Poker Face

Chapter 75 - What An Asshole

While Dwight explained how the attack on Hilltop progressed, Negan could see the wheels of judgement and disgust turning in Aven's mind. But he was preoccupied, his anger only increasing when Dwight explained that several now dead Saviors could have been taken home alive but Simon gave the order to retreat altogether and abandon them, just like he'd abandoned Negan and Aven.

"I gotta ask, D," Negan piped in when Dwight went silent. "Just what did Simon say to get you behind him and leave me to attack Hilltop? I know it wasn't his fuckin' charm that hooked ya. Did he tell you it was a fucking game? You know, Simon Says fuck Negan over? Simon Says ignore the rules? Simon Says slaughter an entire fucking community?"

"W-we didn't slaughter them. We just carried through with the plan." Negan wasn't sure how much Dwight really knew about Simon's recent massacre and he glanced again at Aven, this time with the hint of a question in his eyes. She nodded ever so slightly, confirming that she believed Dwight's ignorance to be genuine. Just because they had disagreements didn't mean Aven and Negan couldn't still communicate with each other through the smallest of facial tics. They'd studied each other so keenly that those brief discretions breaking through their resting facial expressions read almost as explicit thoughts, though Aven was still better at reading him than he was at reading her.

"You don't know," Negan confirmed, turning back to Dwight and practically staring a hole through the man. "I sent Simon to collect all the Scavenger's guns the other day...He had his men shoot them all down, every last one."

Dwight's face quickly drained of most its color. He obviously hated Negan for his cruelty, but he knew even Negan valued human life too much to do something anywhere near as heinous as ending so many lives in the blink of an eye. Dwight knew Simon was planning on killing everyone from the three communities fighting them, but he didn't think for a moment that he and the Saviors would succeed. They wouldn't last more than a few days without Negan. But now he knew Simon wasn't just talk. The man, though cowardly, made good on his threats and Dwight wasn't about to be a part of that. Plus, he knew if he had to choose between Negan and Simon for his own survival, he was betting on Negan any day, even if he did plan on seeing him dead eventually.

"I take responsibility for leaving you when we should have continued searching," Dwight finally said, knowing exactly how to speak to Negan to appease him. Aven rolled her eyes, knowing Negan might have even accepted the words as truth had he not already been aware of Dwight's betrayal. "But it was Simon's idea, he kept insisting. He thinks he can do a better job as leader and once we have the ammo he wants to eliminate everyone from the other communities and start over, branch out and find new communities. He wanted to kill everyone at Hilltop last night but he obviously doesn't know what he's doing."

"Good boy, D," Negan praised. "Once again, landing on the right fucking side and doing the right fucking thing that just so happens to save your own ass." Negan swung his legs back down off the bed and leaned against Lucille who rested against the floor between his legs. "Now listen real fuckin' carefully, here's what we're gonna do..."

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Aven watched remorselessly as Negan straightened up just in time to catch Simon in a headlock as the man tried to follow through with the first few cheap shots he'd taken at Negan. But even fighting dirty, he was no match for the tall, dark, lean leader of the Saviors, the true leader. Aven had felt a surge of fury when Simon first hit, knocking Negan to the cold, concrete factory floor, but Negan didn't stay down for more than a few seconds and Aven's anger was replaced by pride as she watched him push Simon away as though the man were an eighty-pound child, before masterfully dodging several punches and quickly landing a few good ones himself.