Definitely Wasn't Born Yesterday

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Malachi checked the weather outside through the boarded window of the building he was in. It was temperate…firmly settled in towards the colder weather, but it wouldn’t be winter weather for another month. That was strange to him for one fundamental reason:

He was damn sure hell had frozen over.

That was the only logical explanation he had for the fact that he’d been given a note left for him with a sherpa contact in the Junkyard. It wasn’t that someone leaving a message for him was out of the ordinary, far from it. Malachi’s livelihood, such as it were, revolved mainly around that sort of thing. People did it regularly when they wanted to contact him for scavenging runs in the ruins of the outskirts and the abandoned town. So, it wasn’t the message itself that was unexpected.

It was the fact that it was from Scout Gadsby.

The girl had made her opinion of things pretty damn clear when they’d parted ways that she wanted nothing to do with him. He didn’t blame her. He didn’t even fault her for it. She’d put a bullet in her partner’s brainpan because Malachi had fucked up and nearly died, outing the truth of what he was in the process. He hadn’t let her know that she would be okay, and she made a very logical conclusion based on that lack of knowledge. That led to her feeling backed into a corner and desperate.

All he’d managed to do was tell her just how wrong that conclusion had been…after, it was too late for her to undo the damage that she’d wrought based on that conclusion. He agreed that he’d probably fucked up her life because of that omission, so when she said she wanted him to leave her alone, he’d planned on making good on her wish wholeheartedly. Because of this, her sudden desire to get back in contact with him had him confused.

It also made him paranoid.

She was the only living person that knew his secret, and for the past few weeks, he was pretty sure she’d been roughing it somewhere, trying to make a go at it now that she was cut off from Stronghold and the life she knew. ” What if she wasn’t the only one that knew that now? He’d wondered to himself. He hadn’t lived as long as before the world went to hell by being naïve. Something about this didn’t pass the sniff test…but another part of him didn’t want to think that she’d be stupid enough to try and peddle him off to save her own ass.

So he found himself in the dilapidated remnants of this two-story highway hotel on the primary thoroughfare that led from the Junkyard to the abandoned town. The town was only a few blocks away, but the road here was open. He’d left a reply, giving her an address just inside the town, and then he’d set up camp here, watching that approach for the last two days since then, staking out the only way that made sense to come.

Malachi wanted to ensure she wasn’t bringing any company with her. Then and only then would he make himself apparent and meet Scout to find out what was going on and why she suddenly had this change of heart. So there he sat at the small Formica table that was this old hotel’s “office” appointments, a worn set of binoculars settled upon it so that he could inspect the comings and goings of everyone traveling along that road.

Posted 12-31-2022, 10:31 PM This post was last modified: 07-22-2023, 02:26 PM by Malachi Blake

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Scout wasn't sure this was going to work, but she had to try. If it meant getting her out of this god awful place and back to Stronghold, it was worth a shot. There were a lot of hurdles in place. Even if she did what she set out to do, she wasn't sure it would be enough. But maybe, just maybe.

It had been three weeks since the last time she had seen Malachi and they had not been kind to her. She was tough, she was resilient, but that didn't mean she happy to be out there in the muck and danger. She didn't realize how nice it actually was to have a place to sleep where she didn't have to with one eye open. Scout hated to admit it, but even those shitty military meals were starting to look a little divine. Unfortunately she had finished off the last of those (that she had stolen) two weeks ago. This lead her to scavenging, but there wasn't much to find. Everything had been picked over years and years ago.

Still yet, she managed to make it to the Junkyard and hand them a message to give to Malachi when he came through; because she knew he would. It was how she had found him the last time, assaulting a father and son, to get the information she needed as to where he could be. Thankfully that intel had been true, even if it didn't end exactly how she had expected it too.

She had to try a different tactic this time. Sneaking up on Malachi had proven to not be the best route. In fact, Scout thought it was quite impossible given his advantages. Especially after how they had left things, or rather, how she had demanded he never come near her again... it was time to change things up.

Scout knew he would already be confused, if not downright suspicious that she was asking to meet up with him again. So she gave her message several days to marinate. Let him think it over before she turned back up, hoping for the answer she wanted. When she did finally return, she was relieved to know he had agreed to meet her at an old building inside of the town. The man she had left it with informed her Mal had dropped it off three days ago, so for all intents, she was late.

Immediately after reading his reply she headed towards the rendezvous point, only stopping at a nearby stream to wash her face and hands as best she could before heading towards the hotel. She knew the hardships of the last few weeks were going to be evident, but she didn't care. This was only a hitch in the road and hopefully she would be on her way back into Stronghold very soon.

