Breaker (Riders of Apollo #4)

Chapter Fourteen: Adrian Calder

"What do you think?" I ask her, watching as her eyes take in the sunset with hungry eyes. I knew she'd like it when Gears first suggested it, the windows would be her favourite part and easily sway her into moving here.

"It's perfect, just needs a little colour... how much does it cost?" I walk up behind her and gently place my hand on her waist, I smile at the fact she leans into me instead of flinching away.

"You're not paying for any of the bills. It's part of the bakery downstairs so we own it and the bills will include usage downstairs, it would be confusing to try and untangle them." The fact that the café downstairs makes so much money in a week means that we can easily pay off any overheads, including the flat. We don't need the money but Rory needs a safe place to land.

"Are you sure? I can pay... I won't be able to pay as much when I go back to school but I can still pay." She pleads with me, her hands pressed against my chest as my hands twitch at her sides.

"You're not paying anything, Rory. Okay?"

"Is there any point in arguing with you?"

"No, I want you here, I can get to you in less than five minutes if something goes wrong. You won't have to be near the Niners and Hendrix won't know where you live-." She stops me with a soft hand over my mouth and a soft smile.

"Okay, B, I'll move here. Thank you." She hugs me tightly and I sigh in relief, the idea of her living with the Niners terrified me and I'm thankful that I won't be kept awake at night thinking about what could be happening to her while I'm so far away. "Would you be able to drop me back at mine?"

I fire away from her almost immediately so I can stare down at her, I want to say no but I can't refuse her even if she does want to go back to one of the most dangerous places in town. Just the eyes alone convince me so I bring her back out to the bike and head to hers, my body getting tenser and tenser as we enter into enemy territory.

"I'll see you soon, B." She kisses my cheek but I don't let go of her, keeping her wrist in my grip and she looks at me with concern.

"Are you working tomorrow?" I ask, bringing her closer to me as some guys eye her from the front of the building.

"No but I have a ballet class from five to seven tomorrow morning, why do you ask?"

"I'll pick you up from class and we'll borrow the truck and move you in tomorrow." Her eyes widen in surprise as I basically beg her to leave this place.

"Okay, B. I'll see you tomorrow, be safe." She kisses my cheek again and I actually let her go this time, watching as she passes through the group of men hanging around. I find it difficult to start the engine and leave but I do so after waiting for a few more minutes.

The women are not happy when I pull up at the clubhouse without her and hound me with questions, obviously not remembering that I don't speak. I just raise an eyebrow, unimpressed with their crowding and their husbands finally pull them off of me, letting me breathe for the first time. That is until I get to the lounge and Rubble starts up with the same questions. I just stand there and wait for these people to get some sense, looking over at Romeo and seeing him looking amused just makes me more frustrated.

"You didn't take her back to that apartment, did you?" Lexie growls and I hold back my anger as Bear gives me an apologetic look. They act like I wanted to do it, like leaving her there isn't tearing me apart from the inside and I'm already considering what those men would want to do to her,  like I'm not thinking about leaving right now to go and pick her up.

"He probably had no choice, Lex, that is her home." Saviour replies but Lexie just gets angrier, Bear is trying to do damage control but failing while the Queen stares me down with hate in her eyes. The fuck am I supposed to do?

"She could get hurt or taken or something and we can't get to her! Breaker, how can you be so irresponsible?" She scolds and my anger kicks back up again. I'm not a fucking child and neither is Aurora, she's lived there for years and she asked me to drop her there. She's an adult and I'm not going to violate her by dragging her wherever I please.

"Lexie, she's an adult. Breaker can't make her do anything." Romeo finally opens his mouth and I point at him with a look of 'what he said' which gets Lexie to relax slightly, even if she is still glaring daggers at me. I pick up a pad of paper and write down that Aurora will be moving in tomorrow so she can stop looking at me like that.

"At least there's that... you need men to help you?" Saviour asks and I think about, she doesn't really have a lot of stuff and most of it seems light so we could probably do it ourselves. I shake my head no and head off to the bar for a beer before I flip shit. "You wanna spar?" Sav suggests, probably seeing the frustration in my stance.

I nod and head down to the gym, shrugging off my shirt and wrapping my knuckles. As per the usual, when people find out that we are sparring they follow behind us to watch the show.

Saviour is gonna win, no doubt, just gives me a healthy way to expel stress and frustration without murder.

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I wake up early.

Waking up is a loose term, I hardly slept just stared out my window impatiently waiting for the clock to say ten to seven so that I could get on the road to the dance studio. The only problem is that I have to drive the shitty moving truck, I don't mind since it's for her but I hate cars they feel like cages.

It's all worth it when she comes sprinting out of the building with a massive smile on her face and lands herself in my arms as I got out to open the passenger door for her. "Good morning, B!" I just smile down at her as her friends walks passed focusing heavily on us as they do so.

I don't feel comfortable talking in front of them and she understands, giving me a light kiss on the cheek before clambering into the cab of the truck. "I packed a lot last night by the way." She tells me while I drive to hers, I flick my eyes over to her before looking back at the road. "I, uh, didn't sleep so I could pack as much as possible..."

I sigh in frustration. I could've just stayed with her and helped her pack rather than sit and stare out of the window for hours. The apartment looks relatively empty when we get there, a lot of her knickknacks and books have been packed away into cardboard boxes stacked by the front door.

The bed covers and curtains have been put away and the bathroom has been shelled. The only stuff that's left really is the kitchen stuff and the furniture which is gonna be fun to move out of here. I might just get Romeo and Runner to do it because I can't be bothered and Aurora is comfortable with them.

The next two hours are spent packing up the rest of her stuff, with her tripping every other minute over rolled up rugs, appliances and open boxes. She's a clumsy little thing despite being a dancer and I've had to catch her a few times before she hit the floor. "We should probably get the furniture in the truck first... am I strong enough to do that?" She asks me from her seat on the floor, looking at the couch that seems pretty hefty.

The bed is just pallets that I took apart when I got here so they're already in the truck at the back. The couch is going to be the only piece of real furniture in her place, it's gonna feel pretty empty. "We need to buy you more furniture." I decide and Aurora looks at me in surprise.

"Oh! I didn't tell you, of course I didn't. That conversation must've happened in my head. I have more furniture, thrift store stuff that I redid for this place but Hendrix didn't like it so I asked Mr Hanner in 13B if I could store my stuff in his unit since he doesn't use it and he said yeah. I've got two armchairs that match the couch and a hanging basket chair thing! I've got a lot, trust me, we're gonna have fun."

I laugh at the excitement on her face, finally kicking off the wall and lifting her from the floor so we can move this goddamn couch. Thankfully, it's not as heavy as it looks and we manage to finagle it into the back of the truck and even with all the boxes it's only half full. "Should we drop this off at the apartment or go to the unit?"

"Let's go to the unit, see what we can take in one trip."

"Ah men, all about doing it as quickly as possible." I know that wasn't just about moving things and I look at her in surprise. Did she just make a dirty joke?