Unbroken

by Riley Edwards

  Viper disconnected the way he always did, with the last word. Zane Lewis owned and operated the top security contracting firm in the United States. Hell, him and his team had a direct line to the President of the United States. I was lucky to be friends with a man like Zane. This was not a case he would normally take on. This was piddly shit. He ran black ops missions in foreign countries. There were even rumors that he was the one who brought down the dirty CIA director.

  I locked my personal cell phone in the safe, pulled out a bundle of cash and a few extra magazines. I couldn’t take the chance of using anything that could track my movements. Only a select few would know our whereabouts.

  I had heard the laughter before I opened the door to my office. Beautiful! The sound of Ava and JJ’s giggles soothed my soul. I loved nothing more than to hear them banter with one another. They were like two peas in a pod. As close as a mother and son could be. I was amazed at how well she was keeping everything together. Damned impressive.

  After I opened the door, I couldn’t help but to laugh with them. Ava was sitting on the floor cross-legged, making the funniest face I had ever seen as she concentrated on the Xbox screen. She had the controller in her hands at eye level and was moving it around as if that would make the character on the screen go in the direction the controller was moving. Her tiny pink tongue was ever so slightly pushed out, licking her lips as she jerked the controller.

  “You do know that no matter how far you lean to the side, the little man on the screen doesn’t follow, don’t you?” I asked.

  “Mom’s trying to chop down trees to get wood. We needed more pickaxes. She won’t kill the sheep though, even though we need wool to sleep on,” JJ informed me.

  “I’m not killing the cute little sheep. Or the pigs. I like the pigs,” Ava said.

  “You guys about ready to get out of here?” I waited for JJ to complain about wanting to continue to play Minecraft but to my surprise it was Ava.

  “One more minute, I almost have enough trees.”

  “I can’t believe you’re playing that game. You finish up and I’ll get Roni squared away.” I motioned for Roni to follow me.

  “It was great to finally meet you, Ava. Please don’t forget to call us about family dinner. JJ, my main man, I’ll see you soon. Awesome popcorn makin’ skills, by the way.” Roni gave JJ a fist bump and followed me to the door.

  “It was nice meeting you as well. Thanks again for the chat,” Ava called out, never looking away from her game.

  Roni knew the drill. She’d been around long enough to understand what was going on without me telling her. “I’ll wait for Rick’s call and get a clean-up crew out to the cabin. I’ll grab a burner cell before I leave. What number did you take? Oh, did someone already handle the security feed?” Roni asked. Gone was the playful woman who had been hanging out with Ava, and back was the professional I knew her to be.

  “I took phone three. The feed has been taken care of. Text me when everything is handled. I’ll be at the industrial park apartment. Please make sure Mac knows that when he’s done.” I turned to leave, “And thank you, Roni. I appreciate you taking care of Ava and JJ.”

  “She’s your one, isn’t she?” Roni asked, smiling.

  “No, they are my one. The both of them.”

  13

  In Color

  Ava

  “Can we stop by the café?” I asked when we got to the car. “I need to pick up the deposit.”

  “I’m hungry,” JJ said from the back seat.

  “How is that even possible, JJ? There’s plenty of food at the house, little man. Roni stocked it, so I’m sure there’ll be lots of good stuff for you,” Reid answered JJ. “I’ll send Rick or Austin to get the deposit for you.”

  That was it. The idea of Austin or Rick getting my deposit put me over the edge.

  “No, Reid. I have to stop and get my deposit.”

  I might have agreed to allow him to make decisions for me about where we were going to stay until the whole Jimmy situation was sorted, but there was no way he was making decisions about my business.

  He didn’t answer, so I tried again. “Is this how it’s going be?”

  “How what’s gonna be?” he asked, only half paying attention to me. His eyes darted around the parking garage.

  “What did Jimmy say to you? You weren’t acting like this when we went to Pinkcos.” I wasn’t as naïve as he thought I was. I could see the change in his behavior.

