[Zach]Surely A Look Can Break Your Heart

[Delilah Scott Kingsley]

Lilah bit the edge of her ponytail holder and pulled it off of her wrist before she tied her hair up into a messy ponytail. She hated the way her hair fell into her eyes, maybe it was just an unwarranted annoyance, but she usually couldn’t stand it when she was doing something that pertained to her job. Maybe it made her feel more feminine than her colleagues which she really couldn’t stand. Yup, she was a woman. And she could kick any of their asses, but because she was a woman they teased her, pretended she was weaker, called her princess. Usually didn’t take much to shut them up, but she didn’t really help her case. Here she was breaking into someone’s apartment wearing heels. Though, this wasn’t for work. Zach Pierson,.. he’d been with her sister a lot lately, granted a sister that had no idea she existed, but still. Lilah had taken special interest in making sure she was safe, even on her rampant adventures to other countries, with different bedmates. She didn’t blame her, she had a lot of shitty things happen to her, and she was young. Let her figure herself out, whatever it took. Their dad however didn’t seem to understand that, he just wasn’t used to someone following out of line with the ‘ Harris Plan’. Lilah scrunched her nose as she looked at the window trying to figure out a way to get in. She hadn’t wanted to break in through his door, he would’ve been able to spot that as soon as he came into the hallway. So instead she had broken into his neighbors apartment, climbed the staircase outside and wedged her way onto his balcony.

Zach was with Scarlet this morning, at her place. Actually, he’d been there a lot lately but Lilah could not figure out what his gameplan was. She’d noticed him tailing Scarlet for a little bit but he always seemed to keep his distance. Then one day there was an incident with a cab and it seemed they were inseparable. He was everywhere.. but.. even when Scarlet didn’t know it. After doing a bit of research on him she knew he wasn’t exactly a knight in shining armor,.. but he had protected Scarlet a few times and his behavior when they were out in public depicted that of protection. But for what? Was he protecting her until he led her to slaughter by his own people, what was his purpose for keeping her alive when he was mixed in the business he was mixed in. It was all so confusing, and.. sometimes.. he looked at her like.. well like he was in love. Like he could completely forget about the worlds they lived in, but then seconds later it was like he would refocus himself. All so confusing. And it sort of made Lilah feel sorry for Scarlet, she had so many worlds going on around her and she had absolutely no idea. She probably had a few hours, maybe an hour. After setting the window back down she looked around the apartment she was standing in and took in a deep breath. Lilah turned her head as she stood still in place, looking around her, what sort of things this guy spent his money on, his sense of style.

Lilah stepped away and made her way into his bedroom where a picture frame caught her eye. Most guys didn’t have things like that in their rooms, picture frames. Pictures, yeah. But it was sort of a feminine frame. She walked over to it, picking it up by the corner as she looked down at her sister and her new ‘boyfriend’. Even if she hadn’t really come out and said that he was directly. It was a close up picture, of them clearly laying down. Scarlet was all cozied up close to him, her hair an absolute mess, biting the edge of his ear playfully. Well whatever he was trying to pull, he’d gotten Scarlet Harris to fall in love with him.. and to slightly acknowledge it. That was pretty damn powerful. But she also knew he was doing it for a reason, and when he hurt her it was only going to prove to be detrimental. She thought Scarlet’s activity and behavior had changed after Logan got married,.. if Zach hurt her she’d probably become a hermit. Which honestly probably wouldn’t hurt for Scarlet for a while. But this guy.. he’d sort of made himself publicly known. Dating Scarlet Harris didn’t keep your name out of gossip sites or off of page six. But he was smarter than the others, he appealed to Scarlet’s emotional side. Got her to trust him,.. others who had tailed her hadn’t used that method. Maybe getting in closer was the best way to destroy her. Lilah set the picture down, freezing as she heard the lock on the door turn. Shit. He wasn’t supposed to be here. Maybe it was someone else. Lilah moved quickly so that she wasn’t near a window and could be seen, incase he had anyone covering him who was looking in. Lilah pressed herself against the wall, moving slowly to the corner, hating herself for wearing heels. She turned her ear towards the door, listening for whoever it was to come in as she slid her hand carefully into the back of her jeans and clasped her fingers around her gun.

