Cerberus

2. Bad Beginnings

"I'm 5 seconds away from tasering you in the dick, asshole." Lydia spat from where she was pinned between Kassidy and the wall. Kassidy glanced downwards and saw that she did, in fact, have a taser in her free hand that was pressed against his precious manhood.
With a start, he dropped her arm, pulled both headphones out and took a long step back from her.
"Please forgive me, Ms. Jackman, you caught me by surprise. It was my mistake coming at you like that, and I apologize for the attack." Well fuck. First day on the job and he had royally fucked it up. Heavily. He kept his gaze intent on the hallway carpet below him.
"Do you want something from me or am I supposed to know you? Because you should know, if I so much as sneeze wrong, security will be in this hallway before you can say gesundheit." Lydia had turned to face him. She looked like what he could only imagine a badger looked like facing down a lion. Stubborn to the core and resilient enough to put up one hell of a fight, green eyes blazing.
"I'm sorry ma'am, I meant no harm." Kassidy lifted both hands as a gesture of submission, "as of this morning, I'm technically a member of the security team you're referring to."
Lydia stood perfectly still, save the slow roll of her eyes as she looked him down and then up again. Her lips tightened in lack of credulous. She crossed her now free arms and stood up straighter.
"Bullshit." She fired, "Osman would have told me if there was a new security guard."
Kassidy could only stare. Of course she didn't believe him. He was a strange man who had just borderline assaulted the daughter of an incredibly influential man. God, he was so fucked.
"I can prove it." He said, pulling out the security access badge given to him that morning. "See?"
   She didn't so much as deign to look at the badge he now held up before him, like a knight frivolously holding a shield up to a fire breathing dragon.         Loudly and without care for anyone else who might still be sleeping in their suites she called out, "Isaac!" and within moments the man was through the door to the stairs down the hall.
    "Do you know this man?" She asked.
    "Yes ma'am. He's new to security. Stationed on your floor."  Isaac answered, entirely unbothered.  Lydia lifted an eyebrow.
    "And no one felt the need to tell me?" She spat.
    "Ma'am, Osman did tell you. Yesterday, actually, after you got back from dinner with the Freeman's."  Isaac sounded almost sheepish, like he was... afraid of her.  It only took a moment for Kassidy to understand why.
    "Bullshit. I would have remembered." Lydia's tone was dripping with spite and Kassidy suddenly found himself grateful that her rage had turned away from him and onto Isaac.
    "I can call him down if you'd like." Isaac said with a look in his eye that Kassidy couldn't quite place. It was almost like watching two children fight and one threatening to call their mom for back up.
    "Don't you fucking dare."
    "He's just upstairs, it's no problem."  Isaac was reaching a hand up to his collar to press the button that would put him through to Osman's walkie.
    "Fuck you Isaac, whatever."  Lydia turned to walk away from him.
    "Ma'am, where are you going? You didn't request a detail this morning." Isaac said before she could take another step.
    "I'm just going to the gym, I don't need a detail." She spun around and snapped at him.
    "That's not what Osman said last time. Hold on and I'll figure out who he wants to go with you."  Isaac was reaching for his walkie again.
    "God, Isaac, I can go to the gym without someone shadowing me the whole damn time."  Lydia was fuming.
    Kassidy realized the conversation had completely steered away from him pinning Lydia against the wall. If Osman came down, there was a very good chance that it might come back to him and his hopes of finding a regulated life in security would be gone before it could even really start. He couldn't let Osman come down.
    "I was actually headed the same way, I could go with her."  Kassidy stated matter of factly. Isaac and Lydia both looked at him as if just remembering he was also in the hall.
    "I just said I don't need a shadow." Lydia said, her rage now turned back to him.
    "I wanted to get a run in. You can do what ever you have to do and I'll just be on a treadmill. It'll be like I'm not even there."  He replied.  She just stared at him, eyes glinting.
    "Fine." She whirled on her heels and walked away from him, headed for the far stairwell.
    Kassidy glanced at Isaac who shrugged as if to say "your funeral" then he quickly turned to follow her.

                                               ~                                                    

    The hotel had its own fully furnished gym exclusive to luxury members. There was only a handful of people there already and the room was spacious enough that you could hardly tell they were present. Kassidy placed one headphone in and chose to leave the other out so he could still hear his surroundings over the quiet 90s rock playing in his other ear.  Lydia had immediately staked claim over the mats in the far corner and was working through a set of stretches, ignoring his existence entirely.  Kassidy made his way over to one of the treadmills conveniently placed in front of a row of mirrors allowing him to see the entire gym behind him.
    They spent an entire hour there, him on the treadmill and her working her way through various exercises.  He kept his gaze closely trained on her through the mirrors. She was wearing a cropped sweatshirt over high-rise black leggings and wearing a pair of well worn Chuck Taylor's. Her black hair was swept back in a loose pony tail with sections falling out in the front framing her face. Lydia didn't look like many of the girls seen in the socialite groups he'd read in her file, she was shorter in comparison to the other socialite girls who were tall and lanky, all thin legs and sharp angles, and she was curvier in all the best ways... not that it mattered to Kassidy, he was just making an observation, he reminded himself. Her skin was a rich tan, as if she spent a lot of time in the sun. It was obvious that she didn't spend much time in Seattle, but she couldn't possibly have gotten that tan naturally in New York either. Kassidy hadn't seen any mention of her regularly visiting any tanning salons in her file. California maybe? So many of those socialite girls loved California. A lot of his buddies from San Diego had made their way to LA, maybe if they went he'd have a chance to catch up with them on his off days.
His attention snapped back to the present moment when the emergency tab on his treadmill was pulled and the tread beneath him came to an abrupt halt. He caught himself on the handle bars and looked down to his right. Lydia was standing there, holding the emergency tab and smirking up at him, green eyes glinting.
"You done eye fucking me in the mirror?"
Kassidy was suddenly glad the treadmill had stopped because he might have tripped at her words.
"I wasn't... eye fucking you." He said flatly.
"I've been eye fucked by half of this city, I know what it looks like." She said loud enough for the other gym patrons around them to hear.
Kassidy inhaled sharply. As many of his commanders had stated before, his greatest weakness was his lack of emotional self control. He had worked years to regulate himself but the one thing that still seemed to work its way under his skin was blatant disrespect.
"Are you really that self absorbed that you think anyone who lays eyes on you immediately wants to fuck you? No. I wasn't eye fucking you, I was trying to figure out how an ego that fucking big can fit inside such a little fucking person." Kassidy said it before he could think.
Lydia's eyes went wide, "Big mistake, asshole. I hope you enjoyed the view while it lasted because I'm going to make sure you never see me or my big fucking ego again." She threw the emergency tab at him and whipped around, headed for the gyms doors.
Kassidy stood in place and felt the blood drain from his face. Fucked. He was so fucked. He was going to lose his job on his first day because he couldn't keep his mouth closed, and getting fired by Lewis Jackman would ensure that he never got another security detail job again. Fuck.