Summary: Everyone tries to make sense of what happened to Tariq and what it might mean for Riley’s fate.
Bastien sent a car for them immediately, but Liam and Riley didn’t speak on the way back to the hotel. Her mind raced, unable to settle down on any one thought.
Tariq was dead; any chance of him releasing a statement to clear her name – the one thing she’d been counting on to allow her to be with Liam for real – was gone.
Tariq was dead, and he didn’t deserve that. He wasn’t perfect but he hadn’t meant to hurt anybody. He was set up just like her, and someone had felt the need to silence him for good.
Tariq was dead, and he was Liam’s friend. One of only four people to come to New York with him to celebrate the beginning of his social season. They’d known each other since they were small children. Liam surely hadn’t been happy with him after the scandal, but he must be hurting now.
Tariq was killed; was she next?
Damien sat at the high kitchen counter that served as his dining table, frantically scribbling in his notebook. He wrote down everything he could remember of Liam and Riley’s stories while it was fresh in his mind, then went back and noted his own thoughts and first impressions. He was just pulling out his laptop to look for any news stories around Tariq’s murder when he heard someone try to turn the knob of his apartment door.
Poised for a fight, he walked silently to the door, checking the peephole.
No one there.
He was almost ready to chalk it up to his imagination when he heard a familiar voice muttering profanity on the other side of the door.
“Kai?” He opened the door to find him on his hands and knees, searching for the key he’d dropped. “What are you doing here?” Damien asked, helping him to his feet.
“Damieeeeeeen.” Kai collapsed into his arms, making him struggle to keep the larger man upright. “You…you…were supposed to…” He smelled terrible, like alcohol and sweat and a mixture of other peoples’ colognes. His eyes closed as he nuzzled into Damien’s neck, letting his entire weight collapse into him.
“Whoa there buddy, let’s get you off your feet.”
He started to lead him towards the couch but realized it would be too small and uncomfortable for him to spend the night on, and he certainly wasn’t going to deal with moving him again later. “Come on Kai, let’s get you to bed.” He perked up a little at that, cooperating enough to be easily led into his bedroom.
Kai grinned as he sat on Damien’s bed, kicking off his shoes and pulling his sweat-stained shirt over his head before flopping backwards into the soft pillows. “Mmm, I knew you’d take care of me.”
“Of course,” Damien whispered, reaching his hand out to stroke Kai’s hair before stopping himself. His eyes were closed anyway, already drifting off to sleep. “I’m sorry I didn’t make it tonight.”
“Mmm…s’ok.” His eyes still closed, Kai reached out and grazed his fingertips against Damien’s forearm, holding on to the small spark of a touch as he drifted to sleep.
“So what do we know?”
Liam paced his hotel room as Bastien filled him in on the details, as far as they knew them. Riley leaned against the wall, feeling awkward and out of place. For all their sneaking around, she’d never actually been in one of his hotel rooms before. It was fancy — very fancy — and she was feeling like she was intruding on his real life as a king, where she didn’t belong just yet. But tonight, he’d been insistent on her not leaving his side. And so she stayed.
“I contacted the LAPD two weeks ago, when I received a tip that Tariq was hiding out in Los Angeles. It was simple due diligence; as expected, he hadn’t had any encounters with the police, but I asked them to contact me if they heard anything.” Bastien told his story without emotion, but even Riley could see him stiffening with barely-concealed anger as he braced himself for the rest of it.
“Last night I received a call from a homicide detective. They’d recovered a body from an apartment that was rented under a fake name, but a passport and other documentation at the crime scene identified him as Tariq. He was able to tell me that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest, and that it appeared to be a professional hit. He was hoping we would have some insight on motive and who may have had reason to hire somebody to do this.”
Liam finally sat down, burying his face in his hands. “So what did you tell him?”
“I told him about his involvement in the scandal with Lady Riley and its wide coverage in the Cordonian media. They think there may be a connection.”
