Archive of Our Own

 “Look alive. He’s here,” Jesse drawled under her breath with her eyes facing forward and locked on the door behind him.

 Billy twisted slightly and peered out from under the brim of his hat to the entrance of the bar they were in. 

 It was a shithole. 

 Most of the places their skips hung out in were. Billy felt right at home sitting on the tattered, dark green leather of the booth he and Jesse were sitting in. 

 They’d chosen their spot carefully. Between the two of them sitting opposite each other they could cover the entire bar, leaving no room for surprises. 

 “He alone?”

 He saw her eyes dash towards Hunter Mayfair before they came back to him. “Looks like it.”

 They grinned at each other across the expanse of the dingy table. 

 It was day three after they’d chased him all the way from Louisiana to his aunt's house in California. 

 Between the two of them and Frank, they’d had their eyes on him every day and night since they’d found him. They’d slept in shifts to do it. 

 Frank was currently sleeping in the backseat of Billy’s truck in the back parking lot after having watched Mayfair all day. 

 The problem with Mayfair was that he was never, ever alone. And the company he kept was the kind that would slit your throat just as soon as look at you. 

 Billy didn’t intend to get his throat slit. He also didn’t intend to let anyone do the same to his brother or his sister.

 No matter how much of a pain in the ass it was to sit back and observe, it was worth it to take those safety precautions. No bounty, no matter how big, was worth their lives. 

 They’d implemented their plan to follow, watch, and then collect the wanted murderer as soon as the opportunity presented itself. 

 It looked like it was here. 

 “Tell Frank to wake up and get ready,” he instructed while watching Mayfair swagger his large, built body across the bar and settle himself on a stool 20 feet away. 

 The wood creaked under his weight. 

 Shit, but Mayfair was one big son of a bitch. 

 “You do know you’re not the boss of me, right?” Jesse sneered even as she tapped out a message to their brother. 

 “Agree to disagree, sis,” Billy replied and felt his lips twitch at the heated glare he could feel on the side of his face. 

 “Mama would kick your ass if she heard you say that.”

 Billy gave a fake shiver that had the heat in her glare dissipating and a faint chuckle floating across the space between them. 

 The truth was none of them were the boss. They were a team, but Billy could admit to being a little bossy at times. Something his older sister did not appreciate and had no problem checking him on. 

 Mayfair ordered a bottle of tequila and something relaxed a little bit inside of Billy. The man was planning on getting drunk. Alone. Which meant he’d be easier to capture. 

 But he had a bad feeling souring his gut and he hadn’t spent the last fourteen years as one of the most successful bail recovery agents in the country by not listening to it. 

 There was a restless energy in the half empty bar. He didn’t know if that was a regular occurrence at Shifty’s because he’d been in the parking lot the night before but something was off and he knew exactly where it was coming from. Or who, more like. 

 “Have you clocked the guy at my sixteen?”

 Billy let his eyes pass over the guy behind Jesse sitting at a table ten feet away. 

 Scrawny, with an edge of mean in his eyes, the guy had a laptop on the table in front of him and was the reason for Billy’s unease. 

 The guy was looking hard at the door, only breaking his stare to flick his eyes to another guy seated a couple of booths behind Jesse. 

 His friend was hiding in plain sight, just like Billy and Jesse were. But something told him they weren’t skip chasers. 

 “Sure do. Tell Frank to be waiting out the back,” he paused and took in Mayfair’s size again, “with a taser,” he finished in a murmur. 

 He braced for trouble. 

 He didn’t know if these two guys had anything to do with Mayfair but either way, he wasn’t going to let them get in between the Colton’s and their skip. And that meant he had to prepare for surprises. 

 “Guy looks like…” Jesse’s voice trailed off and Billy turned his head to look at her. 

 Her eyes were wide as she stared at the doorway behind him. Before he could ask her what was going on she slunk back further into the shadows of the booth. 

 Billy automatically followed her lead. 

 When he was concealed well enough, he twisted to see what had made her do it. 

 When he saw who was standing in the entrance to the bar, he went still. 

 Riley. 

 Shit. 

 Goddamn. 

 She had her hair up in a high ponytail, grungy make-up on her face that made her look edgily-hot, a ripped black tee that showed off a slash of belly, and a pair of black shorts that moulded to the curves of her hips. Fishnet stockings covered her legs and ended in combat boots. 

 “What the hell is she doing here?” 

 He vaguely heard Jesse’s hissed question but he couldn’t take his eyes off the woman who’d dumped him coldly out of the blue several years before. 

 She looked good. Despite the getup that he knew hadn't been her style for a long time. She looked damn good. 

 His jaw firmed. 

 She looked around the bar, and Billy tensed as her eyes passed over their booth. 

 They didn’t even pause and he felt both relief and disappointment flow through him. 

 It was for the best. She couldn’t know they were there. A reunion would bring attention and attention was the last thing they needed. 

 He was wondering what the hell she was doing in Shifty’s, looking like that, when he saw her eyes come to rest on the scrawny guy with the laptop in front of him. 

 “Shit,” he muttered under his breath.

 She was on a mission. And her target looked like he'd be willing to kill his mother for twenty bucks. 

 “Keep your shit tight, B,” Jesse said softly. Both of them automatically modulated their volume so they wouldn’t draw anyone’s gaze. 

 “I will.”

 “Mama will lose her mind if we miss out on that bounty because of little miss Davis,” Jesse warned him unnecessarily. 

 That was the damn truth. 

 Mama had been pissed when Riley had broken up with him the way she had. Mostly, he figured, because Mama had loved her, so her heart had broken a little along with his. 

