Midnight Lips | Ghost

𝐂𝐇. 07

Alejandro gave me his back, his hands over his ears, while Rodolfo and Soap just stared up at me.

"This could've happened to you had I let you go last, lieutenant." And I can't have another death on my body, not again.

"It's the reason why I told you to go first!" he roared.

My chest clenched. "There's no room for regret, Riley."

"You will make room later, Herrera. I swear when I get you out of there and force you to face me, you will regret not listening to me."

I chuckled. "Are you flirting with me, Simon Riley?"

"Quit games, Herrera, and do as you're told for once."

I sighed. The fun was over too soon. "It's too risky, and you're hurt."

"Don't worry about it."

"But I do!"

"You're so stubborn, it gets on my damn nerves."

"You should know by now that stubborn is my second name."

"I've got no doubts."

I smiled. This feels nice, I guess. Smiling while you wait for death to come and claim you, it felt good. I wasn't scared of death, either. It was what I wanted three years ago, when I lost everything meaningful to me. And besides, not everyone smiled before dying. So I'd say this is great.

But everything great came to an end.

My smile fell as I watched the helicopter stand over me.

"No!" I heard someone scream, so loud I even heard it over the helicopter. My chest hurt. Alejandro... "Valentina!"

I glanced over the edge. Alejandro fought against the others, trying to get to me but it was impossible. My heart squeezed again.

Riley's raspy voice came through the radio again. "Do you really want to die this way?"

Did I? I knew I had nothing to lose. I could just stay here and give up like I've wanted to do so those years back, let the others watch me die. But did I really want to die? Did I really want to?

I met Riley's eyes. Even in the distance, I could see how brownish they were. Now with the sun shining her light into them, they reminded me so much of honey, and I fucking loved honey. My chest warmed, giving me the answer I needed. "No."

"Then trust me before it's too late." Riley threw the radio back to Alejandro and approached the edge, showing me that this wasn't up for discussion.

I crawled away from the edge and looked up, the helicopter was right in front of me now. The pilot had a disgusting grin on his face. He turned the heli sideways, showing me his buddy and his machine gun, determined to destroy me.

The gun began to rotate, it was preparing itself to fire. The seconds were ticking by. I only had one option, and it wasn't to die here by these fuckers.

I faced Riley and took a step back, then took off and handed my life over to him. The heli fired just when my foot left the ground, exploding everything behind.

It all happened in slow motion. I was getting closer to Riley, but at the same time, I was getting farther away from him. For a moment I thought that this was it, that I wasn't going to make it.

Until Riley fell to the ground on his stomach, his arms over the edge while he extended them toward me.

He caught my wrists in the air and stopped me from continuing to fall. My body slammed against the wall. My arms gave me a hard tug, and pain shot up my shoulder, but I didn't have time to complain, I was hanging in the air.

Riley groaned as he lifted me, using both of his hands and not caring about the wound in his shoulder. Soon Alejandro and Rodolfo were pulling me up too. My heart was beating so fast I thought it was going to get out of my chest.

I landed on Riley's arms and I wrapped my arms around his neck, clinging to him. Alejandro pulled me away too soon, this time he was the one clinging to me. "I'm here, I'm fine," I told him, I think he needed to hear it more than I did.

I met Riley's eyes, only not for much time. He got up and gripped his shoulder so discreetly that I was the only one who noticed.

I wanted to thank him for saving my life twice now, but an explosion sounded in the air and a few seconds later, a voice came from the radio. "This is Shadow-1! Do you copy? I repeat. This is Shadow-1. Do you copy?"

Soap picked it up from the ground. "Commander Graves, it's good to hear ya."

Graves? What the hell was he doing here?

"Likewise, sergeant."

"To what do we owe the pleasure?"

"I've cleared the air. Go south in your position, you'll find an empty vehicle for evacuation."

Riley appeared and snatched the radio. He gave me his back and talked low, but I still heard him say, "You've arrived a little too late, mate."

"Is that your way to thank me, Ghost?" Graves chuckled.

"Take it however you want."

"Let's get out of here." Alejandro pulled me up, and we left the place before it could get any worse.

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