“And what do you think?” Liam’s eyes were red and tear-streaked, his voice shaky. Bastien glanced nervously at Riley before answering.
“It seems likely the two incidents are related.”
Riley bit her lip, trying to stay calm. Between Liam’s naked grief and the growing pit of fear in her stomach, she just wanted to curl up with him and cry in peace.
As if reading her mind, Liam stood and led Bastien towards the door. “Thank you for the information. We’ll work out a plan of attack in the morning. For now, it’s late and I need to get some rest, as does Lady Riley. I think it’s best she stays here where you can protect both of us until whoever is responsible for Tariq’s death is apprehended.”
“Of course,” Bastien nodded. “We’ll keep you safe, Your Majesty.”
Once the room was clear of the king’s guard, Liam started undressing as if he were all alone.
“Um…I don’t have any pajamas with me,” Riley said shyly, still wearing her usual pink dress.
Her voice seemed to snap him out of his daze as he crossed the room to wrap her in his arms. “I’ll find a T-shirt you can borrow, if that works.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “You own a T-shirt?”
“Of course. I just don’t leave my room in them.”
“Obviously,” Riley teased, “that would be quite the scandal.”
“Obviously.” He smiled as he tossed her a plain black T-shirt from the dresser before changing into his own silk pajama set.
“Can you help me out?” Riley gestured towards the zipper of her dress, as if she couldn’t reach it herself.
“Of course.” He gathered her hair and draped it over her shoulder as his other hand slowly slid the zipper open. Kissing her gently behind her ear, he slid the fabric off of her shoulders. She sucked in a breath as he continued to unhook her bra and slid the straps down her arms, letting it fall to the floor. He cupped her breasts in his hands, nuzzling against her neck as he took a deep inhale of her coconut-scented shampoo.
“Liam?”
“Mmm.” He grabbed the dropped T-shirt and slipped it over her head, reluctantly pulling away. “We should get to bed.”
Riley sighed, turning to face Liam and taking his hands in hers. “We should.” She glanced at the couch, then at the king sized bed. “Can I…with you…?”
Liam chuckled and kissed her cheek. “Of course. I don’t care what anyone thinks of us tonight. I…” his face fell as his voice cracked. “I need you where I can protect you.”
They solemnly climbed into bed, holding each other tight. “I just want to hold you,” Liam whispered next to her ear. “Is that OK?”
“Of course,” Riley answered, but it wasn’t. More than anything she wanted him to distract her from the sick feeling in her gut, to distract her with his mouth and with his hands and his… “I love you, Liam. So much.”
“I love you too, Riley.”
Damien woke up before dawn, stiff and disoriented. Still in his rumpled clothes, he sat up and rubbed his red eyes.
Kai. He was sleeping on the other side of the bed, still blissfully dead to the world. His mouth hung open, a small pool of drool collecting on the pillow. Damien resisted the nearly overwhelming urge to curl up against his warm body and go back to sleep. He’d stumbled here drunk because he knew he could trust his best friend to take care of him, and the last thing Damien wanted to do was betray his trust by taking liberties with him.
He moved himself to the couch and set up his laptop and notebook on the coffee table, reading over Liam and Riley’s story one more time before looking up news on Tariq.
It was bad. The story had been picked up by the press even sooner than he’d anticipated, and suddenly everyone was talking about Cordonia and the American Mystery Woman and the scandal and, now, the murder, being described consistently as a “professional hit.” Riley was mentioned by name in every single article he come across, with some of the trashier gossip rags including the incriminating photos of Riley in her underwear with Tariq all over her.
He closed his eyes, letting his head fall back against the couch as he considered the situation. He needed more information. Who were the players here? Who would stand to benefit from Tariq’s silence? From what he knew already, there was Adelaide, who seemed harmless enough but could’ve been hiding something.
Then there was the king’s fiancee, Madeleine. Neither Liam nor Riley seemed to care much for her, but he obviously thought her trustworthy enough to be in his inner circle.
