AN (oct 23): just over 2 weeks ago I was thanking all of you for 10K and now it's almost at 20K... this feels surreal. thank you soso much for all your support. 

as always, msg me on twitter (@ normiesandwich) if you have any questions, wanna chat, or just say hi. and i post chapter teasers & edits on tiktok (@ normalsandwich69) - this chapter has 3 hehe 

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054. X MARKS THE SPOT

When morning came, Rory woke to an empty bed.

She wasn't surprised to be alone; she expected him to leave right after she had fallen asleep. But the brisk chill that went down her spine as she looked at the bare spot beside her was an unnecessary reminder.

Rory didn't know how to feel.

Part of her wanted to keep hating him. But her heart also ached for the moments they shared that reminded her of what it was like when they were good.

That was the problem when someone's heart belonged to another - even when hatred was the only right emotion, it was always overpowered by a sense of warmth spreading throughout the chest.

Rory had to keep reminding herself to stay true to her words; one peaceful moment didn't change anything between them. Especially not when it only materialized due to her nearly passing out after yelling at him.

And definitely not when, moments before yelling at him, she pictured his dead ex-girlfriend taunting her to jump into the pool - a pool that, along with Juliet, didn't exist. Various parts of her night swarmed with false memories, and Rory began to worry if Harry had even spent the night.

If it weren't for the note left behind on his pillow, she would have let herself believe it only happened inside her head.

She tried to ignore that warm feeling over a piece of paper - but it was nearly impossible for the poor Bambi. Every time his name crossed her mind, the warmth spread. Before ever acting on her feelings, many things needed to happen - starting with Harry following through on his promise to get her out of this house. So, for now, all she could do was secretly hold onto that warmth and read his note within the privacy of the four walls he imprisoned her with.

Her brow furrowed at the message scribbling in Harry's handwriting.

X marks the spot.

She couldn't come up with a single reason why he would write something like that down. Was he trying to claim the pillow as his own? If that was the case, surely he had to be fooling himself. Sure, she was thinking what a nice moment they shared in that brief stint of peace between the two - but nothing along the lines of going so far as to claim a pillow.

Idiot.

Hearing her Doctor's footsteps approach, Rory quickly tucked the note into the pocket of her sweatpants.

"How are you feeling this morning?"

"Good. I slept well," Rory said honestly for the first time.

Doctor Khan sat down on the edge of the bed with her clipboard. "Really? That's good to hear. Did you have a nice night?"

Rory nodded.

"What did you do?"

"Sat outside for a bit. Then I went to bed."

With a raised brow, the Doctor asked, "Is that all?"

Her nod was more hesitant this time.

"Rory..." the woman said her name with a disappointed tone, "This doesn't work if you're not honest with me."

That fucking asshole! Rory wanted to scream. Harry told her!

"Tony said you seemed unwell last night,"

Tony ratted me out?

"That you told him about a headache."

What kind of made-up story did Tony create?

"I was fine. It wasn't a big deal."

Doctor Khan sighed and reached her hand forward, brushing a strand of the girl's hair out of her face. "Honey, big deal or not, you should have asked someone to call me. Or asked for the night nurse."

"I was fine, honestly. I didn't want to interrupt your night." Rory glanced down at her hands and noticed the lack of bandages hiding her (now healed) self-inflicted wounds; Harry kept his promise. Before the Doctor could interject, Rory added, "And Harry was there to help me."

Suddenly halting the movement of her pen mid-stroke, the woman asked, "He was?"

"Yes. He took care of me and stayed around for a little."

"Did you two have a nice time?"

Rory hated to admit it - in fact, she wanted to do anything but say out loud that she enjoyed her time with Harry. However, her reddened cheeks were a dead giveaway, and all the Doctor needed to see to know the truth.

"I'll take that as a yes," she teased. Moving her attention to the IV drip, Doctor Khan added, "I guess the conversation I overheard this morning makes a lot more sense now."

"What conversation?"

"About you going home. The three of them have been planning all morning in the living room."

Her eyes widened upon hearing the Doctor's words. "I'm leaving?"

"Did you not know?"

"I asked him about it. But I didn't think he would follow through. Let alone this quickly."

"Do me a favour, honey, and pretend I didn't tell you anything. I thought you knew, and I hate to have spoiled his surprise - if it was supposed to be one."

Rory nodded, far too mesmerized by the gleeful news to fully hear whatever Doctor Khan had something. Something about not talking to Harry or telling him the news... either way - she didn't care. She was going home!

