This has been ages in coming, and all I can do is humbly apologize. Real life was overwhelming for awhile and posting something bad for the sake of posting isn't really being true to the spirit of the story you all love to read and I love to write.
A couple of notes: Free the Girls is a real charity. You can find out more about them by searching the name. The quote that Victor reads to Stan does come from an Edgar Allen Poe story. If you don't know which one, I'll name it at the end.
Enjoy!
psyche b
31. Montresor and Fortunato
Kelly did her best not to hang on to Victor too tightly on the way out. The solid sound of the door closing behind them took the last bit of resolve she had left. She felt her knees weaken. Victor held her tighter.
"I think I'm going to be sick."
He pulled her against his chest, holding her there. "You got anything left to be sick with?"
She looked up at him. "How did you-" She stepped back and held her hand over her mouth. "Oh God, you smell it!"
"Nah." He smiled a little. "I just know you."
Kelly blushed and stepped closer to him again.
"Conlon." His voice had a rough edge to it. His eyes were on hers, a little smile on his lips. "'F you got something to say to your former boss, he's in the next room on the right side of the corridor." Victor held out a slip of paper. "This code overrides the scanner."
Conlon nodded and took the scrap of paper. He disappeared around a bend in the dim hallway.
"C'mon." Victor took Kelly's arm and led her up a flight of stairs and into a small room furnished with an ancient green plaid sofa, an avocado green fridge, sink and microwave, and a sagging cot covered in a gray blanket. Spartan as it was, it was still the only place she'd seen that seemed fit for a kind of bare bones habitation.
A shiver went through her as she looked at the gray little space. "You sleep here?"
He shrugged and sat down on the sofa. He took her wrist and pulled her down with him. She stretched out, her head resting against his chest. "Not too often. It's more of a place to get something to eat or shower. Shit like that."
Questions strobed through her mind with the intensity of a camera flash. As quickly as they came, she decided she didn't want the answers. Didn't need them because she had a pretty good idea already. Kelly arched a little closer to him instead.
*~*~*~*~*~*
Creed watched her go from silent and still to trembling, to crying to sleeping with her fingers tangled in his shirt in the space of twenty minutes. Didn't really surprise him. Stan was a fucking millstone around her neck and he'd just cut the rope. That had to stir some kind of emotional shit in a frail. Even one who had handled herself like a goddamn pro a few minutes before.
One hand drifted over her back, tracing slow circles with his claws. The other moved into her hair, carefully pulling out the pins, letting her hair fall around her shoulders in soft waves and ringlets. It changed her features, softened them back into that perpetual innocence he'd become so entranced by. Still, when he looked at her just right, he could see the strength in the set of her chin and the tilt of her nose. Steel concealed by silk. The idea made him smile.
Exactly the kind of female an alpha needed. He leaned closer and put his nose against the top of her head, taking in her scent. Under the chemical tang of some kind of styling product, her scent was sweeter than ever. The perpetual edge of nervous fear was gone, replaced by sweet sunshine, cool breezes and honeyed vanilla. His cock stirred against her hip.
The thought of fucking her crossed his mind, but he rejected that idea. Fuck wasn't even the right word. It wasn't the right idea. Fucking was what Giada was doing in the alley. Course he had no goddamn idea what else to call it, but he knew that whatever it was, it wasn't something he wanted to do in a place like this.
He let his mind drift to the idea of going back to the apartment for a little while. Spend a few hours in bed with the frail, letting himself get lost in the other half of his life for a little while. Course, like always, he couldn't do that because motherfucker Stan was in the way. Bastard would keep interfering in his life until he was dead too. Creed was as sure about that as he was that the frail hadn't slept right since he left. He stared at the glowing red numbers on the cheap digital alarm clock and watched another minute click by. He sighed rubbed his forehead against the top of her head.
"Frail."
She murmured something he couldn't make out, then arched her back and settled against him again.
Fucking frail. She was gonna make this hard. He wrapped his fingers in her hair and moved her head so that she was looking at him. "C'mon frail."
