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Chapter 29

~Riley's POV~

The sweat cascaded down my face, trailed down my neck and soaked my shirt. I wiped at my face with my sleeve then refocused, spreading my legs and crouching, eyes darting from Nate to John and back again. The big guy's eyes narrowed on me and I watched as a sinister smile crept up on his face.

I looked away from him as Nate shouted my name and a second later the ball was in my hands. I dribbled the thing on the soft grass, darting out of John's way and into Kyle's path. When I threw the ball over his head, Nate caught it before Kyle could register the move then he glared at me and I gave him the finger.

I swiveled just in time to see Nate take the shot and succeed. We were making use of our surroundings, using a low hanging tree branch as the basket and a soccer ball we'd found in the basement earlier that day. So far we were tied, John and Kyle against me and Nate, though Kyle's contribution to the entire game was questionable.

"Riles, heads up!"

I threw my hands out but John plucked the ball from the air before I even had the chance to catch it and I ran with him as he dribbled it. He made to pass it to Kyle, then seemed to change his mind and took the shot instead. We watched as it bounced off the branch but he caught it easily and took another shot; this time it went over.

"You know you can pass me the ball once in a while!" Kyle shouted at John who was now chasing Nate.

"Bloody ball hog...I quit."

I laughed at that, watching out of the corner of my eye as Kyle, walked across the lawn, pulled his shirt over his head and dropped it to the ground before lowering himself into the grass beside it.

I threw my hands up. "Come on Kyle we can't play with just three people."

"It's fine, he wasn't much use anyway." John panted.

"Gee thanks Johnny." He drawled sarcastically and I shrugged, turned away from him and got my head back in the game.

Basketball was the only sport I was actually good at despite my height and it was amazing to be able to enjoy it after so long. When Nate passed it to me again I poised to take the shot but John slammed into me and we both went down, the ball falling from my hands and rolling across the grass.

I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me and I pushed against John's wall of a body and he jumped up, stretching a hand to help me to my feet. I ignored it.

"What you can't win so you maim me?" I glared, pushing up from the ground and brushing the grass and dirt from my bruises.

"Fuck you, I've got this."

"Calm down kids." Nathan teased from across the lawn, spinning the ball on two fingers.

"What a waste of a perfectly good day." Kyle sighed dramatically then completely spread out onto his back, hands behind his head.

"What're you talking about, this is the most fun thing we've done since we got here." I brushed some more dirt from my scratched elbows then pulled my shirt off too to shake the leaves off.

Kyle rolled his eyes. "Trust me there's plenty of ways to work up a sweat and this isn't a good one."

"We should get back to the case." John commented and I sighed. As much as I was dying to solve this, one day of relaxation would have been nice.

John stepped over Kyle on his way to the porch and Kyle turned his head to watch his lover go.

Nate threw me the ball.

"He's right, we've wasted enough time today. Come on."

I tucked it under my arm and followed Nate, stepping over Kyle who had yet to drag his ass out of the way and after depositing the ball on the porch chair, went inside.

............................................

Thirty minutes later, showered and dressed, we all sat around the dining table sifting through files, the silence only broken by the occasional question relating to the case. As I let my gaze roam over the others I felt the warm fuzzy feeling in the pit of my stomach because these three men genuinely made me happy.

The past two weeks since I'd been forced to come clean to them all had honestly been the happiest I'd been in months following my conviction. I had no idea what it was that had changed, but suddenly Nate was smiling more, though today he hadn't been acting quite like himself, while Kyle seemed beyond satisfied and although John was still a grumpy bastard the subtle change in him had been equally hard to miss.

It was as if something in the universe had suddenly shifted and we were all able to enjoy the hand we'd been dealt. The room Kyle and I had once shared had been abandoned as we both chose to spend our nights with the men who mattered most to us and though Nate and I hadn't copulated since the night he practically turned me down, our nightly ritual was something to look forward to.

Whether it was that we stayed up playing cards or talking about our shitty lives or even swapping stores from our childhood, they were moments that I would always remember and always hold close to me.