  He didn’t speak for long moments. He just continued to check his mirrors, navigating out of the parking structure. I was starting to lose patience with his silence when he checked the rearview mirror again.

  “JJ?” he asked, an odd tone in his voice.

  I looked over my shoulder at JJ. He was playing a video game with his earbuds in. There was no answer.

  After a few seconds Reid spoke again. “I’m struggling with how much to tell you. But I think it’s important you know a few things. Jimmy is running with a gang in El Paso. He’s lost a large amount of their money. They’re not gonna be real happy when they find out. He’s obviously pissed off more people than just his gang, made evident by your tires being slashed. The biggest problem is that the gang knows about you and JJ.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat and prayed I could keep my tears in check. God knows Reid had seen me cry enough for one day. This was way worse than I thought.

  They knew about JJ.

  “Fuck.” I was losing the battle against my tears. I had to clear my throat. “So, it’s worse than you thought?”

  Reid reached across the center console and grabbed my hand. I closed my eyes to savor the warmth that spread over my body.

  “Yea, sweetheart. Fuck about sums it up.”

  “I’m really scared,” I admitted.

  “You have to know that we’ll keep you and JJ safe. You have my word. Why don’t you call Suzie and tell her one of the guys will be in to get the deposit? Also, she’s gonna need to cover for you for at least a week,” Reid suggested.

  Screw my business. At this point, all I wanted was for my son to be safe. I had enough money in my trust fund to live comfortably for the rest of my life. I had never wanted to touch it and give my mother the satisfaction of knowing I needed her money. But if my café had to close down for a week because I didn’t have coverage, I would swallow my pride to keep my son safe.

  “I don’t have my phone. I don’t think I grabbed it when we left the house.”

  Damn, I couldn’t believe I forgot my phone. I had a million thoughts running through my head. My house, JJ’s school, appointments I had to cancel, how I was going to kill Jimmy Kelley with my bare hands.

  “No worries, you can’t use your phone anyway. Use the burner.” He motioned to a flip phone in the cup holder.

  My eyes widened in disbelief, was that what I thought it was? “Seriously? A flip phone? What is this, a bad 1990’s Bruce Willis action flick? It’s 2017. You couldn’t spring for the new and improved pay-as-you-go smartphone? You know they have those now, right?” I couldn’t stop the laugh that broke free.

  I didn’t know why I was laughing as hard as I was. It really wasn’t that funny, but I couldn’t stop. All the nervous energy that was bottled up inside of me bubbled up and exploded.

  “You done yet?” Reid chuckled.

  “I don’t know… Sorry… I must be exhausted, that just hit me the right way. I can’t stop.” Another round of laughter exploded. The harder I tried to stop, the more I laughed.

  I blew out a breath and tried again, “Okay, I might be done. Sorry.”

  Reid kept sneaking sideways glances at me. He was smiling so wide both his dimples were out again. Wow. Twice in one day. I let go of his hand to grab the phone, leaving his now empty hand to rest on my thigh. I jolted at the sensation. He gave my thigh a squeeze and I tried to ignore the tingling that was traveling up and down my body. For the first time in five years, I felt alive. All my nerve endings were rapid firing, coming back to
life.

  “You remember how to use one of those? You have to flip the cover open and use actual buttons to make a call,” Reid joked.

  “I think I can manage this relic. The first thing we’re gonna do when this is all over is upgrade your burner phone selection. This is truly pitiful. You, being the badass investigator you are, cannot be seen with low-tech gadgets. It has to be bad for your street cred,” I quipped.

  “Ah, funny girl. Tell you what, when this is over, you’ll have full access to Rick’s burner stash. Make all the upgrades you’d like.”

  I opened the phone and dialed the café.

  “Hello, Del Mar’s. How may I help you?” Suzie answered.

  “Just the person I needed to speak to. How’s the day going, sweets?” I asked.

  “Oh fine. Jam packed all morning, you know, the normal. The lunch rush was just as crazy. Al called about the delivery. He was missing the eggs on the order. I called Ginos. They had the twenty-five dozen you ordered, those have been delivered, better price too. Other than the eggs it has been smooth sailing. I am finishing putting the last of the order in the walk-in and I’m outta here.”

