Cerberus

7. Truce

His clarity snapped back into place as he processed what Lydia had done. She'd bullied Isaac into making a coffee run for her while Kassidy was asleep and couldn't tell her no, leaving her without a conscious security guard to keep an eye on her. She valued Starbucks over her own safety which, honestly, didn't surprise him. He was beginning to paint a clearer picture of her in his head far better than what any file on her could have prepared him for.
But he had a bigger problem presently... He'd had one of his regular nightmares and Lydia had come into his room to wake him up. He had attacked her... again....
He was no stranger to waking up ready to fight. He'd been like that for the last year. He'd thought things were getting better over the last few weeks, but this time it had been bad. Worse than it had been in a long time. Too similar to the start. Something must have triggered the memories for them to be haunting him again this aggressively, but he didn't want to think too hard about it. He didn't want to go there, not today.
It was 10:00am when he made his way out onto the second floor veranda behind Lydia. Isaac was still out, he would have had to drive all the way down the winding road and exit the community to get to the closest Starbucks. Lydia hadn't specified when he'd left.
Kassidy had pulled a black T-shirt on but still wore the sweats he'd slept in. Lydia, to his horror, was in a powder pink short silk robe that, in his opinion, could hardly even be considered comfortable house wear. Her black hair was loosely pulled back into a large clip and her tan legs were on full display, all the way down to the fuzzy pink slippers on her feet. And her chest... when he'd scrambled to get ahold of himself in his room after tackling her, the robe had just barely been covering enough of her to keep any semblance of her decency out of sight. He had seen the full crests of her breas-
He ripped his attention away from the thought. Absolutely never, under any conditions, would he revisit that mental image again.
The space on the veranda between Kassidy's wing of the mansion and Isaac's was occupied by a bar made of a long slab of dark oak placed on top of what looked like black granite. Behind it was rows upon rows of glass shelves stocked with liquors of every type and make. Lydia stopped at one of the black high top chairs and stepped up into it. She looked over her shoulder at him and patted the seat beside her. He paused, the made his way over, taking the seat next to the one she'd gestured to, leaving ample room between them.
Lydia leaned forward so her elbows were propping her up on the bar, hands under her chin as she asked directly, "So, you going to explain what just happened?"
Kassidy paused. A full admission about what was going on inside his head was out of the question. That was personal, and he doubted that someone like her who had had everything in life handed to her on a silver platter could understand. But he had assaulted her, scared her he was sure, and even if he didn't want to admit to it, she had been worried enough to come check on him.
"Sometimes... I have flashbacks to things that I lived through in the military. Bad things. It doesn't happen often, mostly just when I'm stressed and tired. Yesterday was both of those things for me. It won't happen again. I'm sorry, really." He meant the last part.
She just kept staring up at him, expression unreadable. Then, like a curtain was pulled down over her expression, she smirked at him and said, "well, you're lucky this time. I won't tell my father. Consider it me saying thank you... for not telling him about what happened yesterday." She turned her gaze away from him before saying, "if you're hungry, the kitchen staff has breakfast ready downstairs. I think I'm going to get dressed before going down." And with that, she hopped out of the chair and sauntered her way back to the stairs leading up to her floor of the house.
Kassidy sat dumbfounded. Somehow, he'd escaped losing his job for the third time in just as many days. He was pulled from his stupor by the sound of the front door downstairs closing. Instinctively, Kassidy was on his feet and looking over the edge of the veranda. After a moment, he caught sight of Isaac making his way into the main sitting area below, Starbucks in hand. Kassidy was going to have a long talk with him about the importance of standing up for himself, especially in the face of a 5'3", entitled brat.

~

The rest of the day went quietly. Kassidy held a meeting with Isaac, as well as two other men who were tasked with general security of the mansion. He made his way through the house introducing himself to the staff which consisted of a personal chef, two house cleaners and a botanist that came by weekly to maintain the strange plants growing within the mansion. He then went about familiarizing himself with the entire building.
The ground floor was possibly the strangest thing he'd ever seen. There was the main dining area situated in front of the modern kitchen which looked like it had never been used. All the food prep was done in the adjacent kitchen hidden from view by the kitchen staff.
Behind the dining area was a large freshwater pool set in black concrete with dark blue lights illuminating it from below that turned into an infiniti pool where it extended beyond the homes interior, with two sitting areas on either side connected by a stepping stone pathway built directly across the center of the pool. The area to the left had several white suede armchairs and a single matching divan facing what had to be an 80 inch screen on the far right wall playing the local weather channel. The sitting area to the right must have been the home designers take on a home theater. There were three rows consisting of designer black loveseats with companion armchairs to either side making a slight V shape so any one seated could have a clear view of the massive, 13 foot LED screen on the far right wall.
The most mind boggling part of the home to Kassidy was the exterior wall opposite of the kitchen. Where there should have been a solid wall between the pool, dining area and sitting rooms, there was nothing. The whole floor opened up directly to the outside of the house facing the Las Vegas strip. Apparently, enormous panes of glass could slide out from the sides of the building and retract whenever needed, they were currently no where to be seen.
The house had a small out door sitting area with a fire pit that would remain outside if the glass walls were closed, but currently it was just as much a part of the inside of the house, and the inside was out.
Billionaire bullshit, he reminded himself.

~

Kassidy didn't see much of Lydia until that evening when they gathered for dinner. She had insisted that if they were going to invade her life so completely, they could at least keep her company while she wasted away. Dramatic woman.
She had requested they have dinner on the second floor at the bar. As Kassidy waited with Isaac for her to make her appearance, the man waiting the bar for the evening asked if he would like anything.
"Water is fi-" Kassidy was trying to say, but was interrupted by a manicured hand landing on his own, which was casually splayed across the bars glossy surface.
"Lemon drops, please, two." Lydia removed her hand from his and stepped back, placing a hand on her hip "He's off duty tonight."
"I'm not drinking." Kassidy said casually. She was right, he had spent all day shoring up security after Isaac had gone to rest after their meeting. Isaac had been up all night after Kassidy had retired to his room. But that didn't mean he wanted to be her drinking buddy for the night.
"God, don't be such a buzzkill." Lydia pouted sarcastically. She was wearing a short, skin toned halter neck cocktail dress that clung tightly to her figure and black ankle strap stilettos. Her hair fell in loose curls down her back and her eyes were smudged with a dark, smokey eye shadow that made the green of her eyes stand out in stark contrast. She looked like she was ready for a night out on the Vegas strip.
"And what's the occasion?" Isaac asked, attempting to keep the conversation light.
"My first full day of exile." Lydia said as the bartender placed two shot glasses containing a bright yellow liquid on the bar. She lifted an eye brow at Kassidy in question. He shot her a deadpan stare in return. "Your loss." She shrugged and threw back both shots, one after the other.
    "If you think of it as exile you'll just be miserable," Isaac said lightly, "look at it as a vacation from everyday life!"  He was clearly trying to keep the mood casual. Lydia looked like she was ready to spit venom at him.
    "Vacations are fun." She spat, "I'm not having fun."
    Isaac laughed uneasily then let his gaze sweep across the room as if looking for anything else to talk about.
    "Consequences aren't supposed to be fun." Kassidy said dryly as the bartender placed a glass of water in front of him. He took a sip and placed the glass back down on its coaster before looking back at Lydia.
    There was nothing but solid icy rage flaring behind her eyes.