Agent 57 (Book 2)

16. Easy there trigger happy smurf

"That's no excuse!" Ryder protests and I slap him again with my bad arm. I immediately regret it as pain shoots throughout my body. I hiss and tuck my arm back to my side.

Ryder snickers. "Karma."

I hold my hand out behind me after freeing my wrist from Ryder's grasp.

"Somebody give me a gun."

Ryder pales for just a second before covering it up with narrowed eyes. "You wouldn't."

"Oh, I would."

"How?" I turn to look at Megan who's staring at Ryder like he's a ghost. He's about to be.

Ryder sits up, putting an arm around me to steady me before lifting his shirt up to reveal the insanely thin body armor underneath. It's thin but it's as effective as a bulletproof vest. Better even.

"But there's blood and he wasn't breathing," Megan says, still in shock. Ryder sticks his hand up his shirt and pulls out a now almost empty and large packet of fake blood. There are several bullet holes in the bag.

"Ryder was a swimmer in high school. He can hold his breath for minutes at a time." I hiss before turning back to him. "Raiding my weapons room again?" He laughs again. I narrow my eyes into a death glare and he looks away from me, trying to hide his smile. His body shakes as he keeps his laughter contained. "I'm going to kill you."

"I know."

"No, you don't."

"I'm pretty sure I do."

"I'm serious."

"Good thing you can't chase after me then." He pokes at my leg and I let out another hiss of pain. "Come on," he gets to his feet and holds his hand out to me. "Let's get you fixed up."

"I hate you."

"You can hate me when you're better."

***

"What part of bed rest did you clearly not understand?" Ryder questions me the next morning.

I help myself down the stairs, trying my hardest not to put any pressure on my leg but at the same time holding my breath so my ribs don't hurt any more than they already do. Good thing the pain medication has dulled it down. Though everything still hurts like hell.

"The part about the bed, and then the part about the rest," I reply and he walks up the stairs and meets me halfway with a sigh.

He allows me to lean on him to get down. My phone buzzes in my pocket again. I struggle to breathe by the time we make it all the way down the stairs.

"Need a minute?" Ryder asks, and it's only now that I realize he's shirtless...again.

"What is with you and no shirts?" I question. His chest sports five large bruises where the bullets had hit the armor but not pierced it.

"There was blood on mine."

"As of yesterday. You have more shirts."

He feigns shock. "I do?" I roll my eyes but smile at him none the less. "You should really be using that crutch Henri gave you."

I suppress a shudder and scowl at him instead. "I'm already wearing the sling again, I'm not using the crutch." My phone beeps again, letting me know that I've missed another one of his calls.

Ryder looks at me curiously, as if sensing I want to be alone. He holds up his hands in surrender before pointing to the kitchen and disappearing from sight. I pull my phone out of my pocket.