Venom

028

Helen stared at Dean for a moment.
"What?" she asked. "Why him?"

He looked at her, trying to find a way to explain it as well as he could. "Because he definitely knows that you're working with me now. Isaac must have told him as soon as he got free," he told her, keeping his eyes into hers, unable to read her expression. He eased a breath. "I know he's like family-"

"He is family. He's my uncle."

Dean's heart skipped a beat. "Oh. Right. Okay, well, whatever. He's gonna become a problem if we don't get rid of him right now, alright? I'm sorry," he shrugged, not sorry at all. Derek was, after all, his enemy. Had been for a long time.

Helen shook her head. "You don't understand. It's not that I don't want to kill him. Trust me, I do," she muttered under her breath. Dean's brows twitched inwards. "It's just that if he dies, I won't get my money."

He waited for a further explanation.

Exhaling in annoyance, she said, "The will. He hasn't signed me in yet. If he dies now, I'll get nothing in return and forgive me if that's just not what I'm looking for, Mr. Billionaire," she snorted, wishing she were able to fold her arms. She yanked at the cuffs. "Do you mind?"

He ignored her request. "Alright, then. We have to come up with another plan, I suppose," he said, thoughtful. He'd think about it later, when he was alone and his apartment was quiet- and so was his mind. "Anyway," he changed the subject, "Since I don't think I can trust you again just yet, you will be staying here for a while." She rolled her eyes, groaning. "Yeah, I know. It's not fun for me either to have my brother's murderer under my own roof, but here we are," he snapped, standing up with his back straight. He felt a headache starting to form, so he pinched hs brows, trying to ease the throbbing ache.

"And here I was, thinking you had actually moved on," she joked, smiling viciously at him. She bit back the question "are you okay?" when she saw him squeezing his eyes shut and massaging his temples. Instead, she went with, "You look like shit, by the way."

He gave her a tired look. "I haven't exactly had the easiest last four days of my life, you know?" he told her, exhausted. Dean knew that if he barely touched his mattress, he'd fall asleep on the spot. "I'll get you to your bedroom, let's go," he added then, taking her hands off the table and bounding them with each other, pulling her with him.

"Hey!" she complained. "You brute," she muttered annoyed.

He threw her - literally speaking - into the bedroom, her feet barely keeping her upright. "Here's what's gonna happen. I'll take off these handcuffs and lock you inside. If you need to go to the bathroom you call me with that phone right there," he started telling her, pointing at the smartphone on the bed. "And I'll take you. No useless calls and, most importantly, no escaping plans. You're staying here, whether you like it or not. All clear?" he finished, leaning against the wall with her handcuffs keys hanging from his forefinger.

Helen waited a moment, taking a better look at him. At his deep, dark eyebags. His face was paler than usual, but - since God has favorites - handsome nonetheless.
Avoiding the list of all the things he'd told her, she questioned, "When's the last time you slept?"

Dean blinked, and ignored the question. "Are we clear or not, Helen?"

Clenching her jaw, she gave up and nodded.
At last, her handcuffs came off, but he held her wrists in his hands, looking at her. "What."

He swallowed. "We really could have had it all." He didn't mean to say it out loud. The words just rolled off his tongue before he could catch them.

She pressed her lips in a line, damning the slight stinging in her eyes. She stepped back and easily got out of his hold, her wrists instantly cold without his hands around them like bracelets.