2.
The Salvatore boarding house isn't their main property but it's the one that's been in their family for years so they maintain it. Crash there every now and then but mostly they use it to store their favorite tools- the many people they employ to do their bidding. Today must be a slow day, Bonnie thinks. She bypasses the gate and rides up the road to the old gothic home.
Her driver drops her off at the door and she thanks him quietly as she gets out. When she makes it inside the home she finds Alaric Saltzman and Lorenzo St. John sitting in the parlor, playing cards and drinking neat whiskies. Alaric only seems mildly interested in her, his eyes rolling over her dress before he fixes his attention back at his hand. His face gives nothing away. She can't tell if its because he's an emotionless psycho or just great at poker. Lorenzo is more obvious, whistling low and lying his cards on the table to give her his full attention.
"My, my, my. You do clean up nice, darling." His accent grates on her nerves and she wonders if her limited experience with English men proves that they use pet names too liberally or the men she's encountered use them because they think it makes women swoon.
Usually she would entertain Enzo, flirting by dangling an evening with her over his head like a bone with an eager dog but since she's left the Mikaelson Benefit her moods has been cloudy.
"The Salvatore's?" She asks him as she sits on the sofa across from where they were playing cards in front of the fire. She bends to take off her stilettos.
"Stefan is...indisposed." Enzo stands going to the bar and mixing a drink. She doesn't pretend to know what he means by that and truly doesn't care. She's just here to check in like she was asked. In the next moment he stands over her, shaking a glass to get her attention. She accepts the drink, thanking
"And Damon?" She takes a large gulp of her drink. It's her favorite, whiskey sour but it's heavier on the whiskey. She kicks the offending heels away, slouching into the couch with her fancy dress, rubbing the balls of her feet over the plush rug underneath them.
"Indecent."
She rolls her eyes at that before tipping her head back and drinking more of the liquor. She's messy and some spills out of her mouth and drips down her chin. She wipes it away with the back of her hand and places the empty cup in Enzo's hand. He watches her closely, can see the tension rolling off of her in waves.
He was so silently polite to her. Underneath his playful flirtations he would be so nice, waiting on her and asking her if she was okay. She wish she could trust it but she wasn't stupid enough to not see through it. He was, afterall, Damon Salvatore's right hand man. Where Alaric was chilly, observant and focused on Salvatore's acquisitions. Lorenzo St. John was deceiving warmth. He disarmed you with a charming smile and killed you right after you invited him in.
He places the empty glass on the end table next to him and waits with his now empty hand open in front of her. She sighs, reaching into the pocket of her dress and pulling a parcel wrapped in velvet fabric. She places it in his outstretched hand. He smiles brightly turning to take the item and the empty glass as he walks over to the bar again. He does stop for a moment, handing the jewelry to Alaric, who silently accepts it, unwrapping it and holding it up to admire it. Imagine, a killer with a secret passion for history.
"Exciting." Alaric drawls but nothing of the such shows on his face as he examines the jewelry.
"Tell him I stopped by but I can't wait around for-" She says, as Enzo comes back around toward the couch, another shot poured for her. She accepts the glass when Damon Salvatore's voice sounds behind her.
"Leaving so soon?" Damon saunters into the room. He is dressed in trousers and a button down shirt, his tie undone and hair messy. He makes a beeline for the bar to refill his own empty glass. Behind him a woman with brunette hair, parted down the middle and framing her face in slick straight curtains sidles up to Damon's side. She whispers something in his ear, her arms around his waist.
Damon smirks, lifting his drink to his lips and taking a sip. His eyes land on Bonnie as she stares back impatient. He is impudent, openly ogling her and the leg stretching from the slit in her dress when another woman is draped around him. Said woman finishes whatever she was whispering to him, placing a chaste kiss to his cheek before releasing him. She turns for a moment, her own eyes on Bonnie as something like curiosity shines in her gaze before she gives her a small smile. Then she turns to leave, her heels clicking loudly on the marble floors as she exits.
"As a matter of fact," Bonnie says watching him as he comes around to the couch. She takes another sip of her drink, almost draining the glass. "I am." He plops down onto the seat next to her, kicking his legs up onto the coffee table.
"Oh, come on and stay." He throws his left arm onto the couch behind her head. "I want to hear how it went."