 And when Mama hurt, she got mad, and you best believe she’d make sure everyone knew it. 

 The few times Riley’s name had been mentioned it was done with both resentment and melancholy. 

 “I got my shit together, Jesse,” he lied. He hadn’t expected to see Riley again. To realize that he still missed her. “Do you?”

 He’d swear he could almost hear Jesse grinding her teeth. “I’m fine,” she returned evenly. 

 If Mama had been mad, Jesse had been furious. 

 Jesse and Riley had been close and she’d thought Riley would one day be her sister. When Riley had dumped him, Riley had taken her cue from his family on how to proceed. 

 The Colton family had closed ranks. It was what they did. 

 While Riley had made it clear that she didn’t want to lose them, she’d shown understanding for why she’d had too. 

 For some reason, her understanding had made both Jesse and Mama madder. 

 Billy figured he should just accept that he’d never understand women. 

 “I–“

 He cut himself off when he saw a hand come out from behind Riley and settle itself onto the dip of her waist. 

 The body connected to it followed a second later and moved into the back of hers like it was second nature. 

 Billy’s gut started burning and he stared hard at the figure who was holding onto Riley like she was his. 

 Angus MacGyver. 

 Mr Can Do. 

 Despite the dim lighting in the bar his blonde hair was shining. It trailed over his forehead and showcased his blank face as he urged Riley forward. 

 He stayed a step behind her as they made their way to the table their target was sitting at. 

 It should’ve looked cowardly, standing behind her. Instead it looked like he had her back even while he respected that she didn’t need him to. 

 Unsettled by his thoughts, Billy shifted and the seat creaked beneath him. He could feel Jesse’s cautious gaze but he ignored her. 

 Shit. She saw what he did, didn’t she? There was no need to talk about it. 

 MacGyver and Riley neared their table and Billy held his breath as they walked past, only releasing it when neither of them paused as they made their way past them. 

 He looked across the booth and could barely see the frown twisting Jesse’s pretty face. 

 Trying to get himself together he said, “It’s fine. They’ve got their mission,” he said smoothly even as his hands clenched shut as he watched MacGyver pull out the chair across from the scrawny guy back for Riley, then settle himself to lean against the bar only feet from Mayfair, “and we’ve got ours.”

 And the two were a little two close for his comfort. 

 “I’ve got Mayfair,” Jesse assured him and settled herself somewhat sideways so she could see what was going on.

 He wanted to tell her to keep her eyes on the door but he knew he wouldn’t be able to tear his eyes from the scene unfolding in front of him and to his left. 

 Any reply he would’ve given her was cut off when he heard, “You expect me to believe you’re a hacker? You ?”

 The insinuation in the man’s question was so foul Billy found himself feeling pissed on Riley’s behalf even though he was still pissed at her himself. 

 Riley’s back was to him so he couldn’t read the look on her face. He just saw the slight tilt of her head but he could imagine the disinterested smirk on her face that she usually rocked when she came up against men like that. 

 It had been a while since he’d seen it but he could still imagine it well enough. 

 A slice of pain ran through him, overtaking the mad. And maybe, if he was honest with himself, he was mad because it was easier than admitting he missed her. 

 He missed seeing her smile. Her smirk. The low laugh she gave that exuded so much cool that he’d felt like he’d met his match when they’d been together. 

 “I don’t expect anything from you except my payment, Grover,” she responded and Billy came out of his head at the even sound of her voice.

 Low and slightly bored like she had better things to do than whatever this was. 

 Shit. 

 Yeah, he’d forgotten those things. The ones he’d liked right from the start. 

 Grover barked out a laugh and Billy saw MacGyver’s eyes tighten around the edges. 

 Something that made Billy’s jaw tick. 

 It made sense. MacGyver was her friend. Of course he’d get pissed at the bullshit the guy was shovelling her way. 

 “Right,” Grover started with an undeniable edge of condescension and Billy saw Riley’s shoulders tighten a fraction, “you ain’t getting a dollar from me until you prove you are who you say you are, and you get the job done.”

 There was silence for several seconds. “Fine.” She gave a careless shrug and tilted her head so the long tail of her pony swung over her shrugging shoulder. “Hand over the laptop and I will.”

 Grover stared at her for long seconds and Billy could see his mind turning over. She hadn’t responded the way Grover had clearly thought she would and it had thrown him off. 

 His hand whipped out from under the table and out the corner of his eye, Billy saw MacGyver’s body go solid. 

 Grover slammed his hand on top of the black laptop and shoved it across the table towards Riley. 

 MacGyver’s body relaxed into the wooden counter top behind him. Just a little. 

 “Okay, little girl, let’s see what you’ve got. You get me in, you get me what I need, then you’ll get your money. If you don’t…” he trailed off threateningly. 

 Riley opened the laptop even as she kept her eyes on the obvious threat in front of her. “And you’ll what? Talk me to death? I’m shaking in my boots,” she deadpanned.  

 She started typing like she had no care in the world and Billy saw Grover’s face twist into an ugly scowl at the lack of her fear. 

 “Shit, but she always had mettle,” Jesse whispered with grudging respect. 

 Nothing a Colton respected more than mettle. That was something Billy had grown up hearing time and time again. 

  Before she’d broken up with him, Riley had been well respected in his family. 

 Billy was about to answer when Grover leaned over the table into Riley’s space. “You should be,” he spat, “you need to get that I won’t hesitate to gut you.” He smiled and it was so mean it made his average face ugly. “But first? I’ll have fun with you.” The sneer he sent her was uglier. 

