Tainted

7

~Poppy~

I've never been in a room with this many people before. My skin is itching from Cian's visit this morning before I started getting ready. I just want to be at home in my room, not here. Not surrounded with people who want the same thing. Everyone keeps staring at me sitting here between my father and Cian and all I can do is keep looking around the room like I'm fascinated with it all rather than counting guns and making estimations.

I've never shot a gun. I've never had the chance. Never thrown a punch, never had a need to protect myself because there's always been someone to do that. I couldn't take down a single person in this room without causing chaos.

As we eat the fancy dinner, I nod along and half listen to the conversations around our table. Cian keeps his hand on my knee and I start doing the maths at how many individual bullets must be in this room. On average, of course. Because I can't be sure. This table alone has 7 men, 3 women. I know us 3 girls don't have guns. I'm going to calculate the men's. Because I don't know if it's normal that the girls here don't carry.

There's 20 tables. I counted them earlier. 200 people. if we do 70% men 30% women in the room that's 140 men in this room. Each of them will have on average 2 guns. Inside suit pocket and in the back of their pants. If we say roughly 19 in each slide. That's over 5 thousand bullets. Enough to put 25 bullets in each person in here and have a few hundred left over for good measure.

He still hasn't moved.

"Sit still Poppy." Cian whispers in my ear and I grit my teeth so hard they slip and pain spikes through my jaw.

"I need the bathroom." He nods, taking his hand off me finally and nodding at my mum to go with me. She checks the stalls as I shake my hands out, forcing myself to breathe through the oncoming panic attack.

"Deep breaths Pops. Nice and easy."

"He won't stop touching me." I fan my face to stop the tears. Can't go back in there looking like anything is wrong. Can't be in here long. Can't breathe. "He's all over me. I can feel him everywhere. I can't- I can't-" Mum grabs my hands as I scratch, stopping me from marking my skin.

"He's not here Poppy. It's just us. Me and you. Look. Look around babe. Just us. You're doing so well Pops." I'm pulled into a tight hug and the feeling of Cian is replaced with hers. It's warm and soft and harmless and I can feel my heart slowing down as I breath her in. "That's it Poppy. Nice and easy. You've got this." Mum pulled back, holding my face gently.

"Don't apologize." She sighed. "Don't mum. You couldn't do anything about it."

"I could have found something to do Pops. You shouldn't have been born into this." The door swung open, another 2 women walking in and I giggled at my mum, acting like we were having a sweet moment. "Come on. They'll be breaking off to socialize soon. Just don't leave the table unless he tells you to." I nodded, returning to our seats. Cian raised an eyebrow at me and I smiled, sipping on the glass of whatever I'd been given. Okay. If there's 5,000 bullets, how much money on average do the workers in here make on tips tonight.

I relax a little, brain occupied by calculating the tables average spend based purely on adding up ingredients of the meal to find a rough price. I don't find maths relaxing. What I do find is it requires so much brain power that I can't think about anything else. I use this all the time on a night. Sat on the floor and I start thinking about stars and constellations or bags of rice, teaspoons of salt. Averages that force me to do multiple different calculations and remember huge numbers.

I feel Cian and dad stand from their spots but I stay tracing numbers with my finger on my dress.

Cian sits back down but doesn't say anything. Doesn't try to touch me again. I keep counting.

"That's a lot of numbers pipsqueak." I lift my head up, give a friendly smile and look back at my focus spot of a painting on the wall across the room. Wait. Pipsqueak. I look back. Narrow my eyes for a second.

"So, you are stalking me."

"Hardly." He looks proud. Like he's done a good job in seeking me out here. My dad's going to kill him if he sees him sat next to me. "What are you working out?"

"Nothing. You should leave."

"Why?"

"Because I have a feeling you shouldn't be here."

"What makes you think that?" I look at him again. Dressed up in a tux with an ever so slightly lopsided bowtie I'm fighting against fixing for him. The same dark vibe made sense now. He was one of them. The men who saw me as property. He's probably thinking he can win me over. Convince me he's a good guy so I'll leave with him without making a fuss. "You think I'd be over here if I wasn't supposed to be in this room? I'd have been dead before I got out my car in the car park Poppy."

"Yes. I guess that's a stupid misjudgement of me. Sorry, I didn't think." I reached for my glass taking a drink. "You should go. My dad's coming over and he doesn't look happy." His lips raised in a smirk and I swear, this man wants me to get hurt. If he stays here my dad will be convinced I was encouraging it and I will be dead when I get home. Dead. Buried in the back garden. He'll have Poppy flowers planted over me as an example on what lengths he's willing to go to. My eyes locked on my dad's as he got closer. "Why aren't you leaving?"

"Do you know much about the people here Pip?"

"What-No- you should- please." Dad's furious. He's keeping calm but that smile. That smile tells me everything I need to know about when I get home. I look back to the unmoved giant who's watching me intensely. "Please go." I almost squeak at him in my last attempt to not have my ribs broken in a few hours.

"Why?"

"Poppy." Oh god. "My daughter isn't-" He turned his head and my dad instantly shut up. I looked at my mum who's eyes dilated and there was a shake of something no one else noticed. I did. I saw her shake her head. Not good. Not good. Not good. "Di Leo.."

"O'Neill. How wonderful of you to join us! I was just talking to Poppy here about how her night is going so far. Isn't that right Poppy?" I nod, not entirely sure what the fuck was going on right now. He looked back at me, raising an eyebrow at me and moving his eyes back to my dad and I looked down into my lap. "I'm feeling a little stuffy in here Poppy. Would you like to go for a walk? The grounds are lovely this time of year." He stood up holding a handout for me. What do I do? WHAT DO I DO?!

"I'd appreciate you asking before attempting to take my daughter anywhere Di Leo."

"Don't you trust me Patrick?"

"Not in the slightest and certainly not with my daughter alone."

"Then I will have Dorian and Nikolai follow."

"You're men? HA! Not a chance. Cian will come."

"I'd rather not be alone with your men thank you O'Neill. What about a 3rd party. I can have some of Kostin's men follow." My dad looked between me and Di Leo and I could see my mother trying to not freak out beside him. This was so bad.

"Fine."

"Brilliant." He turned back to me. "I'll be back in a few moments. Don't go anywhere." I blinked, not responding as he left quickly. I turned to my father who I'm sure was about to blow a fuse.

"I didn't say anything to him. He just came over and I asked him to leave and he wouldn't but I didn't want to make a scene." Dad sat down, pulling the chair up close and gripping my leg so tight I could feel my eyes trying to well up. "I promise I didn't say anything."

"You will do whatever that man asks of you out there."

"What?"

"You heard me. If Sebastian Di Leo tells you to get on your knees and bark you do it. He touches you; you tell me and I will make sure it's his last name you take." I looked up at my mother who swallowed, going almost white in the face. "I expected you to take a husband of better name Poppy but Di Leo." Dad chuckled, sitting back in the chair, and patting my leg as he let it go. "Jackpot my sweet girl. My grandson will be a billionaire."