Throwing the bedsheets off her body, Rory giddily announced, "I'm going to make my own breakfast this morning!"

"Honey-"

"I won't say anything!" she interjected the second Doctor Khan uttered her name in a warning tone. "I promise! I'll just make breakfast!"

Before she heard another protest or reminder not to say a word and ruin the surprise, Rory exited the bedroom and crept down the hall as silently as she could. The idea of leaving this place sent chills down her spine - she didn't care if she only heard one word about it; the chance of hearing anything regarding her leaving was enough to excite the poor girl.

Making her way into the kitchen, she looked for the quietest food to consume. When her eyes fell on a banana and a jar of peanut butter, it appeared to be the only viable option. And the best decision to make, considering her stomach was already starting to grumble.

Slicing the banana with a knife, she stabbed the blade into the fruit before dipping it into the peanut butter container.

"Has he cracked it yet?" Harry's voice quietly asked.

"No."

"Fucking hell. What's taking so long?"

What's taking so long is a bunch of wanna-be criminals don't know how to do their jobs properly, she thought to herself, licking peanut butter off the end of the knife. 

"It's a bunch of coordinates that don't lead to anything. And whenever he thinks he's getting somewhere, the code shuts down and restarts. Whoever put this together wanted him to suffer," Colson said, "The poor kid's driving himself insane - I'm worried what will happen if we find out it was just a ploy to keep him distracted this entire time."

"Well, we need to make a move soon. We can't stay here forever."

As their voices faded, Rory groaned with displeasure over having to move and risk exposing her hiding spot. Creeping closer to the door, she remained tucked behind the wall, inching as close as possible to the entryway to the living room.

"Do we all agree on the arrangements?"

A chorus of yes replied, causing the poor Bambi's heart to swell with excitement. Finally, things were starting to edge towards normalcy for her. She could move back home and have all her own things once again. Finally, she would get the chance to fully emerge into her routine - start picking up shifts at the bar and (hopefully) return to serving, all while spending time with Mia and Benny.

Eavesdropping had never provided her with such happiness before.

That was until it all came crashing down.

"Then it's settled. Rory will move in permanently."

Hearing those words caused the knife to slip out of her grasp and fall to the ground. "Excuse me?"

With haste, she exited the kitchen and appeared in the living room doorway. While she stared at the three men with rage clouding her vision, their attention remained on the board.

What the fuck is their obsession with planning my life out on a board?

Harry continued acting as if she were invisible. "One of us has to be with her at all times if she leaves."

Colson looked over his shoulder. "Work?"

"I don't think we'll hear the end of it if we don't let her," Harry said, annoyance lingering in his tone. "We can start with a shift or two at the bar. Ease her into things. The only-"

"Oh, good! Aren't I a lucky girl?" Rory sarcastically spat. "When I woke up this morning, the first thing I wanted to hear was that I'm getting locked in yet another house with you!"

Harry's gaze remained on the pages of notes in front of him. "Glad we're all aligned."

"I was joking, you shithead!"

Dallas chuckled. "Shithead. That's a new one."

"Why on earth would I ever agree to something like that?"

"You said you wanted to leave," Harry said.

"Leave, as in, go back to my apartment!"

Dallas muttered quietly, "Sure, if there was an apartment to go back to," before attempting to cover his laugh with a cough.

"What was that?" Rory's irritation increased as the man failed to answer. "Why wouldn't I have an apartment to go back to?" Her head turned to Harry. "What happened to my apartment?"

"I'm not sure," Harry mumbled.

Enraged he couldn't spare her the decency of looking at her, Rory took matters into her own hands. Heading back into the kitchen, she grabbed the knife off the floor and headed back into the room.

"Uh, oh! She's got a weapon, Boss!"

The three men assumed she was attempting to attack one of them. But she was far more intelligent than that - she knew the knife would be out of her hands before she could get within an arm's distance. Her plan never involved going for one of them (although it was widely tempting). Her target was the board.

And before anyone could stop her, she was able to stab the knife's blade into the corkboard and drag it from top to bottom, effortlessly slicing through the scraps of paper.

"Rory!" Harry yelled at her, forcing her motion to halt before she had the chance to stab the knife a second time. "Would you mind holding off your tantrum for another ten minutes while we wrap up?"

"Tantrum?" Turning around, she was surprised to see Harry finally decide to spare her the decency of eye contact. "Humor me, Harry. How did you expect me to react?"

"A thank you would have been nice," Colson chimed in from the side.

"Thank you? You people are fucking insane." Rory released a burst of laughter. "I'm not moving in with you."