Going through town, she was very careful not to draw any unwanted attention. Eyes open and head on a swivel, she watched the windows of the buildings closely, knowing Mal would be watching right back. She hoped what he was saw would cause him no reason for concern.

It was all apart of the plan.

Entering through the front doors of the building, she kept her pistol close, just in case they had any unwanted visitors as they had unfortunately had before. "Hope you weren't followed this time." she muttered lowly and went further inside; finding it empty. Suddenly she feared she had missed him and was too late getting here. Moving even further inside, she withdrew her pistol and cleared the first few rooms that belonged to it.

Nothing.

Not willing to give up yet, she found a chair and straddled it, keeping herself in a corner where she could watch both entrances and ... waited.

Posted 01-01-2023, 02:39 PM This post was last modified: 01-01-2023, 02:46 PM by Scout Gadsby

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Mal was patient. He knew that messages like that took time, and a part of him was curious about just what she wanted to talk with him about. It was too sudden and too convenient for him not to be suspicious, but if this was a trap, he flirted with the idea of springing it to see what happened. It was foolish and impulsive. Part of him knew this was just his lingering guilt over the ambush. He could not change that, but he reminded himself that it didn’t mean he needed to martyr himself. She’d had the opportunity to put a bullet in him, but he’d talked her down. He wasn’t going to do that then, only to throw himself on the proverbial sword now.

He watched her acutely when he finally caught sight of her, paying attention to every bit of her the way she was keeping her attention on her surroundings. He saw how she was holding her head on a swivel.

She looked a bit more worn than before. Not in an emotional way; no, she’d been far worse the last time he’d seen her there. This time, she was physically more worn and rugged. If he had to fathom a guess, he imagined she hadn’t had an easy time of it, scrounging to survive on her own. Part of him felt for her, but he’d also offered up clearing the school, which would have helped her be better stocked…or at least have the goods to trade. She’d been adamant that she wanted nothing more to do with him, so he hadn’t pressed the issue.

That was why this little meeting was even more curious to him.

He waited a few more moments, letting her make her way to the intersection and then into the address he’d given her before he finally accepted that there weren’t any stragglers trailing after her. Standing up, he slid the pistol from the holster at his hip, racking the slide enough to ensure it was still loaded before pressing it back forward. Sliding it home again, he reached behind himself and pulled out the smaller revolver he’d found two weeks before. He didn’t have much ammo for it, but it was a nice emergency piece. Popping out the cylinder, he rechecked it before tucking it back into the makeshift holster he’d set up to rest at the small of his back. One final check of the knives in his boot and on his waist was made before he finally stepped out of his room, creeping toward the stairs to descend as he made his way toward the meeting place.

Malachi kept to the shadows…better safe than sorry… but nothing jumped out at his enhanced senses. It seemed she had come alone. Was she desperate? Certainly, fit with how she looked. Sidling up to the door, he hovered to the side, letting his hand reach out to knock on It even though the rest of his body was behind the wall.

”It’s me, Scout. I’m coming in, don’t shoot.”. Malachi waited for an acknowledgment before gripping and twisting the door handle and pushing it open. He glanced inside from the side of the door, seeing her in the far corner. Once he saw that she wasn’t pointing a gun at him, he eased himself inside and drew the door closed behind him.

Resting back against the wall, he kept plenty of space between them.

”Didn’t expect to hear from you again…”. He let his voice trail off, his tone encouraging an answer to his unspoken question: Why did I hear from you again?

Posted 01-02-2023, 09:24 AM

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The knock at the door from the back side of the room startled her. Instinctively Scout straightened, pointing her gun at the door and glaring. In hindsight it was an overreaction. Anyone willing to knock on a door wasn't trying to sneak up on anyone, quite the opposite. That theory would be confirmed when she heard Malachi's voice on the other side of it, slightly muffled with the door between them. Her shoulders immediately relaxed and she brought the gun back down, resting on her thigh.

She almost chuckled when she heard the don't shoot part of Mal's statement. "You were almost too late with that, but alright, if you insist." She stretched her shoulders, trying to further relieve the tension in them.

Watching him enter into the room, she exhaled slowly, noting how he kept his distance. "Didn't expect you to answer." she was quick to respond with, hoping to make this meeting a little more convincingly less serious by not outright telling him what brought her here immediately. She wanted to take this nice and slow.

