Part 20

A/N: Twenty "parts" and the main adventure is still in it's beginning phases! Thanks to everyone who is sticking with me - sit tight 'cause it's gonna be a long ride! At least my chapters aren't too long, right? Anyway, I realize I keep adding more and characters into the plot. What can I say - I like the audience to get a little personal with the main cast, good or bad, and you can't do that without knowing names! Don't worry, though, Evan should be the last that you have to keep track of. Anyone else will just be background support and should remain nameless. :)

"Ah, geez!" Riley moans, cupping a hand to his left ear. "Did you have to go for the ear?"

Elizabeth steps towards him and he hastily scoots across the ground away from her.

"No, you stay away from me with your, your, freakish, mutant, man-strength," he stumbles.

"I told you, Riley, if you want me to play nice, you have to play nice. You didn't play nice," she warns, "and you should be grateful I was the one that hit you. I'm sure Joseph would have been glad to take the honor."

Joseph curls one fist of his in the other and cracks his knuckles menacingly. "I can still take a turn," he suggests. Elizabeth waves him off and continues to glare down at Riley.

"What did you do?" she asks.

"What?" he responds, his fear starting to turn to anger, "I can't hear you with the ringing in my ear!" He pulls his hand away and looks at it, seeing blood on his fingers. He reaches back up and feels the streamlet of warm liquid oozing from his ear. "Great, I think you ruptured my eardrum."

Elizabeth squats down in front of him and speaks very slowly and deliberately. "What…did….you…do?"

Evan lands gracefully, almost silently behind Riley. "Dude, you better answer her," he whispers into Riley's good ear. Riley looks back at him, jaw set in anger, and quickly wipes more blood off the side of his face. He looks back at Elizabeth, then pushes himself to his feet.

"Do you play poker?" he asks, and Elizabeth looks a little taken aback by the question.

"…I don't see how that's relevant-"

"I don't like poker – there's too much based on chance and not enough on skill. I hate knowing that I got dealt a bad hand and that the person across the table is grinning like an idiot because they're one card away from a royal flush."

"Riley, if you don't tell me-"

"I'm not done. Now, sometimes in poker you get lucky and even though you have nothing, you know the other guy has nothing, too, unless he gets that one card, and somehow you find out what that card is. So, what do you do?"

"You find that card and you hold onto it," Evan answers for Elizabeth, who doesn't appear to be in the mood to play along just yet.

"Yes – you find the card - except in this case, I was outta turns so I signaled for help from the other guy at the table, who happens to be my secret partner." He takes a brave step closer to Elizabeth. "You don't hold all the cards, anymore, Elizabeth, and if you want that flush maybe you should cooperate with me a little."

Her face reddens with anger. "And what if I just kill your secret partner and take the card?" she asks between clenched teeth.

"Well if you do that, I don't play poker with you anymore and you don't get to take me for the pot."

She moves forward so that she's speaking right into Riley's face. "And what if the pot isn't worth keeping you at my poker table?"

Riley smiles. "You wouldn't be going through this much trouble if it wasn't. So, you wanna fold our hands and start over? No cheating this time?"

She returns the smile. "Well, well, well, look at you Mr. Poole. Trying to make deals, be the big man. I must admit I'm a little impressed by you." Her smile drops and her look darkens. "However, there is something you should know – I actually do like poker except, like you, I don't like leaving things to chance. Which is why I don't. You see, when I want a flush, I get a flush, every time. I always hold all the cards. If we don't get back whatever your friends stole, I will start killing everyone you ever knew, one by one, in front of you. I wonder how many I'd go through before you cracked? Would it be on Patrick? Emily? Abigail? Perhaps your ex-girlfriend? Or that little girl who you bought ice cream for after she dropped hers?"

"You wouldn't do that." He doesn't sound sure.

"Do you really want to test that? Do you? Really I should be asking you the question – how much is the pot worth to you?"

Riley shifts his eyes away from her. "Not their lives," he mutters.

"What was that?"

"Not their lives."

"That's what I thought. So, what do you recommend we do to rectify this little situation that doesn't involve me killing anyone just yet."

Riley thinks for a second. "I need to get back to the computer," he says, "I can stop Ben right now if you want."

"What are you gonna do?" Joseph asks, "Send him a message asking him to stop? You said something to him in that first video, didn't you? Something that led him here."

"Actually, Brutus, yes, I did, knowing you weren't smart enough to catch it. I did it right in front of your ugly face."

"Riley, I will let him hit you," Elizabeth warns, "My patience with you is dangerously short right at this moment, and now that you've admittedly revealed we can't trust you with video messages, what do you intend to do?"

"I'll have to show you, but it won't involve a video feed. In fact, there'll be no way of knowing I was even involved."

"Well, I'm curious," Evan volunteers.

Elizabeth gives it a little more thought. "Fine," she finally says, "There's no point in standing around here like this, anyway, and it's probably about time we played with Sadusky a bit more before he catches on to us."

"Alright, back to the car it is," Evan says, rubbing his hands together.

Elizabeth leads the way, Joseph following directly behind her. Evan ushers Riley to go ahead and falls in step behind him. "If you're thinking of doing something smart, again," he quietly warns, "I'd seriously push the stop button on your brain, if I were you. Next time she might damage something that won't heal. I've seen her take eyes, before, and dude, it's not pretty."

Riley shakes his head, "I have to think smart – I always think smart. It's the stupid that creeps in from time to time that gets me in trouble. The problem is, I don't think it's me that's gonna get hurt the next time stupid comes around."

"For your sake, I hope you're right," Evan shrugs.

"I don't," Riley quickly replies, "Because if she hurts any of the people I care about, I think stupid might move in for good, and that won't be good for anybody's sake."