Her eyes fluttered open. Recognition of where she was dawned slowly.
He let go of her hair.
"I fell asleep." She sat up and looked around the dingy space.
"Goddamn fast." He smiled a little. "When was the last time you got a decent night's sleep anyway?"
A blush colored her cheeks. "The night you left." She smiled at him. "Doesn't really matter. You're back now. I always sleep better when you're next to me."
And now he was back to feeling like a son of a bitch again. "It'll be another night at least."
Her calm collapsed. "But...you're here! In the same city, why-"
"You don't want me to answer that question." He got up and started to pace. "I'll be back and forth between the apartment and here for awhile. I ain't gonna tell you how long it'll be because I got no fucking idea. If you're awake, I'll tell you when I'm leaving and if I got an idea of when I'll be back I'll tell you that too. Beyond that, you don't ask why or what or any of that shit."
Kelly looked down at her hands. "I don't know if I can." Her voice was quiet.
The tone in her voice made something inside him ache. He stroked his fingers through her hair. "Yeah you can." His voice was softer. "C'mon. I'll have Conlon take you back." He reached for her arm, but she moved away. She pulled her fingers through her hair.
"Let me do something with my hair first. Where are the pins?"
He reached into his pocket handed her the hairpins. He pointed to a door at the far end of the room. "Bathroom's through there."
She disappeared and came back a moment later with her hair smoothed and held back from her face in soft waves. This time, she let him take her arm. He led her down the stairs. Halfway down, he couldn't take the silence and staccato footsteps any more. "You really gonna forgive that sorry bastard?"
Kelly shrugged with one delicate shoulder. "Maybe. Maybe not." A little smile twitched the corner of her mouth. "Sounded good in the moment though."
Creed chuckled. "Too fucking much." He kissed her softly, his tongue teasing hers for a delicious moment. "Wait here. I'm gonna get Conlon."
Creed watched her sit on the stairs, then he headed down the hall. Cavallo was in another bare room, cuffed to another metal chair, but there was no observation window. Creed stood outside the door, straining to hear signs of pain, of argument, or anything else. At first, there was nothing but silence. Then he heard a low moan coming from the other side of the door. He put his hand on the scanner and walked in.
The sharp smell of piss hit him as soon as he opened the door. A table was pushed against the wall, Conlon sat on it, his back resting against the wall, his feet resting on the edge. Cavallo was still secured to the chair, a wet stain spread out from the crotch of his sweats and a puddle had formed around his feet. Creed grabbed a handful of Cavallo's thinning hair and lifted his head revealing a doughy face that he would have been hard-pressed to pick out of a crowd.
Creed let out a disgusted growl. "Dirty fucking animal." The former boss's breath was raspy, shallow. Creed looked at Conlon. "Looks pretty damn good for as much time as you had with him."
Conlon tilted his head in an approximation of a shrug, a self-satisfied smile on his face. "Figured you'd be upset if I got too creative." He sat up.
"Goddamn right. That don't mean you had to just sit there and watched him piss himself."
Conlon got up and walked over to the man in the chair. A little smile quirked the corner of his mouth. "First night I was with Giada, I ended up between two drunk bastards who both thought they had some kind of claim to her because they'd screwed her. Of course, being the kind of slut she was, I don't think she even knew either one's name. I learned two things that night, one was that I was gonna hate that goddamn job." He shoved a fist into the right side of Cavallo's chest. The bastard screamed and started to babble apologies. "The other was that broken ribs hurt like a motherfucker."
Creed looked at the smaller man. He probed the side of the restrained man's chest, bringing a hoarse cry and the salty scent of incipient tears. A slow grin spread across Creed's face. He looked at the other mutant. "Not bad. There might be some hope for you yet." He stood up and faced Conlon. "Frail needs to go back to the apartment. I'll be there in a few minutes to let you out."
The smaller man nodded and walked out of the room. Creed waited until the door was shut before he opened a cabinet on the wall. The video system was a recent, lucky addition. He turned on the monitor and picked up a remote. "Down to just you and me, Paulie." Victor said.