 Billy’s whole body got tense and fuck the bounty crossed his mind. It didn’t matter how it had ended between them. He’d never let that happen. 

 Billy’s body tensed in order to break cover but Jesse tapped her foot against his. Hard. 

 And Billy started feeling something in the air. Something dangerous.  

 He traced it to MacGyver, whose face was set in granite. 

 It reminded Billy that MacGyver may have a pretty-boy face but he could be deadly. 

 Riley’s fingers paused for a second before they continued tapping the keys. 

 “No. You won’t get the chance to do either of those things.”

 Billy fought the unexpected urge to laugh at the utterly confident way she said it. 

 “Is that right?” Grover asked with an edge of amusement. 

 He was so busy entertaining himself he didn’t notice the ominous air flowing off MacGyver and clouding the space around them. How he missed the air that was thick with threat, Billy didn’t know. Maybe he was just stupid. 

 “That’s right.”

 “You think your boyfriend can take me,” Grover flicked his head towards MacGyver. 

 “I know he can,” she replied without hesitation and the absolute belief ringing through the words slammed into Billy and made it hard to breathe. 

 They weren’t real. MacGyver wasn’t really her boyfriend.

  They’re undercover, he reassured himself. 

 But he didn’t think she’d ever had that much faith in him like she did MacGyver. Not even when they’d been together. 

 It stung then. 

 It stung now. 

 “Whatever you say, bitch,” Grover shot back and slumped back into his chair. 

 “I can see that in order to prove you’ve got a dick, you’re determined to act like one, but you should know something about me, Grover…I could take you too. Pathetic weasel’s like you always think 

you’re tougher than you are. And just saying, man? I’ve never seen a weasel as pathetic as you.” 

 She shot a look at Grover and even though he couldn’t see her face, Billy knew there was a hard glare on it. One that dared him to argue. 

 Billy went back in time to a place where it was his right to find the sharp edge of her tongue sexy. 

 The air lightened up. 

 He looked over at MacGyver and found him with his arms crossed over his chest, grinning down at his boots, even as he kept his eyes on Riley’s face. He was looking at her like he thought she was sexy too.  

 Billy’s fist clenched under the table. 

 MacGyver was a little too good at playing her boyfriend. 

 Grover’s own fist slammed down on the table. 

 “Little bitches don’t mouth off to me like that.”

 “I don’t know, Grover. It’s not me throwing a fit. So, which one of us is really the little bitch?”

 “Fuck this,” Grover snarled and he pushed back from the table, his chair producing a high pitched grinding sound as it scraped across old wooden floors as he did it. 

 The entire bar tensed and Billy heard restless shifting. 

 MacGyver pushed himself off the bar and Grover’s eyes went to him. 

 It was sheer luck that Billy saw Riley insert a cord into the laptop. 

 He didn’t know what she was doing but MacGyver and Riley clearly did. They’d planned it. 

 Grover turned his back on Riley, obviously not seeing her as a threat. 

 Idiot. 

 Out the corner of his eye he saw Mayfair slide off his barstool and head for the back. The man rightly sensed trouble and he was wanted. It made sense he’d bail. 

 “Tell Frank he’s coming,” he said softly to Jesse and he saw Riley’s head tilt his way.

 He pushed himself further back into the shadows. 

 She’d started to turn her head when Grover distracted her. 

 “You think you’re tough, huh?”

 MacGyver didn’t say anything. In fact he hadn’t said anything the entire time they’d been there. 

 He was a silent threat. 

 And, Billy had to admit even if it was with reluctance, an effective one. 

 But MacGyver’s lips twitched, just a little. Like Grover was no threat at all. And that pissed the weasel off. 

 He grabbed the bottle of beer he’d been drinking and smashed it against the edge of the table. 

 Glass shattered and liquid sprayed, dripped, and dropped to the floor. 

 The tense room went wired. 

 Riley made an annoyed sound in the back of her throat while checking to see if any beer had gotten on the laptop. 

 “Not in my bar, Grover,” the bartender warned wearily from his place behind the bar. Clearly this was an old song and dance. 

 “Billy?”

 “Stay put,” he ordered Jesse as he watched Grover hold the jagged edge of the bottle in MacGyver’s direction. 

 He shifted from foot to foot. 

 Billy knew when someone was gagging for a fight, and this man was gagging for it. If he had to guess, it was to prove something. Or maybe he just wanted to hurt someone.  

 “Frank’s got Mayfair,” Jesse told him seconds later. Frank must’ve used the taser. 

 “Stay put,” he repeated to Jesse. They couldn’t move right then, but at least Mayfair was taken care of. 

 Knowing he was about to be thousands of dollars richer didn’t give him the same thrill it usually did. 

 Riley pushed back from the table and stood with the laptop in hand. 

 “You should put that bottle down, Grover.”

 Grover backed up a step and moved the bottle between MacGyver and Riley. 

 “Or what?”

 “Or I don’t give you what you want and I don’t get paid. And that’ll do nothing but piss me off. And you don’t want to piss me off, man.”

 Grover stilled. He ignored everything else she’d just said and his eyes lit with an unnatural light. “You got in?”

 Riley tucked the laptop under her arm and cocked out her hip in a deceptively calm pose that hid a fighting stance. 

 She was prepared to fight. Something Grover missed. Something Billy didn’t.  

 “Did I hack into this stolen FBI agent’s laptop which just happens to have the locations of all the stashed cocaine the federal government has…collected from criminal elements over the past five years? Yip.” Billy could hear the smug grin in her voice. 

