Dirty Break (18+)

In Which Dreams and Nightmares

Lydia was living in a movie. That's the only way she could account for them pulling up outside an honest-to-god safe house. It had reinforced metal shutters parading as pretty decorations, and there was no garden to speak off, merely concrete to make any necessary escapes that little bit easier. Conor sent the lackeys first to clear the house, then followed to complete a check himself. Lydia had never felt so awkward as she did then, left alone with the man who caused her equal parts desire and revulsion. He didn't attempt to strike up any sort of conversation with her, surprise surprise, so she sat and waited until Conor came back out to say that the coast was clear and that they could go in. Leon seemed ... passive was the best word that she could think of to describe him. He simply got out of the car when Conor gave him the OK and left her to be wrangled by his brother. She hated to say so but the fact that he did that rankled her. Who the fuck did he think he was to kidnap her, completely fuck up her life and then ignore her because he was in a shitty mood? She silently fumed as he walked ahead of her into the house, and as Conor showed her to a small bedroom and left her to her own devices with a promise that he would be back with food later.

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Lydia had tried the window, of course she had. She'd opened the door to find an unamused bodyguard standing there and shut it before he could say anything to her. She'd tried the window again just to make sure and that had been the sum total of things she could do - for hours. She debated seeing if the guard would take her to the kitchen or the living room but that would have meant likely coming face to face with Leon. She'd thought up inventive ways to kill him; her favourite had involved choking him to death with a pair of his own boxers with a nod to his gagging her with her own underwear., which she found satisfying. However the thought of his boxers had lead to thoughts of something other than killing him, which had in turn just made her more mad. By the time somebody knocked at her door she had run the full gamut of emotions and was back to frustration - in more ways than one. She was prepared to beg Conor to stay with her for a while just so that she had some company - until she shouted 'come in' and the door opened to reveal Leon.

"What the fuck do you want?" She demanded, although she regretted it slightly when she saw that he held a plate of food in his hand.

"I've brought a peace offering." He told her as he stepped inside and placed a the plate on the bedside table.

'You think food's going to make up for the list of wrongs you've done me?"

The food on the plate looked good - it didn't look that good.

"I'm aware that I'm the devil incarnate in your eyes so no I don't think food's going to make up for everything. But at the same time you need to eat and I wanted to say ..."

He paused for so long that she actually looked him in the eye to see if he was broken. The silence stretched on uncomfortably until she got bored of it and said "well?"

"I'm sorry. I wouldn't change it if I had to do it all again because you helped me to get away but I really didn't want to drag you into all of this."

She didn't know what to think. She'd experienced him cocky, distant, angry and impassive - but he actually looked sorry and she couldn't quite process it.

"I'm honestly innocent of this, Lydia. I'm not an innocent man but I didn't do this thing and I want to find out who framed me. And get my justice from them. I'll do everything in my power to keep you safe but I just need you to not make things more difficult for me ..."

She punched him. She hadn't been aware she was going to do it and by the surprise on his face as it whipped back she knew she had surprised him as well and that riled her up even more; the arrogance of him that he thought he could just keep dictating to her what she needed to do to make his life better with very little thought to what he was doing to hers? The punch made her knuckles sting but it felt good so she did it again, throwing her body at Leon's and hitting him as many times as she could before he caught her wrists in one of his hands and forced her back to the bed. He licked at the side of his lip, which she was proud to see she had managed to bust and looked at her with a new intensity she wasn't sure if she liked or not. He was an intimidating motherfucker, she'd said that before - but his look wasn't all scary.