Crook And Assassian

25 | 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐭𝐜𝐡

25| The Taste Of Scotch
[Chapter Twenty-Five]

[Excerpt]

Leonard has been in a lot of prisons during his tenure as a career criminal. None of them, not even that Russian Gulag he broke Mick and Raymond out of, were ever quite as bad as this.

"This stop is for you," the guard says.

He gives Leonard a hard kick in the back that sends him sprawling face-first into a muddy courtyard. None of the other inmates stop to help him. Hell, most of them hardly see him at all. That is until a completely unfamiliar voice rips through the yard.

"Leo? Leo, no. Is that you?"

His head jerks up, and Leonard makes an effort to push his aching body out of the mud. There's a man with a pink triangle on his prison dregs rushing towards him, and his face is contorted with a look so filled with horror that it makes Leonard's heart stop beating for a moment.

There isn't a person in the world that cares about him enough to look at him like that.

Or rather - his mind flies back to those gut-wrenching last few moments at the Oculus - the few people that do are too war-hardened to show as much on their faces.

Leonard is so stunned by it, that he doesn't truly react to the man's calls until he's crouched next to him, reaching out to lay his hand on Leonard's shoulder.

Suddenly, it doesn't matter who he is or how much he cares. Strange men are not allowed to put their hands on him. Especially not after the wretched cleansing ordeal they'd put him through while screening him into the camp.

"Who the hell are you?" Leonard snarls, jerking away from the touch. The movement makes him loose balance, and he finds himself tumbling into the mud again, hip first this time.

The man freezes, hand hovering in the spot where Leonard's shoulder had been.

"You... you don't remember me?" he asks, voice very small.

"Did you hear me stutter?"

The man's jaw drops open and hangs there. Leonard might as well have slapped him.

"I... my name is Ray. I'm... we're... Leo I'm your boyfriend. I love you. You love me."

Leonard feels himself scoff involuntarily. He's acutely aware that he's hurting this Ray character with his attitude, but he can't help himself. The man's clearly off his rocker.

I don't love anyone, he almost replies. Except, well... maybe he can't keep telling people that lie. Whose going to believe him after the madness of the Oculus? He doesn't want to deal with the looks and the questions anyway.

"Think I'd remember that, don't you?" Leonard drawls instead.

"Yeah, I would," Ray agrees, face twisting. "Leo-"

Leonard doesn't let him get going. There's quite a few things that need to be nipped in the bud here.

"Stop that. Nobody is allowed to call me Leo, you understand?"