Dion

"That was being a bit of a dick, Dion," Blaze said, after Amelia slammed the bedroom door shut. "You could have been a bit gentler."

I had to agree with her. I didn't mean to come across so aggressive, it just kind of happened when I heard her talking about doing things for herself. Why wouldn't she let people take care of her, especially in her condition?

"You don't think it's her hormones making her overreact?" I said, trying not to grin.

"If you want to stay alive, you never mention a pregnant woman's hormones."

I laughed. "Duly noted." I reached into my pocket and pulled out a handful of twenties. "Get the best dog food there is. I doubt Santini would have had them on a value range. Also..." I paused as I thought over my next words "...I'm thinking maybe to eat with her this evening...I guess I owe her an apology, right?"

A quirky smile folded over the older woman's lips. "I think that's a great idea. What do you want me to get?"

"I don't know. Give me some ideas."

"Why not something plain and simple like risotto? She doesn't know what foods she does and doesn't like yet with her pregnancy. At least if the food is plain, there's a good chance she can stomach it."

I shrugged my shoulders. "Sure. Whatever you think is best. Just..." I lowered my voice, almost embarrassed at the next words I spoke "...make sure it's something we can cook together."

Blaze raised her eyebrows. Shock and surprise filtered across her face.

I quickly jumped in to explain myself. "Well, she wants to feel like she's doing something, right? So why not let her feel like she's cooking her own food?"

She laughed and patted my arm. "Sure thing, D. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Smirking to herself, Blaze disappeared outside, leaving me nervous for how the rest of the evening would go. I headed back to my office, figuring leaving Amelia to cool off was the safest option for me right now. Besides, Sooty and Ripper were due to check in at any moment regarding our CCTV predicament. I would reconvene with Cleaver after their report and then hopefully cook some risotto with Amelia—if she would talk to me.

***

I started looking through our schedule for the next few months, already trying to figure out how I was going to fit Amelia in around all of this. We had three runs planned that would take me away for nearly a week at a time. I trusted Blaze to look after Amelia, but I found myself admitting that I didn't want to leave her for that long.

As I found myself asking some deep questions, my phone rang, distracting me.

"We're good, Boss," said Sooty. "Our route definitely had no CCTV coverage. We're all clear."

"You're positive on that?"

"We've double and triple checked. Definitely. The closest camera is two blocks away and points in the wrong direction. Judging from the security vans on the estate now though, we've done it by the skin of our teeth. Next week, this whole place will be on big brother."

"Perfect. Thanks, boys. Come on back. We've got church soon."

They ended the call, leaving me with a weight lifted from my shoulders. Living off the grid and away from the eyes of 'big brother' was our main aim. We hated the confines of a normal society, all the rules and political bullshit that accompanied daily life. Our world was much simpler—eat or be eaten. An eye for an eye. Look after your own. It was a code we all knew and one we all found easy to live by.

I found myself chewing on my pen as I wondered what Amelia's life before Santini had been like. Would she have come from a privileged family? Lived by the common laws that bound ninety-nine percent of civilians? Or did her family have some shady dealings with Santini and he took her as a price?

Looking up at the clock, I realised more than an hour had passed since my disagreement with Amelia. I took a deep breath and decided to venture upstairs to make peace.

As I climbed the stairs, I debated whether I needed a white flag or an olive branch to wave through the door first. Telling myself to get a grip, I walked up to the door and knocked on it.

"Yes?" she said, her tone of voice sharp.

I quashed my wobble of nerves and opened the door. "Hi," I said, sticking my head through the gap I'd opened. "Can I come in?"

She snorted. "It's your house."

I swallowed the lump in my throat and skirted through the open door. I closed it shut behind me, then leaned back against it. More for support than anything.

"I wanted to apologise...for earlier. I was being a dick. I'm sorry."

Two icy blue eyes stared back at me with disdain leaking from every part of them. "I tell you what. Go downstairs, find a plate, smash it on the floor, say sorry, and see if it fixes it."

Whoa. Ok. "I...I didn't mean to offend you, Amelia. All I wanted to do was stress the point that you don't need to worry about providing for yourself because you're my guest. Therefore, it's my duty to provide for you."

"Well, I don't need to worry about providing for myself, do I? Because you made it quite clear I'm not even capable of doing that."

"That was a mistake. I didn't mean it to come out like that."

A sinister smile played out over her pink lips. "A mistake is when someone decided to fill the Hindenburg with hydrogen or the Trojan's decided to open their gates for the wooden horse, or better yet, when the Austrian army accidentally attacked itself and killed ten thousand of its own men. They were mistakes. What you did was deliberate, manipulative, and cruel. I'm not interested in anything you have to say."

I don't know what astounded me more—her sheer stubbornness and refusal to accept my apology or her apparent knowledge of history. I thought on her words for several painstaking seconds before simply saying, "I am really sorry. Would you let me make it up to you?"

"Ahh, that one little question that all men hinge on. You always seem to think you can hurt us and then just say sorry, make a grand gesture, and it's all forgotten about. Well, it doesn't work like that. Not with me, anyway. Not anymore."

Not anymore. I realised then her whole skewed view of the world and the people in it hinged on her experiences of Santini. I had no idea what he'd subjected her to but judging from the dark bitterness festering inside her, it was nothing good.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here," I said, stepping away from the door. "And say something that will probably make you hate me more, but hey, we're halfway there already, right?"

A blank impassive face stared back at me.

"I'm guessing whatever world you lived in under Santini's roof was cruel, unjust, and always ensured he came out on top. Am I right?"

Every muscle in her visibly stiffened. Just the mere mention of his name had hatred oozing from her very being. "What's your point?"

I took a tentative step towards her and held my hands up in a surrender sign. "I'm not like that. I'm my own person. Yes, I might belong to the same gender group as Santini but that makes me nothing like him. You can't tar every man with the same brush."

She jumped up. The dogs scrabbled to their feet and rushed to fill the gap between us. The bigger of the two growled at me. "Watch me," she said. "Until I'm proven otherwise, you're all as bad as him."

The dogs pressed me back a step. "I saved your life and offered you a place to live indefinitely. What more do you want me to do to prove my intentions here?"

"I never asked you to save me," she said, narrowing her eyes. "I was quite happy being throttled to death by Slim Jim. It was much preferable to the life I'd have to endure being Santini's baby momma."

I wanted to ask if death concerned her and her unborn foetus, but I refrained from mentioning anything pregnancy related, as per Blaze's advice. "Ok, so I gave some help when it was needed. Do you want me to apologise for that?"

She stared at me, silent for so many seconds, I wondered if she would even answer me. Finally, she said, "No. I am glad you killed Slim Jim. Thank you."

I let out a breath I didn't realise I'd been holding. "You said until you're proven otherwise, we're all as bad as each other, right?"

She nodded.

"If you don't give anyone the chance to prove otherwise, how are you going to know anyone is different to Santini?"

Resignation flashed across her pretty face. She lowered her eye contact to the floor and sighed. Then, sitting back down on the bed, she said, "Fine. I accept your apology, but don't you dare think for one minute that makes me a pushover."

"I never thought anything of the sort for even a second." I lowered my hands and gave her a warm smile. "Would you like to eat together around eight? I have church in a few minutes, but I'm free afterwards."

She narrowed her eyes, as if scrutinising every aspect of me. "Ok. That would be nice." She gave me a small smile. "Perhaps I will have thawed a little by then."

"I'll call for you when I'm ready."

She nodded and switched her attention to her dogs, stroking and patting them. Feeling like I'd just won a war, I swiftly exited and returned downstairs.

My first battle had been won.