There was a chair to her left, kicking her foot out at it, she pushed it a little further away from her "Have a seat, I won't bite." a half smirk drew up one side of her lips, perhaps oddly, to someone that had never seen her smile or whereas expressions of amusement were rare.

Posted 01-07-2023, 01:49 PM

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”Well, you do have a bit of an itchy trigger finger. Figured it was best to state that from the get-go.” Malachi replied before he eased in. He didn’t put his hands on his weapons, but he hooked his thumbs into his belt as he leaned against that wall and looked over at her with a shrug. ”What can I say? Curiosity killed the cat.”

One pale brow lifted as she used her foot to push that chair out and welcomed him to sit into it. The corner of his lips curled up a bit at that. She was taking things damn well, given how they’d ended their last encounter. A little too well, if you asked him. She was joking about it now like the two were the kind to have inside jokes. That just increased the hair on the back of his neck, but he kept his thoughts covered with a bemused, neutral expression. ”Figured that you’d be afraid I might.”

Still, he didn’t ignore the offer, pushing off the wall and slowly moving toward that seat, watching her expression all the while. She was downright being friendly, and he found it unsettling. The two of them hadn’t been that close. He swallowed as he sat down, leaning back a bit, one arm resting on the wooden table. He looked her over, his eyes stilling at the odd half-expression on her lips.

Malachi might be just a simple grunt, but this whole thing was not adding up.

”How have you been?”

Posted 01-07-2023, 02:59 PM

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Scout chose to let his comment about her having a particularly itchy trigger finger pass by without much of a reaction; but inside the privacy of her mind, she was smirking. Good, she thought. She was fine with having the reputation if it meant people thought twice around her. Watching him carefully, she noted the placement of his hands. It was habit. "Never figured you for a cat." Maybe a bear, or something more intelligent, like a wolf. Scout again, kept those latter thoughts to herself.

Feigning a bemused expression and a shallow chuckle, Scout clicked her tongue into the side of her cheek before saying "I think you know better now." Her brows lifted, clearly recalling the events of the last month and what he had done by biting her in the first place. Even if it didn't seem to have uprooted his life entirely like it had hers, she stilled figured she was a thorn in his side... and unattended to, could lead to an infection. Would lead to an infection.

He sat and then continued this quaint little conversation as if they were chatting over a cup of tea. Scout couldn't stand it, she bit at the inside of her lip invisibly and swallowed down the need to be uncivil.

It was perhaps one of the hardest things she had ever done.

Covered in a fine layer of dirt, skinnier than before, hair in need of a wash and a brush, Scout found his question blind and irritating. "Alive." she spat, settling on a compromise within herself. "You?"

This small talk was going to be the death of her, but she knew she had to continue the farce to some extent until she found the right boulevard to turn off on and get to the point.

Posted 07-08-2023, 01:23 PM

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”No? Really? I’ve always been rather partial to Lions and Tigers. Not so much bears, oh my.” The corner of his mouth quirked up a bit as he couldn’t help himself when it came to quoting from the “Wizard of Oz.” Malachi wasn’t even sure if they taught people about lions and tigers anymore. Sure, there still were some…he had to guess that some were still around somewhere. He figured that some animals would have had to have escaped from zoos and other places of activity…but he’d never seen any. He was sure there were more of them back where their natural habitat was, now that humanity was no longer the dominant species hunting them down and edging them out of their territory.

Knowing better was somewhat difficult to gauge. She’d tasted good. Too good. Far better than he wanted to admit. A part of him guessed it was partially because he’d almost died and had been starving…everything tastes better when you’ve been starving, even when you’re a vampire it seemed. Thinking about biting did cause his eyes to temporarily move to linger on the pulse point in her throat. It helped him focus on her current state, noting that she was dirtier and more unkempt than he recalled before the incident last month. She looked like she’d missed a few meals. Life had not been easy on her, most likely. He wasn’t monster enough not to feel bad for upending her life, but it caused him to have even more questions about why she was being almost cordial now.

The math continued failing to add up in this equation.

The more he paid attention to her, the more she seemed on edge. As the new apex predator of the planet, one with senses far more keen than hers, he paid attention to her slightest movements the way a cat did when eyeing a mouse. There was tension in her, though she tried to hide it. It came out in her response to his question about how she’d been…in the subtle way her lips shifted slightly at the press of her lips within. It was there in the uncharacteristic way that she entertained this entire conversation at all…that she wasn’t lashing out at him or doing anything that he was used to from their last interaction. Hell, she wasn’t even acting the way they had been when it had just been business. The only time she’d been anything besides all business was when she thought he was about to bleed out from the gut shot.