Outfit

[Zachary Adam Pierson]

Zach rubbed his hands together to keep them warm, wishing he had remembered to wear gloves, before stuffing them in his jacket pockets on the way home. Scarlet had made plans with some friends and Zach was heading home to shower, clean up a little, check the mail for any... paychecks. He didn't like them sitting around when he knew the amount that was waiting inside the envelope. He wouldn't be back at his apartment very long anyways, he spent a lot of time at Scarlet's now. At least the time when he was with her to her knowledge. He'd decided Scarlet was okay for the afternoon, he'd probably meet up with her for dinner anyways. Zach walked past a new stand that sold various new papers, tabloids, magazines, cross word puzzle books, you name it. It was the same news stands that had been just a block from his building since the day he moved in. He'd bought some things there on occasion, sometimes he spoke to the man who ran it. He was kind of old and their conversation hardly ever moved beyond the weather or front page news. This time though, as Zach hurried past since his building was in sight and he felt his fingers may possible fall off, the man stopped him, flagging him down and saying, "Hey, hey, check this out, you see yourself? Wanna buy a copy?" Zach stopped, looking at the tabloid the man was waving at him. Zach was pictured on the front cover with Scarlet, at an event for her father that Zach had gone to with her. Zach took the magazine and held it closer, shaking his head. It was weird, seeing himself on the cover of something. The woman next to him was holding the same one, looking back and forth between the magazine in her hand and Zach beside her. Yeah, kinda weird. Zach shook his head, "No thanks, not today." He had a feeling there were going to be more just like it. And it wasn't a bad thing, just something to get used to. He also had a feeling he was going to have to be more sneaky when he was with Scarlet but not with her. What if other people started recognizing him? Things could get quite difficult. Zach had to talk to the boss man, figure out how much longer this was going to last for, this lurking danger that was constantly swirling around Scarlet.

Zach climbed the stairs to his apartment. The more attached he became to Scarlet, the more he wanted this to be over. It was one thing to protect her with no emotional attachment, but he was beginning to realize he was in love with her. Which made him even more jumpy and stressed trying to keep her safe. Because now he was protecting her because he loved her. Sometimes he forgot briefly that he was being paid, at least until be got a lump sum of cash. And Scarlet was so... skeptical of being in a serious relationship. She never wanted to label them. But Zach never really felt they needed to either. He was cool with just letting it go wherever it did, never made her feel like she was being pressured into anything. On his end of things, it was nice too. It was like a really, laid back, let it evolve on its own, no pressure type of relationship. Good for both of them. He just hated lying to her. Zach unlocked the door and stepped inside, tossing his key on the table. It was kind of cold inside, but maybe the heat was just turned down. Zach looked across the room and he didn't know what drew his eyes to it. Maybe months of being paranoid and examining everything in sight. On the carpet just below the window that went out onto the fire escape, was a wet spot and the littlest pile of snow that hadn't melted yet. That explained the tiny bit of coldness. Zach thought someone was either in the apartment, or had been. He decided on still inside, because when they came in they would have knocked the snow on the window ledge into the room. And it hadn't melted yet. They hadn't been in there very long. With out further thought Zach left his switchblade inside of his pocket, hell bent on at least protecting himself against whoever was in there. But if he could go with out it, it was better they didn't know he had it. After scoping out the place quickly, the only place left was his room.

Zach stood outside his room, he could see mostly the whole room except the one corner. The picture of himself and Scarlet had moved. Why on earth did he notice that? Zach stepped inside turning to face the corner prepared to attack someone. Or defend himself. But what he found was a tall blonde wearing heels and holding a hand gun. All Zach could think was, what the fuck? What was she, an agent? Government hired? Definitely not mafia involved. Zach pictured himself in a jail cell for being involved with the New York mob. Then what was going to happen to Scarlet? But this chick had broken in his apartment, if he as going to be arrested surely, they weren't going to be secretive about it. Zach didn't think she would just shoot him with out a fight. Unless her only goal was to just kill him. That wasn't going to happen, he had to stay alive, he had Scarlet to think about. In the split second that he'd stood there since he'd walked in, he weighed his options, but finally took a step toward her, maybe he could fight her gun away from her or something, though he highly doubted she was going to be very keen on parting with it.