 “The question is, Grover, how did you get the laptop at all?” She leaned forward a little and whispered like she was sharing a secret. “I’m asking so I can let the feds know which one of their people sold this laptop to you for the embarrassingly little amount of two hundred thousand dollars.”

 Feds were mentioned and for a whole second the room went so still, it was like no one breathed. 

 Then it exploded into action. 

 Half the occupants headed for the front door, some of the others headed for the back. 

 The ones left over settled in to watch. 

 “You’re fucking feds?”

 Grover lunged forward towards Riley, panic and rage lining his every jerky movement. 

 Billy had his ass hovering halfway off the seat when MacGyver’s hand shot out and caught the wrist wielding that deadly weapon. 

 “No,” MacGyver said and his deep voice rumbled in the room. “We don’t work for the government.” There was truth lining those words and that was news to Billy. “But after coming across your friend's crimes we decided we’d be handing you over to them once we caught you. Now, do yourself a favor and drop the bottle.”

 “Fuck that and fuck you,” Grover snarled with panic and tried to punch MacGyver with his free hand. It was sloppy at best and the movement allowed MacGyver to knock the bottle out of Grover’s hand. 

 It landed with a slight crunch and skittered across the floor until it was out of Billy’s sight. 

 It took everything in him not to get in on the fight but he wasn’t here to get caught up in the spectacle. 

 Also, he wasn’t sure if he wanted Riley to know he was there. 

 MacGyver landed a punch to Grover’s chin and the guy staggered back. Grover hadn’t landed a punch at all but Billy had to give it to him, the guy kept trying anyway. 

 “Oh, by the way,” Riley said and he found her bent over the opened laptop. “I just hacked into your phone while you’ve been busy embarrassing yourself. No need to tell me who stole the laptop. I’ve got the payment right here to one Jimmy Caan, a junior analyst right out of Bakersfield’s field office.”

 In his surprise at seeing Riley again, Billy had forgotten about the guy in the booth Grover had kept looking at. 

 He shouldn’t have forgotten. 

 If he hadn’t, he would’ve seen him scoop up the broken bottle and run hellbent at an unaware Riley. 

 Somehow MacGyver caught it, and Billy watched as fear flashed across his face and widened his eyes. “Riley, behind you!”

 She whipped around just in time to hold her left arm up against the incoming slash of the sharp-edged, broken bottle. 

 Glass met flesh and tore through. 

 Riley’s cry of shocked pain rang through the room. 

 Blood spurted and Billy slammed up into the table in an effort to get out of the booth. He could hear Jesse doing the same. 

 But before he could get out, MacGyver stopped messing around and swung a brutal uppercut at Grover. 

 The guy went down to the ground. Hard. 

 He lay in an unconscious heap that MacGyver didn’t seem to give a second thought to as he moved towards Riley, a determined, furious look on his face that said he was going to take the second guy down. 

 But this was Riley, and she could handle herself, so Billy watched as she used her right hand and swung the laptop backwards, then forwards, right into the guy’s face. 

 He stumbled back, dropping the bottle to hold the side of his head. Riley stepped forward to come in with another swing. 

 It landed. 

 He went down like concrete. His body hitting the wood made the ground shake under Billy’s feet. 

 Everyone, including Billy and his sister, froze.

 Not MacGyver though, who made it to Riley in seconds. 

 “Let me see,” he demanded and took her hand gently. 

 “That’s Jimmy Caan by the way,” she said, gesturing with her chin to the guy she’d knocked out. 

 “I guessed. Dammit, Riles, this isn’t good,”  he said while studying her arm and the distress coating the words had Billy’s ass hitting the booth’s seat in shock. 

 Riles. 

 After having heard MacGyver call Riley that, Billy had used the nickname. Once. 

 He’d never forget the uncomfortable look on her face or what she’d said with an uneasy laugh. 

 “ Uh, maybe don’t call me that. It’s a little weird for my boyfriend to call me the same name my friend does. Let’s stick with babe, babe.”

 He’d never called her that again. 

 Now he got why she hadn’t wanted him to. 

 Billy tuned back into the room with a small shake of his head. 

 MacGyver was shaking. Billy could see it. They’d been on several missions together and he’d never seen the guy flinch but Riley’s cut up arm had him trembling. 

 Jesus. 

 “I’m okay,” she replied with forced steadiness and dumped the laptop on the nearby table so she could lift her hand and squeeze MacGyver’s shoulder in reassurance.

 Billy watched as her thumb swept over MacGyver’s throat in a light caress. 

 It slammed into Billy. 

 The sight of that. 

 They were together. 

 Together, together. 

 Not just undercover. 

 It wasn’t even that the move was intimate. He’d grabbed his brother and sister on the shoulder in the same way. 

 It was the way they looked at each other. 

 It was the barely restrained panic on MacGyver’s face and the need to reassure him Riley clearly felt even though she was pale with pain.

 Some part of Billy, one that he’d never acknowledged before, had always been worried about this. That one day, the friendship the two of them shared could become more. 

  “You should’ve seen what Mac did today...”

 “I can’t give you the details but there are a bunch of kids alive and breathing because of Mac.”

 “He saved my life. I wouldn’t be here with you if he hadn’t been there.”

 Riley’s words swept through his mind. 

 Admiration. Respect. Trust. 

 All of them had always been a constant presence in her voice whenever they’d had conversations about MacGyver. 

  Fuck. 

 He watched numbly as MacGyver stripped off his jacket and then stripped off his shirt underneath it without hesitation. 

 Bare chested, and not seeming to give a damn, he wrapped the white cotton around Riley’s arm, grimacing when a pained sound escaped the mouth she’d clamped shut. 

