Dancing With The Devil (part two)

Chapter 30: Not Playing Fair Anymore

The car ride back to her father's house was nothing but pain for Astrid. Dominic decided to fill the entire journey with annoying remarks and snide comments about the past three years he'd spent with her. This only caused Astrid to press her foot even harder down on the accelerator.

"Slow down, dear," he teased, "why, I believe your going above the speed limit."

"Not playing fair anymore." Astrid snarled and Dom chuckled.

"Maybe not, but when you get pulled over by the police, what are you going to tell them?" he smiled cynically, "that you had to hurry back to your best friend, a sniper and a world famous criminal who everyone thinks is dead, who are being held hostage by your criminal father who has a poison that could wipe out all living things on the earth that you've known about for twenty years but didn't tell anyone. Is that what you'll tell them?"

"No," she began, "I'll tell them you had a gun to my head and were forcing me to drive quickly."

Dom listened and realised what she said. He slowly lowered the gun in his hand, still making sure it was pointed at Astrid.

"Fair enough," he paused for a bit and frowned, "what time is it, my love?"

Astrid snarled and looked at the clock in the dashboard, "Half past three."

"And how long until we get there?" he said slowly.

"Half an hour."

"Ah, cutting it close aren't we?"

"We'll be there on time."

"Pity," he tilted his head, "it would have been satisfying seeing James Moriarty's brains splattered all over the floor."

"You're sick."

"And you're not?" he said, now presenting himself with a much more serious tone, "James isn't either, right? Wrong. You know he's sick and twisted, even he does. Your father is, I bet your mother was too, judging by the state she's left you in. Jim's little puppy has got to be somewhat psychotic, so it only makes sense that you have a little bit of psychopath in you too."

"I know I do."

"That's good," he smile again, "the only sane person in this situation is Faith."

"What are you-"

"She was wonderful when we arrived," he reminisced, "acting all lost and scared, all I did was stand there and nod. That was until I saw you go into the kitchen."

"You didn't hurt her?"

"No of course not," He said, "I wouldn't hurt such an innocent little girl."

Astrid chuckled and shook her head, "Faith is anything but innocent. She's got more balls than you'll ever have."

"Bold claim sweetheart," he tutted, "bold claim. Now love, slow down a little, I'd hate for us to crash."

"You're a dick."

"I thought we were saying I didn't have balls."

"It's metaphorical, arsehole."

"Ah okay, so I have an arse, a dick but no balls." he nodded sarcastically, "I'm surprised we've made it this far."

"Made it-"

"You know... as a couple."

"I would have thought you'd be smart enough to realize that we're not a thing anymore."

"You're breaking my heart," he wined sarcastically and shook his head, "you know, I think we could make this work."

"You do, huh?" Astrid sighed, keeping her eyes fixed on the road.

"Oh yeah, I mean, over the last three years of my life I feel like I've discovered myself," he smiled sinisterly, "and you've helped me do that, you know? I think I might keep you."

"I'm not yours."

"I'm not sure you get a say in that," Dominic sat back in his seat and leaned forward so that his face was inches away from Astrid's cheek, "I'm sure papa would want you to find a nice man to settle down with. And since we've been getting on so well for the past three years, I think he'll let my have the honour."

Astrid gulped and let out a breath. Dominic leant in even further and pressed a kiss to her cheek, before resuming his original position against the window.

The arrived back at Lucas Handel's house with a minute to spare. Astrid got out of the car followed slowly by Dominic, who held the gun up at her as he slammed the door shut. Astrid, however, didn't need a gun against her head to tell her to hurry up. She sprinted towards the front door and went to knock on the door but was stopped by Dominic's voice.

"Wait there, darling," he smiled, "we should go in together."

He waltzed up to the door, not in any rush, and put the gun in his pocket. He took Astrid's hand in his and smiled.

"Now we can go."