[Delilah Scott Kingsley]

Lilah stood still, her knees locked in place as her fingers were gripped around the handle of her gun with her finger hanging loosely over the trigger. Why in the hell had he come home. Surely no one had noticed her breaking into his place, there wasn’t anyone that could’ve tipped him off. She honestly didn’t give a shit that this kid was involved with the mafia. It was New York. Their presence there was known. All she cared about was that he was involved with her sister, and she wanted to know for what purpose. The only plausible explanation she could think of was that the mafia must be trying to get in with Scarlet in order to use her against their father in order for him to turn his head on their activities. I mean really what else could there be? But in watching them, she knew. Scarlet had fallen for this kid, idiotically. So even if it came down to it, killing him would only devastate Scarlet. She had enough trauma in her life. She could hear his footsteps through the apartment, slow.. cautious. He was smart, he’d figured out someone was in his apartment. But he was brave enough to stick around instead of leave, which meant one of two things. He wasn’t alone, or he was willing to fight. Lilah took in slow, steady breaths through her nose, trying her best to be perfectly quiet and still. He was going to find her in here, one way or the other. There wasn’t any sense in hiding in his room, if she put herself in the closet that just trapped her. She licked her lips as she heard his footprints stop outside his bedroom doorframe.

Zach turned around the corner faster than Lilah was expecting, and though she didn’t raise her gun to point it at him she instead just locked her eyes on his, both of them seemingly surveying one another. However for Zach it didn’t seem like it took long for him to weigh his options because he was already taking a step towards her. Lilah always sort of assumed that if she died it would be at the hands of someone she was trying to take down during work, but right now she just felt like a girl who was trying to protect her sister. Even if her sister didn’t necessarily know she existed. She still felt like she knew Scarlet, having watched her from a distance. As he stepped towards her , Lilah took a slight step back and leaned her upper body to the side before she lifted her right leg straight into the air and used the heel of her boot to strike against Zach’s cheek. Before her foot could land back on the ground she spun around quickly so that she was facing him again and brought her arm up just incase she had to defend herself. If she wanted to kill him it would have been as easy as pulling the trigger, hell he probably could have killed her easily if he wanted to at this point, too. But killing him wouldn’t give him the answers she wanted. Without much thought she brought her right hand back in the air, clutching to the gun tightly as she raised it to slam the handle of it into the opposite side of his head that she had kicked his cheek in. “ Where is she?” she asked quickly, knowing that neither of them needed to explain who she was asking about. They were always together now it seemed like, she couldn’t be far behind him.

[Zachary Adam Pierson]

Zach was not expecting to get a heel to the face, mainly because she had a gun, so why she didn't just use it, she at least had brains. The walls in this apartment were not that thick. So she didn't want to draw attention to this little rendezvous. But she was trained to fight clearly. However so was Zach. Years of martial arts was doing him well in his new profession. Before her gun could hit him in the side of the head, his reflexes kicked in, reaching up and grabbing her small wrist tightly, completely stopping her gun from colliding with him. Hey if she was going to fight, lets at least make it fair. Hand on hand combat was what she'd laid out, gun not necessary. Zach reached over quickly and ripped the gun from her grasp and tossed it onto the bed, answering her, "Well, you're the one who broke into my apartment armed, don't you know where she is?" He assumed she meant Scarlet, though he had yet to figure out why she wanted to know. What did she think he did with her, locked her up somewhere? She wasn't with him, if that's what she wanted to know. Clearly. They wouldn't be in this predicament if she were. Zach was just confused. This chick wanted to know where Scarlet was, and wanted to know probably what Zach was doing hanging around her. And Zach just wanted to know who the hell this girl was and why she felt she had to break into her apartment. People still answered the damn door these days.

Zach did not like being attacked in his own apartment and he most definitely needed the tables turned in his favor. But he wasn't going to hit a girl. That just wasn't something he enjoyed doing. He'd killed guys, and yet hitting a girl still seemed like the worst thing ever. He despised guys who thought that as okay. The girl had just put her foot back down after kicking him, (bruise probably inevitable,) and Zach made a split second decision just before she regained her balance completely. He swung his leg under her, knocking into both her knees, just enough to give her a weak moment, before he grabbed her arm and twisted it back so that her back was to him and her arm was jarred between them. As a reflex he whipped his blade out, holding it tightly against the soft skin on her neck. And here he was trying to at least fight fair. Then he remembered he didn't fight fair. That's the kind of business he was in. Oh well. It's not like he was really going to stab her or anything like that, maybe scruff up her jaw enough to make her answer his questions. He held the blade neatly pressed to her jaw, saying with eerie calmness, "I'm guessing you know my name, care to share yours? And explain why the hell you are in my apartment?" Zach released her some, letting up a little. No need to be brutal. "Done fighting yet? We could go all afternoon. Or we could just have a chat, your choice." he said, letting go of her and walked over to the bed. He picked up her gun, completely unloading it and tossed it back down. He gestured toward the door, so maybe they could take this conversation to the kitchen because he was hungry and surely fighting would get them no where. They were pretty equally matched.

