Dangerous Prey (Gotham love story)

Chapter 3

Sydney woke up slowly battling her internal want to stay in the warm bed moments longer. The smell of cinnamon along with another musk she couldn't put a finger on invaded her nostrils with every deep inhale. Finally with another deep inhale and a stretch she opened her eyes to see she was not in the room she was placed in the night before. Walls had a few dark paintings on them along with some posters that looked like hand outs for a circus. Movement took her by surprise as she looked in the bed next to her seeing a familiar ginger from the night before. Jerome laid sound asleep on his stomach with his arms outstretched above his head pulling his pillow further down against his face. 

Curiosity came over the brunette as she climbed over Jerome and walked up to the walls. The papers had pictures of what looked to be silhouettes of acrobats in front of faded circus tents. Above the picture was a title. Haly's Circus. The name had a clown face separating the words in the banner across the top.Along with the name of the circus was The Flying Graysons under it.  She trailed on to more hand outs on the walls before one caught her eye. It was a woman holding a snake. The picture had blood smeared on it and the womans face was scratched out. All around the picture were degrading words such as slut, bitch, and whore. She glanced around seeing a few more of the same hand out with the same defamation on them. 

"That's mom," Jerome groaned slowly putting a hand under his head as he rolled onto his side causing Sydney to jump at the sudden sound and movement, "She was a snake charmer."

Sydney walked over to the bed and sat down running her hand through his soft ginger hair. Jerome's eyes closed feeling the soft affections as her nails gently grazed his scalp. Sydney smiled softly before gripping his hair gently and pulling as she played with it. 

Jerome groaned and grabbed the her flipping her under him on the mattress earning a small squeal and a laugh from her. He smiled and pinned her hands above her head becoming close to her face. Sydney let out a few short laughs before biting her lip humming as she looked up at him. 

"Where have you been my whole life?" Jerome spoke in almost a whisper not thinking about the words as they came out.

The wall to Jerome's room opened causing the ginger male to groan and roll his eyes. Behind the wall stood his brother and his assistant holding clothes in both of her hands in front of her. 

"Oh please Jerome don't be so dramatic," Jeremiah's tone was hard for anyone but Jerome to decipher, "We can't just keep her down here. After all someone is already looking for her."

Jerome groaned jumping off Sydney as she strained to get up, "Who is looking for me?"

"It seems your boss's hit man," Jeremiah sighed looking at his phone before showing her a live feed of Victor standing outside the bunker leaning on a wall looking over his gun. 

Sydney got out of the bed and sighed walking over to Jeremiah, "Thank you for your hospitality," She spoke softly looking up at him. 

"These clothes are yours to keep. Put them on and please don't bring anyone else back here. Seems to be too much foot traffic in these woods. I would so hate to have to have blood on my door step. Wouldn't you?"

She stared at Jeremiah for a minute before nodding taking the clothes from Ecco and sliding into the original room she was placed in and started to change. Knowing her hair looked like a complete mess she simply threw it up into a ponytail and pulled her bangs back down. As she changed Jerome came in dressed with his hands in his pockets. 

"So you uh gotta go huh?" He gave a short half smile to her, "Well it was fun! I'm sure you're easy to find!"

Sydney smiled at his lighthearted manner before giving him a small kiss as her fingers stroked his cheek. Jerome smiled at her once they exchanged kisses and lead her out of the maze and into the elevator. This time no one accompanied her on her ride up leaving her alone until the doors opened at the surface. Victor stood in front of the doors once they opened and waved giving an all too convincing smile. 

"Hey Sid!" Victors smile dropped and looked at the car, "Fun's over. Let's go."

Once inside the car Sydney looked out the window at the bunker. Victor got into the driver's side slamming his door. He took a moment to take in how she looked. Her brown hair up in a pony tail exposing her soft pale neck. He noticed as he watched her the small hairs on the back of her neck stood and her skin became graced with cold chills. Sydney turned to look at the sadist with a look of disapproval and a hint of frustration. 

"You aren't my dad. I was perfectly fine with them and you knew that, so why are you even here? Why do you even care?" She hissed leaning over the center console getting in Victor's face able to feel his breath against her nose, "I've seen men scarier than you, and trust me you aren't the worst."

Victor let out a chuckle and licked his bottom lip before getting closer to her making their noses touch, "Oh little Sydney...what happened to that timid little girl yesterday? Did the twins crazy rub off on you?" He tilted his head keeping eye contact with her. "See Sid you should be scared. Very scared of me. I cut you because you asked me to. Don't think I won't do worse on my own."

Sydney reached across and put her hand on his thigh gripping it roughly as she got as close as possible without their lips touching. Victor kept their gaze and smirked at her courage. He loved when his prey put up a fight. Her hand shot into the holster on his side quickly clipping the holster and pulling the gun to press the barrel against his temple. She let out a shaky hiss as she pressed it harder only to have him stay where he was. Victor chuckled watching her eyes seeing something in her. This girl wasn't the one from yesterday. Where did she come from?

"Oh come on Sid," Victor chuckled slowly sitting back watching her eyes, "I just wanted to give you a ride home. Being nice."

"Then take me home," She growled before putting the gun on the dash looking back out the window. 

Victor laughed and started the car before putting his gun back into the holster. 

Sydney felt hot water running down her face and down her chest to her stiches on her chest providing the sting she knew the tempurature of the water would give her. Victor, Jerome, Jeremiah, Penguin. All these men weren't scary to her. She had met worse. Been hurt in ways they couldn't imagine. Maybe Victor was right, being around the twins did rub something off on her. Jerome gave her that sense of freedom and Jeremiah showed her how being calm was worse than acting psycho. Control was power. 

As she stepped out of the shower she grabbed a towel and walked into her bedroom drying off as she walked. Grabbing some clothes from her closet she dropped her towel and tossed the clothes on the bed. She caught a glimpse of herself in her mirror and turned to look at the scars on her hips and stomach. She was not going to let anyone mistake her for prey again.