Page 37 of Break Me
“You can follow me in your car.” I nod toward the black Mercedes, my rental down here. I see Carly’s eyes widen as she follows my gaze, and her hand shifts up to my bicep.
“I can ride with you,” she shrugs, “take a cab back in the morning.”
Not gonna happen.
I shake my head to tell her as much when my phone buzzes again. I pull it out without giving Carly an excuse this time. It’s a number I don’t know.
She’s beautiful, Benji. The mayor’s daughter and Riley both will look good on their knees in front of me.
It’s a North Carolina number, a Raleigh area code. Immediately, I shrug Carly off of me and dial the number, spinning around in the parking lot outside of Crate. My heart is hammering in my chest, but if I can get this shit done right here and right now, all the better. I’ve been waiting for this.
The phone goes to an automatic voicemail.
“Fuck!” I swear, scanning the parking lot again. I glance to the bouncer at the entrance, but he looks high as a fucking kite and about as useful.
“What’s wrong?” Carly asks quietly beside me.
“I’m sorry but I can’t leave with you,” I tell her, ready for her to get the fuck out of here. I cross the parking lot to my car, open up the passenger side door and pull the gun out from the glove box. I grab my black jacket and put it on, putting the gun in my waistband.
Carly is still behind me.
I shut and lock my door. “Have a good night,” I tell her with a nod and then walk back toward the club before she can say anything else.
I send Caden a text telling him to stay the fuck at the condo.
I don’t go after girls.
But I sure as fuck am not going to leave Ava here either.
* * *
After I dropher grumbly friend, Tess, off at her apartment on Campbell’s campus, I drive with a sulking Ava back to the condo.
“Are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on?” she asks for the dozenth time, her arms folded over her chest. She’s staring straight ahead into the night through the windshield, her jaw clenched.
She’s pissed and kind of drunk.
Tess was pissed.
Caden is pissed. I didn’t tell him the truth, I just told him I had a bad feeling, which made him more pissed. Riley went to bed because she’s sick of this shit and thinking of Rolland makes her feel sick. Hell, it makes me feel sick and he didn’t even fuck me over. Not like he did her.
“No,” I answer Ava for the dozenth time.
She sighs, loudly, as I speed down the highway. I glance at her, see her lips pursed in a pout. When the fuck did Rolland see me with her? Inside the club? My skin crawls thinking about the fact he could be that close.
Why would he text me, though?
A warning, to make it more fun?
I know he wants me dead. Riley, too. Probably even his own son. He doesn’t want us to go to the cops about what he did to Jack. How he staged his death as a suicide and blamed that shit on Riley, even though it was fucking murder.
Why would he drag Ava into this, though? Rolland Virani has a reputation to uphold back in Toronto. He can’t afford to be dropping people like flies.
But I can.
And I fucking will.
I turn off the exit, slowing the car until we come to a stoplight.