Zach led her to the kitchen, motioning for her to sit at the table if she wanted, though he doubted she would. "Make yourself at home," he mumbled, opening the fridge. Sandwich, no. Leftover macaroni, no. Beer, yes probably. Zach turned around looking at her suspiciously and then it clicked. He thought she looked familiar. He'd seen her by the drug store down the block from Scarlet's, at the bistro where they sometimes ate lunch. Near that boutique by Fifth that Scarlet dragged him in occasionally. "You can go ahead and explain yourself at any point." he added, sitting down with two beers, sliding one across the table in her general direction.

[Delilah Scott Kingsley]

Lilah kept her eyes on him as he suggested she should know where Scarlet was. “ Well she was supposed to be with you at her apartment. But speaking of locations, I do know without a doubt where Zoe is,” she said, looking out of the corner of her eye for anything that could be used as a weapon in his room. She grit her teeth as she fell to her knees and he quickly gripped her arm against her back having already taken away her gun. It wasn’t like she really needed it in a fight anyways, and she wasn’t going to use it. She hadn’t brought a silencer so it was pretty pointless to say the least. Clearly she hadn’t given this guy enough credit because as she felt the uncomfortableness of her arm being pinned against her back she felt the cold blade against her neck. Her weapon of choice was a gun, his apparently was a knife. Though it wasn’t the first time a knife had been held to her throat, and she was pretty confident it wouldn’t be the last. But she had to sort of ask herself how she was still alive if some kid off the street could disarm her and throw her around like she was his bitch, even if he was trained in martial arts. It’d been her career to survive and he was making it look like she was just an annoyance more than anything. She tilted her neck into the blade, indicating she would rather him kill her than answer any of his questions anyways. When he released her arm she pulled it back in front of her body, rolling her shoulder as she watched him take the bullets out of her gun.

Lilah took in a few deep breaths as she watched him, trying to calculate a new plan. She’d seen him fighting others before, she should’ve known that he would’ve been able to handle her so easily. But now he wanted to talk? Just sit and have a beer and chat it out? Was she seriously so little of a threat that she could show up in someones home with a gun and instead of wanting to kill her off they thought she was so weak that they could just sit and talk with her instead of treat her like a real threat? Maybe that’s because she wasn’t a real threat at all. Lilah blinked as she watched him sit down at the table. The last thing she owed this piece of shit was an explanation. She was the one with a credible career. He was scum off the street, no education, who had gotten himself involved in shady business. Lilah ignored the beer that he had slid down the table to her and instead kept her eyes on him. “ What do you want with her?” she asked protectively, having no interest in taking advantage of Scarlet ever or wanting her to see harm. The only thing she wanted was to make sure she was safe, clearly even if it meant endangering herself.

[Zachary Adam Pierson]

Zach watched the young woman, seeing that she was so obviously mulling over in her mind what was gong on, probably not the way she had hoped it would. But Zach wasn't out to make any look stupid or act like an ass, she had broken into his apartment after all. He could tell she was thinking quickly, looking at him like he was the biggest asshole to walk to earth. He understood, she probably that he was being to casual with her and not treating her as if she was a threat. it's just that Zach could tell she had guts, she was confident. She knew how to fight so really if they had continued that dance they could be at it for hours. But it didn't answer an questions. Nor was she probably going to answer questions. But this girl already knew things about Zach that he didn't share with people, so what did he really have to hide anyways? Nothing. No use in keeping anything from her. If she wasn't going to answer his questions, fine. But he didn't mind answering her one question which was, what did Zach want with Scarlet? Zach opened his beer but didn't drink it, just slid it between his hands and looked at her seriously, answering honestly and shrugged, "Same as you maybe. Just trying to keep her safe." Zach looked down at his beer, swirling it around absentmindedly, thinking. yes he was trying to protect Scarlet. But that wasn't all. What did he want with her? To be with her. Be an 'us' instead of 'Zach and Scarlet'?

