Moved On

Moved On Part Fourteen

The definition of house - A building for human habitation, usually consisting of four walls and a roof.

What it shouldn't be was a series of codes and security systems you had to navigate just to get a drink of water! However, it would seem this house was.

Not able to sleep, Annie wanted make herself a hot chocolate, only couldn't remember the code to deactivate the smoke cloak. Sean couldn't just have one singular, all singing, all dancing combination could he? Every alarm had a different number. 

He’d informed her, with all sincerity, ‘they’re easy to remember ‘coz they were all years we won the doubles’.

Annie was sure had she been a bloke, that would make perfect sense...but what were doubles?'

She couldn't remember if there was a combination lock on the fridge, one that would explode with an oinking sound if she didn't get the code right?

Sean had exterior, interior and motion sensor alarms coming out of his earholes. Add in the shutters that totally locked down the house, the smoke cloak and safe room in the basement, and he could be accused of mild paranoia. What kind of lunatic put a security camera in the bathroom anyway? Annie had refused to use the loo till he covered it up. And no, him 'promising not to look' was unacceptable.

Flicking on the light, she looked up at the covered camera. Sean had finally conceded when he found her balancing precariously on a bar chair, clutching a roll of gaffer tape. Unlike any bathroom she'd ever seen before, this one was more like a spa. Apparently the swimming pool sized bathtub took two hours to fill, the shower felt like going through a car wash and it had a separate steam room. Annie had no idea how to use it. Knowing him and his propensity for alarms, she didn't want to risk trying either.

Having spent time chatting cod with him, she believed she had a better handle on who he was. They're lives had so much in common, so much disparity too. Whereas Annie had been raised in a comfortable working class family, Sean had dragged himself up in a shitty council estate. Of course she knew the sort of dodgy area he talked about, knew the kind of kid he'd been. Like the lads who always came into school unwashed with dirty uniforms, beat up smaller kids for their dinner money.

In retrospect Annie hadn't realised that was how those kids survived. She just thought they were thieving little toerags.

Along the length and breadth of Great Britain there were pockets of abject poverty, in every town and every county. Even in areas considered 'nice,' charities ran food banks for the destitute. Annie had always been on the periphery, she'd seen high rise flats with burnt out doors, stinking of piss, and littered with homemade bongs. Dilapidated buildings where tramps and druggies gathered at night to get obliterated, but had never been part of it. Not till she’d come to Vegas. You could argue that Sean's future was preordained, he hadn't a chance. You could argue that Annie's was too; but she certainly hadn't stayed within the parameters of expectation.

Carefully, Annie opened the connecting door and tiptoed into Sean's bedroom. It was set out exactly like hers...exactly.

Curious?

The house had been painstakingly modified to his specifications, yet there were no obvious signs of personal effects. Unless he had some wicked, clever storage, Sean didn't seem to have any stuff, almost as if he hadn't properly moved in.

Holding her breath, Annie approached the bed. Sean was asleep on his front, one arm beneath the pillow. A small frown on his forehead  the only indication that his sleep was not peaceful. Unable to resist, Annie's fingers rose to smooth it away. Suddenly she was sailing through the air to land face down on the bed. No time to make a noise. A cruel hand closed around her neck, holding her down while a knee landed in the small of her back. Then she heard the sound of a cocking gun, just as the hard barrel pressed into the base of her skull.

Sean de-cocked the gun and removed his knee from her back, his hand now gentle on her neck. Fuck! What had he done? Reality had exploded into his brain a fraction behind his innate reaction. Too late. "Don't ever sneak up on me when I'm sleeping!" He bellowed, unable to think coherently past his thumping heart and pulsing adrenalin.

Her body stiffened beneath his touch, and he rolled off, slamming the gun away in his bedside drawer.

Feeling the absence, Annie took the opportunity to scramble up, her squeaked sound of terror threading ice through his veins. Sean knew if he didn't explain, didn't make it right she would disappear, like a mirage in the desert he wanted grab at but couldn't hold. Shit. Fuck!  He made a snatch at her now, his fingers caught and closed around a fall of soft hair. "Wait, just listen."

Annie swung full circle at the end of the tether, fist clenched she dealt him a vicious back hander. Precariously balanced, the unexpected clout toppled him onto the bed. Without warning, a whirling dervish with windmilling punches landed on top of him, raining blows clumsily on any part she could reach. "Don't you dare put a gun to me!" Annie screeched down at him.

Sean caught her wrists, she struggled to release them, screaming in rage.

The clever girl used his resistance as support, and rose over him, he felt her knee move back to strike between his legs. Sean acted swiftly, getting a belt or two was fair play, but she wasn't going to crack him in the nads! He flipped her backwards, pinning her down to the bed, his leg over her kicking ones. "Sorry queen, I can't let you do that."

"Get off me." She roared.

"Calm down and I will" Sean said reasonably.

"I am fucking calm!"

Burying his face in Annie's hair, Sean inhaled deeply, her natural fragrance filling his lungs, slowing his heart rate. He could feel the pulse in her wrists beating rapidly against his palms, the trembling of her frame as fight or flight chemicals coursed through it.

"I'm sorry love, it was instinct, pure instinct...I'm sorry." He appealed against her neck.

Heaving, her cotton clad, fulsome breasts teased his naked chest.

"If you're that frightened of your own safety, what makes you think you can protect me?" She grated harshly, the vibration of her throat felt with his lips.

His hands contracted in defence at her words.

“I'm not scared, it's called being cautious, and I will protect you because I said I would."

Annie swallowed hard, Sean resisted chasing its movement with his mouth.

"Maybe I should go home and face the music, I'm not sure I can do this." She said shakily.

Raising his head he looked down into vulnerable eyes and felt his belly tighten in rejection. The dirty, grimy part of Sean that was self-serving also raised his head. “I've been to prison queen, I wouldn't want to go back. It's a tormenting hell of sleeping with one eye open, always watching your back. You come out wanting to sleep with guns under your pillows and you learn to attack without stopping to ask questions."

"But I was innocent, I didn't know what Jared was doing. That has to work in my favour, doesn't it?"

"The British judicial system isn't kind to women, pet. Females are made examples of; sentences heavier and the prisons are disproportionally harsher than the men's. I'd hate to ever see you in one." The sneaky snake inside Sean rattled its tail, as his sense of honour slithered away. He shifted position and gathered a more docile Annie into his arms, kissing her temple gently. "I promise, I'll protect you from all that."