Now that Nate had seemed to begin to shed his guard and let us in, I'd learned more about him in the past two weeks than I had in the months we'd been imprisoned together. John and I had even somehow managed to mend our fences and apart from the occasional banter we were comfortable enough around each other.

Even Kyle, who had once thought Nate was nothing but a stick in the mud was warming up to the guy and the only thing that could have made it all better was if Jerry was here to share it with me.

I took a gulp of my water and pulled out another file. A few days ago Nate and John had disappeared to the city and brought it all back including the year book that everyone had been made to sign at the party. I'd been more than surprised that they'd been able to get their hands on this type of information but as always when I'd asked them about, it they'd swept it under the rug.

Some things would clearly never change.

Every time we found a signature matching a photo in the book, Nate would pick up the phone and report it to some unknown person to find out if they had any connection to my dad. He'd explained that he had guys on the outside who'd been willing to help, but with the kind of information he'd been able to get his hands on, I found myself wondering just what it was that he and John were hiding.

"Wait, go back a second." I said when John flipped the page of the year book. He glanced my way briefly before turning the page back and I pulled the book from his hands so that I could get a good look at the picture.

"This guy looks so familiar." I said softly, staring down at the picture of an unsmiling teenage boy with long black hair and bushy eyebrows.

"Well you went to school with all the people in this year book, it wouldn't be much of a surprise if you'd recognize a few of them." Kyle interjected.

"Yeah but...I don't know, I feel like I've seen him somewhere recently." My brows furrowed as I continued to stare at him.

"His signature isn't under the picture which means he either wasn't there or he didn't sign." Kyle said as if speaking to himself.

"We've been on the run for three weeks, two and a half of which you spent holed up here, where could you have seen him?" This was John.

I shook my head. "You're right, maybe I met him at school or something." I said uncertainly then pushed the book back to him.

Nate was watching me carefully. "I'll see what my guys can find out about him anyway, just to be sure." He said then pulled out his cell phone.

The stack of papers were only telling me things I already knew about the case and the little details I managed to learn seemed irrelevant at best.

It felt like the more we looked, the more depressing the future seemed and every once in a while I had to take a calming breath and remind myself that no matter how long it took these guys...my friends...now my family would never give up.

In the other room I could hear the sound of the radio chipping in and out. The sound penetrating the stillness of the room, reminded me of a low budget horror film. It was just another little thing Nate and John had brought back when they'd gone to the city and on the second day it chipped it and we'd finally been able to hear the news.

We now knew exactly who it was that had escaped the day we had and no surprise; D-Fox and most of his crew were among the escapees. We'd also managed to learn that out of the thirteen guys who'd run, only four had been caught and that fact had the authorities working overtime to recapture the fugitives.

That news hadn't really intrigued me so much so as the fact that John and Nate hadn't been named among those who had escaped and when I'd commented on it in cutter confusion they'd, as with everything else, brushed it aside, stating that it must have been an error on the reporter's part.

I wasn't quite sure I believed them but no other explanation made sense.

I stuffed another useless file under the pile. The police on the case had managed to do a shitty job of putting together a list of persons who my dad may have made enemies with in the days leading up to his death and had even seemed to just given up more than half way through, possibly because by then they'd found the murder weapon with my prints on it.

I was no investigator, but it felt as though we wouldn't get anywhere in this case without taking a little trip out in the real world and pushing some buttons, which is exactly what I mentioned to the others and while Kyle was all for it, John and Nate made it clear that the people he had helping were competent enough to gather intel and going out there ourselves was to be a last resort.

Four hours flew by as we sat trying to come up with something to guide us and when the fifth hour approached, Nate slammed down his file onto the table and we all glanced his way. Usually I'd have chalked up his evident frustration to the fact that we'd been sitting there for hours on end and still hadn't gotten anywhere, but he'd been acting strangely all day and while he'd tried to hide it, putting on a mask of normalcy, I was pretty sure we could all see through it.

"You okay?" John asked him as he dragged his hands through his hair a few times.

"Yeah, I think we should all just take a little break, we've been at it for hours." He explained then looked down at his hands, fidgeting with his fingers; something Nate never did; fidget. My eyes narrowed in concern.

"Thank God." Kyle said jumping up from his seat and making his way over to the family room.

