Frayed Edges

Changes

Drew's new apartment hadn't been anything like he had expected. The wide open space was very different than the one he had previously visited on late nights to collect Mia or discuss business. While he knew that Drew was no longer the poor man he used to be, this was a shock.

The cold grey marble and soulless decorations reflected the man he had met in the shipping container. This was not a home, it was a war room and Alex had no doubt that Drew spent many an hour here thinking of his next move.

Drew didn't bother to offer him the grand tour, instead he motioned to the guest rooms that lay behind him and told Alex to pick whichever he wanted. However he stayed put, drawn to the large windows and streets beneath them. It had been a long time since he'd been in a room with a window bigger than a letterbox and the feeling was spectacular.

"Stay out here if you want" Drew muttered with a gentle hand on his shoulder "Reckon you and the city have some catching up to do"

Alex could only nod spellbound by the streets and the movement between them. Tentatively he took a seat on the large grey couch as Drew excused himself to take a call. It was now that Alex took the opportunity to sift through the few belongings that remained from his time inside.

The rings around his fingers felt foreign yet once they had been a second skin. He let his trembling fingers slide across the bands and he slipped them on and off his fingers the way Mia once had as a child. The sound of a raised voice behind a closed door made him jump and before he could regain composure he watched his ring roll under the small coffee table in front of him.

Alex cursed himself for being so jumpy, it was an unavoidable trait following his release. Raised voices meant trouble and he worked hard to keep himself out of it.

He sunk to his knees and began blindly searching beneath the table. The gap was too small and dark to see much and he almost recoiled when he felt the unfamiliar gilded edge of something hidden. He expected a lock box or some sort of item that he definitely shouldn't be messing with, what he didn't expect was a glimmer of Drew's old sentimentality.

The image was one he had long forgotten, one where they were all happy and care free. There were no glimmers of bitterness or exhaustion, no feeling of the world having them pinned to the wall at gunpoint. They were happy and Alex wanted desperately to feel that way again.

The smile Mia wore was very different to the one he saw as he left the gates that morning, he doubted she had shown it for a while. Alex wanted nothing more than for Mia to feel that carefree again and he knew if he let Drew go through with his plan he took away any chance of that ever happening.

The sound of footsteps made him act fast. He placed the picture back in its hiding spot and made himself comfortable on the couch.

"Sorry about that, just business" Drew sighed as he took a seat beside him "Nothing for you to be concerned about" he added when he clocked Alex's raised brow.

"I think I'm gonna go out" Alex began slowly, he knew he wasn't Drew's prisoner but any raised suspicion could end very badly for him.

"Out where?" He asked as casually as he could muster.

"Out there" he chuckled as he motioned to the large expanse of city around them "I haven't breathed fresh air without a 20ft fence around me in four years. I bet everything is different I wanna know what I've missed."

Drew paused. It was on the tip of his tongue to question where he was going but they both knew. Drew took a short breath before patting him gently on the shoulder.

"See if you can talk some sense into her." Alex froze a little but he knew he was foolish to forget that Drew knew him as well as he did him.

He nodded slightly before getting to his feet. He felt Drew's piercing glare on the back of his neck as he headed towards the elevator, a small reminder of what could happen if he betrayed him.