She stares at him incredulously. "I'm not a super secret agent. We don't debrief afterward. You told me to steal." She jerks her head over to Enzo, who's since Damon's entrance, returned to his seat across from Alaric. Their card game was forgotten. Lorenzo was now wearing the necklace. The gaudy piece of jewelry shines bright against the man's dark clothing. "I stole."
"Fine." Damon rolls his eyes, lowering his legs from the coffee table and standing. She finishes her drink, placing the cup-sans coaster-onto the coffee table and standing. Damon stands too, towering over her. She eyes him, waiting on whatever he has to say next. She's really always surrounded by handsome, deadly men. Hell, even Alaric could be a charmer when he wasn't being a grump. It's just a shame that all of them had such shitty personalities. Even Damon she thought, if he was quiet more often then maybe she could actually get lost in his icey blue gaze. But as it stands, he enjoys the sound of his own voice too damn much.
He lowers his gaze, his eyes lingering on the low neckline of her dress, the leg jutting out of the split and then back up to her eyes. "You clean up nice." He says and this is probably the first time since she started working for that he's ever seen her in anything this glamorous. The trouble with working in a business overrun with men was they flirted relentlessly and never truly stop persisting. He always tried to toe this line with her but no matter how lonely her nights could get she'd never ever cross it.
She was a professional. She didn't mix business with pleasure.
But if it was part of the job. She could be swayed.
"I clean up better than nice." She replies, earning a chuckle from Enzo. "Can I go?" She points over her shoulder toward the door. Her mind is really preoccupied with thoughts of a hot bubble bath, a bottle of wine and take out.
Damon sighs. "You're really no fun, has anyone told you that?" She bites her tongue. Doesn't bother inviting the heat that would come if she said what was truly on her mind with that particular conversation. It was hard to have fun when you were working against your will to pay off a debt you didn't owe. But if there was anything Bonnie Bennett had become accustomed to-it was cleaning up other people's messes. "Goodnight Bonnie." He says , effectively dismissing her and turning his attention to Alaric and Enzo. They begin a conversation about something inane, business or something else but she's already headed to the door when he calls after her again.
"Oh Bonnie!" He says and she pauses, glancing over her shoulder at him. Though she knows deep down what he might say. "Don't go too far this time. I may have another job for you."
She doesn't say anything though she curls her fingers tight around her shoes. She nods once, curt before continuing out of the Salvatore home. She was a daughter stuck paying for the sins of her father. Completely ensnared in their web and no matter how many jobs she did, it would be the Salvatores that would tell her when her debt had been repaid.
She just feared that they would never say those words. She would never really be free.
xxx
When she gets home she strips off her gown, tossing it onto the floor of her bathroom carelessly before slipping into the spray of her shower. She rolls her shoulders under the hot water and tries her damndest to clear her mind but all she can think is of her conversation with Niklaus Mikaelson.
"What?" She asked, dumbfounded by his words.
"I'm offering you a job."
"A job."
"What are you, a bloody tape recorder?"
"What do you want?" She lost all her power the moment he caught her with her hand in his safe. She's curled in on herself, already ashamed of failing this job. She shakes her head clear. "What do you want from me?"
He smiles and it's sinful, and haunting the way his lips curl in the corners. "I want you to serve the Salvatore brothers to me on a silver platter."
She licked her dry lips and she inhaled deeply. "And if I don't agree to this?"
"I can't imagine you have a reason to say no, love." He remarked coolly. "I know all about you Bonnie." She tensed at the use of her real name. "Including the mountain of debt the Bennett family owes the Salvatore's."
Her anger surprised her. She was here with her back being pressed against a wall figuratively but she was fucking sick of all the reminders of her indentured servitude to the Salvatore family. She was all too aware of it whenever she stepped into the Salvatore home. Whenever Damon or Stefan called her for a job. She had no life of her own, every moment she had was just her waiting for the next call. "And what? Now I owe you too?"
"Au contraire." He said. "With me, you don't have to worry about that."
"Then what do you want?" She asked through her teeth. He stepped closer to her and this time she backed away, afraid that her anger had pushed him to anger too. She moved backward with every step he took forward until her back hit the wall again. He didn't close the distance, instead without removing his eyes from hers, he reached into the safe. He closed his hand around the necklace she had meant to retrieve and gently pulled it over her head. It was cold where it pressed against her skin. She didn't dare take her eyes off of Niklaus.
"Oh, just your unwavering loyalty. No big deal."