Even the king father, Constantine, was known to have conspired to keep Riley from becoming queen. But could he really be capable of murder?
He rubbed his forehead, sinking further into the couch as his brain kept trying to work things out but coming up against a lack of information.
When he opened his eyes again the apartment was flooded with sunlight and the smell of freshly brewed coffee. Kai was standing over him, smiling brightly. “Good morning, sleepyhead. Fell asleep on the job?”
Damien groaned, sitting up and noticing his notes and laptop sprawled across the coffee table. “Guess so. What time is it?”
“Almost 11am. Guess we both needed our beauty rest.” Damien watched Kai as he poured two cups of coffee and two bowls of cereal. He’d changed out of his jeans from the night before and into a pair of Damien’s sweatpants, but hadn’t bothered to put on a shirt. His thick black hair was messy and wild from sleep, but the bedhead look was surprisingly adorable on him.
“I can’t remember the last time anyone made me breakfast,” Damien mused, rearranging the notes in front of him to make room for the cereal and coffee that Kai brought him.
“Well, I thought I should repay your hospitality by bringing out my master chef skills,” Kai winked as he plunked himself down in an easy chair and dug into his own bowl of cold cereal. “So whatcha workin’ on?”
“Uhh…I’m not entirely sure what I’m dealing with yet, to be honest. It started out as an infidelity case but now there’s been a murder, and…”
“Hold up, you’re investigating a murder? Isn’t that a little…outside your scope?”
“It is, and it’s not really the job…but…it’s personal.”
Kai raised an eyebrow at him. “Personal how?”
Damien sighed, pulling up one of the news stories on his laptop. It was a celebrity gossip blog, complete with the infamous Riley and Tariq photos. “Here…you have to see it to believe it.”
Kai skimmed the news story quickly, shoveling cereal into his mouth as his eyes got wider and wider. “Hold up, Riley? As in, your ex Riley? As in, slutty waitress from Brooklyn Riley?”
“She’s not…ugh…come on man.” Damien closed the laptop with a sigh. “I don’t know why you always had it out for her.”
“Shit, I’m sorry. You know I’m just protective of you.”
They finished their breakfast in awkward silence, each staring off into space, lost in his own thoughts. Finally Kai spoke, pushing his empty bowl away. “So, hey, can I ask you something?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“I’m pretty…foggy…on how I ended up here last night. Did anything…” He scratched the back of his neck, staring at the floor. “…Happen? Between us?”
“Oh!” Damien stiffened, leaning back and away from Kai. “Of course not! I would never even consider…”
“Right, of course not…”
“Because we’re just…”
“Yeah, sorry, it was such a stupid question…”
“No, I just mean…”
Kai stood up, carrying the empty dishes back to the kitchen and dropping them into the sink with a clatter. “Uh, I’m just gonna change and I’ll be right out of your hair.”
“Yeah…OK.” Damien ran his hands through his hair, feeling like he’d somehow fucked up again, always disappointing his best friend in the world.
A few minutes later Kai emerged from Damien’s bedroom, fully dressed in last night’s clothes. “Thanks for letting me crash here again. Maybe next time you can come out with us?”
Damien stood up to see him off, wishing he could think of the right thing to say to make him stick around. But I need to get back to work anyway…
“Yeah…I’ll try. Next time.”
“Well…” Kai paused for a moment before hugging Damien awkwardly. “Next time, then. See ya around.”
“Yup…see ya.”
Liam woke up with a headache, something that was becoming all too common. Not so common, though, was waking up to Riley curled up in his arms, her long dark hair spilled over the pillows as she dozed peacefully.
He kissed her forehead and carefully extricated himself from her embrace, sneaking out of the bed to find himself an Aspirin and his phone. He downed the pill as he typed out a message to the new number in his phone.
Damien, it’s Liam. Could we meet today? I’ve got a proposition for you.