Zach looked back up at the girl, deciding whether he thought she would answer him a question if he asked one. Zach just needed to know if she was someone he needed to be concerned about or if she was kind of on his side of things in a sense. Because if she was just looking out for Scarlet well then, so was he. So that right there put them on the same 'team' so to speak. Zach wasn't the bad guy in this situation, surely she would have to know that. Zach asked calmly, but unsure of how her response was going to go so he was preparing himself for the worst, "Can I ask why you've concerned yourself with Scarlet's well being? I mean, no disrespect, I just still don't know who you are or what your motives are." Zach shrugged again, waiting for her response, if he gave her one. His motives were pretty clear, make sure Scarlet doesn't die, and love her. Pretty simple.

[Delilah Scott Kingsley]

Lilah took in deep breaths as she watched Zach maneuvering around his kitchen , opening his beer but leaving it untouched. There was something about him. The possessions in his home, even the way he fought. He wasn’t your typical mafia guy. Not that she knew many mafia guys,really. But he just kind of seemed like a normal guy who somehow got thrust into this. She narrowed her eyebrows as he said that he just wanted to keep Scarlet safe but she honed in on him. That was one of the benefits of being trained by the government. People might fight different styles, but everyone lied the same. And she could spot a liar easier than anything in the world. It was just a matter of how much she was invested in it to really dig deep into why they were lying. Like Dalton. Lied when they met, but so did she. And for what purpose? Didn’t really matter, didn’t really care to dig in as to why. But she watched Zach carefully. Okay, so he was telling the truth. He wanted to make sure Scarlet was safe. But why in the hell would the mafia care about that? Lilah licked her lips and stepped forward into the kitchen. She stood at the table and coughed quietly , leaning down to take the gun out of her boot and set it on the table, some sort of gesture she figured. She moved her hair from her face and pulled the chair out that was opposite of him and sat down at the table before she picked up the beer he had offered her.

“ I'm Agent Delilah Humph-…Kingsley” she said, almost offering the false name she often gave to people. To everyone, really. It made her uncomfortable, offering information up to someone who for all intensive purposes was ‘on the other team’. But, that’s the thing. He wasn’t. He wanted Scarlet safe, and for whatever reason all she could was think back to all of the times she had seen them together. “Scarlet is going to be heartbroken when she finds out who you are…” she said, lifting the beer to her lips before she took a drink from it. Heartbroken she could handle. Dead, was a little more of a different story. But that’s the thing. He wasn’t a liar. But was he a liar about how he reacted to Scarlet? What reasons did he have to make her fall in love with him? He could make sure she was safe just as easily without that extra added relationship stress. In fact, being in a relationship almost made it more difficult. Unless, . he didn’t care for her at al. Could he even be that good of an actor? “ Zachary are you…. Are you in love with my sister?” she asked, licking her lips quickly before she looked back up at him to find out his answer.

[Zachary Adam Pierson]

Zach nodded, committing her name to memory, "Delilah Kingsley," he repeated. Zach watched as she took yet another gun from her boot, setting it on the table. She sat down and grabbed the beer he'd offered her, trying not to grin. People didn't really turn down beer anyways. This was normal, just two people who had some things in common, having conversation, drinking beer, and sitting at Zach's kitchen table with a loaded gun between them. It did seem though as if Delilah felt more comfortable to at least talk if she was going to sit down and drink with him, so that was a start. However, Zach's face fell a little when she mentioned how upset Scarlet was going to be when she found out. Because it wasn't if she found out, it was definitely when. Because she would find out eventually. He knew she would. And he knew she wouldn't be thrilled with him at all to know he'd lied to her all of this time. Zach nodded, saying quietly, "I know." He stared at his bottle for a moment, stuck in thought, thinking about Scarlet when she found out. She'd be a mixture of mad, sad, betrayed... anything else not good that one could possibly think of.

