9. In Isolation

12 0 0
                                    

This house had too many fucking windows was Lydia's first thought when she woke much earlier than she had wanted to. The early morning sunlight lit up her room, causing her already splitting head to intensify, and she realized she'd never set the blinds to open and close at certain times during the day. They were still on their default setting to open at 7am and close at 9pm. Wasn't that some shit... she'd make sure to let the house keeper know to change it to at lease 12pm.
She'd never been the kind of person who could wake up and go back to sleep, to her chagrin, so she opted to stay awake but not get out of bed. Instead, she reached for her phone on the nightstand. She opened the first notification to instagram and immediately regretted it.
She had a decent amount of followers, enough that she was considered an influencer primarily for her travel and fashion content, so she was used to having a lot of notifications and unopened messages. Today, she only had notifications about one thing.
Daughter of NY Billionaire Wrecks Yacht, Jackman Heir in Hot Water Again, Lydia Jackman Seen Flaunting More Than Daddy's Money.
Lydia groaned and locked her phone. This could not really be happening. Kassidys words from last night came back to her then. Consequences aren't supposed to be fun he'd said. Fuck him, this wasn't her fault, it was those stupid fluff piece journalists out for a quick buck on her name. That was all.
Her phone pinged with a text notification.  She picked her phone up again to see a text from Josh Freeman:
    "Lyd, call me when you get a minute."
    Absolutely not.
    She locked her phone again without replying. She'd been avoiding texting anyone since she'd arrived in Nevada. She was too embarrassed by how the whole situation had gone down. Maybe, being here in Las Vegas was a good thing. Things would cool down and everyone would move on to the next big topic, forgetting about her entirely until her father allowed her to come back out into the public eye again. She got an idea then and quickly unlocked her phone for a third time. She went to her App Library and pulled up all of her socials and began deleting them. Not the account, just the app. A hiatus was just what she needed right not. She saved instagram for last. She quickly posted a story with a black background and wrote "for my own health and well being, I'll be off socials for a little while 💕 xoxo Lydia" and promptly deleted the app.
    After locking her phone again, she made a change of plans and got out of bed. She had gone to bed drunk which meant she'd also gone to bed naked. Drunk Lydia didn't have the time or patience for clothes. She pulled a pair of high waisted black spandex shorts out of her closet, the housekeepers having unpacked all of her things, and a grey cropped T shirt. She opted to go braless since she already knew she wouldn't be allowed out of the house... again...
    Her first stop out of her room was to the kitchen where the medicine cabinet was. She popped a Tylenol then turned back around to find Isaac looking at her suspiciously.
    "Can I help you?" She asked.
    "What did you just take?" He asked, expression incriminatory.
    Lydia rolled her eyes, reopened the cabinet and pulled out the bottle of Tylenol. She then slammed it down on the counter, flipped him the bird, and walked into one of the sitting areas to flip on the TV.
    "Hey, I just had to ask. Kassidy told me to... keep an eye out." Isaac said, now sounding much more amenable.
    "Kassidy can kiss my ass." Was all she said.
    Isaac just shook his head and went to stand by the wall closest to the open side of the room.
    "Where is the great Kassidy today?"  Lydia asked, eyes never leaving the reality TV show now playing.
    "He's out on business." Isaac responded.
    "What kind of business." Lydia glanced over at him.
    "I can't say."
    "Can't, or won't?"
    "Can't. I'm not at liberty to say."
    Lydia rolled her eyes, "He's rubbing off on you and I don't like it."  Isaac didn't reply.
    Lydia asked conspiratorially "so, the big guy isn't here to boss anyone around? We should go get Starbucks!"
    "What do you think Kassidy would say to that?" Isaac replied.
    "Who cares what he'd say, he isn't here."
    "I care. And I say no Starbucks."  Isaac said matter of factly.
    "Then you should go get-" she was cut off.
    "Absolutely not. Kassidy chewed my ass for 30 minutes last time. Order it for delivery if you want it that bad."  Isaac snipped.
    "God now you really sound like him."  Lydia resigned further into the couch.
    The rest of the day passed like that. She watched TV for a time, then spent an hour in the home gym, then swam, then watched more TV. She occasionally tried to convince or bribe Isaac to take her somewhere but he wouldn't budge. Whatever Kassidy had said to him must have stuck. Usually, she could persuade Isaac after a few tries but he wasn't so much as bending to her will. Kassidy was effectively taking part in her life's ruin...
    After what felt like an eternity, the day was winding to an end. It was past 11pm when she heard the garage door connected to the kitchens in the back open and close. She only heard it because she was once again seated in front of the TV watching Grey's reruns.
    Kassidy walked into the formal kitchen looking ragged. His clothes were disheveled and his usually swept back hair had pieces loosely falling over his forehead and eyes, which had dark circles underneath them as if he'd hardly slept at all.
    "Long day at work?" She asked sarcastically.
    Kassidy stopped in place, his eyes snapping to meet hers as if just noticing she was there. He stared at her for a moment, blue eyes expressionless, then looked away and began walking again without saying a word. He walked past her and went directly to the stairs leading to the second floor and his room. Isaac didn't say a word as he quickly went to follow him up.
    Lydia remained on the couch, confused. Possibly the only thing she liked about Kassidy was his inability to refrain from rising to her baited words. Perhaps she had misjudged him. She was suddenly sick of the episode of Grey's she was on, as she'd already seen it several times before, and she flipped through channels unbothered, waiting for something to stick out to her.
    Flashing red and blue lights behind a news reporter caught her eye for a moment. It was a local news station. The reporter was standing in front of the Cosmopolitan saying something about a person jumping off the roof of the building. She quickly lost interest and changed the channel. So many people came and went from Las Vegas, someone jumping from the roof of a building was far from the wildest thing she'd seen on the news. She was trying to avoid news outlets of any sort right now, so she continued flipping through channels. Eventually, she fell asleep on the couch.

                                              ~
  
    The next few days came and went in similar fashion. She wasted away in boredom as Kassidy and Isaac took turns rotating through security rounds. The other men Kassidy had added as home security took a few shifts as well when Kassidy was away and Isaac needed time to sleep and recoup. The only thing seeming to peek her interest anymore was Kassidys mysterious outings. He'd gone out twice more since the first time, and each time he came back looking more ragged than before. He was short with her, even avoiding conversation all together at times.
    Isaac was in on whatever it was. Every time Kassidy got back late, him and Isaac would shut themselves off in one of the other rooms to talk. She could barely hear them and even tried to listen in on their conversation after Kassidys most recent day trip, but she couldn't hear clearly through the door.
    It was infuriating.
Finally, something changed.  After a full week and a half had passed, Kassidy announced that he would be gone for the day again, but this time Isaac would be going with him. Lydia would be alone with the other two security guards.
    Lydia knew an opportunity when she saw one. As soon as both men had left, she got her phone out and decided it was time to call Josh.

CerberusWhere stories live. Discover now