Page 63 of Break Me
I watch Ava’s head turn from Riley to the older woman and back again. She’s clearly confused. Angie throws a lot of people off.
“Come in,” Riley says happily, pulling the massive door open wider.
“You must be Ava,” Angie says, smiling and holding out her hands. Ava makes to shake one but Angie pulls her into a hug. “Are you with Benji?” she whispers. Loudly.
I walk through the door into the cold house, and Riley, with a sigh, lets go of it, and it thuds closed behind us.
“That door is fucking heavy,” Riley muses.
“Get Caden to replace it.”
She glares at me, her arms crossed over her black hoodie. “Shut up,” she says, rolling her eyes.
I didn’t hear what Ava said to Angie, but now Angie is pulling me in for a hug, too. I wrap my arms around her small body and she squeezes me.
“She said she isn’t yours,” Angie whispers, this time truly whispers, in my ear. “You better fix that.”
Then she pulls away, flashes us all a smile, and walks down the stone-floored hallway, disappearing around a corner.
I sweep my eyes over the place, taking in the vaulted ceilings, the lamps that look like sconces on the stone walls.
“Was this once Dracula’s cave?” I ask Riley, slipping my hands in my pockets. There’s a staircase to my right, with dark red steps. It really looks like a vampire might have once lived here.
Riley rolls her eyes. “No. It was a famous painter,” she corrects me. “An artist, Benji. Something you don’t know shit about.”
I sigh. “Guilty.” Unless fucking up my life every damn day is an art form.
Ava is taking in the house, too, and she looks pretty damn impressed. She flips her long blonde hair over one shoulder and looks at Riley.
“You love it?” she asks with a grin. It doesn’t even look fake. For some reason, seeing her smile like that and knowing she hates me right now…it makes me feel a little jealous. I admire the show she’s putting on, too.
“Where’s Caden?” I interrupt, directing my question to Riley.
Riley glares at me, then nods toward the stairs. “Somewhere up there.”
I walk past Ava and start up the steps, hearing Riley gushing about this house to Ava.
At the landing, I glance in both directions of the long hallways, with the same type of lamps in the wall. The walls are pale grey, the floor stone here, too. Jesus Christ.
I listen, but this floor is fucking enormous, so I don’t know if I’d hear Caden even if he was blaring his awful metal music at full blast.
“Yo,” I call out, “Caden!”
After a second, I hear him. “Down here!” he yells from the right.
I walk down the hall, peering in each room as I do. There’re a few bedrooms, empty, a few bathrooms, decked out in marble, and then at the very end of the hall, Caden is standing in front of an entire wall of windows that looks out over the manicured backyard which edges up against a forest.
He’s got his arms crossed, his crisp white shirt pulled taunt over his shoulders. I come to stand beside him, gazing out at the sunny fall day, the in-ground pool down below.
“You like it?” he asks me without looking at me. He’s probably still pissed about this morning when he tried to surprise Riley.
“Honestly, man, it’s kind of creepy.”
He laughs. “That’s Riley for you.”
“And you want what she wants, right?”
He turns to glare at me. Here we go. “Don’t be trying to talk her into anymore threesomes, okay, man?” His jaw tightens as he takes me in. “I know I told her I’d do whatever she wanted, and I fucking meant it, but I don’t want your dick anywhere near her again.”