 “Sorry, I’m so sorry, Riles. I have to try and stop the bleeding. You can’t lose anymore blood.”

 “It’s okay.” She released a careful breath that came out shaky anyway. “But could you put your jacket on?”

 MacGyver shot her a look of incredulity that mirrored Billy’s feelings. 

 “What? I don’t want anyone looking at what’s mine,” she said with a strained smirk. 

 There it was. Confirmation. 

 The numbness inside of Billy started dying out and so much filtered in that he didn’t know how to process it.

 He felt Jesse’s foot push up against his. Silent support that didn’t really do much but he appreciated it anyway. 

 “Seriously, Riles?” MacGyver shook his head but his lips twitched into a reluctant smile as he finished tying off the end of the shirt. His smile faded as blood soaked through the fabric immediately. “Matty, we need an ambulance here. Now.”

 “Mac, that’s–“

 “Please,” MacGyver interrupted and even Billy had to wince at the amount of worry in it. 

 Had he ever heard MacGyver scared? Not personally but he remembered Mama telling him how relieved Mac had been when the aeroplane he and Riley had been in as it plummeted towards the ground had come back on the radar. 

 Had it always been there?

 What was between them?

 Billy watched as the resolve on Riley’s face wavered in the face of that worry. “Okay. I’ll get checked out.”

 Before Mac could answer, the kitchen door banging open drew everyone’s eye. 

 Desi came in, pushing her hand into the back of some guy’s head. 

 “Move,” she snapped. 

 “Where the hell were you?” MacGyver’s question whipped through the room like a coiled snake wanting to strike. 

 “Don’t get your panties in a twist, Mac. I was taking care of the getaway driver.” She gave another shove and the guy with his hands bound together stumbled forward. “One in possession of a sawed-off shotgun.”

 “Oh.”

 “Yeah, oh.” 

 Before anyone else could say anything, Grover made a groaning noise from the floor. 

 “Does that hurt? Oh no. Poor baby,” Desi cooed sarcastically before using her foot none-too-gently to roll him over onto his stomach.

 Billy watched her restrain him and a rousing Jimmy Caan up with zip ties. 

 He preferred watching that to MacGyver and Riley as he guided her to a chair and crouched down in front of her. He’d put his jacket back on and was teasing Riley about her possessiveness in what Billy knew was an attempt to distract her. 

 Billy and Jesse stayed where they were until the sound of an ambulances’ siren rang in the air and MacGyver helped Riley up to take her outside. 

 Desi stayed until two tac team members came in and took the suspects. She followed along with Grover who was awake and issuing threats he had no hope in hell of following through on. 

 As soon as the door shut behind them, Billy and Jesse wordlessly slid out of the booth and headed out the back. They didn’t want to be there if cops showed up and started asking questions. 

 The cool night air slapped against his face and something inside of him woke up. 

 Something ugly. 

 He started for his truck where Frank was standing at the back, leaning against the side. 

 “Okay?”

 “Uhhh, Riley was there,” Jesse muttered when Billy couldn’t seem to get his mouth working. 

 Frank blinked. “Riley? Your ex-girlfriend, Riley?”

 Hearing that stunned question coming from his brother had Billy coming to a stop halfway between the bar and his truck. 

 Jesse took a few more steps before noticing he’d stopped. 

 “Billy?”

 He spun around. 

 “Billy!” She hissed. 

 He heard her running steps as she tried to catch up with him. 

 She grabbed his arm and he forced himself to stop so he wouldn’t hurt her. 

 Staring straight ahead, he said, “I need a minute. Go wait with Frank.”

 She tightened her hand. “B, baby bro, I get it, I do. But she’s hurt.”

 He clenched his jaw. Pissed off that it mattered. 

 “I’ve got to know.”

 “Know what?”

 “If she was with him when we were together.”

 Jesse was silent for long moments. “She’s not like that,” she eventually said with hesitation. “You know she’s not like that.”

 With deliberate movements, he took her hand off of his arm. He turned his head. “Go wait with Frank, Jesse.”

 She stared at him with her lips pressed together. Then she stepped back with a sigh. “Don’t be long.”

 He headed around the left side of the building where he could see the flashing red lights of the ambulance where it was parked in front of the bar. The sirens were off. 

 He slowed his steps as he heard the paramedic’s voice. 

 “You need stitches, ma’am.”

 “Can’t you use the glue?” The uneasiness in Riley’s voice had Billy slowing to a stop at the side of the bus. 

 “No, I’m sorry, ma’am, the cuts are too deep.”

 “Dammit.”

 “Riles, it’ll be okay but we need to go. You’ve lost a lot of blood already,” MacGyver’s voice came softly and Billy’s jaw clenched so hard streaks of pain travelled up the side of his face. 

 “Not in the ambulance.”

 “Riley, you–“

 “I’ll go…just not in the ambulance. It’s bad enough I have to face–.”

 “–needles,” MacGyve finished for her. “I know.”

 There was silence and Billy could imagine MacGyver making calculations of blood loss in relation to Riley’s height and weight. 

 “I don’t thin–“

 “Please, Mac, we both know you can get me there just as fast.”  

 MacGyver sighed. “Okay.”

 He listened to the sound of MacGyver’s feet hitting the asphalt after jumping down from the back of the ambulance. 

 He couldn’t see them with the ambulance’s doors open. 

 “Easy. Just lean on me,” MacGyver said and the soft sound of Riley’s boots being placed down gently on the ground followed. 

 For some reason, Billy couldn’t move. 

 They started walking and crossed five feet in front of him to get to the SUV parked to his right. 

