Present

"Your office." I said as I walked out of the room, already heading towards the warden's office. I heard him tell the guard to monitor Max and heard his footsteps shuffling behind me.

Once we reached the room, I closed the door behind us.

I didn't let him get far.

I grabbed him by his shirt and threw him against the wall. As he stood still, I smoothed his shirt. He was frozen like a deer in headlights. Good.

"I think this goes without saying, but..." I trailed off, keeping close to his short frame. He probably got this job to feel powerful. Running a women's maximum security prison will give you that sense of power if you're a weak man. "I'll say it anyway, just so we're both clear about what's happening here."

"Agent Triggs-"

"I know what you do here. I know all the bribes, the violence, the guards who rape the inmates. You turn a blind eye to it all, but you don't turn the cameras off." I said, pulling out a silver flash drive. "Nor do you have the best computer security." I threw the flash drive into the air before I caught it again.

"You got that without a warrant, you can't-"

"You let me in the room and then let me wait here while you went to get Hyde. You let me onto the computer, under false pretences for me needing to send an email, but you should know we can lie to suspects if it helps us gain information or a confession." I took a step away from him. His cologne was giving me a headache. "This flash drive holds all your favourite little videos on it. If I find out that Queen knows Hyde is leaving prison, this goes public or to authorities. I haven't decided yet. Both will lead to your arrest, and of course, your position being taken from you."

"You wouldn't-"

"Why not? Because Hyde bribed you? She would be more of a witness than a conspirator." I said, going to walk away. "Actually, I changed my mind. If Queen finds out that I was even here, then this all goes out. Do you understand?" He nodded slowly, anger clear on his face. I didn't care.

"Good, now I need Hyde's release sorted within the next ten minutes. I would get a move on if I were you." I said, reaching for the door.

"I need official-"

I pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket and slapped it into his chest. Just hard enough that he might rethink everything he was doing here, whether this was all worth it.

"Eight minutes." I threatened him before I walked out of the room and back to Max. She looked at me expectantly, her hands still in cuffs and attached to the table.

"You can uncuff her."

The guard shook his head.

"The warden-"

"He's busy sorting out her release papers that he has..." I checked my watch. "Six minutes left to get done. Would your face be on one of his videos? You seem familiar." The guard quickly moved to unlock Max's cuffs.

"You enjoy toying with people, don't you?" Max asked once she was free of the cuffs, standing up and looking me in the eye.

"I'm not toying with them. I'm just displaying self-confidence they don't have. Which leads to them making poor decisions to make themselves feel better. Poor decisions I can exploit."

"Yeah, toying with them." She said, looking at her fingernails.

"Fine." I knew I wouldn't win this, because she was right. I enjoyed toying with people, specifically the bad ones.

"You should really remember something."

"What might that be?"

"Self-confidence is attractive in a man, but cockiness isn't. There is a fine, but solid, line between them. Don't toe that line." She warned, walking towards the door. I opened it for her and the guard followed before he walked in front of us, leading us to the processing room.

"Why shouldn't I toe that line? What's going to happen to me?"

"Don't question me. You know I'm always right." I couldn't argue with that. Or I could.

"What would happen? It sounded like you were threatening me." She turned to look at me. Her expression was blank. That was how I knew I had stumped her. "Nothing then?"

"Don't be an asshat, Esmond." She said, which only proved I had her stuck for words. She either didn't know what to say or didn't want to say what she thought. I was hoping it was the latter option. It meant that there was something still stuck between us, and it wasn't just in my head.

Another guard took her to get her belongings and change into her own clothes again. I kept myself calm, knowing I had to be patient. There was no choice but to wait. Minutes felt like hours as I waited, but when she finally reappeared, she seemed just as eager to leave as I was.

There was no farewell from any of the guards, no parting words to spite her with as we walked out of the prison. Just silence. She had most likely made herself a nuisance in this place, the tattoo on her wrist enough to protect her in most situations here.

At that thought, I flicked my eyes to her left wrist, seeing the outline of a crown on her golden-brown skin.

"Tell me you have a good car today." Max said as we walked through the carpark, her eyes flicking around far too often for her to be comfortable. That was the only piece of her body language that gave away how she was feeling. The rest was a perfected façade.

"Of course I do." I pulled the keys out of my pocket and threw them at her. She caught them and looked at what she had taken out of the air. A smile landed on her face.

"You have my R8." She said, sceptic over the entire situation.

"I know it's only your everyday ride, but it's better than nothing, right?" I asked her. Her smile grew.

"I don't know how you did this, but thank you." The words tumbled out of her mouth far too quick as she finally spotted her gunmetal grey Audi R8 in the far corner of the park. She sped up her walk and left me behind. I watched her reach her car, her long black hair falling over her shoulders as she reached for the door handle.

Those clothes...

They were what I had arrested her in. Grey jeans with the cuffs rolled up, a skintight, black cropped top with a fishnet overshirt and her favourite pair of black Doc Martens. I probably could have timed the arrest to be somewhere other than a club, but I needed her behind bars, where she was safe.

I didn't want to get in the car. That would mean telling her everything. It would mean telling her I was using this case to get out of MI6. And telling her she wasn't safe from Queen like she thought she was. The criminal overlord had taken bigger risks, started removing obstacles to her plans with brute force and bloody violence.

It would mean telling Max that Queen had Jake killed two months ago.

There would be no return after that.