Riley by Liliana Hart Read Free Book Online Page A

few minutes and he wrestled with his need to protect Maggie and the need to charge into the next room ready to fight.
    He put his hand over Maggie’s mouth and kissed her eyelids until she woke against him. “Stay here, sweetheart,” he whispered against her ear. “We’ve got company.” He felt her nod against his hand and then slipped out of bed. His sweatpants were on the ground and he pulled them on before grabbing the gun from the door.
    Adrenaline surged through his veins. He’d spent enough time at different excavation sites hunting down thieves and protecting his artifacts that the feel of a weapon in his hand was second nature. He slipped out of the bedroom and down the hall. A rustling sound was coming from the other bedroom, and anger surged through his veins. It was damn lucky that Maggie wasn’t sleeping in the room.
    The buzz of the generator hummed through the apartment, and Riley was just at the bedroom door when the electricity came back on. Riley hit the switch on the wall and the room was flooded in light.
    “Get your hands up,” he commanded. “Now.”
    Jon Scott turned around with his hands above his head. One side of his face was bruised badly, but Riley recognized him immediately. The things in Maggie’s bag were scattered across the bed. Papers, clothes and makeup were a disorganized mess.
    “Well, Jon. Fancy seeing you here. We thought you were dead.”
    “Your bitch tried damned hard to make sure I was.”
    The gasp from behind his shoulder told him Maggie hadn’t listened to his orders. Riley pointed the gun in Jon’s direction. “Have a care, Jon. I get jumpy when people break into my house in the middle of the night.”
    Jon’s hate-filled gaze raked over them both, noticing their states of undress. “I see it took you as little time to talk her into bed as it did me. A little wine and a couple of muscle relaxers go a long way.”
    “You son of a bitch,” Maggie said, charging around Riley’s body. He held out his arm to block her path, but it wasn’t easy when he had the same desire to pound Jon’s face in.
    “Easy, honey. Let’s get some facts before we do him any damage.” His voice was calm even as his body trembled with rage. “Why don’t you tell us how you came to have the Tear of Nefertari in your possession? And be quick about the answer. I don’t like hearing the woman I love has been taken advantage of, so you can imagine why my patience is running thin.”
    The look in Riley’s eyes must have convinced him because Jon started talking.
    “I got it from an underground dealer I know in Cairo, who occasionally does work for the museum. He stole it from the vault and asked if I could find a buyer for him. Apparently Egypt has always had possession of the pearl. Everything was going according to plan until my dealer opened his big mouth and miss sticky fingers got her paws on it.”
    Jon shot Maggie a scathing look, and Riley pushed her farther behind him.
    “Once my dealer let it know that the pearl was on the open market, I was having to dodge all kinds of nefarious businessmen who wanted the pearl in their possession, and they didn’t care whether they bought it from me or killed me for it. So I sent it to Maggie for a few days to get the heat off my back. But she fucking stole it and ran to you.”
    “You told me in your letter to go to him, you moron. What the hell else was I supposed to do?”
    “I told you to go to him if you hadn’t heard from me in three days. You did not wait three days. As soon as you saw the cops at my place you got scared and started running. If you’d waited another two hours I would have come and gotten it. This whole mess is your fault.”
    “So you helped facilitate the theft of a national treasure and this is all my fault?” she asked incredulously. “I think you should just shoot him, Riley. Prison is too good for him.”
    “Just give me the pearl and I’ll walk away. You’ll never see me again,” Jon