Within a split second, the knife, once clutched in Rory's hand for protection, was disarmed from her grasp. She raised a brow, slightly impressed by how quickly Harry managed to pull that one off. Clearly, his online lessons on how to be a criminal were paying off.

Stirring his drink with the knife, he tossed the item on the table and raised the glass to his lips. "If you don't want to move in, where you'll be safe and protected," he paused to take a sip, "then you'll be killed. And it won't be by one of us."

"Good! Let them kill me! Or, you know what, how about you pull your gun out and finish things off right now? Because let me tell you... I would love nothing more than to end all this fucking bullshit once and for all."

"Your life's on the line, Rory. And I will not sit around and let you die all because you want to be a brat."

Her eyes narrowed. "Oh, a brat, really? Is that where we're taking this?"

"When you're acting like one, I will treat you like one."

Stomping her foot on the ground, an angered, frustrated groan released from her lips. Rory wanted to yell out at the top of her lungs. But the last thing she needed was for Doctor Khan to whisk her away, so she did everything she could to contain the sound. 

"I know real emotions are hard for your little robot brain to process, but this isn't how this is going to fucking work! You don't get to control where and how I live." Noting his surprised look at her sudden outburst, she cocked her head to the side and added, "What? Surprised the broken girl has a voice? Did you think almost fainting last night would scare me off from using it again?" A devious smirk curved onto her lips. "Or... did precious, innocent Juliet never talk back to you?"

Harry froze. His head turned slowly, the fury building inside him instantly evident across his expression. "What the fuck did you just say?"

"I bet she was just the perfect girl, wasn't she? She probably listened to every word you said without hesitation and followed your orders like an innocent little puppy."

"You better watch your mouth."

"Or what?" Rory challenged. "You'll make me shut up? Teach me another lesson? How about you finish the job, Harry?" She noticed his fists clench. "You could choke me until I stop breathing - I'm sure you still think about the first night we met. How badly you wanted to kill me. Or, you could pull your gun out and shoot me."

For a split second, the darkness Rory was beginning to become far too familiar with flashed across his eyes. She wondered if he would ever go back on his word and consider doing such a thing - if he would actually kill her given a chance. All it took was mentioning Juliet's name for it to appear.

"Everyone out!" Harry barked and turned his head. "Now!" Before Rory could take a step, he grabbed hold of her uninjured arm. "Not you, Bambi."

With her back pushed against the wall and his grip tightening its hold, Rory had nowhere to run. And as Colson and Dallas swiftly left the room, she had no one to turn to for help - not that she expected they would anyway. Especially not when their Boss was in a pissy mood.

A therapist would make millions off of him. 

Left alone in the eerily quiet space, she could only focus on his heavy breaths and how his brows knit together in frustration. The veins on his neck were evident, protruding from his flushed, angered nature.

Rory honestly thought he would finally give her what she wanted and end her life, putting an end to her suffering once and for all.

"You don't get it," he spat, jaw tensing with every word he spoke, "I thought you were dead, Rory. You don't understand what it was like to see you like that; what it felt like to think I lost you. I blame myself every second for-"

"I don't care," she gritted through her teeth. "I don't give a shit about how you feel. People came into my apartment and attacked me. And you should blame yourself for that because you are the reason I left."

Harry's gaze softened. "Rory-"

"You stood there." Her bottom lip trembled. "Gio taunted me, touched my bruises, and you fucking stood there! The man that dangled my safety in front of me for a paycheck is who you're in business with... and you couldn't even spare me the decency of looking at me. Then you say what you did about me... come home drunk with that fucking tattoo on your finger and just, what? Expect me to forget that you hurt me?"

"What did I say about you?"

Her eyes widened. "Are you fucking serious?"

"I don't remember what I said! Sometimes it all gets a bit blurry when I'm like that. I promise you, Bambi," his voice dripped with desperation as he cupped her face, "Whatever I said, I didn't mean. This," he lifted his left hand, showing off the tattoo, "This is real!"

"I don't know what you've tricked yourself into believing but that," she pointed to the ink mark on his finger, "doesn't make us real, Harry. It's in your actions. How you treat me. And how you're supposed to fucking stand up for me when I'm clearly uncomfortable with your business partner. Do you want to know what it's not? It's not Colson standing up for me because you're too engrossed by your fucking drink! It's not standing there silently while I'm about to admit I would do anything for you! And it's sure as all fucking hell not overhearing you call me broken to that piece of shit."