So, he finally ripped off the band-aid. ”Neither of us is the small talk type, Scout. How about we get to the part about why we’re both here, in the same room, given how we last parted ways.”

Posted 07-10-2023, 07:06 PM

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He might as well have been speaking an entirely foreign language. Scout found his response the strangest. She had no idea what he was talking about, but it almost seemed rehearsed. Like he had said it enough times to others, that he was comfortable reciting it with a tinge of flair. "Ooohkay." She responded, lengthening the word to hint at her confusion, but most of all, her irritation. The lifted brow was more convincing of the latter.

Unfortunately, Scout was quite unaware as to what an african lion was, or a tiger. But she had a hunch, which came from a rarity. The Mountain Lion was a creature she could recognize, and it gave her the hint that he was speaking of a big cat. Something more than the strays that lingered around Stronghold hoping to catch a mouse and fill it's stomach. Scout refused to let this nonsensical conversation go any further though, and feigned complete ignorance. She really wasn't interested in what his animal spirit was or should be. It was more of the cursed small talk.

Thankfully, he too shared the sentiment.

Visibly her shoulders loosened, relaxing just the smallest bit, like she could set aside her façade and get down to why she was there. But another part of her realized that she had failed already at what she was attempting to accomplish. She needed him to trust her, she needed him to believe that what had happened between them was in the past; then maybe, just maybe, he would help her.

"Alright." she leaned back away from the chair a little. The gun in her hand that rested on her thigh came up and she placed it firmly back where it belonged on her hip. She was stalling, just a moment, trying to find the best way to begin.

"I guess, let me start with a question... if you could fix what happened, would you?" Authentically, there was a slight tone of desperation in her voice, a sincerity, unlike before.

Posted 07-11-2023, 09:46 PM This post was last modified: 07-11-2023, 09:46 PM by Scout Gadsby

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As Scout drew out that word and lifted that brow in irritation, Malachi sighed internally. No one ever got his references. It wasn’t that he was surprised…in many ways, he’d time-traveled to a future where much of the world's collective knowledge had been lost thanks to the apocalypse. Pop culture references weren’t a thing in the same way they had been back when he’d still been human. It was a disappointing reality, knowing that he was likely one of the few beings on the planet that still understood that period of human history.

He distracted himself by appreciating how his attempt to cut to the chase relaxed her body language. The pretense fell away from her at that, and he quickly managed to recognize the woman he’d been business partners with for a short time. This was more of what he expected and what he knew of her.

Still, he watched that gun movement until she settled it back into that nonthreatening, holstered position. Her question, however, caught him off guard, and it was his turn to lift a brow. His body language mirrored it as he leaned back slightly and appraised her. Caution entered his voice, dripping low from his lips as he carefully enunciated each word. ”I am not entirely sure how I could do that, Scout. I cannot go back in time to prevent myself from being gut-shot. I cannot make your former leadership believe you are not a threat to the community. It should be evident given that you are sitting here and talking instead of trying to rip out my throat.”

He shook his head a little, his voice taking on an edge of consternation. ”People love to be ignorant, however, and avoid the simple truths. That is as accurate now as it was back before everything fell apart.”

Malachi gestured to her to encourage her to elaborate. ”How, praytell, do you think I could fix it?”

Posted 07-12-2023, 07:06 PM

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It was at the conclusion of the very first sentence he responded with that Scout drew in a sigh and threw her gaze to the wall behind him. She was already aggravated and they had barely begun. Still, she let him continue on his little tirade. She had asked for an answer and he had skirted the question entirely, then concluded with a question of his own. "Yeah they really do like to avoid answering too." She rolled her eyes and let him finish, let that question float back to her, and suddenly she felt like they were doing another 'dance', the same sort of dance that small talk annoying swayed to.

"Can you just answer the damn question?" She stood up from the chair that she had straddled. Taking two steps away from him and then turned to reface the vampire. "You're getting ahead of yourself Malachi, all I asked you, is if you would fix it, if you could fix it. I didn't suggest you come up with a solution, and I definitely didn't ask you to come here and explain to me how dumb, deaf, and blind my superiors are."

She sighed again, taking a breath that was more for herself than for him. She needed to quell the fire burning inside and try to appeal to his humanity, … if he had any left. He was just really hard to get along with, like water and oil, these two were. "All I'm asking you is if you regret it, do you wish you hadn't done it, and if there was a way, would you do what you could to fix it? Or does it not matter to you? Do you not care that you wrecked my life? That's all I want to know right now." she gave him a look, one that promised anger if he went off track from the very clear-cut course she had put them on.