 He twisted his head to watch and what he saw had his hands fisting at his sides even as that ugly thing inside of him coiled tighter. 

 Riley was leaning heavily into MacGyver’s side. All of her weight was pressed into him. 

 He had his one arm around her waist and the other gently holding the elbow of her injured arm. 

 They were walking forward but turned into each other like they needed to be as close as possible. 

 Suddenly, Riley stopped and swayed. “Whoa,” she mumbled. 

 Immediately, MacGyver turned and picked her up. He did it so gently that even strangers would know the man loved Riley. 

 Billy wasn’t a stranger. He knew them well enough to know what that meant. 

 “I’ve got you, Riles.”

 Billy closed his eyes. Just for a second. 

 But he couldn’t stop seeing the look on Riley’s face. It shot through him like a poison-tipped arrow. 

 She was smiling gently as she propped her dotted-with-blood-bandaged arm up on MacGyver’s shoulder. “I know.”

 Her uninjured hand came up and Billy saw her cup MacGyver’s face while staring up at it. 

 She had never looked at Billy that way. 

 Not when they’d been alone and definitely never in public. 

 She dropped her head onto MacGyver’s shoulder and nuzzled in. 

 So…Riley loved MacGyver too. 

 It burned in Billy. A small smoulder that started in his gut, flickering around that ugly thing like it was feeding it. 

 And it burned brighter, and bigger, with every step MacGyver took towards the SUV. 

 Like every step he took further cemented the suspicion growing inside of him that the two of them had been together when Riley had been with Billy. 

 It would explain everything. The out of the blue breakup. The way she’d been so unresponsive to his questions. 

 He watched as MacGyver bent to open the passenger door, saying something that had Riley’s head tipping back and grinning up at him through bloodless lips. 

 He placed her inside like she was glass.

 And Billy saw the way her entire being softened in the face of it. 

 Billy turned his body to face them fully and decided to let whatever the hell was inside of him out. 

 MacGyver shut Riley’s door and jogged around the front of the car to the driver's side. 

 He opened the door as Billy took his first step.

 MacGyver stopped. His head came up, and his blue eyes narrowed in on Billy like a homing beacon. 

 He’d known Billy was there all along. Maybe as soon as he’d walked into the bar. 

 The look he sent Billy stopped him in his tracks. While MacGyver’s face was blank, there was a vicious coldness in his eyes that Billy wouldn’t have believed him capable of. 

 A warning to stay far away from Riley. 

 Yeah. Silent but effective. 

 The shock of it made his steps falter. 

 In the time he took to get his shit together, MacGyver had gotten into the car and started the engine. 

 Not thinking about Riley’s arm, just the answers he fucking deserved, Billy started moving forward again even knowing he wouldn’t get there in time to ask them. 

 “Don’t.”

 The quiet command came from behind him. He didn’t recognize the voice. 

 The SUV peeled off and Billy lost his chance. 

 Pissed, he spun around and found Desi leaning up against the side of the bar with her arms crossed over her chest. 

 He hadn’t even heard her walk up behind him. 

 The slam of the ambulance doors stopped Billy from saying anything. 

 The two of them kept eye contact as the engine started up and the ambulance pulled out. 

 “Just tell me one thing. Did she cheat on me with him?” The tone of his voice was ugly in a way he’d never heard it before. If he wasn’t so pissed he would be worried. 

 Desi scoffed. “Wow, that’s rich,” she muttered to herself. 

 The anger that had been driving him died. Swiftly. He felt a dull panic form in his gut. She couldn’t know. No one knew. 

 He swallowed. “What’s rich?”

 Desi shook her head and looked off to the side for a second. When she looked back at him, something told him to brace. 

 “They didn’t know I was outside the door.”

 “What are you talk–“

 “The night Riley broke up with you?”

 Billy clamped his mouth shut. 

 “I heard it all. Mac comforting Riley, who was crying by the way, after she told him she’d found out you were seeing someone else.” The air in Billy’s lungs whooshed out. “Yeah, kind of a dumb move to hand your girlfriend the phone you were using to communicate with your…other girlfriend.”

 Billy latched on to what he felt gave him a defense. “She looked through my phone?”

 “No, that’s not Riley and you know it. My guess? A message came through and she saw it.”

 “Shit,” he breathed as everything started to make sense. The flat look on her face when he’d gotten back to the table. The coldness she’d treated him with for the rest of the mission in Paris. 

 The actual break up where she’d looked unaffected but her eyes had been shattered. 

 Yeah, it all made sense. 

 “Goddamn,” he muttered and shoved his palms over his eyes. 

 “Uh-huh,” she said and there was a cutting edge to the sound. 

 He dropped his hands to the side. “And then what? They got together?”

 She tilted her head. “They’ve been together a little over six months.”

 She was lying to him. 

 “Bullshit.” 

 He thought about the ease between them. The synchronicity they had where they didn’t even have to finish sentences for the other to know what was going to be said. 

 That didn’t happen in six months. 

 “Nope,” she said cuttingly while pushing herself off the wall. “Not bullshit. Mac and I were together on and off for a few years after you and Riley broke up. But, like you, I was just someone getting in the way of what was meant to be.”

 She sounded falsely upbeat but there was a sadness in her eyes he couldn’t miss. 

 “And you’re gonna tell me you’re cool with that? Being around them?” He threw his thumb over his shoulder in the direction they’d driven off. 

 He’d been around them for fifteen minutes and he felt like he’d been burned. 

 For the first time since she’d popped up behind him, a sincere expression crossed her face. “I have to be, because the two of them deserve each other. You never deserved Riley.” Billy took that blow with a grimace. “And I never deserved Mac,” she finished softly. 

