026. FIVE LETTER WORD

Harry had a secret in his pocket.

One even his closest confidants didn't know.

Hiding something from them was something he hadn't done in a long time - a very long time. Secrets were part of his old self - his former self. A version of him he was fighting to keep away every single fucking day. It was torturous to do so - to keep him away. But not to the level of torture he faced all those years ago.

Besides, it wasn't like this one was going to his personal vault. He would tell them soon enough. He just needed to wait until the moment was right.

"What the fuck is going on?"

Colson briefly looked over his shoulder before turning his attention back to the wall. "Enough is enough, Harry," he said, tacking another image to the wall. "You've been avoiding us all week. Your office was the only place we knew this would work."

Tearing his eyes from the sight, Harry turned to the bar cart and poured himself a drink. He knew that time was running up, and patience was growing increasingly thin. But for the first time, he didn't want to know the truth.

Because the truth had the power to ruin everything.

"What if she comes by?" He knew she wouldn't.

"Kip's watching the camera at Sal's," Colson explained, nodding to the kid sitting on the couch, "And we'll get notified if she clocks out."

Harry took a sip from his glass.

"Shall we start? Or do you want to keep bitching about our setup?"

"What's with the attitude tonight, sweetheart?" Resting his palms against the desk, Harry watched his friend with a careful eye. Met with silence, he added, "Your panties are in a twist over something. What is it? Hmm?"

"Your little girlfriend is a fucking liar and has got you so far up her ass, and you can't see it, that's what."

She might like that, actually.

Harry looked over at Dallas, who had been unusually quiet. "And do you also think she's a... fucking liar?"

"I don't know," he admitted with a shrug. "I would like to think she isn't. But it doesn't look too good."

Collapsing in his chair, Harry motioned to the wall of photos. "Then let's see what you've got."

"We were able to confirm what she told you," Colson said as he walked up to the board. "Rory Young. Born October thirty-first. Daughter of Aidan Young. Mother did skip out on her; no relationship there." He pointed to the X crossing out her face. "Grew up in a middle-to-lower class area with her grandparents and father. Her Grandfather died of a heart attack when she was little, and the Grandmother died of natural causes a few years later. Her uncle was next - he died of an overdose. And then, Aidan died in a car crash a few days before her thirteenth birthday."

"It checks out with what she said then. Yes?"

"It checks out," Colson confirmed. "School records confirm she's been in the city ever since she got moved to be with her foster mother."

"Straight A student," Dallas interjected. "You finally caught one with a brain there, Haroldina."

"For the most part, everything seems fine. She's just some annoying, know-it-all brat that we've had to deal with. But this is where things get... odd." Colson pointed to the map. "Her current apartment and all her previous ones have all been short leased. All under different names." He pinned more photos on the board.

"What are those? Mug shots?"

"No, ID cards and passports. All with various identities."

Harry stepped forward to take a closer look. "Where did you find these?"

"In a fake floorboard that was under her couch."

Impressive, he thought to himself.

"Do we know anything about these aliases?"

Kip popped his head up from the computer. "Used for her leases and bank accounts. This might not sound weird, but," he turned the screen for our viewing, "I hacked into the records to pull up any transaction history. They all receive a couple of thousand dollars every month from someone that clearly isn't her. But the weirdest part is, she has accounts for all her other names but not her own."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive. I even-"

"Hold on," he cut him off, noticing something move on another monitor. "Is that her apartment? You set up cameras in her apartment?"

The three others stayed silent, exchanging looks between one another.

"Harry," Colson said, "something wasn't adding up, and we couldn't figure it out based on what was in her apartment. We searched every fucking corner, just like you asked. And all we got was more questions about her."

"We didn't agree to cameras in her apartment."

Dallas rolled his eyes. "It's child's play. One is facing the door. The other is near her window. A third in the hallway."

"How long have those been in there?"

"It not-"

"How fucking long, Colson?"

"Two weeks."

"Shit," Harry cursed under his breath. "So you heard everything then?"

Harry didn't care the cameras indicated his friends would have heard them finally having sex for the first time in a while. He cared that it meant an audience heard Rory's admission.

