Minutes to Midnight

Wake

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Lyrics:

N/A (Instrumental)

The moment she stepped outside the front door of her apartment, Ava felt the cool ocean breeze. Taking a deep breath, she savored the crisp, salty air for a moment before zipping up her windbreaker and heading toward Pacific Street.

Every morning, she’d walk the two blocks over to the shoreline, then follow it up to the coffee shop where she worked. It was one of the things she loved most about living so close to the water, and choosing an employer that was within walking distance. It couldn’t compete with the convenience of her boyfriend Lucas’ commute since his remote job only required him to move from their bedroom to the guest bedroom/office across the hall, but Ava was grateful that she didn’t have to get into a car and drive somewhere every day, and she liked starting her morning with a brisk walk to get the blood pumping.

The coffee shop Ava worked at, RoasterCoaster, was a small space mostly taken up by the coffee bar and pastry cases. There was a handful of indoor seating in the form of four-tops pushed up against the windows, and a long narrow outdoor patio lined with a row of two-tops. Ava slipped in the front door behind a couple customers and ducked into the small office behind the coffee bar, where she retrieved her apron and nametag.

She joined her coworker Ben at the espresso machine, just as he was putting the finishing touches on a cappuccino.

“Morning,” he said cheerily.

“Hey,” she replied. “Where do you need me?”

“Can you take this cappuccino out to the guy on the patio, and then cover the register?”

Ava nodded and took the cappuccino from him, heading to the patio.

“Thanks for your patience,” she told the customers in line. “We’ll be right with you.”

She expertly balanced the cappuccino cup on its saucer as she navigated between customers and walked out onto the patio. The only customer out there was a man seated at the farthest table, his face obscured by the copy of The San Diego Union-Tribune he was reading. Ava thought it refreshing that someone still took the time to read a print copy of the newspaper, as opposed to being absorbed in whatever they were currently scrolling through on their phone.

“Here’s that cappuccino for you,” Ava said, setting it down on the corner of the table.

“Thank you, Avril.”

Her blood instantly ran cold, shards of ice coursing through her veins. That voice, and the way he said her name. Her real name, the one she had tried so hard to leave behind...

She knew it would be him before he even lowered the newspaper, but it was still no less shocking to see him sitting there once he did. He was still as handsome as she remembered.

“Knox,” she breathed, hoping he didn’t catch the hitch in her voice as she said his name.

The smirk on his face told her that he didn’t. His bright blue eyes twinkled with something like amusement as he took in her reaction.

“Sorry, I meant to say Ava,” he said, making a point of noticing her name tag as he neatly folded the newspaper and placed it on the table.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I’m here to offer you a chance to come back.”

“I already told you that I’m out.”

“I do remember you saying that, but it never hurts to double check. To extend one more olive branch, for old time’s sake.”

Knox leaned back in his chair, a magnanimous smile on his face. Ava/Avril crossed her arms across her chest and glared at him.

“You must enjoy being rejected.”

His demeanor instantly shifted. Gone was the good humor and the friendly disposition, replaced by hard eyes and a steely glare. He had the look of someone who enjoys a great deal of deference, and isn’t used to not getting what he wants.

“Ah, there you are,” Avril murmured.

“Here’s the way this is going to go,” Knox said, his voice low and steely. “My car is parked down the street. You and I are going to walk out of here together, get in my car, and we’re going to drive back to Los Angeles and forget this whole thing. We’ll call it a gap year, a sabbatical. Whatever you want to call it, as long as it ends and you’re back in the fold.”

Avril crossed her arms and stared at him.

“I don’t take orders from you anymore. And you and I both know you sure as hell can’t force me go with you. So I’m curious what your Plan B is here.”

Knox flashed a grin at her, all smiles again.

“I was hoping you’d ask me that. I’d have to be stupid, or suicidal, to think that I could come in here and bully you into doing what I wanted. That’s why I’m just the decoy.”

The bottom dropped out of Avril’s stomach as Knox’s grin turned predatory.

“You’ve made a nice life for yourself here, Ava. I particularly like that cute little two bedroom apartment of yours a mile down the road... and that cute guy you’re seeing. What’s his name... Lucas? He works from home doing digital marketing, right? Man, this whole work-from-home revolution makes it so much easier to anticipate where people are going to be at any given point in the day!”

Avril was already running for the door, tearing off her apron and tossing it on the floor.

“You know how to reach me when you’re ready to talk!” Knox called after her, as he sat back and tucked into his cappuccino.

Avril flew down Pacific Street at a dead sprint, her heart thudding in her chest by the time she rounded the corner of her own street. Door-to-door she had covered the mile distance between work and home in just under over six minutes. She knew something was wrong even before she set foot on the property, and confirmed it when she reached the kicked-in front door.

She immediately went to one of the potted plants outside the front door and turned it upside down, dumping the fern unceremoniously onto the ground. An opaque plastic bag fell out after all the soil, and Avril quickly tore it open and removed a Hellcat RDP micro-compact 9mm pistol and three magazines. She expertly loaded the weapon in a matter of seconds, then entered the apartment as she quickly and efficiently cleared each room and its every nook and cranny.

Once she was convinced she was alone and there was no imminent danger, she took an inventory of the apartment: overturned furniture, broken mirror fragments from the shattered closet door in the hallway ... a bloodstain on the carpet. No Lucas.

Avril cursed herself. She should have known this was too good to be true, that Knox Davian would never truly let her go. Maybe if she had gone farther, done more to disappear. She ran through the scenarios in her head but always arrived at the same inevitable conclusion; this was an inevitability. Knox was an inevitability, and now he had leverage. Someone she actually cared about and could be used to manipulate her.

She had truly wanted to leave this old life of hers behind. She wanted to start over and live a simpler existence, free from the drama and dangers of organized crime. But Knox was apparently determined to bring her back into the fold, and he was about to discover just how committed she was to making sure that never happened.

TO BE CONTINUED

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(1,282 words)