Complicity [h.s]

20

I shut the door behind me, walking down the long flight of creaking steps before getting to the bottom. The lights are turned off, making it pitch black in here.

I blindly reach my hand out to the left wall, finding the switch and turning it on. Once light fills the living room, I'm stunned to what I see.

Or who I see.

Perched on the sofa chair, Aven lays casually with her head on one arm rest and her legs dangling off the other. Cigarette between her lips, she turns her head and looks straight at me with a casual look in her eyes. My eyes widen, my mind trying to understand if this is real.

"What's wrong?" She furrows her brows. "Did I startle you?"

I blink in awe.

"What—How—I'm–"

"Confused?" She pivots her body to sit properly on the chair, crossing one stiletto over the other while watching me with amusement. "It's alarming when someone's breaks in. Kind of feels like a violation, doesn't it?"

I have so many questions, many coming from a place of worry. Her being here is very dangerous. She's a direct tie to Malikai. The guys would freak if they saw her here. This is the only place we have found safety after being homeless and on the run for months. If she rats, we will have to run again.

"How did you get in here?"

She chuckles.

"You don't like a taste of your own medicine? Bitter, isn't it?"

"How did you get in here, Aven?" I repeat in a stricter tone.

"Well, you're the one that decided to play dirty with the trackers." She shrugs.

"You tracked me here?"

"Nope." She shakes her head.

"Then how did you find it?"

"C'mon, Harry," she chuckles. "The four of you spend almost all your time at a bar across the street. All it had taken was for me to see you all stumble into this place. You'd think you would have better locks when living with a pickpocket, too."

"So, you're a stalker now?"

"Brave words from a man that keeps popping up everywhere I turn." She tilts her head, blowing smoke from the corner of her mouth.

"You can't be here."

"No?" She stands up, holding the cigarette between her two fingers. "Why is that?"

"If the others see you're here then—"

"They don't trust me?"

And how you said that with such an evil grin, Aven.

"Of course not." I state.

She frowns dramatically, walking over until she's right in front of my presence.

"Do you trust me?" She tilts her head again, taking a drag between her cherry painted lips.