"We did," Dallas stepped forward and handed him a folder.

"What's this?"

"A peace offering of sorts, let's call it." Dallas nudged the item forward. "We think this is the guy who called her a liar."

Colson rolled his eyes. "Yeah, we'll get to him in a minute," he said with a bitter tone, turning back to the board. "We've noticed she gets calls at the same time every day that she answers on what I'm assuming is a burner phone. She doesn't talk - just listens to whoever is on the other end. The calls last one to two minutes, and then she hangs up." Colson handed forward a handful of images of her on the phone. "Aside from this, one thing we can't wrap our heads around is why she hasn't given the locket back. She said it herself; it's worthless. It would cost more to fix it than what she would earn for it... so why does she have it?"

Harry had to admit his friend had a point. What was her gain for keeping it this entire time? The possibility that she knew what was inside the locket was a fearful thought. If she knew that, they were playing a completely different game here.

Reaching for his drink, he took a long sip. "Something's not right," he murmured, looking over the board. "There's a name missing from this picture," he said, pointing to the blonde version of Rory. "Why is there a name missing?"

Dallas cleared his throat. "It... wasn't there?"

"Is that a question or your final answer?"

Dallas didn't know what to say - therefore, he looked at Colson with wide nervous eyes.

The silence was testing Harry's patience.

"Would someone please fucking tell me why this alias is one she uses the most, and you idiots didn't add the name?"

He was about three seconds away from throwing the crystal glass in his hand at one of their heads. The only reason he didn't was thanks to Kip taking one for the team and meekly saying, "It's Juliet."

Harry only allowed his face to show a hint of sadness before he returned to his stoic, angry nature. It had been years since he last heard that name out loud. And yet, it still was never easier.

"You don't have to hide that name from me," he said.

"We thought it was too soon." Dallas poured his friend another drink. "The one Rory uses the most has her name. Her hair and eye colour. From the same town in the exact same city." He ignored Colson's pressing glare to stop talking. "You don't think that's... weird?"

"It's a different last name."

"Please don't tell me you're just going to pass up this giant fucking red flag because of the last-"

Harry held up his hand to signal Dallas to stop talking. "I'm not saying any of that. I'm only pointing it out. What would be her gain by changing the last name but keeping the rest of the information the same?" Walking towards the board, his eyes scanned the map with critical places or areas circled. "Pull up that address under the Juliet name. Let's see if there's anything that gives us a clue."

Harry was doing what no one else in the room had expected. He was invested in uncovering every detail they could.

Colson feared he would take the information too lightly or pass off things the others deemed essential. But instead, Harry was finding and connecting more. He was working Rory like he would any other target. And what started as key details pinned to a board now took up two entire walls of his office.

"Where's the money coming from?"

"It's wired through a bunch of shell corporations all around the world," Kip explained, typing on his computer. "But I managed to trace it back to a company called RE. Romano Enterprises. Ring any bells?"

A shot of pain went through Harry's skull. He squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb.

"You okay, Haz?"

"I'm fine," he gruffed, "Just a headache. Give me a second." Reaching for his drink, he drained the glass in one quick motion and refilled it. "I think I know that name."

Colson wrote down the name on a piece of paper and added it to the wall. "Their activities died down, but they were a huge crime family back in the day."

"One of the young bucks has been drumming up business again the last few years," Dallas chimed in. "Heard from some people that they're back in play. Only came into the city within the last six months."

"Any idea who's working?"

"That's a bit trickier than usual. It seems like they learned from their mistakes of being flashy with their criminal dealings. I guess having most of your family killed in broad daylight at a child's birthday party will do that." Dallas chuckled to himself. "But one guy near the top makes his face known and runs the clubs and bars. Giovanni."

Kip pulled up an image on the computer screen. "This is-"

"That's her dealer," Harry interrupted.

Stepping forward to get a better look at the screen, his brow furrowed at seeing them together—multiple pictures talking in alleyways, in his car, outside her apartment.

"What?"

"That's her dealer," he repeated. "That night I went out with her, she commented how she had to go over and speak with him."

Colson's brow furrowed. "Why would Rory buy drugs from Giovanni Romano at a club but never during any of these outings?"