This was not going as well as she had planned it.

Posted 07-12-2023, 07:28 PM This post was last modified: 07-12-2023, 07:29 PM by Scout Gadsby

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He snorted at her immediate response and how she answered as she rolled her eyes. ”You’re asking for a simplistic and nonspecific answer to a very complex and specific question, Scout. I don’t have any concept about how I could fix it, but the manner of your question makes it clear that you seem to have an idea about how you think I could do so. Therefore, finding more information is only pertinent before committing to an answer.”

Malachi kept his tone reasonable while he watched her stand up and pace away before turning back to him. Pale eyes watched her as her chest rose and fell while trying to control herself. Concern flowed through him…wondering if she would spin herself up into another panicky, trigger-happy state if she didn’t hear whatever she wanted.

”Do I regret the situation that led to biting you? Of course, Scout. I didn’t want to bite you, and I certainly didn’t intend to do anything that would start upending your life. If you want to know if I wish I hadn’t done it, then no, because, at that moment, I wasn’t in control…I was simply trying to survive. Wishing I hadn’t done it is the same as wishing I’d died. You said you made decisions because of what you thought happened. You felt that Clay was going to turn you in. I didn’t make those decisions.”

His head tilted as he looked at her carefully; his return look was mild while that hand on the table nonchalantly gripped the edge of that table his elbow rested on while he leaned forward. ”So yes, I care about what happened and what has happened in your life since. I’m still alive, thanks to you, so I am happy to help if there is some assistance I can afford to provide. However, I need to know what you think I can do to help you. This is no different that our business transaction, Scout. You tell me what you need; I tell you what I can provide. We find a mutually agreeable solution.”

Posted 07-12-2023, 08:09 PM

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He's so paranoid. she thought to herself, knowing good well she hadn't factored any of that into her plans or through the rehearsal of this conversation. It was clear she barely knew him, which of course, checked out, considering she didn't. It was the largest fault in her operation to convince him to come with her, and it was becoming even more evident that Scout wasn't the greatest at improvising on the fly. "I'm not asking you to commit to anything other than knowing where your head is at." Social interaction was down right exhausting. He was exhausting.

It was aggravating that he had a right to be paranoid, and he apparently already knew it before Scout truly gave him a reason out loud. It almost felt like she had entered into this meeting with the blueprint to her plot written on her forehead. She didn't like that, didn't like not being one step ahead.

"No, I knew he was going to." she interrupted briefly, unable to control herself in correcting that small, tiny detail. Though it was miniscule, it meant the difference in determining a great deal about her character, at least in her opinion.

Pulling both hands to her hips, she had to stop herself from glaring at Mal as he finished his small speech. "You know, I might have gotten around to asking you for help, if you had just let me get there. We could of skipped this entire tirade of yours. There was no reason to sit there and pretend you're pulling teeth to get me to get to the point. I was just feeling you out, seeing if I had a fucking chance. I wasn't trying to trap you into commitment, for fucks sake." She threw her gaze to the ceiling and pivoted away from him, still in a pacing-like manner.

She couldn't remember when someone's word was an unbreakable binding contract. People backed out all the time, the lied, they went back on their word. There was more back stabbing in the world than there was honesty. Even if he had agreed that he wished he could fix it in the very beginning with a simple "yes", Scout would of only saw it as crossing the first hurdle in a long string of them. Now she figured she didn't stand a chance.

"I want you to go with me. Into Stronghold. I can smuggle you in and you can explain what happened. With Clay dead, we can make up any story we want. He was the only one that knew I was bitten. I just need a witness. Otherwise they won't have any reason to believe me. There's a lot in it for you. I can get you anything you want. Anything Mal." In the process of spilling her guts, she had retaken her seat, re-straddling the chair and leaning forward into the back of the chair.

Posted 07-13-2023, 09:04 PM

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”Knew…felt…it’s all flip sides to the same coin. You made a decision based on it.” He shrugged a bit, pale eyes watching her while she stood there, hands on her hips. She didn’t quite stare holes into him but wasn’t far off. The corner of his mouth ticked up a bit when she talked about feeling him out and not trying to trap him into commitment. He’d met a girl or two like that back in the old world…the ones that really tried to trap you into things. They spoke much honey and promised you the world. *Don’t worry, baby, I’m safe.*

He'd had a friend or two that had gotten suckered into deals like that and had seen a few more. They either wound up with a temporary STD or gave the girl an eighteen-year one. No one wound up happy at the end.

