Page 88 of Property of Chaos

Asshole.Be nice if he gave me a heads-up. “Early to be calling, ain’t it?”

“Yeah. But I’d hoped you’d be up and about to save me killing time unnecessarily.”

Color me intrigued. “Hate to be an asshole, but can we cut the shit and get to what this is all about?” I shift down for a corner, turning onto the last road before Temperance.

“Nah, man. It’s fair. You able to meet up?”

I glance at the illuminated screen for the time. “You’ve got a short window before I have other commitments.” Never mention details of family—your weakness—to strangers. A hard and fast rule to follow if you want to keep them safe.

“Sure. It won’t take long. Do you have a preference on where you want to meet? I’m outside some park near a bank and a cafe at the moment.”

Yeah, I know exactly where he is. “Stay where you are. I’ll be there in ten.” I don’t let him answer before disconnecting and punching in Jinx’s number.

He takes considerably longer to pick up than I did, voice thick with sleep when he does.

“Did I interrupt something?”

He sighs. “Nope. What’s up?”

A stone flicks off my tire, stinging when it touches my left hand. “You give my number to the Fallen Aces VP?” I shake off the pain.

“Yeah. I was going to let you know when you were in next.”

Fucking over his digs at my absence already. “Well, he beat you to it. He’s in town. Grab Circus and meet me at the meat works; I ain’t riding solo.”

“Wouldn’t expect you to.” He makes a groan as though getting out of bed. “You want me to kick Darko in the nuts and see if he can take Selena to school again?”

“Yeah.” Why not? “Let her know I’ll pick her up this afternoon, though.”

“On it. See you in a few.”

I end his call as the speed zone changes for the outskirts of town and lean back a little in the seat.

So the Fallen Aces have sent someone to chat, huh? Can only be bad news if they don’t feel comfortable sharing it over unsecured lines.

THIRTY-ONE

VANESSA

Legs crossedon the chair beneath me, I chew on my bottom lip as I stare at the smartphone. I opened the fucking thing intent on sending Evelyn an email, but instead, I’m mesmerized by the colorful photo album icon.

Taunting.

Teasing.

Not at work, Ness.I’ve got ten minutes left of my break, and I haven’t eaten a damn bite of my muffin yet. My thumb hovers over the screen, itching to tap on the goddamn app, yet I force it lower and open my thread with Marianna to copy Evelyn’s email.

My heart races at the thought of facinghim,let alone getting on the damn plane, but I’ve got to do this. If I ever want to entertain the delusion of being free of his influence one day, I need to.

Change doesn’t happen overnight. It creeps up on us in the incremental decisions we make daily to give ourselves better—what we deserve.

I didn’t wake up one day with a fully formed plan to escape the compound alive. It worked its way in there slowly, insidiously, over the years with everything he did to hurt me.

It only makes sense that the dissection from his oppression would happen equally slowly.

I sigh as I copy Evelyn’s address into the To field and hammer out a quick subject line. She offered to go with me, and yet, I still hesitated, that familiar niggling fear eating away at my confidence. What if she was merely being polite? Saying what I wanted to hear to avoid conflict?

Stop it, Ness.Grown-ass adults don’t fuck around with things like this.Or do they?

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