"The better question is," Harry stared down the image, "why the fuck is Giovanni Romano giving her money every month into separate accounts, all with different, credible identities."

"So you're telling me this girl is involved with the Romano crime family and the Skullz gang?" Dallas let out a roar of laughter. "Fraternizing with two groups that would love nothing more than to see the other dead? This girl really does have a death wish."

"Speaking of the Skullz," Colson pointed to the file handed to Harry earlier. "Tanner Hart. Twenty-five years of age and has been a part of the group since fifteen. Dropped out of high school, no surprise there, and has a heavy presence in drugs and weapons."

Dallas stepped towards the desk and filled open the file. "He's not high up, but he's willing to do anything to get ahead. He's quite trigger happy, which, for that group, is a good thing. They don't care about making a mess."

"We don't have a timeline of when the two met. It's not like this girl keeps diaries around her apartment - but given what we could find, we placed it at least two years ago." Colson crossed his arms over his chest. "So, here we have a girl that can somehow avoid any camera, get into safes, has connections with two of the most deadly groups in the city because she dated one guy and gets money from the other... and we're supposed to think she's what? Innocent?"

Harry reached for his drink.

"Come on, Haz. Remove your feelings for her for-"

"There are no feelings, Colson. You know that. It was a fucking act," he said, refilling his glass. "I am just thinking."

"About?"

"She has all these connections and is fucking good at what she does. Plus, she lost everyone before thirteen." Harry took a sip, letting the alcohol burn down his throat. "The question we haven't asked ourselves is, did she know V?"

"The program only took men."

"There were many things we didn't know about the program, Colson." Harry's eyes found their way to the center of the board, staring directly at the picture of his girlfriend. "I think we need to view this differently. For all we know, Rory could be V's kid."

And so, they did just that.

They pinned any possible timeline that came to mind to the wall. Rory's connections to V. What she would gain from being involved with Tanner and Giovanni. Whether or not they knew about each other. If she worked for either of them, they mapped out ideas on why they would want the locket, how they knew about the locket, and what would happen if they got hold of it.

They dug apart her story; the death of every family member, why her mother never got sole custody, and how she ended up in foster care. They analyzed photos from the crime scenes and the police reports, attempting to uncover even the slightest slip-up.

The more they looked into her, the more Harry started to spiral into the realization he had feared all along. Rory wasn't who she said she was. And if she were connected to V in any way, it would be world-shattering for Harry.

Even from the grave, V still had a way to ruin the man's life.

"I need another drink," Harry announced, holding the empty bottle.

With his head hung low, Colson sighed in agreement. "I think we all need a break from this room. Clear our heads for a minute."

As Dallas and Kip made their way out of the room for a smoke, Colson noticed Harry remained near the wall, fixated on Rory's image.

"What's going through your mind, Haz?"

"If she doesn't know V, that doesn't make her innocent," he gritted his teeth. "She knew what she was going after. She pretended to know nothing about Juliet but has a matching ID. She-"

Harry fell silent. Juliet was still a fresh wound, which still pained him the same after all these years. Knowing her death was a pawn in Bambi's game - that hurt him. Hard. It made him want to get his gun and finish the job, be rid of Rory once and for all.

"Let's get you another drink. Then we'll figure out our plan."

"I want her dead."

"I know, buddy. Don't worry - I do too." Colson clasped his hand against his friend's back. Exiting the office, he continued, "On the bright side, Dallas hasn't tortured anyone in a while. I'm sure he'd enjoy getting every piece of information out of her before we finish it off. It will be like Christmas morning for him."

Harry opened the supply closet and rummaged through a box. "I think we're going to need more than just one bottle," he murmured, grabbing another bottle.

"You might have to keep up this fake girlfriend-boyfriend thing for a little longer. Think you can do that?"

"It'll be easy."

Harry headed back down the hallway and towards the office without another word. For the first time in his life, he wasn't sure he believed himself - and he sure as hell didn't want Colson picking up on that. Harry was ready to get back to work with the two bottles in hand.

But his plans went out the window as he noticed someone standing in his office, staring at the wall.

"What the fuck is going on?"

XX

Rory decided to be spontaneous tonight.

