Choosing Riley

Chapter 4-4

Now, he wondered how he was going to be able to fulfill his promise. Over the past six days, all five of them plus Titus, his brother, and the other two warriors had zero luck in getting their hands on any type of tool that would work to remove the collars around their neck. Something was telling him that they didn’t have much time left either.

He paced the room. They would be escorted to their evening meal soon. Tomorrow another supply ship would arrive, and Vox’s gut was telling him it would be their only chance of escape. He growled out in frustration as he paced back and forth in the narrow room.

“Those damn insects are organized, suspicious bastards,” Tor said with a sigh. “They make sure there are no tools available that might work on removing these damn collars,” he added with a wince as he received another small shock when he ran his fingers around the edge of it.

“I’ve got burn marks almost all the way around my neck from the damn thing,” Lodar complained, touching his tender throat.

“Do you need some medicine for it?” Riley asked from where she was laying on the bed, reading on her iPad. “I’ve got all kinds of stuff.”

“You wouldn’t happen to have a tool kit available, would you?” Tor joked.

“Of course,” Riley said without looking up. “Pliers, scissors, flathead screwdrivers, Philips head—you name it, I’ve probably got it. What do you need?”

She finally looked up when no one replied. All five men were looking at her in disbelief. She frowned, looking from one to the other, puzzled. She didn’t know what the big deal was; lots of women carried basic tools with them. You never knew when you might need one, and it wasn’t like she had a guy around with a tool bag fixing things for her.

“What?” she asked innocently.

Vox took a step toward the bed, looking down at her in disbelief. “You have tools with you, and you didn’t tell us?”

Riley shrugged, looking up at him with a raised eyebrow. “No one asked.”

“No one asked,” Vox muttered, looking at Tor and Lodar in disbelief. “We have been looking for tools for the past week! Haven’t you heard us talking about it?” he asked her in aggravation.

“Well, yes, now that you mention it, but I figured when you said ‘she’s a female, why would she need tools?’”—Riley said, dropping her voice to a deeper tone to imitate Vox’s voice—“that it was like a guy asking for directions! I decided if you really needed them, you could ask me.” And she returned her attention back to the story she was reading.

Vox bit back a curse. “Can we see the tools you have?” he asked through gritted teeth.

Riley rolled her eyes, but shut off the iPad. She sat up and reached for her huge handbag at the end of the bed. After a few minutes of digging around in it, she began pulling out all the tools she had stashed in the different compartments. She pulled out her large Leatherman, then her Leatherman Micro, a folding set of Allen wrenches, a small plastic container with various sizes of screwdrivers, a pair of scissors, her manicure set, and a pair of wire snips.

“Oh, I didn’t know I had those in there,” she murmured. “I think I have another pair of needle-nose pliers somewhere in here.” Her voice was muffled as she stuck her head further into the large bag.

“How in the names of all the gods can she have so much in there?” Lodar asked, amazed, as she began pulling more and more things out and laying them on the bed next to her.