John looked at Nate for a minute, his gaze taking in everything thing about his friend as if he knew something, then he shook his head, scoffed and left the room.

My brows furrowed in confusion and when I glanced back at Nate he was staring at me. The intensity of his gaze holding me in place.

"Nathan are you sure you're okay?"

That seemed to snap him out of it and with another hand through his hair he nodded and pushed up from his chair. "Come help me with dinner." He tried for a smile but it fell flat and I followed suit; concerned.

In the kitchen, he handed me a knife and instructed me to cut up some vegetables, which I did without question but the more I watched him the more worried I became, especially when I caught him watching me, face flushed and the knife he held shaking slightly in his hands.

I deposited my own knife onto the counter then and walked over to him, reaching up to feel his forehead. "Are you feeling sick? Maybe you should go lie down...you really don't look so good Nate." And when he stood there staring into my eyes, face still flushed and seemingly unable to say a word, my concern grew.

"Nate?"

Then he pulled away and cursed. "This is fucking ridiculous."

He took a breath, gritted his teeth and this time turned to me, his expression one of determination.

"Look Riley I have something to say."

"Okay..?" I began uncertainly.

"I know..." he began then gritted his teeth before continuing "I know I'm no prize and I can be a real asshole sometimes and...." He paused, as if he were at a loss for words and I shook my head, taking a step closer to him.

He definitely wasn't acting like himself and the more he searched for words that wouldn't come to him, the more my concern grew.

"I seriously think you should probably sit down...maybe the case is get-"

He held out a hand as a signal for me to stop talking and my mouth fell shut.

"I'm trying to tell you that...look...I fucking love you and... if you're up for it... maybe we could give this relationship thing a try."

He didn't look much better after he'd said it and I stood there utterly speechless, my face heating and my ears ringing as I tried to fully process his words, but as I opened my mouth to somehow form coherent words after his declaration a loud crash sounded in the other room, then when the raised voices of John and Kyle sounded, we both bolted from the kitchen to go check it out.

By the time I got to the source of the commotion my heart was in my throat and with widened eyes I stared at the scene before me.

A vase which I was pretty sure cost a fortune was smashed on the floor in between John and Kyle who stood glaring at each other. Chair cushions were strewn about and John and Nate's duffle back lay on the floor, its contents spilled.

"Kyle hand me the phone." John was demanding, looking more pissed than he probably had any cause to be.

"Please just give me one minute... I only need him to hear my voice then I'll hang up, I swear!" Kyle pleaded and I shook my head.

"You can't put us all at risk because you want to call home to daddy and that's exactly what you'll be doing if you do so hand it over." John took a step closer to him and Kyle back away.

"I just want him to know I'm okay. It's been three weeks Johnny please."

"Kyle you heard him, just hand over the phone." Nate interjected, taking a step toward Kyle.

I walked over to the couch, hand still clutched to my chest as I waited for my heart rate to slow, -for a second I'd actually thought something serious was going on in here- I picked up the fallen duffel on my way over and had began stuffing the things back in when I came upon something that I was sure had no place among Nate and John's stuff.

I pulled out the object, and stared at it is complete and utter confusion; An FBI badge.

I looked back at the duffle then and turned it upside down, watching everything fall to the floor. My eyes scanned the contents: What looked to be an expensive suit, something that couldn't be mistaken for anything but a gun...an actual gun and beside it was another FBI badge almost identical to the first. I held the two in my hands and stared down at them at a loss for words.

"Riles..." I looked up at the sound of Nate's voice to see him staring at me, his expression unreadable, then I looked back at the objects it my hand. I didn't understand.

"What's going on?"

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Nate would want you to follow me, he's just too much of a prideful, emotional recluse to say it. -_-

John would want you to vote, he just won't admit that he has needs too. :(

Kyle is eagerly awaiting your comments because he loves your drama

(*-*)

WHILE

Riley is just happy you took the time out to read. :)

BUT

If for no one else, then do it for Eddie, who fought a good fight and would love your acknowledgemnt.

Your FAN ART is welcome!

I upload every Sunday so see ya next week and thanks for reading!

-DoUbLe.A

-unedited.