Insider || hs

Someone Fucked Up

Damien waited for Freddie to fall asleep before slipping out of bed and into the hallway. Pulling on some shorts and a hoodie he found in the laundry room, Damien took his phone in his hand dialed a number on his way out the door. He had some business to settle.

"Hello?" The person answered, clearly just waking up.

Damien rolled his eyes. He was not in the mood to deal with this mess, but he could not put it off. "Meet me outside, you dipshit."

"What–?"

Damien hung up the phone, shoving it into his pocket as he stepped inside the elevator and pressed the button to take him to the first floor. Aggravated and wanting to yell at someone, Damien crossed the street with a light jog and began to run the sidewalks through Central Park. He knew Michael would likely take his time in getting there, so Damien figured he would exercise a little as he gathered his thoughts. He wanted to be able to berate Michael more effectively for fucking up so badly in his confrontation with Freddie. Damien was determined to make Michael pay for his stupidity.

After about fifteen minutes, Damien was fairly out of breath from running, so he slowed to a walk, nearing the place where Michael would meet him. He cursed to himself as he struggled to catch his breath. He thought of Harry and how easily he seemed to breathe even after running the stairs at Freddie's apartment, but the reminder of Harry's physical fitness only angered him.

Fucking Harry, Damien cursed to himself, trying to get the name out of his head. He didn't like how Freddie looked at him, and he liked even less the way Harry looked at her.

But Damien's mind was soon seized by Michael, who approached him with a swaggering walk that made Damien want to punch him in the mouth. Maybe then he would stop smirking like he had just done someone the greatest service in the world.

"I truly don't understand why my father trusts you at all," Damien said dryly, pushing his hair back from his forehead. "You're clearly foolish enough to think that I'm pleased with you."

A look of clueless confusion fell over Michael's expression, only adding to Damien's frustration, "What did I do?"

"Are you fucking kidding me? Or did you forget the conversation you had with Freddie this morning?"

Michael shrugged, "Yeah, what of it? I did you a favor."

Damien could hardly believe his ears. How was it possible for someone with so much responsibility to be so blind? But more than that, how could he think that telling Freddie he knows about her secret relationship possibly be a favor? Damien wondered what else Michael had said that Freddie hadn't told him about.

"And how would you say you did me a favor?"

"She's been looking into your account, you know. She was getting close to finding out about the business, so I threatened her to stay away from it." Damien's eyes widened, but Michael smirked and confidently shook his head. "Don't worry; I handled it. You should be fine."

"You're fucking with me, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you have to be kidding me. Why the fuck would you threaten her? What did you say?" Damien watched as Michael's confidence flickered ever so slightly, but still, it seemed as if the idiot didn't see a problem with his actions. As far as he was concerned, he had just saved Damien's ass.

"Well, I told her that you wouldn't appreciate her investigating you, that I see exactly what she's doing, and that she needs to stop."

Damien felt as if he could punch Michael in the face. Once he told his father about this, surely, he would be at liberty to fire the fool. If what Michael was saying was true, then he might have just ruined things between he and Freddie. Or worse, he might have just gotten his family in really big trouble.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Damien sighed in disbelief, "Wait, so let me get this straight. You suspected that she was investigating us, so instead of telling me, you threaten her and basically tell her that she's close to finding out about something she shouldn't?" Michael's blank expression and silence confirmed Damien's supposition. "Did it ever occur to you that in telling her that, she might only look into it more?"

"No, but–"

"Don't you think that if she had been close to finding anything, she would have reported it to you? She'd be legally bound to, so really, the only thing you accomplished is to raise her suspicions about us and make her mad at me for telling you about our relationship." Damien reigned in his anger and smirked, narrowing his eyes at Michael who now seemed to finally grasp that he had actually made a massive mistake. "Thank you for everything you've done here today. I'll be sure to tell my father of the service you have done for us."

"But I–"

"No, I think I've heard enough for tonight." Damien turned away from Michael and began to walk away, teasingly adding, "You'll be hearing from us soon, Michael."

As casual as Damien was being with Michael, he could not deny that internally, he was panicking. He didn't want to go upstairs and face Freddie, knowing now that she was suspicious of he and his father. It scared him to think of the damage that she could do to them, and so as he returned to his apartment, Damien began to think of ways that he could distract Freddie from finding anything of particular relevance in her analysis. Because even though Michael had warned her to stay away, Damien knew that now, more than ever, there was absolutely no chance of that happening. Freddie was smart and driven, and her own personal feelings about something would never obstruct her from pursuing her curiosity. But more than that, Damien knew that Freddie was actually smart enough to find the things he had worked so hard to hide. This made Damien sad.

It made him sad because he had actually grown to like Freddie. She was smart and sexy, but more than that, she was passionate about her interests. It was Damien's luck that he just so happened to be one of those interests. He appreciated her as a lover and as a person, and he hadn't experienced that in someone in a very long time. The thought of having to give that up made him sad.

And because of fucking Michael, Damien was faced with possibility of losing Freddie. She was a good person, and there was no way he would involve her in the mess Michael had just made for them; to do so would be unkind. That, and it would cause more trouble for him than he really had time for. There were too many things to consider that made it impossible for him to tell Freddie the truth behind his family's wealth; thus, Damien knew that Freddie would only try to discover it herself, and he had no doubt that she would do just that.

Michael had started a timer that day at their office, and only Damien could slow it down enough to buy his father some more time. But to do that, Damien knew he would have to stay in the city as much and as often as he could. The more he could distract Freddie, the better.

Damien slipped quietly into his apartment, using his phone's flashlight to make his way through the darkness of his bedroom. He shrugged off his hoodie and set his shoes gently to the side before joining Freddie in bed once more. She was still naked as he had left her, which meant that she hadn't woken up during his absence. That, at least, was good. Damien didn't want her to have another reason to question him.

Freddie stirred slightly as Damien came up behind her, pulling her into him, but he was delighted to see that she did not fully awaken. And so Damien tried to sleep with the knowledge that this moment of peace with Freddie was likely one of the last.

•••

hmmm what do y'all think this fucker is up to?

thanks for reading, my loves!

-Kate