Zach was brought out of his thoughts when Delilah asked him if he was in love with her sister. Zach didn't see the harm in lying so he figured he'd just be straight up with her and tell her, yeah, pretty much. But before he answered it registered in his mind what she had just said, "Wait your sister? Scarlet doesn't have any sisters, that I know about... or that she knows about..." he said, looking at her, his eyebrows knit together. Scarlet had never mentioned a sister. Last name Kingsley, half sisters? Step sisters? Something, but not that Scarlet knew about he didn't think. "I'm going to set aside the fact that Scarlet has never mentioned having any sisters and answer your question with yes. So... Scarlet does not know about you, am I guessing correctly or is there more to it than that?" Great, Zach thought to himself. If this Delilah really was Scarlet's sister that Scarlet didn't know she had, it was just one more lie that Zach had to keep from her. Plus Zach found it weird that he'd jumped to that conclusion that Scarlet didn't know about Delilah, but then again Delilah Kingsley was an agent. She could easily keep herself hidden.

[Delilah Scott Kingsley]

Lilah brought the beer bottle to her lips, taking a few drinks silently as he was saying how Scarlet didn’t have any sisters or at least, none that she knew about. She lowered the bottle from her lips, nodding lethargically at his realization. “ Right…” she said, sitting back in his chair as she crossed her legs. He was smart, he could work out most of this by himself. She took in a deep breath and sighed obnoxiously when he said he had fallen in love with Scarlet, or atleast admitted to it. Lilah ran her hand over her face out of frustration. Not for him asking her about who she was, but for him loving Scarlet. “ Yeah, yeah. We have the same dad. She grew up in Texas and moved to California, I grew up in New York with my mom. She doesn’t know about me, our dad does. I stay out of the limelight, protects his image.. which is really impo- … not the topic,” she said, clearing her throat. “ Zach let’s put aside the fact that you’re involved with the mafia and have murdered, as far as I’m aware of, one person, not to mention gotten yourself in a few scuffles which are , might I add… pretty impressive. You always scope out places. You make smart calculated moves. By all intensive purposes… you are a smart guy… from what I’ve gathered. So tell me why. Why in the hell you would fall in love with someone who… for reasons I haven’t even tried to comprehend yet… you are trying to keep safe. Why?”.

Lilah stood up from the table, pacing in his kitchen as she held her hands out to the side in frustration. “ Do you even realize what you’ve done?” she asked, questioning him, though not really looking in his direction. “ I mean what the hell are you even? That girl has commitment issues that rival anything I’ve ever seen and somehow you managed to get her to not only fall in love with you.. but to have you basically living in her penthouse. Do you not get exhausted? The lies.. there’s no way she knows all there is to know about you. Does she know why you dropped out of Columbia? Or that you even lived in Arizona? How about the fact that you can fight like an extra on some mortal kombat movie. What are you going to do when you take that pretty little thing out to a bar some night and just once, once,. You let your guard down because you get distracted by I don’t know… how her ass looks in her dress or the way her hair falls over her eyes. Are you seriously going to let your feelings for her distract you from your job? Are you trying to get both of you killed?” she asked finally turning herself back towards him.

[Zachary Adam Pierson]

Zach took in what she said carefully about her relation to Scarlet, half sister, same dad, Scarlet didn’t know. Made sense. Like she said, their dad’s image was important, wouldn’t look good now, the press would have a field day with words like ‘affair’. She seemed to wave her life story off, although that was what Zach found the most interesting. Something about Scarlet’s life that even Scarlet was kept in the dark about. Would Scarlet ever know about this sister? Delilah went on to give Zach a brief on himself which sounded a bit impressive from that point of view though he didn’t think anything he did or was capable of was admirable in the least. Yeah he’d killed a man, and it haunted him all the time. Not exactly his most proud moment. Definitely something he’d never want his sister Zoe to know about. Delilah asked him why he would go and fall for Scarlet. Zach looked at her like the answer was so obvious, “Like I planned it? Delilah Kingsley, I understand you don’t know Scarlet beyond what you can find out about her from a distance, but if you did you’d get why I fell for her.” He shrugged, finally taking a drink of his beer. He hadn’t even realized he’d opened it and not had any yet. Delilah went off again, ranting about how Scarlet was seemingly impossible to reel in, and that she knew nothing about what he really did in his spare time and that she could be an easy distraction. Zach furrowed his eyebrows, saying quite seriously, “Of course not, I think I already stated I’m just trying to protect her.” Zach paused, leaning back in his chair, “So you thought I had bad intentions. Now what?”

