Wicked Games

2-Eliana

Chapter Two | Eliana

"Ana?" I storm right past my best friend, River and through the strip club ignoring her. My feet take me right to the bar and Beau the barman makes eye contact with me and drops the cloth he was using to clean the table.

"You good, Eliana?" He raises a brow leaning forward on the table while I jump up onto the stool. I don't even need to ask him to pour me a shot because my face says it all. He pours me two shots of vodka and slides it toward me.

I don't hesitate to down both of them wincing at the burning sensation down my throat, but I'll take those a hundred times over compared to what I just did last night.

"Ana?"

"Stop calling me that," I grumble to River who has finally caught up to me. She flicks her long, black ponytail behind her and stares down at me with her bright blue eyes.

"But you love Frozen and Ana is in your name." She smirks and I roll my eyes asking Beau for another shot. "What's happened?" River questions, stealing the shot right from my fingers and throwing it back wincing.

"That was mine!"

"And now it's not." She smiles turning my stool so we are sitting face to face our long legs locked together. "Now I'm not letting you go anywhere until you tell me why you've come in here looking like you're ready to shoot the dancers off the pole. Did the job go okay? No complications?"

I snort.

"Give me a bottle, Beau," I call out, keeping my eyes on River who tells him not to bother and gives me a look filled with warning. "Beau." I stare at him in the corner of my eyes, and he hesitates to look between myself and River.

A satisfied smile forms on my face when he slides the bottle my way, not bothering to glance at River.

"I did something really stupid last night, River," I whisper, knowing she won't be able to hear me over the loud music playing in the background of Beau's strip club. "I didn't kill the mayor." She most definitely hears that because her eyes widen and her nostrils flare in frustration.

"What do you mean you didn't kill him? Do you know what will happen if Baker finds out?!" She hisses at me and my jaw tics at the reminder. "Who was it?"

River knows a lot about my messed-up childhood. She knows I was brought up in an abusive orphanage for most of my life under the control of a man known as Dr Baker and unfortunately for me, he still dictates my life. What Rivers is also aware of is Reid. Except she thinks he's dead like I did until my recent discovery that he is alive and well.

I think...

He could actually be dead for real this time.

"You lied to Baker?!" She hisses down at me, looking like she wants to murder me herself. River is extremely overprotective. Being her only friend since we were eighteen it's safe to say she's like a sister to me, even if we were meant to kill each other in the beginning. We both ended up in a hospital bed next to one another and that's where our friendship bloomed. "Earth to fucking Eliana." She hits me around the side of my head.

"Hey!" I yell, rubbing the sore part of my head. "Someone got there before I could, the mayor was already dead, River."

"I want to know who did it, Eliana?" She pushes and I inhale a deep breath, hold my breath and exhale slowly. "Who was it?" She whispers gently, clutching onto my hands.

"It was Reid." River stares at me blankly not a word coming out of her full lips.

"Have you taken something?" She presses the back of her hand against my forehead. "What do you mean it was Reid? He's dead."