  Thank God for Suzie. She was an awesome manager.

  “Thank you so much for handling everything for me. Listen, I have a huge favor to ask you, and if you can’t do it I’ll understand.” I felt horrible having to ask for her help.

  “Anything. You know that,” she replied.

  “Well, I’m not… with everything going on, I won’t be able to come into the café for about a week.”

  “A WEEK?” she interrupted me, “What’s going on? Are you okay? Where are you? What do you need me to do?”

  “We’re fine. Reid is handling everything. I don’t really think I should get into any details at the moment or over the phone. But I promise I will tell you everything soon. I was wondering if you could cover for me the next seven-ish days? I can’t come in at all.”

  “Reid, huh? Nice, ‘bout time that boy pulled up his big boy britches and made his move. I’ll cover Del Mar’s. Don’t worry about anything. I take it the plain clothes cop sitting in the corner drinking cranberry and sprite all morning is because of your…situation? Hold on, that cop is knocking on the front door he may have left something, don’t hang up.”

  What in the Sam hell was she talking about? Big boy britches? Making his move? She along with everyone else had gone kooky.

  “Sorry, I’m back.” She sounded out of breath when she picked the phone back up.

  “I have no idea why there is a cop in the café, I would assume that is Mr. Bossy Asshole’s doing. He is in overdrive this morning. I’ll ask Reid to talk to Mac about it. And thank you for taking over. You have no idea how much better I feel knowing that you’ll handle my business.”

  “Where are you going?” Suzie asked.

  “Umm, I’m not really sure.”

  That was a weird question, she was married to a cop, she knew better than to even ask.

  “Right, I’m sure Reid has plenty of places to put you.”

  This conversation was getting stranger and stranger.

  “Hey, you alright? If taking over the café is too much, it really isn’t a problem. You really should ask Michael anyway.”

  “Nope, everything is peachy. Listen I’ll let you go. I love you, Ava. Please remember that. Be safe.”

  Suzie disconnected before I could say anything else.

  “Everything alright?” Reid asked.

  “Yea, she just sounded tired and a little stressed. A busy morning at Del’s will do that to you. Oh crap, I forgot to tell her about the deposit.”

  I tried to call back but there was no answer.

  “Damn. Oh well, she must be in the walk-in and can’t hear the phone. It can go into the bank tomorrow, I guess.”

  “Austin can swing by and get your keys and alarm code. He can make the drop tonight.”

  “Okay, I really do need it to go in tonight. I wish I could tell you not to bother him, but I can’t have checks bouncing.”

  “We’re here. Let’s get settled and I’ll call Austin.”

  I didn’t understand. We were in the warehouse district. There were no houses around here. Reid drove up to what appeared to be a loading dock. The large, industrial metal door rolled up, and Reid drove in.

  The space was huge and completely empty.

  “Um, are we staying here? There’s nothing here. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but where are we going to sleep?”

  “You’ll see. Wake JJ up and we’ll go upstairs.”

  I glanced behind me and sure enough, JJ was asleep. “Wake up, little man. We’re here.”

  JJ stretched and yawned. When his eyes opened, he pressed his face against the window and looked all around.

  “This place is so cool! Reid, can we come back so I can ride my rollerblades in here? I bet I could go really fast in here.”

  “Tell you what, I’ll ask one of the guys to bring you over a pair,” Reid offered.

  “Oh, no. No more buying JJ anything. He has a pair of brand-new ones at home.” Reid had to stop spoiling him. I didn’t want JJ to get used to getting everything he wanted. We had rules and chores. If he wanted something extra, he had to earn it.

  “They can go by the house and pick them up,” Reid said.

  I didn’t believe that for one second. There was not a snowball's chance in hell that Reid would take the chance of someone being followed from my house to here.

  “Sure…” I let my words hang.