Zach slid his bottle between his hands, weighing his options, “I mean do we just go about our jobs and pretend we didn’t have this conversation, are we on the same team, do we consult each other…? Should we exchange phone numbers?” he joked, trying to lighten the mood a little. But at least he made a good point, what now? We’re they just supposed to ignore each other? Doubtful. Zach had a feeling Delilah was gonna be a regular in his life now. “Can you do me a favor?” he asked, knowing that asking her a favor was probably something she wasn’t going to want to do for him, but it wasn’t a huge favor. “My sister doesn’t know anything either. I’d kinda like it to stay that way.”

[Delilah Scott Kingsley]

Lilah tilted her head back as she took a drink from her bottle of beer, continuing to pace the floor of Zach’s kitchen. She made a face of almost disgust as he said if she knew Scarlet she would understand why he had fallen in love with her. “ Um…no.. I wouldn’t. I’m assuming that falling in love with her wasn’t a part of your job description or your assignment so there’s really no way for me to understand your difficulty in understanding the difference between work and emotions. Unless that your biggest weakness.” she added as an afterthought, thinking it might be a complete potential. Maybe Scarlet as a whole was his weakness. In that case, was he really the best guy to watch over her? He loved her, so that meant he would do everything in his power to protect her. Which was good. But he loved her, which meant things could get messy.

Lilah weighed the options as Zack spoke. None of this is what she had imagined as she had broken into his apartment. She scoffed absent mindedly. “ Like I don’t have your number already,” she said, tapping her fingers against her arm as she was deep in thought. She looked back over in his direction and rolled her eyes, figuring he’d want an explanation. “ Scarlet’s phone records are easy enough for a third grader to break into them.. why do her and Logan call each other so much?” she questioned before waving it off. Lilah walked back over to the table and sat down beside Zach, closing the gap between them. “ Alright,” she said, smoothing her hair from her face. “ Ideally I do not live in a world where I compromise my moral integrity with my career and work with someone of your… field, but desperate times call for desperate measures. And you’ve proven yourself to be … useful,” she added with slight resentment. It annoyed her that people of that talent were using it on the wrong side of things. Then again, he’d only been beneficial to her. “ Clearly you and I can be an asset to each other, so yeah. Same team. And I get that you don’t want Zoe to find out about this… if your intentions really are what you say they are.. then.. Maybe I can help. Do you want to be enrolled at Columbia again?” she asked, sort of surprised that she was offering to help someone in his line of work. But the only thing they had in common was Scarlet, it wasn’t like she would be going out of her way to open too many doors for him or become someone he could count on for much.

[Zachary Adam Pierson]

Zach rolled his eyes when Delilah said that perhaps confusing work with his emotions was his weakness. Pshhh. Zach didn’t have a weakness, he just did what he had to do. Zach slid his phone across the table so she could put her number in his contacts, but shrugged when she asked why Scarlet called Logan so much, “Old friends.” He didn’t really know, he was sure they just had a lot of history. Zach was aware they used to date but Logan was married and had a new baby, so it was whatever. Delilah mentioned she didn’t usually mix with people of his field. Well, Zach didn’t expect that she would hang around too many mafia guys, considering she could easily arrest any of them. She could probably arrest him right now if she wanted to. But she wasn’t going to. But cool, same team. Maybe she had some cool fighting stuff she could show him. Like awesome government stuff that would totally throw off any mafia dudes. Take them by surprise and all that. He nodded when she asked about Columbia, he guessed he would eventually. He just hadn’t given it a lot of thought once he started this job.

“Uh yes, I guess eventually I do. I mean, I didn’t quite school because of my current situation, I got in this situation because I quit school and had a lot of free time,” he paused, running a hand over his short hair, “I was supposed to just be taking a break… but I still don’t know what I want to study. Guess I never decided what I wanted to be when I grow up,” he joked, “no sense in going back until I decide really.” Zach did want to go back to school eventually, he just didn’t know what he wanted to study, and it was no use taking classes when he wasn’t even sure where he was going in life. He just hadn’t anticipated being in the mafia wouldn’t happen and would make him forget about school completely. That was something he knew he should get back to trying to decide, or at least give it some thought. He didn’t want to not get a degree, that wasn’t being a good role model for Zoe at all. Zach looked back over at Delilah, “So… you work out? We could meet up sometime or something.” Zach had every intention of getting to know her, she was Scarlet’s sister, and her job was awesome. She could teach him tons of stuff that he’d find useful.