#RunningWilde Ch. 47 | I've Been Waiting
Hey Fancies!
Things are going to start heating up again between our luvahs, so I've put together a special Running Wilde playlist on Spotify for you (since you enjoyed the Wattpad chapter that I paired with music so much). Running Wilde is more than a story, issa EXPERIENCE, heaux!
Simply press play and start reading...wine is also recommended as usual ;)
What can be scraped together
From our long-worn emotions
Handfuls of hate
And a bittersweet devotion
-Mean Sleep
Van Hunt
Thick grey smoke billowed towards the night sky as Ava-Marie Lockewood and Aiden Michaels stood side by side and watched the raging flames devour the old barn along with the finally silent remains of Junie.
Aiden looked at her and noticed the glow of fire reflected in her eyes. The barn wasn’t the only thing being swallowed by the flames, after all, you couldn’t’ burn a man alive and not set fire to a piece of yourself too. She looked like hell had made a home within her…and it was his fault. Ava was meant to be the good one, yet the more time she spent with him it chipped away at her goodness and the person before him grew more and more unrecognisable every day. He felt a twinge of guilt and bumped his arm against hers. “You okay?”
She blinked, pulling herself out of the fire, lubricating her dry, staring eyes and cleared her throat, “I’m remembering my why,” she said stiffly.
“That’s not an answer.”
“Well then no, I’m not okay, Aiden,” she looked at him, “But I will be.”
He brushed his fingertips carefully against hers.
She let them linger in an almost touch.
“I’m tired. I’m going back to the car.”
“Okay,” he called after her, “I’ll be there in a minute. Just gonna do one last sweep of the area to make sure there’s no trace of us.”
She said nothing.
He wandered closer to the barn, pretending to look around a he disappeared around the sde of it. Once he was out of earshot, he took out his burner phone.
“Yo?” Dougie answered.
“She’s ready.”
“You’re sure?”
He looked at the burning barn, “Trust me. We’re good to go.”
“Cool. 5am next Friday?”
“Perfect.”
*
It was a week full of processed foods filled with more preservatives than nutrients, truck stop bathrooms, night long drives fuelled by cans of sugary room temperature energy drinks, and back and neck aches from taking turns sleeping in awkward positions in the back seat.
Though they were back on somewhat stable ground, on top of the constant discomfort, summer heat, crappy food and growing body odour, the atmosphere between them was just as tense and quiet as it was before. Murder does that to some people.
Ava was just grateful that her period was over, at least that was one less irritant to deal with.
“There hasn’t been any mention of us for a few days,” she said as she did their routine radio sweep for that hour.
“Good, that means the Mafia are doing their job.”
“And what job is that?” She asked as she skipped past the static of empty stations. Aiden had taken them further and further away from civilisation, meaning that they only picked up five stations at most, all of which Ava couldn’t stand because they bored her to death, but the sound of some stuffy, monotonous discussion about politics or the same top 40 songs played on a loop all day long, day after day, was better than listening to Aiden’s breathing, which she had decided was enough to make her want to set him on fire too.
“The one I gave them.”
So did his attitude.
She furrowed her brow, “Is it a secret?”
“It’s none of your business.”
“You said you’d teach me.”
“I’m teaching you to mind your business.”
She scowled at him, “Well whatever it is, you should have had them do it from the start, so we wouldn’t have had to go through all this extra shit.”
The ascending volume of her voice made him grip the wheel tighter. “Doesn’t work that way. Here’s another lesson; timing is everything. If I had calmed things down too soon it would look suspicious. We blew up a historic landmark and murdered a lot of people. There has to be a little noise to satisfy the public so they feel like something is being done. I also had to make sure everything was in place for us to leave. Now it is.”
She sat straighter, “It is?”
“Yes.” Her volume returned to what he deemed an acceptable level and his grip loosened.
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere safe.”
“Where?”
“I just told you.”
She slumped down and rolled her eyes, “More secrets.”
“It’s a surprise.”
“Whatever. Can I at least know when?”
“Few hours.”
“We’re leaving today?” She clutched the dashboard, “What about Chris?”
“Chris isn’t getting away with anything.” His grip on the steering wheel re-tightened enough to turn his knuckles pale.
“So we’re getting him before we go?”
“You’ve forgotten your lesson already? Timing, Ava-Marie. We need to rebuild. Come back bigger and badder than before if we want him gone for good. That shit takes time.”
“How much time are we talking?”
“I’m sorry, do you have something better to do?”
“Stop being a dick, I’m just asking.”
Aiden rolled his head across his shoulder blades and breathed, “The right amount of time.”
She rolled her eyes harder and kissed her teeth, a new delightful habit that she’d picked up from him, “Just say you don’t know.”
His hand shot out and grabbed her thigh, “You really need to watch your mouth,” he drummed his twitchy fingers against the inside of her thigh, “I haven’t forgotten anything, Ava-Marie.”
“I don’t care.”
He took his hand back. “You will.”