  “Come on, let’s get upstairs. I wanna show you around.” Reid got out of the car and waited for JJ and I to follow.

  The place was huge. We navigated through a series of doors and hallways, then made our way to the service elevator.

  “This is way cool. I’ve seen these kinds of elevators in the movies. Can I pull the door down? How does it go up?” JJ rushed into the old elevator.

  Truth be told, I was a little worried. It didn’t look like this elevator had been serviced in about forty years.

  “It’s safe,” Reid whispered in my ear. “Here, little man, let me pick you up so you can reach the handle.”

  Reid picked JJ up and helped him with the door. I watched as Reid explained how the elevator worked and pointed out the pulleys. Thankfully, the elevator stopped when Reid started to explain the physics behind how the lift worked. JJ was still a little young to grasp Newton and Einstein.

  “Holy wow! This is totally radical! I love this place. Can I go check it out?” JJ was already running in the direction of the wall of windows.

  The upstairs was wide open. It was straight out of an HGTV renovation show. Modern kitchen, concrete floor, whitewashed brick interior walls. It was absolutely the coolest apartment I had ever seen.

  “I’ve only had this place a little over two weeks. The security systems are still not fully installed, but it is the only safehouse I have in the city. It has never been used, so I am not concerned about the location being compromised,” Reid explained. “Come on, I’ll show you around.”

  “This is really great, Reid. Thank you again for letting us stay.” I followed him further into the huge room and noticed the partitioned off area to the left of the entryway. “What’s over there?” I asked.

  “The bedrooms, bathroom, office space, and a vault,” he answered.

  “A vault? Why in the world would you have a vault in an apartment?”

  “It was here when I purchased the property. During the demo and renovation, I asked my contractor to leave it there. The guys will retrofit it as a panic room.”

  “Gotcha.”

  The severity of the situation hit me yet again. I was in a safe house, potentially hiding to save my son’s life. I hated Jimmy fucking Kelley. I hoped he rotted in hell for all of eternity for putting JJ in danger.

  The rest of the afternoon was uneventful. We hung out and played Uno and Monopoly. And more Uno. I could almost pretend that we weren’t locked away in hiding. Reid and JJ joked and l
aughed. I was surprised how natural it felt. A couple of times Reid brushed up against me or squeezed my leg when I won a round. I wasn’t sure if it was a “way to go, bud” kinda squeeze, or if he meant more by it.

  By the time I had put JJ to bed, my head was spinning. I was so confused. I was analyzing everything Reid said, every move he made, every thought I had. This was new to me. Why was I so worried about why Reid was doing what he was doing? When we were making dinner, his chest brushed against my back when he reached for a glass in the cabinet above me. Was it on purpose? Did I feel him flex his hips more than necessary? I was obsessing over every last detail.

  A five-year fog had been lifted and suddenly things were in color. My life had been monochrome for so long I had stopped feeling anything. The only joy I had allowed myself was my son. I had seen him in color, but everything was bland and boring. I had been faking my way through life. Why was I questioning Reid’s every motive now? Maybe it was the fear and stress. Maybe everything would be back to normal by tomorrow; me living my life with blinders on, not noticing anything or anyone around me.

  Only, I wasn’t sure I wanted that anymore. Maybe I wanted to feel again; feel the tingling when Reid touched my leg, or the way my breath caught when he put his forehead against mine. Maybe I had been wasting my life away because I was afraid.

  “Do you want to watch a movie?” Reid asked from the living area.

  I was drying the last of the dishes. Reid told me to leave them, but I needed to do something to burn off nervous energy. If I was at home, I would’ve had the entire house cleaned by now.

  “Sure, whatever you want is fine with me,” I shouted back.

  I swear the apartment needed an intercom installed. It would be easier than shouting room to room.

  “Are you almost done?” he asked, suddenly right next to me.

  My heart skipped a beat and I jumped at his close proximity. I hadn’t heard him come into the kitchen. My hip banged against the counter, causing me to lose my balance. Just as I started to stumble, Reid reached out and caught me, pulling me tight against his body.