemen, as I said to Aidan yesterday, I didn't want to discuss this matter over the phone," Caroline said with urgency.

Riley had been waiting for this moment with trepidation since the night before but it wouldn't have been discreet to leave in the middle of his house party. The next morning it had taken Aidan forever to find an excuse to get away from Alice. Sometimes he wished his cousin would confess to his fiance just to make things more practical for everyone.

But now Riley couldn't hold his anticipation any longer. "So who tried to kill me?" Riley asked out of patience.

"Sean McNeely," Caroline replied straight to the point.

Both men's eyes widened until Riley realised he wasn't supposed to know who Sean McNeely was because he had never hidden in a closet with Alice the day he had killed David Cormak. So he switched his expression of surprise into one of confusion.

"What the fuck was Sean doing in New York?" Aidan asked, confused.

"Who the fuck is Sean McNeely?" Riley asked, playing dumb.

"He's one of our men here in the London cell," Caroline explained. "And he has his motives, apparently." She sighed, looking at Aidan. "He wasn't OK with Riley taking part in the meeting, he probably was hoping to get ahead in the group but your cousin stole his thunder."

"So I almost died cos that arsehole wanted a promotion?" Riley spat, indignant and pissed off, turning to Caroline. "You should really have stricter control on your employees."

The woman shot him a fiery look but Aidan spoke before she could say anything.

"He has a point," he said and Riley had to bite back a smug smile.

"Are you two done?" Caroline asked with thick annoyance and when the men replied with silence she continued. "That's not it. Aidan, you know Sean has always been dubious about buying our weapons from the Americans, he's always been somewhat vocal about it."

"So what? He was trying to sabotage the meeting?" Aidan asked.

"No, apparently he was hoping to blame them for Riley's death and make us reconsider our alliance. Make us doubtful; two birds with a stone..."

"That son of a bitch," Riley muttered, genuinely annoyed by the whole situation.

"Where is he? I want to talk to that motherfucker," Aidan said, his voice dark and menacing.

Caroline leaned her elbows on her desk and massaged her forehead. She looked tired and fed up with the day already.

"He's in the hospital," she revealed in a single breath.

"What?"

"Why?"

But she shook her head, sighing heavily again.

"After Newby told me about the CCTV and what they'd found out I sent Frost to talk to McNeely; when he called me to report and ask for instruction, Sean made a run for it." She massaged her temples again as if chasing a migraine. "When Frost finally managed to track him down, he found him in Victoria station surrounded by a bunch of paramedics."

"What happened?" Riley pressed, disappointed he couldn't get his hands on the man who'd poisoned him.

"I don't know Riley," Caroline said almost as sorry as he was for the situation. "Apparently a heart attack but we're trying to find out for sure."