Black Swan | Ghost & König [I] ✓

chapter 16

You're not certain why a little voice in the back of your head whispered to you ensuring that you were some sort of traitor.

The image of Simon Riley popped up in your head, but in vanished faintly like smoke in your memories.

You had hugged König, and cried softly into his broad chest. He exhaled, as if relieved of something, and rested his arms on your back. The height difference was comfortable. You were completely and utterly safe in this moment.

"Am I interrupting something?" said a familiar voice, leaning casually on the wall.

You quickly removed yourself from Kilgore and wiped your tears. Kilgore only backed away, sneaking worried glances at you. He ultimately glared at the man before him.

Ghost crossed his arms in front of his chest, one leg over the other as he quirked his head to the side. Your heart dropped at the sight of him, his gorgeous, hypnotic ebony eyes lazy and half-lidded. He was not angry, or annoyed, simply observant, and calm.

"I was there, you know, listening," said Ghost, a hint of amusement in his voice. "Before you went to that battalion. Before you went to go look for [Y/N]."

You shifted in your spot, uncomfortable at the intensity and hostility between the two men in front of you. There was too much testosterone in this room for your liking.

But the sound of your real name rolling of Ghost's tongue made you feel certain things you wish you hadn't felt.

"I was listening. Listening to your conversation with your commander." He got up from the wall. "I knew what you were doing this entire time. I knew where you were."

You scrunched your nose up, bewildered to the reason why he was saying all this. It's almost as if he was trying to get under Kilgore's skin.

"You're a piece of shit," the taller man spat, the animosity decorating his features evident from the lack of cloth he had hiding his appearance.

"I needed leverage," Ghost said, bored. "Your psycho-ass girlfriend probably would've have done something crazy otherwise."

"Don't talk about her like that," Kilgore seethed, pointing his finger in Ghost's face. A pang shot through your heart at Simon's words, your shoulders slumping weakly.

"How did you even know in the first place..." you spoke up. "...that I had anything to do with Kilgore? How did you even know to use that as leverage?"

"Your commander, of course," said Ghost. You could almost see the sickening smirk under his mask. "Told Price everything once we captured you. You see..." Ghost walked slowly over to you and König, watching as your body stiffened. "...he knew how uncontrollable you were, how untamable. So he told us you were looking for König, and that he was looking for you in return. He knew that once we told you we knew where he was, we could control you."

"Fick dich, du Stück Scheiße," you spat, feeling the tears welling up in your eyes again. You knew that Ghost was manipulative, you knew that he was lying to you, that he was using you. But you're not certain why you let it happen, why you let it get to you. Why you've allowed yourself to feel something for him.

Kilgore stood there, saying nothing, doing nothing. And there's nothing that you could do about it either, except stand there and feel everything fall apart. If either of you ran away, tried to hurt Ghost, anything of the sort, you'd be hunted down and killed by German Special Forces. And as smart and skilled as you were, even you knew you couldn't survive that.

You had to follow orders. You had to see this through.

But as Simon Riley stood in front of you, and you glared at him with shattered hope and distrust, fury and betrayal, he glared right back with nothing but guilt in his eyes. You were certain right then and there that despite what he confessed, despite the terrible things he conveyed to you, he didn't want to do those things. He didn't mean for it to turn out that way.

And with that, you punched him square in the jaw.

He stumbled back, groaning as he clutched his face and hit the wall behind him with a loud thud. You're sure the rest of team could hear it, seeing as you were only separated by the wall, but you couldn't give less of a shit.

You shook your hand, knuckles numb and stinging from the impact of his hard, impenetrable mask against your fist. You blew a strand of hair out of your face.

He chuckled softly, rubbing his jaw, and getting back up to balance. Ghost looked at you with what appeared to be false antipathy, and subdued admiration.

You could see right through his little act.

A proud smile tugged at Kilgore's lips just when the rest of Task Force 141, Los Vaqueros, and German Special Forces burst through the door of the meeting room and stormed in.

"What the hell is going on in here?" Price exclaimed gruffly.

You ignored his question, and tucked another strand of hair that had liberated itself from behind your ear back in its rightful position. "When do we leave for Austria?"