Given that she’d come into this like they were old friends and that she hadn’t tried to shoot him before, it was hard not to compare her to them…to someone trying to lure someone else into something to improve their situation. Indeed, it looked like that was the case, given her state. His pale brows rose as she began to lay out what she wanted.

And rose further.

Pretty soon, they all but crawled into his hairline. Malachi wanted things from within the walls…but he didn’t want to be *inside* those walls. Stronghold was hard to get into. It was just as hard to get out of. Now, with the genuine risk that someone could reveal the truth about him, being in Stronghold was the *last* place he wanted to be. He swallowed heavily, sliding down further into his chair as he stared at her, watching as she straddled that seat and leaned into it some. Despite her state, Scout wasn’t hard on the eyes. Idly, he wondered if she’s lean on that angle if the pitch didn’t seem to be going her way.

He shook his head a bit. ”They aren’t real friendly on outsiders sneaking in…that’s why I wanted to work with you in the first place. Last thing I wanted to get into was a ‘Papers, Please’ situation. If you want to make your story seem valid, committing another crime isn’t the best way to do it. Why don’t we meet somewhere outside that makes more sense?”

He was framing it as though it was to support her validity, but he absolutely did not want to be trapped behind the walls of Stronghold. ”Besides…*anything* is a pretty vague statement…it could mean a lot and I don’t want you writing checks you can’t cash for me. What do you even think I’d want in return?”

Posted 07-13-2023, 09:30 PM

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That hadn't been the point she was trying to get across. He was right, she had made a decision based on what she knew was about to happen. She knew, because Clay had said as much, he thought threatening to turn her in would make her do it herself. That had been the wrong move. But the point of clarifying was that, in her mind, her hand had been forced in the situation. Scout didn't think she was a murderer, or at least, she was trying to convince herself she wasn't. Her choices were all made in an effort to secure her own safety, killing Clay had been in self defense.

Scout wasn't blind to his reaction, the lifting of his brows that seemed to give away his surprise and shock at what she was suggesting. It wasn't promising. In fact, she felt like she might as well just walk out. He was never going to go along with this. Still, she waited, if he was going to turn her down, she felt it was within her full rights to guilt the ever-loving-fuck out of him first.

"I can get you papers." she was quit to retort, even if it was a complete lie. Well, maybe not completely. At one time she could easily forge the proper documentation, it was her specialty. Now it would be nearly impossible, if not completely. "It's only a crime if you're caught, and I don't plan on getting caught."

She let his counter idea sit a bit, it could still work, not as well, not as sure, but it might work. If he was going to be insistent on it, then she would consider it, but not just yet.

"Nah, that's not how it works, what would you want in return other than knowing you made shit right with me... and secured our business arrangements to continue in the future... If I can't get back into Stronghold, that vein for supplies or anything you hoped to get from me is dead where it stands. Think of it as an investment."

Posted 07-14-2023, 09:33 PM

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The comment about papers had been a joke. He didn’t want inside of Stronghold. He just wanted things *from* Stronghold. That’s what she’d been for…not that it mattered now. She couldn’t get him what he needed. Even if this somehow cleared her name, he doubted she’d have the access he needed anymore. Everyone would be paying more attention to her, which was the last thing you wanted from your smuggling partner. Scrutiny was *never* good for business.

*No, that business partnership is dead and buried*, he thought to himself. She wasn’t worth anything to him in that regard, not anymore. Given how hard she was pushing for this, he thought she might be grasping at straws, looking for anything that might keep her relevant and of value.

”I kept you alive and kept you from becoming like I was, Scout…and I know how the Stronghold leadership works. Even if that works, they will keep you on a much shorter leash.” His eyes dipped, lingering on the slender column of her throat, his thoughts idle as his gaze lingered there momentarily before he shook his head. ”I’ve got a counter-proposal for you.”

Standing up, he placed his hands in his pockets, letting his fingertips slip into there so it seemed like he was being nonchalant about it all. One hand slipped out again to gesture at her. ”What if I show you the ropes about surviving out here? Get in touch with some of the other major settlements. This is a chance to start fresh. Between the two of us…there’s much good coin to be made.”

He had a strong doubt that she’d ever go for the idea, but it didn’t hurt to ask. It certainly assuaged his feelings of guilt by at least offering it to her.

Posted 07-14-2023, 10:16 PM

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