Before he could speak, she added, "I heard everything you said that night. I sat at the top of the stairs and cried over you. Do you understand how fucking pathetic that makes me feel? To hear you say those things about me? And then, when your best friend, who hates me, asks if you're going to check in on me, do you remember what you said?"

Harry stared blankly at her, causing her to scoff.

"Of course, you fucking don't," she muttered. "You said, and I quote, 'why the fuck would I do that?'"

"Rory, I..."

"Save it." Forcing her eyes away, she shook her head in disbelief. "You don't know what real is, Harry. A tattoo doesn't fix things - it's not your safety net that you can point to whenever you hurt me. That word might not mean anything to you," her voice dropped to a soft, delicately vulnerable tone, "But being broken is exactly what the people in foster care would view me as because I couldn't speak. I couldn't stop them from hurting me back then, but I sure as hell won't let it happen now."

"Rory-"

"You can't lock me in a house and expect me to pretend like it doesn't matter that I don't know where I am or why I'm here. One night of sleeping next to each other - which, by the way, only happened because I was screaming at you so loudly that I fainted - and leaving me some note with a stupid phrase doesn't change anything. You-"

Interrupting her speech, Harry asked, "A note?"

"Yeah. Your note with the dumbest fucking phrase I've ever woken up to. X marks the spot... what the fuck is that supposed to mean? You know what?" She shook her head. "I don't care! You can take all of your stupid notes... and lies... and secrets and shove them right up your ass! But I have to know... does your robot brain really think that's romantic or something, Harry?"

"What note, Rory?"

She rolled her eyes. "What is this? Another convenient thing you forgot about?" Digging her hand into the pocket of her sweatpants, Rory handed it forward.

His eyes fell to the paper in his hands, running his thumb across the written words. "Where did you find this?"

"You mean, where did you leave it?" Met with silence, she rolled her eyes. "You left it on the pillow you slept on last night... which is exactly where I found it." Noting his confused expression, she added, "What? Forget what your own handwriting looks like now, too? How easy is it for you to forget? That chicken scratch you call-"

Before she could utter another word, Harry grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her down the hallway.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Rory yelled, desperately trying to pull her arm free from his grasp. "Let go of me, you maniac!"

Harry didn't reply, easily ignoring all her frantic yelling and flailing movements to break herself free. He appeared angrier than he did moments ago when she thought he would kill her. All over a note?

"Woah, hold on!" Dallas quickly got to his feet, blocking Harry's entrance into the room. "She can't be in here!"

"Trust me. I don't want to be!"

"If I let her go, she'll run outside and taunt the guards to shoot her."

Can he read my mind or something?

Colson rolled his eyes. "And would that be so bad?"

"Thank you!" Rory exclaimed. "At least someone fucking gets it."

Harry narrowed his glance at Colson. "Unless you want to become their target for practice, you better watch your fucking mouth. And you," he turned his attention to Rory, "I suggest you limit your side comments. As I was saying-"

"And I suggest you let go of my fucking arm!" Rory yelled, squirming and flailing her body around, attempting to pull out of his hold.

"Dallas. Chair."

"On it, Boss!"

Before Rory could process what was happening, Dallas appeared behind her and forced her body into a chair. Within what felt like record timing, he secured her legs to the chair, and Dallas had already moved one arm behind her back before Harry stopped him.

"Secure them to her sides. I don't want you hurting her arm."

A snippy remark lingered on the tip of her tongue - but the girl became instantly distracted by Dallas wrapping the duct tape over her chest and around the back of the chair for what felt like the thousandth time.

"How's that?"

"Oh, amazing, thank you! I've never been more comfortable!" Rory sarcastically spat.

Dallas appeared satisfied with his work as he walked over to his original spot, watching Rory struggle to break free. "You're not going to get out of that. I'm a professional at this kind of shit."

"Do you want a fucking medal or something?" 

"You know, that's been on my mind. Why don't we do, like, an employee of the month award?"

Rory jerked her body forward before releasing a heavy breath and accepting defeat. Unfortunately for her, she was stuck, which meant Dallas was a professional - at something, at least. "Is that seriously what's on your mind right now? It honestly amazes me that none of you are dead yet. You're all walking targets with your lack of focus."

"God. Does she ever shut up?" Colson groaned. "Life would be so much easier if we just killed her."

"Go right ahead, Cheese. Please! Do the honours yourself." 