 “What do you mean?“

 All vulnerability left her face. “That’s none of your fucking business. We’re done talking.”

 She walked towards him and when she was even with him she turned her head to the side and even though he was looking down at her, the chilly threat in her eyes made him want to step away. 

 “Stay away from them, Colton.”

 He gave her a stiff nod. 

 She walked off without another word. Billy scrubbed his hands over his face. 

 It had been a damn long night. All he wanted was to be home, but instead he had to deliver Mayfair to the local precinct and collect his bounty before starting the long drive back to Louisiana.

 He stalked forward, not entirely sure what he was feeling. 

 He had his answers. They weren’t the ones he’d expected them to be. Maybe even…wanted them to be. 

 It would’ve been better if they had cheated. Then it would’ve been her fault. Now it was his and he didn’t know what the hell to do with it except live with it. 

 And wouldn’t that be a barrel of laughs?

 Shit.  

 He’d just cleared the corner of the building when he came to a dead stop. 

 Jesse was leaning back against the brick wall staring down at her boots. 

 His heart started thumping in his chest. 

 “How long have you been standing there?”

 Her head came up slowly, woodenly, and when her eyes met his, Billy winced. 

 She’d respected and liked him his whole life. He knew because she’d never hidden it. 

 And staring into her dark eyes, the total absence of that admiration cut him to the quick. 

 “You cheated on Riley?”

 He closed his eyes. 

 When he opened them she was already moving around him. He reached for her. “Jesse, I–“

 She side stepped him so he couldn’t touch her. “I don’t wanna hear it. We’re gonna drop Mayfair off, get our money, and go home.”

 He strode after her. “Can’t we talk about this?”  

 “I can’t even look at you right now, Billy, so no, we’re not talking about this.”

 She walked faster like she couldn’t stand to be near him. 

 He let her be. 

 They both got in the truck, Jesse in the front and Billy in the back next to a trussed up Mayfair.  

 Frank looked between them. “What’s going on?”

 Billy didn’t think he could speak. 

 “Just drive, Frank,” Jesse murmured and whatever their brother saw on her face had him doing just that. 

 ***

 Three exhausting days later, Billy pulled up in front of Mama’s Diner just as the automatic lights outside came on. 

 Frank hauled ass out of the truck as soon as Billy had come to a stop. 

 He slammed the door so hard, it rocked the vehicle. Out of the corner of his eye, Billy watched his brother walk off in angry strides. 

 Jesse had told Frank what had happened while Billy had taken Mayfair into the local precinct. 

  “Jesus, Billy, you had us convinced she dumped your stupid ass because she thought she was too good for you. Guess she was, man.”

  Frank’s furious words as he’d gotten into the truck sounded in Billy’s head for the millionth time. 

 Since then, he’d been treated to cold, angry silence from both of his siblings. 

 Every attempt he’d made to talk had been rejected. 

 Beyond discussing bathroom breaks and who’s turn it was to drive, they hadn’t said a word to each other. 

 Frankly, he was getting sick of it. 

 It had been years. And he’d paid when he’d lost her, hadn’t he?

 “Tell her,” Jesse’s subdued voice sounded from next to him and tore him from his thoughts. “If you don’t, I will.”

 With that she slipped out of the truck and left Billy alone with his dread. 

 Mama was going to be… He didn’t know. He just knew it wouldn’t be good. 

 He took a few deep breaths and followed Jesse. 

 Mama was waiting for him in the dining room with her arms crossed over her chest. 

 “Somebody better tell me what the hell is going on. Frank’s got a face like thunder and my baby girl looks like someone killed all her hopes and dreams with one slash of a knife. We just got a three hundred thousand dollar bounty so that don’t make a lick of sense, Billy Colton. One of you will tell me what happened and it looks like it’s gonna be you. So, talk.”

 When he said nothing she studied his face through narrow eyes. Her arms dropped to her sides.  

 “And you look like someone died. Did someone die?”

 “No, Mama,”

 “What’s going on, Billy?”

 “Can we sit down?”

 Ten minutes later, Billy looked across the lovingly cared-for, wooden table of a booth at the side of his mama’s face as she stared silently out into the night through the picture window next to them.

 He had his arms crossed on the table. 

 “Mama?”

 Her silence was deafening but the feelings emanating off of her made it hard to breathe. 

 She turned her head slowly to look at him and he winced. 

 She looked older. Tired. 

 He’d done that. 

 “You know something, Billy?” she asked quietly. “I spent so many nights wondering how I could have read someone all wrong. Here’s this girl; beautiful, smart, tough, full of strength, and bravery. And she was in love with my son. I was overjoyed at the thought of her becoming a Colton someday.”

 Billy twisted his head to look out into the night too. 

 She paused and shifted in her seat. “And when she broke up with you, I told myself I’d been wrong. That she was cold, that she was a lie I’d wanted to believe badly enough to see what I wanted to instead of who she really was.”

 “Mama.”

 “I’m not done,” she snapped quietly.  “I told her that,” she continued on a tortured whisper. “I told her she wasn’t who I thought she was. That I didn’t care to know the person who could hurt someone the way she’d hurt you. And she said nothing, Billy. Not a thing about what my son had done to her. So she was exactly who I thought she was. It’s my son who isn’t the person I knew him to be. And now I’ve gotta live with the shame of the things I said and thought about her when she never deserved it.”

 Billy closed his eyes.

  But then behind his closed lids he saw the soft smile on Riley’s face as she’d looked up at MacGyver. He snapped his eyes open and brought his head up. “She was never in love with me. You said she was but she wasn’t.”

