Breaker (Riders of Apollo #4)

Chapter Ten: Adrian Calder

I am so tired and it just makes me angrier when I hear her giggling and joking with Rubble. Thankfully, I was able to fall asleep before I started anything with him and scared her. I feel a lot better with her in my room with the door locked and away from that playboy. He only wants her for what's in her pants and I won't let him use her like he has so many others.

"Rora?" I question as she stares at me with a blank face and blank eyes, she has this amazing ability to easily hide her emotions from people and I'm starting to think that it's a defence mechanism, I'm hoping that I'll be able to read her in the future just as she can read me.

She clears her throat and pivots awkwardly, her hazel eyes lifting to look at me with a soft smile and pink dusting her cheeks. "Umm, who's taking the bed?" Her voice is so soft that I struggle to hear her, I just give her a look that says 'you' and the soft pink quickly turns to a bright red that makes my chest hurt in the best way. "There's no point in fighting you about it, is there?"

"Nope, get some sleep Rora, the women are gonna tire you out tomorrow."

I settle down onto the window seat as she curls up on the bed facing me. "You know, I've never had a girls day before. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do." I turn to look at her in surprise, "I just never had any real friends in school, I guess that's why I loved Hendrix so much, he was all I had and he made sure of it when we were together."

"I'm sorry, Aurora. If it had been up to me, Hendrix wouldn't have gotten off so easily." I wince at the directness of my words, hoping I haven't upset her since most women don't particularly like the idea of violence.

"I know." The small smile on her face reassures me and I return it before winking at her and turning back to the book in my hands. "Another book?" I chuckle and shrug, I go through books quickly as I don't sleep, it's not like I have much else to do.

"He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven... it's by W.B. Yeats."

"Tread softly because you tread on my dreams..." She whispers back before snuggling further into the bed and drifting off. I feel a spark of envy at her ability to fall asleep so quickly before a spark of happiness drifts in because I can glance at her without worrying about her catching me.

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I stir later than usual, at the still dark hour of seven am. I roll away from the window to see Aurora but find the bed perfectly made and her things gone. I immediately throw myself from the seat and get ready to leave, making it to the door and throwing it open only to find the women (without Aurora) on the other side.

"Where's Cass?" Lexie asks and I think my eyes widen, I was hoping they knew because I don't. "I thought she stayed here?" I nod, telling her that she did and they start gossiping so I pass by them to start looking around the compound for her but I have no success and panic starts to form in my heart.

Work! She has to be at work. She said to the girls that she finishes at nine today so she would've had to have started early this morning. I head straight out the front door and find myself with stragglers, Saviour, Marielle, Lexie and Hunter stalk after me and I give them a look. "We just want to make sure she's okay, same as you." Marielle reassures and gets into the passenger seat of Saviour's car.

Hunter and I flank the car as we head to the dance studio, me giving the directions by pointing and we get there in ten minutes. It's a good thing I brought people with me because the receptionist probably wouldn't let someone through if they physically can't explain why they're there.

Saviour does all the talking while I fidget behind her, I won't calm down until I can see that she's safe and breathing. It takes another ten minutes to convince the receptionist that we are her friends before she finally unlocks the fucking door to the rest of the building.