"Oh!" Dallas's eyes sparkled with excitement over the thought of killing. "How about we try the old-"

"That's enough!" Harry yelled, silencing the room. "If you two," his eyes narrowed at Colson and Dallas, "Don't shut the fuck up, Rory will not be the only one whose life is at risk. Understand?" Pinching the bridge of his nose, he released a breath before straightening his posture and handing the note to Colson. "Rory found this note." 

"You know, Harry," the girl whispered in a seductive voice to the long-haired devil standing beside her, instantly catching his attention, "I've never been so turned on by you before. Watching you order people around makes me so... horny."

"Rory."

She pouted her bottom lip. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"Didn't I tell you to limit your side comments?"

"Oh, right. Silly me! I guess you'll have to punish me for being such a bad girl. I'm sure bending me over your knee and giving me a good... hard... rough spanking will-"

Harry slapped his hand over her mouth before she had the chance to utter another word.

Before she had the chance to utter another word, Harry grabbed hold of her jaw and pressed his index finger and thumb into the hollows of her cheeks. With the discomfort evident from his grasp, Rory found herself forced into silence.

Leaning forward, he roughly whispered, "I know this is all one big fucking joke to you, Bambi, but I promise you, it's not. So, you might think you'll be able to piss me off with all your remarks, and I'll let you go off and get killed," his hold loosened slightly, "But you need to realize that you dying is the last thing I will let happen, sweetheart."

"That would probably sound a lot more romantic if you didn't say you fantasized about putting a bullet through my skull a few months ago."

"Are you two done?"

Harry turned his head and gave Colson a short nod. Instead of moving to stand with the others, he positioned himself behind Rory's chair and covered her mouth with his hand.

Guess Mr. Criminal can't take a bit of teasing. Pathetic.

"X marks the spot," Colson read out loud, eyes falling to Rory's bandaged arm. "You don't think it's-"

"I don't know."

"What the fuck...." Dallas muttered, looking at the note. "She found this?"

Harry nodded. "Yes."

"But then that means...." Dallas attempted to choose his words carefully. "They were..."

Harry's jaw clenched. "They were in the house."

"No," Colson quickly interjected, shaking his head. "That couldn't be possible. We have constant watch around the house and outside her room for this to not happen."

"Well, I didn't write that, so clearly, someone else did!"

"Our security system would have flagged an intruder. Kip monitors that thing like a fucking hawk!"

Rory's eyes fell on the boy in question, noticing the way he frantically looked at the table in front of him. Kip had been so silent this entire time she barely realized he was in the room.

What is he looking at? She wondered, only able to spot scraps of random paper, all with different numbers and odd sentences scribbling onto them.

"X marks the spot..." Kip whispered to himself. "X marks the..."

While the other three argued about security, Rory watched as Kip's attention immediately resumed on the computer. He was typing madly away, far faster than she had ever seen him before, as he stared at the screen with wide eyes.

Suddenly, Kip's computer screen turned off. "What the..." he whispered.

Rory tried to alert Harry to what she was seeing, but every attempt became muffled by his hand. And so, with limited choices left, she made a particular decision to catch his attention.

"What the fuck, Bambi? Did you lick me?" Harry removed his hand from her mouth, wiping it against his pant leg.

"Kip," she nodded to the kid. "Look at the computer."

"Holy shit..."

Hearing his reaction, all eyes turned to the computer. 

The screen erupted with lines of code made up of random characters typed insanely fast. Rory tried to decipher what any of it meant - she just wanted to understand what one word could be. But it was nearly impossible. Even Kip appeared to be losing his mind, practically going cross-eyed as he attempted to follow along. 

Suddenly, the lines of code stopped. The cursor at the end of the text blinked. Every passing second caused all five of them to fill the room with anxious breaths. 

Flashing across the screen in red letters, it read,

ACCESS GRANTED. 

It went black. 

A minute passed. 

Then another. 

And then another, until finally, one by one, typed out in red letters, a message for them all appeared. 

"Please, no," Harry whispered desperately.

...WELCOME

...

...WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU

...

...

...HARRY // KS-001 // STATUS: ALIVE

...

...DALLAS // T-01 // STATUS: ALIVE

...

...KIP // PROGRAM RED // STATUS: ALIVE

...

...COLSON // N/A // STATUS: ALIVE

...

...STEFANO // I-01 // STATUS: ALIVE

...

...

...

...RORY YOUNG // ERROR // STATUS: ERROR

...

...

...

...ALL AGENTS LISTED MUST BE PRESENT BEFORE CONTINUING

...

...

...READY TO COMPLY?

...

12:00.00... 11:59.59... 11:59.58... 11:59.57...

secrets from your past can only stay hidden for so long, harry.