Drink Me

53. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?

ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?

"Oh, by the way, Caroline thinks you're a gold digger," Riley said as a smirk formed on his lips.

He and Alice were at the safe house where Riley had just reported the small piece of information from Caroline's meeting.

Alice looked at him from behind a slice of pizza and frowned, then stopped chewing. "Is she afraid I'm gonna waste all of her son's inheritance?" she asked eventually.

"So you don't deny it," Riley kept teasing and took a bite of the slice Alice was holding mid-air. The woman shoved him with a scolding look in her eyes that caused Riley to move to the sofa in front of her.

"A bad conscience buys a lot of gifts," Alice replied then, finishing the last bite of pizza. "And I like jewels."

"Do you or does Alice?" Riley asked again, now with genuine interest.

Alice thought about it for a moment. "Both, different tastes but one doesn't look at a white gold, two-carat diamond ring in the mouth," she said and although Riley had no idea what she'd just said, he was sure she meant her ring was expensive.

"Too bad I can't keep any of the things Aidan bought me," she added then, with true disappointment.

"How come?" Riley queried.

Alice tore another slice of pizza. "Might have come from laundered money," she explained as she chewed on the dough.

"Since when do you care about the right thing to do?" Riley teased, but Alice shrugged.

"Since the agency will make sure I give everything back," she explained simply, looking at her ring with a compassion that she'd rarely reserved for another human being.

"So, what's your plan after this mission is over?" Riley asked, extending his legs on the sofa and shifting to a more comfortable position.

Alice put down the pizza box. She dusted off her hands from the flour before folding her legs in a crossed position with a thoughtful expression that reminded Riley of that night at his apartment when he'd told her how much he wanted her. A lot had changed since then but not his obsession for the woman; it had morphed into something completely different, but was still very much alive.

Riley closed his eyes briefly to chase those thoughts away and concentrated on Alice's reply.

"I'll take a long solo vacation. And I mean loooong, somewhere hot. Maldives, Thailand, Mexico..." she said with dreamy eyes.

"Are you not spending time with your family? Your friends?" Riley asked, surprised.

"You Irish folks with your families, only the Italians are more obsessed than you guys..." Alice scolded.

"You don't miss them?" Riley tried again.

"Sure I do," the woman replied quickly, but there was a sort of carelessness in her tone.

"So convincing," Riley joked but his eyes stayed on her, studying her face, looking for a trace of discomfort or any telltale signs of her past that could give away her true story.

"Stop staring at me," Alice said with dry calm.

"I'm sorry," Riley faltered, blinking uncomfortably but Alice didn't reply right away, she kept her eyes on him in her unnerving, flustering way until she eventually sighed.

"I'm very functional, Riley," she said but her tone wasn't bitter, it sounded like an explanation. "I have friends and a normal family who love me and that I care about very much. I'm not the result of abuse or a rocky childhood, not more than any average person, anyway."