Page 55 of Break Me
Seventeen
WatchingAva watch the skyline of Toronto makes me feel pretty damn proud of this magical city, even if where we’re walking right now is anything but magic. She has no idea where we’re going and even if I wanted to tell her—which I don’t—I couldn’t. In essence, it’s just a members-only winery with a passcode. She’ll be going in with me, which will be clue enough to anyone that might be here at eight in the morning that they should keep their voices low, but I can’t really tell her anything even if she’ll see it with her own eyes.
I loop my arm through hers and we walk down an alley and I can’t help but think of when I cornered Riley in one not that long ago, and the two homeless men Caden decked that I dragged away, so when they woke up, they would be far, far away from where he knocked them out at.
I don’t regret cornering Riley. I think the shit we did to her made her stronger. Made her so she’ll never be like Bianca was, which is a fucked-up thing to think, but it is what it is. But if Caden ever cornered Ava…I’d fuck him up.
I punch in the code outside of the nondescript door at the back of the alley.
“What is this?” Ava whispers beside me. I don’t know why she’s whispering but it’s kind of cute.
“Just business,” I answer her.
The door clicks and I pull the handle and push her inside, making sure the door latches closed behind us before we walk down the dim hall. She shuffles beside me, twisting her head this way and that, taking everything in. There’s not much to see here, just red walls and tile floors. At the end of the hall, I reach into my pocket, pull out a key, and unlock the glass door.
Once we’re in, I unthread my arm from Ava’s and walk across the room. It looks kind of like a living room and it kind of is. There’s an unlit fireplace, a few couches around a coffee table, and even a television which isn’t on. No one, thankfully, is in here. I push open a door and enter a mail room, Ava trailing cautiously behind me. I pull another key from my pocket and open one of the boxes, pulling out a single white envelope.
I open it, purposefully turning so I’m facing Ava, so she can’t see what’s on the printed page inside the envelope.
It’s just a name, a date, and an address. She wouldn’t understand it even if she saw it, but I’m not protecting the information from her. I’m protecting her from the information. There are cameras everywhere in here.
It’s something I’m really damn good at.
Watching when no one else is. Sometimes it fucks me over, but I can’t seem to stop.
I lock the mailbox back, crumple up the paper, and slide it in my pocket. Felix will be happy, we’ll get paid, and someone will die.
It’s usually how my life works.
“Ready?” I ask Ava, who’s watching me carefully.
She’s wearing a silver sweater, sheer tights on under her skirt. I want to rip it all off, shove her against this wall, but I clench my fists, holding back.
Cameras.
She nods. “What was on the paper?” she asks as I lock up and lead us out of here.
I laugh. “You think I’m really going to tell you?” I challenge her as I take her hand when we hit the alley again.
She shrugs. “Maybe.”
“No chance, Princess.”
She huffs but doesn’t say anything, and we end up inside a brunch spot called Zaxs, and in minutes, she’s got a mimosa in front of her and I’ve got water. It’s already crowded even though it’s a damn Tuesday, but we’ve got a table in a private room, although the door is open so I still feel like we’re part of the crowd, and I can still see and hear the people dining through the door.
After the waitress takes our order—one of everything, because why the fuck not? —I excuse myself because I’ve gotta piss. I drank far too many bottles of water on the plane here. Besides that, the letter in my pocket needs to be disposed of properly.
As I head to the bathroom, someone calls my name at my back. But I think it must be me hearing things over the noise of this restaurant, because that voice...she wouldn’t dare.
I take another step toward the restroom.
And then Bianca says my name again.
Instinct forces me to turn around, because for years, I was there when she called me. And she was there when I needed her.
Until she wasn’t.
When my gaze meets hers, I want to turn and run.