Once Amber had kindly distracted the boss with a quickie in the middle of the shift, Rory decided to skip out on the rest of work and pick up some takeout food for Harry. He had mentioned staying late at the office to work on expenses and wouldn't get a chance to see her tonight. She didn't intend to stay; she just wanted him to know she was thinking of him by bringing him food - something he had done for her plenty of times.

Due to her shock, the takeout food was dropped to the ground as she looked around the room.

Photos were everywhere, covering every inch of the four walls—images of her walking on the street, in her apartment, and at work. There were profiles of all the people she knew and surveillance of anywhere she went mapped out. 

Rory felt her chest tighten.

"What the fuck is this, Harry?"

Turning her head, she first noticed how dark his eyes were. It was like the night he killed someone in front of her. The same darkness consumed his presence, leaving her frightened. She barely noticed the other three guys enter the room as her attention remained focused on Harry, wondering if he would end her life the same way he had done to the man in the basement.

He wanted her dead.

And this time, there was no doubt in her mind that he would do it.

"You broke into my apartment," she whispered. Noticing the date on the photo taken of her ID cards, the pit in her stomach grew. "That's why you asked me out? So they could go through my apartment?"

Harry didn't answer her. She didn't need him to - his silence confirmed it. The date she assumed was out of pity resulted from something far more sinister. 

They had everything she hid in her apartment on this board. She felt exposed - and not in the way she usually enjoyed. "I'm not a bad person."

Harry nodded to Colson, giving him a silent signal. He couldn't even speak to her without his words dripping with malice, clearly something he was saving for later.

Colson folded his arms over his chest. "Sure as hell seems like it, Rory. So, why don't we start with an easy question? Why do you have so many IDs, Rory?"

"I change apartments a lot, and people don't do background checks where I live if you pay the right price." Her bottom lip trembled. "Because I... I've had some issues with ex's... a-and if I use a different name, it gives me a bit of time before they find me."

Colson and Harry exchanged a look.

"You saw the marks on my back," she whispered. "You asked me about them."

Harry remained silent.

"And you question why I've moved around a few times? Who fucking cares where I've lived? How is that any of your business?"

"Because when you use Juliet's fucking name," Harry yelled, unable to control the rage in his voice, "It becomes my fucking business, Rory."

"Juliet?" she whispered, her brow furrowing at the name. "Who's Juliet?"

"Don't play fucking stupid with me." Harry stalked towards her until her back pressed up against the wall. "You fucking stood there and let me talk about her like you had no fucking clue," he roared. "What do you fucking know, huh?"

She jumped back at his tone, her eyes widening. There he was; the devil was peeking through and showing his true form. She hated when he was like this. But she didn't know how to make it stop.

"Who are you talking about?"

"Juliet! The girlfriend I fucking told you about! You have her name on your fucking ID card!"

"I didn't pick those names!" she shouted.

Harry took a step back. "What?"

"I didn't pick those names!" she repeated. "And before you fucking accuse me of something else, you never told me her name, Harry. And, I didn't ask because it seemed like a fucking trigger for you!" She averted her eyes, sinking her teeth into her bottom lip.

"If you didn't pick those names," Colson continued, "Who did?"

When she remained silent, Harry yelled, "Answer him, Rory!" 

"Gio did," she whispered. 

"Why?"

Rory licked her lips, attempting to provide her dry mouth with some relief as she thought of a way to answer him. 

But time was not something Harry was willing to be lenient with as his voice shouted, "Why, Rory?"

"Tanner hurt me one night at his club, and he saw!" she blurted out. "I told him what was happening; I don't know why but I couldn't stop once I opened my mouth. I told him I was stuck because I was living with him and couldn't afford to be on my own. He offered to help me because he said his mother suffered the same way, but no one stepped up before it was too late."

They weren't dealing with some brilliant mastermind criminal in front of them. They were only dealing with a Bambi. A brilliant Bambi. But just a Bambi.

Harry had fucked up - he and everyone else could see it. 

Well, everyone except Colson.

"You seem pretty close with Gio," Colson sneered.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Opening a folder, he showed her the images Harry had seen earlier. No drugs had been exchanged during those visits; she was even hugging him in one.

