Criminal Affinity [18+]

Chapter 2

  Can't change the way we are.
One kiss away from killing.

| River - Bishop Briggs |

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She doesn't know if it's the footsteps that wake her. Jolt upright, Ava throws herself off the grimy metal floor. The blistering pain in the back of her head pushes her to blink away the haze and focus. She's alive. She is whole.

Little by little the white surrounding her vision fades to the silhouette of a room. Her fervent eyes eat up every detail of the room, in the middle of which she stands frozen. No grimy metal floor, not tied to a chair.

She stands free in a room of dark marbled floors, tall windows, and warm comfortable lights. Her eyes linger on the enormous bed she just rolled out of.

Ava's mouth opens as if to say something, but her stinging jaw halts her. A lash of pain she very much needed to come back to her senses. Her chin is tender and caked with blood.

"Disgusting," Ava mutters, eyeing the door. She attempts to scratch it off but the pain stops her again. Fucking hell. As if waking up in a hostile set-up wasn't enough, she has to deal with blood all over her face.

Before she can finish her thought, she hears footsteps again. Goosebumps spread across her skin as she takes soundless retreating steps. They have taken away all her weapons, even the sweatshirt which had a knife pocket stitched into it.

She becomes painfully aware of her bare skin when the door opens.

The man who walks in is twice her height and just as broad. Hair cut in old-fashioned army way, some scars on his scalp are visible across even the room. He regards her with his evasive dark eyes before saying, "Didn't think you would make it."

The man's gravelly voice gives away his age. No younger than fifty. "Who are you?"

He ignores her and draws a bottle of water from behind him and sets it at the nightstand, which already had a strip of ibuprofen on it that she missed. Ava's shoulders knot with tension. The man's presence echoes in the room. She can fight him, but not in such a tight space. He's too big. Her agility means nothing against his fist.

"Take these and put on some clothes." He says evenly. She has no idea what he's thinking. "Boss is waiting for you."

If he wanted to kill her, he would have tried by now. But his demeanor is not threatening. He just looks bored.

"What boss?" She asks urgently. "What are you talking about?"

He gives her one last glance before heading to the door. "So you don't remember anything?"

Ava's mind races and reaches no conclusions or answers. Stepping closer with a face scrunched in frustration, she shouts, "What in the fuck are you talking about? You kidnapped me and brought me to this blood money mansion and now you're being shady and weird and you expect me to just--"

"Lower your tone." He says coldly. Ava dumbly stares at him. "No one wants to hear your yapping."

Her yapping. "Do you know who I am?"

An expression breaks onto his face and it's just as quickly gone. Then so is he. But she hears him speak through the door, "If you do, forget it."

-

She had woken up in the morning in the miserably beautiful room. Now it was evening, and she was losing her mind. The man had locked the door behind him, and she has nothing to pick the lock with. She contemplated smashing open the tall windows but one hit told her they were bulletproof.