Renegade Rising || Leo Fitz Book Two

Chapter FiftyFour

tw: mentions of sexual assault, not descriptive, brief.

Also, if anyone is the victim of sexual assault, I hope you are finding the help you need to get through. If you are in need of resources, https://www.rainn.org/ is a good one.

Asia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting her face form a neutral look; with a slight hint of displeasure, before reopening them and turning to look at the man who had sat down beside her. She looked at him with disdain but didn't allow it to show. Why the hell, of all places, had he sat beside her? His girlfriend was sitting awkwardly across from them, looking around like a scared, caged animal, eyes all wide, hands fidgeting, as if she were about to bolt. Not that she could bolt anywhere. They were high above the clouds still, headed to who knows where.

"What do you want?" she asked his coldly, gaze flickering over towards the front of the plane again, then back at Ward with a narrow of her eyes. He couldn't be trusted, she wouldn't make that mistake again.

"Just a friendly conversation, Monroe. Something wrong with that?" He asked her casually, leaning back in his seat, not grinning for once. He seemed to actually be studying her, which was surprising. Looking for weaknesses, probably, she mused. Though, and she knew Ward knew this as well, her biggest weakness was sitting up in the cockpit of the plane. So what really had brought him here? Did he just want to get under her skin? Was he just playing games? Probably, knowing him as well as she did. He had always been good at manipulation. Always.

So yea, there was something wrong with that. There was a lot of things wrong with it. Though he looked the exact same, this was not the Ward she had once known. This was not the same man who matched her toe to toe in school. This was not the person she could trust with anything. This was not the one she could call up, in any city, at any time, and he would be there within the day. Even if he looked exactly like him.

Asia had to admit it was difficult, not to fall in her old way of behavior around him. Even for someone as adept in her field as she was, it was still very difficult when she had spent so much of her life with this man sitting beside her. He was still using the same aftershave he always had been since he was young, she could smell it on him.

"Nothing friendly about any conversation you and I will ever have," She muttered back, linking her hands in front of her, gazing over at him, just barely, through her heavy black lashes. He was looking back at her, trying to gauge her reaction, just as she had been with him. "Any friendship we had left when you joined Hydra."

"I feel like I've said this a million times, but," he said with a sigh, "I wasn't loyal to Hydra. I was loyal to Garrett. There's a big difference, Monroe. And I thought you, of all people, would understand something like that." Asia wasn't entirely sure what that meant, and she didn't really feel like unpacking it right there. She knew he would try and trick her, twist her words and her thoughts, spin her to see him in a positive light again. She wouldn't allow it to happen.

She turned and looked him full on for a moment, face still flat, emotionless. There would be no expression for him to read. She would be just as cold as the ice that dripped through her veins now. "Fine. Have that your way, I'm not going to argue. Any friendship we had left when you dropped our teammates out of a plane. It left when your father-figure told me he had my sister kept captive for years and that he killed my parents. It left when you left me alone with --" His name caught in her throat. Ian Quinn. He was still the monster under her bed. The thing she hid so deeply inside of her. She realized anger was getting the best of her. She turned to face forward again, staring at the wall directly in front of her, taking imperceptible breaths in and out through her nose. There he was. He had almost done it. He had almost gotten to her, gotten under her skin. She had almost let him in.