"Oh, I think you know exactly what it means."

Colson showed her an image that not even Harry had seen yet. Rory and Gio were in a car together outside her apartment. He handed her a wad of cash in one picture and kissed her on the forehead in the other. "This was only last week, wasn't it? There are a lot of rumours going around that you sleep with people for money, Rory. Is he one of your clients? God only knows what you two must talk about during pillow talk. Plus, with all those bank accounts he's filling up for you? Wow, I guess you scored the jackpot there. What else did you do to get that out of him?"

Rory averted her gaze.

"With how often he picks you up, I'm sure you get paid quite well by him."

She squeezed her eyes shut.

"I hope he at least treats you to a nice hotel room. Even a whore like you deserves the bare minimum."

Harry noticed her nails digging into the palm of her hands and how her breath was short and rapid. "Colt, stop," he warned.

"Oh, now you tell him to stop?" she spat at Harry before turning her attention back to Colson. "I've never slept with him. And even if I had, that wouldn't be any of your fucking business, you piece of shit. But I bet it made you feel really good calling me a whore, didn't it? I'm sure it made you feel like the big man in the room. And yet, it's a shame after this beautiful mural you created, all dedicated to me, the best gossip you could manage is from Amber's mouth."

Colson quickly swallowed his pride, hearing her venomous tone continue.

"But since you can't do your own fucking research, ass face, Gio pays me for information on Tanner. Where he goes and who he hangs out with. Why? I don't fucking know. But I get a thousand bucks just for telling him what the guy ate for breakfast." She rubbed her hands together, trying to dull the pain she caused from digging her nails into her flesh. "And, he put money in those accounts, so if I need to run away one day, I can. But there's fucking strings attached to taking it - so even if I needed to, I wouldn't."

There was a beat of silence; she could feel the four pairs of eyes watching her every movement and flinch of her body. She felt on display for their calculating gaze, and she hated it. Knowing what they assumed of her made her want to crawl into a hole and never return.

Rory wiped away a tear before it could fall. "You don't know what it's like to be me, alright? To live in constant fear that someone might decide to follow through on their threats one day." The ones she referred to didn't include them; they knew it. There was a handful of exes she could choose who might want her dead now that she was no longer theirs. "You have each other to help clean up your messes. I don't. I'm alone. If I protect myself, I'm the only one who can clean up the blood. I don't have a family I can run to-"

Images on the far side of the board caught her attention. She couldn't even comment on her anger upon seeing the live feed of her apartment on the monitor. Harry could see the tears fall when she spotted the images of her family; when she saw the crime scene photos and the notes they pinned on the board that questioned every death. The pain she had been running from for years from laid out on display - for them to view and pull apart.

DID AIDAN REALLY DIE?

WAS RORY IN THE CAR?

DID HE ACTUALLY SAVE HER LIFE?

That was her breaking point. All she wanted to do was get out.

The break she made to the door was foiled by a hand grabbing hold of her wrist.

"Rory, please." Harry didn't know what to say for the first time in his life. And to make matters worse, he felt a tinge of guilt - something he hadn't felt in a very long time.

"So everything was a lie then?"

"Rory, it's not-"

"What? It's not what it looks like?" She looked around the room, wanting to laugh at how the three others stood in shame with their heads hanging low. Like any of them could ever feel such a thing, the voice inside her head sneered. "You didn't have to tell me all that shit about falling for me, yet you fucking did. Why? Just so you guys could all fucking laugh at me after?" she spat, pulling her hand out of his grasp. "So much for being able to fucking trust you."

"We were just doing what we had to."

"I already gave you the locket back! What more do you want from me?"

The innocent Bambi had been fooled by the devil saying he was falling for her, that he trusted her.

It wasn't something she had asked him or tried in a sneaky way to get him to admit. He told her that all on his own. Harry didn't know what brought him to do it - he wanted to believe it was all part of the con. But deep down, he feared it might be true. 

And stupid Rory fell for a man with charm - the thing she always prided herself on never doing. No one in their right mind would willingly fall for someone like her. Yet, there he was, convincing her he was the one that did.

