Dirty Break (18+)

In Which Promises are Kept

Lydia lost track of how long she paced the room whilst hers was being searched. Charlie had tried to draw her into conversation a couple of times but that was a whole awkward situation now they'd basically been forced into foreplay and even if it wasn't she doubted her ability to string a full sentence together, never mind multiple. Nobody else attempted to converse, although she could feel eyes on her like an itch which made her want to scream. She also seemed to have developed a nervous bladder all of a sudden but she couldn't imagine the dour Mick allowing her to leave to the visit the ladies so it was just the same thirty steps to cross the room and then back again, over and over and over. She got into such a rhythm that when a hand grasped her arm and brought her to a halt it was a shock to the system.

"Why don't you sit down a minute, Lydia? They'll be back soon and they'll know you didn't take the gun, won't they."

She looked askance at Charlie for so long that he pulled his arm back with a blush, but he didn't back away.

"I..." she started to tell him that his faith in her was misplaced and she had taken the gun. She didn't think he would say anything if she did tell him but even if he did it would be worth it to no longer have the anxiety of it hanging over her head. Perhaps fortuitously - or perhaps not - Malcolm chose that moment to return with his sons in tow. Her stomach plummeted so quickly she thought she might be sick when Leon speared her with a look she couldn't quite decipher. Malcolm took his sweet time considering everyone in the room before facing her and Charlie where they now presented an accidental united front against him.

"So it appears that neither of our main suspects are the culprit in the case of the missing gun."

Lydia blinked as the words sunk in. There was no way they could have missed the gun, surely? There weren't so many hiding places in her room that they could have neglected to look under the sink. Certain it was a trick of some kind she waited to see what would be said next.

"As agreed we will now check everyone else's rooms and after we have checked yours you are free to leave. If we start with those who have furthest to travel we should all be home in time for lunch."

"Surely we can go now?" a voice piped up, everyone swivelling round to face the sound, "It's our weapon that's missing."

Lydia thought that seemed like a fairly logical thing to say but Malcolm aimed a scary lift of one corner of this mouth their way.

"That, it seems to me, would be more of an incentive to stay - I'd certainly want to recover my property and not leave it in the hands of someone who could potentially use it against me. And there's absolutely nothing to say that you haven't moved it yourself in order to undermine my security so we will in fact be searching your rooms along with everyone else's"

There was a slight pause whilst he waited to see if there was any rebuttal and when none was forthcoming he turned to Mick.

"Please escort Miss Granger back to her room, Mick and make sure she doesn't have any uninvited guests whilst we're busy."

Still in a daze and very confused as to how and why she wasn't being interrogated or worse, Lydia simply followed Mick as he gestured to her, following a few steps behind him as her brain whirred. When she was back in her room and her door was closed she immediately wanted to go and check the hiding space to see if it was still there but she couldn't shake the feeling that it was a trap so she simply sat on the edge the bed and waited to see if anything else came from it. She sat there for so long that she went stiff from sitting and the urge to check for the gun became overwhelming. Crossing to the door leading out first she listened to see if she could hear anything from outside and couldn't. Making her way to the bathroom she closed and locked the door behind her so that she could at least say she had been going to the bathroom if someone decided to check on her right then. If they had any sort of visual on her then she would obviously be fucked but they hadn't been gone long enough to set anything up as far as she knew and she really didn't want to consider the possibility that there had been a camera there before. Flushing the chain and washing her hands for the ultimate effect she finally opened the cabinet under the sink to find no gun in sight. She slid her hand around inside just to make sure it hadn't been moved and then did it again just to be on the safe side. Satisfied that it really had gone although none the wiser as to why and/or how, she closed the cabinet, had a quick glance in the mirror to make sure she didn't look as guilty as she felt and the opened the bathroom door to reveal an indolentLeon leant against the door jamb, one eyebrow raised and a certain, evasive gun in his hand.