Page 14 of Caution

If I’d wanted to do that.

But I didn’t, not at all.

In fact… I’d never felt more comfortable, even though I’d never seen or heard of this place.

I looked to Cassius, seeking… anything.

He grinned.

“Welcome to your awakening.”

Five

In my younger years, I was a party girl.

Not as a teenager; my mother made sure of that.

She fretted over me so much, needed every little detail of where I was, who I would be with, even what perfumes and oils I was wearing.

It was too much, actually.

But the fear in her would be so potent that I would, often, simply conform to what she wanted for me, which was mostly just a safe, controlled environment.

After she died though—on my twenty-first birthday, to be exact—I gotpissed.

All that worrying about me andshewas the one to get brutally attacked?

What the fuck wasthat?

Theincorrectlesson I took from it was that none of my caution mattered. If someone decided to leave me bludgeoned and bloody in a dark alley, that was just what it would be.

So I was reckless.

Wild.

Stupid.

I was, as the kids say now,outside.

But I’d still never heard of BB’s.

A damn shame.

It was a sea of beautiful melanin, wall to wall, hazy with sweet smoke, loud with chatter and music, crowded with dancing bodies. Hot enough that I already felt like I might start sweating, but enough of a breeze coming off the oversized fans hanging from the ceiling to keep it comfortable.

Ilovedit.

Most of my anxiety, and annoyance , about the unknown melted away, replaced with the comforting feeling of… refuge?

A glance around at everyone else let me know that my current clothes—the black shirt, jeans, and boots I hadn’t remembered putting on—were a much better fit for the surroundings than my work clothes had been.

Which made me wonder if this had always been the plan?

Cassius released his hold on me as soon as we crossed the building’s threshold, allowing me to walk ahead. I glanced around, looking for him now, but couldn’t see him.

I could…feel himthough.

My eyes narrowed as I surveyed the crowd once more, trying to spot him among a sea of barely illuminated faces, my view constantly changing as they moved.

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