Page 12 of Break Me
“You toldher I’m new here?” Riley snaps at me as I drive away from her school. She’s supposed to head to work now but I told her Ava wanted to hang out with her and that I already told her boss she wouldn’t be in. Which I did. And Ava does.
I already texted her and asked. At first, she said no, not until I told her how I got her number. But I told her I’d only tell her that information in person. She agreed to come. To hang out with Riley.
The fake new girl.
I shrug, merging onto the highway.
“What the fuck, Benji? I’m not new!” She crosses her arms and slams her back against the seat.
I bite back my laugh. Her and Caden are actually a lot alike. She’s just better looking. By a little.
“But you don’t have friends,” I point out. Kindly.
She sighs but doesn’t deny it because we both know it’s true. Before, she didn’t have time for friends. She was too busy supporting herself and her mother. Now, though, she doesn’t need to be doing all of that shit. She needs to live.
“Where are we going?” Her tone is still angry but at least she hasn’t fought me about Ava. It’s not that I mind hanging out with Riley. I don’t. I like her a lot. She’s like a sister...never mind. Scratch that. I fucked her not all that long ago.
She’s like a best friend.
But I really would like her to have other friends. Caden is possessive and she doesn’t seem to mind but she needs people in her corner. Especially if she’s going to be here nearly an entire year longer.
And I kind of want to get laid. And she’s off limits unless I want Caden to try to kill me in my sleep. Which I don’t.
I need someone to take my mind off of Bianca. I keep to my ten second rule during the day. But at night, when I do manage to sleep, she’s there. In my nightmares. Even Xanax can’t help me escape that.
“We’re going to the liquor store. Here,” I say, lowering my voice conspiratorially, “they call it, wait for it...” she glares at me, “the ABC store!” I smack my hands on the wheel mimicking the drumbeat after a joke.
She doesn’t laugh. She slumps down further in the seat and glances out the tinted window.
“I’ve lived here for three years,” she mumbles. “I know.”
I don’t point out that I knew she knew. I just let her stew in silence. She misses Caden already and she’s tired of her security detail—me—already and this is her way of showing it.
I can deal with it. My adoptive mom had mood swings that gave me whiplash, until I got out of prison and her and my fake dad cut me off. Whatever.
We’re quiet a moment and then I see out of the corner of my eye that she turns to look at me.
“Do you know where he is?” she asks quietly. I know who she’s talking about.
She’s not scared. Honestly, she should be. But she’s not. She’s just worried for Caden, who is anxious about his father and it’s making him tense which is understandable.
“No,” I answer truthfully. I want to say something reassuring after that, but I’ve got nothing to say. We don’t know where he is. Maria Virani hasn’t spoken to him or I would personally know—her phones are tapped, all of them—and he hasn’t been spotted anywhere in Ontario. He even stopped showing up for work.
Riley just dips her chin in acknowledgement of my answer. She doesn’t have anything to add. What is there to say? Rolland sexually assaulted her after he drugged her when she came running to him to escape another assault. Caden thought she fucked his brother over and was somehow responsible for his suicide which was actually a murder. Then Caden made it no secret he hated her and wanted to get even. I was, unfortunately, a part of that, too.
Riley’s been through enough. She doesn’t need to concern herself with Rolland’s whereabouts.
I lean over and nudge her in the side as we get to a stoplight off the exit.
“Tonight will be fun,” I tell her with a small smile. “I promise.”
She huffs. “Doubtful.”
“Okay, Antisocial Little Girl,” she bristles when I say that which is why I keep saying it, “Ava seems cool.”
She nods. “She does,” she agrees as we pull into the parking lot of the liquor store. “It’s you that doesn’t.”
She laughs at her own bad joke and I put the car in park, shaking my head.
