I will possess your heart - Rhys Montrose X Reader

───Part 3.

Three days had passed since your brief encounter with Rhys - the man that had since, to your dismay, all but consumed your thoughts, - and the loss of your phone. You were getting changed in the dressing room for another shift at the soho club, wondering how many missed texts and calls you'd receive from Lucille and Amanda (your little sister, barely eleven years old) - you'd left her a voicemail from a public phone booth, but had no way of telling if she ever got it. Had they been worried sick that you hadn't gotten back to them, or was your absence unnoticeable? A small dot in their lives that had vanished within the blink of an eye.

No - you argued with yourself, pushing back the unpleasant thoughts that had infested your mind for years into the carefully constructed and locked alcove inside your brain - there was no reason either of them would actually be glad if you disappeared from their lives without notice.

You just needed to get through this shift, and tomorrow you'd pop by your mother's flat to check on your sister.

Making sure your long hair was rigged neatly into a bun, a few strands let out to frame your face, and make-up hiding the large bags beneath your eyes and added a flair of life to it that you otherwise lacked, you locked your belongings into a locker and headed out with a forced friendly smile.

The evening dragged on painfully slow, Adam, the owner of the place, had apparently invited more than his usual group of friends, Rhys unfortunately for you included, leaving the club packed full and you running along like a busy bee. The worst of the worst were scattered to seemingly every corner of the place, unescapable this time, and you had the displeasure of having to interact with Roald the most. Overhearing the conversations with the group of woman crowding him was already bad enough, but his condescending tone when interacting with you had you grit your teeth together to hold back the snark you had no problem letting go off outside your workplace.

Focusing solely on getting through the night, having had a brief conversation with Malcom's newest toy - a professor from the university they both worked at that went by the name of Jonathan Moore, who looked as uncomfortable in the club as you felt, - you hadn't noticed a figure from the corner watching your every move, carrying casual conversations on the side.

If it hadn't been so crowded, and you had to deal with having essentially passed from Roald's side to Malcom's, you would have eventually found his eyes amidst the crowd, but as it stood now, the chances of you noticing him were slim as you oscillated from the bar to the guests, making sure their drinks arrived in one piece.

Luckily as the guests became more inebriated, you were allowed brief moments to catch your breath and slow down, their minds too buzzed to notice it. Slipping past a pair of chairs you'd seen Jonathan settle down in not long ago, you'd made your way back to the bar, conversing with the bartender for a few minutes as he prepared another round of shots of Absinthe. How they managed to take more than one within one night, you couldn't fathom.

You pretended not to see the bag of heroin exchanged by a group next to you, goosebumps covering your skin as you felt another presence appearing on the other side, just a tad too close, and the whiff of cologne you'd fallen in love with drawing your attention far too quickly.

"I believe this is yours, love." Rhys slid your phone across the surface to you, watching relief wash over you at it's return and seeing it unharmed and fully charged. "Seems like you left in too much of a hurry to take it with you."