 Mama’s eyes sharpened on his. 

 “Now, that’s just not true, Billy.”

 He dropped his forearms on the table and leaned forward. “It is, Mama. You didn’t see the way she looked at MacGyver. She…” he trailed off. “She was never in love with me.”

 “And Mac? Is he in love with her?”

 The question tore through him because the answer was already there. He’d seen it from the second MacGyver had rested his hand on the curve of her waist. 

 He gave Mama a short nod and she slowly nodded her head even as regret flashed through her eyes. 

 “Well, I’ve gotta say, good for the both of them. They’ll take care of each other.”

 At that his back went up. “I loved her so maybe you oughta pretend to be less happy about that, Mama.”

 He knew he’d made a mistake when anger sharpened her features and she leaned forward into his space to hiss, “Did you now?”

 “Mama–“

 “You loved her, Billy? Then why would you cheat on her?”

 “Mama.”

 “No, Billy, I would love to know. If you loved her, why’d you do it?”

 He clenched his jaw and gritted out,”I don’t know, Mama.”

 “Do not sit in my diner and lie to me, Billy Colton,” she snapped. “Why?”

 “Because she wouldn’t move here,” he shouted and it surprised them both. 

 It burst out of him, unstoppable and from somewhere deep inside of him. 

 Mama sat back against the cushioned bench’s back and crossed her arms over her chest with a scrutinising look in her eye.

 His chest heaved once. 

 “She wouldn’t move here, and I asked her Mama, I asked her so many times.” He shook his head. “Jack left and still, she wouldn’t come live here.”

 “And that really surprised you?”

 He stared hard at her. “Well, yeah, Mama, it surprised me that she didn’t want to live here when I was here.”

 “The man she saw as a father leaves on a dangerous mission and you thought that would be the best time for her to leave the family she had left?”

 “Diane could’ve come–.”

 “I’m not talking about Diane.”

 His mouth snapped shut. 

 “Those are her people, Billy. Her family. You know that now. You knew that back then.”

 “We could’ve been her family.”

 “Could’ve and are are two different things.”

 He looked away. 

 “Let me ask you something. Did you ever offer to move there?”

 Then he choked out the words that he knew made him a hypocrite. “I would never leave my family.”

 “So, you were happy asking her to make a sacrifice you wouldn’t even contemplate making yourself. Huh. And when she didn’t sacrifice what she treasured so much, you cheated on her. Why? To stroke your ego? Revenge? To prove you didn’t need her, that you had options ?”

 He didn’t know. He’d never fucking known. 

 He shook his head in a wordless, helpless shrug. 

 She sighed wearily. “I suppose it don’t matter now,” she started. “Not for the past anyway. But I want to know something. The other girl? Did she know about Riley?”

 He shook his head. 

 Her eyes slid closed. “Poor girl. I always said you had more charm than sense.”

 She had always said that but usually there’d be fondness lining the words. Now, they lay flat and weary. 

 Billy looked away and the two of them sat in uneasy silence for several minutes. 

 Eventually, she slid slowly out of the booth but she didn’t walk away, she stood next to the table. “My son, you better figure out what’s broken in you so you can fix it.” He went to protest when she continued, and she did it ripping him apart. “You better find the man I raised because I don’t recognize the man in front of me.”

 It felt like something had cut up his guts. 

 When he said nothing, she placed her hand on the table and leaned down. “It scares me, Billy, that you’re not even sorry. Not once in this entire conversation have you shown a hint of shame at your actions, just anger and bitterness for the consequences of them. Why is that?”

 He didn’t know that either and it felt like he was going to be washed in the unknown of himself until he didn’t even recognize who he was. 

“One thing I know; I’ve never been so disappointed in my life.”

 The words were like a key unlocking a safe. 

 And just like that, that guilt and shame she wondered about burst to life inside of him and coated every inch of his insides until it felt like it was all he was made of. 

 It was like it had been hiding inside of him just waiting to come alive and take him under when he least expected it. 

 “Don’t. Please,” he gritted out and he felt her studying his face. 

 “Okay. Okay, Billy, I won’t, because I can finally see that shame. You should think on all of this but especially that,” she advised softly before she walked out of the diner into the back. 

 When her footsteps faded away, thoughts clamoured around for space in his mind. 

 He couldn’t separate them. 

 He was surprised when she came back. 

 She dropped a plate with a slice of her buttermilk pie and a tumbler of whiskey in front of him. 

 She dropped down with a tired sigh and placed a kiss on the top of his head.

 She lifted up and cupped his face so he would look at her. He struggled to meet her eyes. 

 “Breaks my heart, baby boy, that you had treasure in your hands and you treated her like trash. Talk to someone, Billy. So you never do it again.”

 The weight of her heartbreak was crushing. 

 “I love you, son.”

 He didn’t know hearing those words could hurt. But they did. 

 With that she left him alone in the dark diner. 

 Hours later, he’d stopped hearing her words over and over in his head. 

 Instead he saw MacGyver holding Riley in his arms while she’d looked up at him like he was everything to her. 

 And for the first time, Billy understood that she’d never looked at him that way because of him. Not her. 

 He hadn’t earned it. 

 He didn’t know what to do with that, he just knew had to do something because Mama was right. If he didn’t fix whatever was broken inside of him, something told him he’d do it again. 

 Riley had cried because of him. 

 He didn’t want to be the reason anyone else did. 

 Not again. 

 Dawn was just breaking when he slid his tired body out of the booth and headed for his truck, leaving the untouched piece of his Mama’s pie and an empty tumbler behind.