Hearing the story about his girlfriend and seeing their photos taught her how important the rusted piece of jewellery was to him. So, she gave it back.

She held onto it for as long as she did and resisted giving it back sooner, fearing that her moments with him would end once she returned it. Little did she know, it would take one night of being spontaneous, wanting to show her boyfriend that she cared and to surprise him with food, for it to all end.

"We needed to know if we could trust you," he told her.

Rory scoffed at his pitiful attempt to justify his actions. "I think I was pretty trustworthy when you used me to get information for you and fucked me without a condom."

Her comment stunned him and provided enough time for her to slip through the door.

"Rory," he called out after her.

She knew he was following her, but she forced herself not to turn around.

"Rory!" he called out again.

Quickening her pace, she was determined to make it to the exit.

"Rory!"

His voice was right behind her. Before she knew it, his hands were on her, halting her movements and pressing her against the wall. He gripped her wrists, pressing her hands against her chest. Rory was stuck.

"Bambi, please just listen to me," he whispered. "I don't know what came over me, okay? I just got it in my head that-"

"Was any of it real?" she interrupted.

"All of it," he confessed. "It still is." One hand loosened its grip, moving to cup her cheek. "I can't lose you, Rory."

For a brief second, she found herself giving in. It was so easy, she realized, for Harry to have that power over her. To make her forget everything she had seen in that room and everything he thought she had done. It was easy to become swept away when Rory looked into his green eyes. She wished she could forget and kiss him. But the display in his office caused her too much pain to forget. 

"And yet, you were so quick to make me some villain."

"Rory, please-"

"Get off of me," she yelled, attempting to squirm her way out of his grasp.

"They needed to trust you, alright? That's why we looked through your shit."

"You think I care about that?" She raised a brow. "I thought you already did that shit weeks ago! It's the fact that you did it now after you said those things to me. After you made me feel worthy for once. After you said I fucking have you. After you made me think I could finally-" Pressing her lips into a firm line, she turned her head to the side. "Let me go, Harry."

He shook his head, knowing what would happen if he let that happen. "Not until you tell me you forgive me."

"It doesn't fucking work like that. You don't get to dig through my trauma, paint me as a fucking villain and then ask me to forgive you without saying sorry."

After their fight, Rory quickly realized that Harry never said he was sorry. Instead, he distracted her with sweet words and dancing around his living room, just as he danced around saying that five-letter word.

His hands released their hold, letting her go and watching as she walked down the hallway towards the exit. "I am," he called after her.

She stopped and looked over her shoulder. "It doesn't count if you don't say the word, and we both know you won't."

He didn't.

He wouldn't.

He had to let her go - the first person to make him feel something since Juliet.

That was a choice he had to make and live with.

Rory stopped and turned just as she reached the door, giving Harry a sense of hope. But that feeling quickly vanished once she shouted, "And not that our relationship was fucking real anyway, but just so we're clear, this means you and I are fucking done, Harry."

Entering the office, he ignored the urge to slap Dallas upside the head for digging into the food she had brought.

"She gave you the locket?"

Harry dug into his pocket and pulled out his secret, tossing it to Colson without a word.

"Why the fuck didn't you tell us?"

Settling down into his chair, Harry reached for his drink, draining the liquid in one sip.

"How long have you had this for?"

Harry refilled his glass.

"Are you going to answer me?"

"What difference does it fucking make, Colson?" Harry yelled. "We have it back. Alright? Now let's fucking move on."

The room went quiet - the only noises came from Dallas and his loud chewing. Something that was increasingly ticking Harry off.

Harry spoke after an eternity of silence. "I want those cameras taken down in her apartment."

"Don't think we have to worry about that," Dallas said, pointing to the screen.

Rory had entered her apartment. Her head swivelled, looking around madly until she found it. Staring directly into the lens, he could see the anger written across her face. She stepped out of frame only to return moments later - this time, with a large wooden bat in her hand.

Little Bambi started swinging, aggressively swatting the bat against each camera until they were smashed into pieces.

The last frame on the monitor went black, signalling she had successfully broken the last camera. 

Just as he had successfully broken what was Harry and Rory.

looks like the master of conning just got conned!