Rae let go of the breath she'd been holding and peeled her body from the wall of the bar. One hand found her Glock tucked into the waistband of her jeans and the other touched the tip of her new knife. She couldn't remember the last time she had been out at night like this and the very idea had almost stopped her from climbing through the bathroom window.

Rae tread carefully on the gravel, but the crunching still echoed around the clearing just as the pounding of her heart echoed around her ears.

Past the first row of trees was charcoal fading into obsidian. Nightmares real and imagined lurked behind every tree, she checked her weapons again and her heart pounded moon sank behind a cloud and the night suddenly got a little darker. A bird flapped its wings diving between branches, shrouded and invisible in the dark. She put one foot onto the place where gravel turned into dirt. Her footstep a soundless touch that sent an eerie shiver along her spine.

"Leaving so soon?" Negan's voice so loud and confidant was like a slam to the chest. All air pushed out of Rae's lungs and for a split second she considered mindlessly running but the darkness of the trees were like a fortification that seemed impossible to penetrate.

She mouthed the word 'fuck' to herself and the universe before slowly turning around.

Negan stood tall with his men filing in line behind him. His bat was hitched on his shoulder, one thumb was looped in his belt. He looked relaxed. He wasn't smiling but he was amused. She was trying to run for her life and he was mocking her. Rae had thought she could just slip away from him. The idea seemed so ridiculous to her now. For the entire day she'd seen the careful way he had watched the road, his vigilance, his overbearing presence. There was no slipping away from a man like Negan.

Her Glock found its way into her hand before she had a chance to really think about it. She held it out, two handed and steady.

"Wrong fucking answer Red," he cocked his head to the side and took one step forward.

"I just wanna leave. I'll go my way, you go yours. Nobody has to get hurt."

"Very fucking reasonable of you doll. How about we cut the bullshit right fucking now?"

"What?"

He turned his head to look at his men, "leave us."

"Sir?" Mark questioned.

"Inside. The fucking lot of you."

His men still hovered, casting glances between her gun and their boss.

She wavered, the gun shook, maybe she wouldn't really shoot him?

"If you pricks think I can't handle one motherfucking woman then I'm starting to think the lot of you don't know jack fucking shit."

Maybe she would shoot him. God he was arrogant.

"Yes Sir." Adequately scolded, all six grown men hurried into the bar as quick as they had hurried out.

With only Negan and the moon Rae's heart beat even faster, she suddenly felt even more nervous. Without witnesses he might really turn into a wolf and devour her. She swallowed the dry feeling in her throat, strengthening the grip on her gun.

"Jacob," Negan pointed his bat at her. "You're afraid of him, even the mention of his fucking name and I can see your face going 50 fucking shades whiter. Don't try to deny it. I can help you but if you leave now then you're on your own. An offer like mine doesn't come every fucking day so you better think about it before you make the wrong fucking choice."

"I've already thought about it. I've spent the whole day thinking about it. But better the devil I know, right?"

"Is it? What are you so afraid I'm gonna do Red?"

"Take what I don't want to give."

He edged closer, his toothy smile finally making its appearance, "and if I cross my heart and say I won't?"

God she wanted his help, she wanted desperately for his help to be real. Keeping her people together had been a never ending nightmare. Her voice broke, "this isn't a joke Negan!"

"Maybe I am the devil, Red."

Negan stood so close that the end of her gun pressed into his chest. Her arms slacked, lowing the weapon and he advanced on every inch of her retreat until she could breath the scent of his skin and the leather of his jacket. Rae found a strange comfort in it.

"Maybe sometimes you need a little of that on your side."

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"You don't," he took her pistol, releasing the magazine and pocketing it. Then he grabbed her arms, his grip firm but not painful, "now you try that shit again doll. Pull a fucking gun on me again and I will bend you over a table and spank your ass so fucking hard it'll match your hair."

Her mouth fell open, the shock of his words stunning her into silence.

"Thats right Red. I can be a mean sonofabitch. I'm not some scrawny little asshole that you can control. You better start fucking getting used to it because you belong to me. You're ass is mine until I decide otherwise."

The sound of the slap as her palm connected with Negan's cheek cracked like electricity. Rae's hand burned so hot it went numb. Negan's face had barely moved at the full force of it. He kept looking at her with the same dark expression. Her heart was beating out of control, tears burned at the back of her throat. She'd never met a man who talked to her like this, what kind of person talks like that?

"Jesus fuck, what is it they say about redheads?" he cupped her chin and he was smiling. "I'll let you have that one doll. It's been an emotional fucking day. Now, we are going to sit the fuck down and you're gonna tell me every-fucking-thing about Jacob. I mean it Red. No more bullshit. Lay it all fucking out and let yours truly take care of it."

He grabbed her arm and steered her inside, sitting her in a booth at the furthest end of the bar from his men who were none too stealthily snigggering at her and the big grin Negan had plastered across his face.

He sat opposite her just as he had done before. His arms stretched lazily across the seat, one booted foot hitched onto the seat next to her, effectively hemming her in. Then he raised his eyebrows, waiting.

"I don't like you," she managed, swallowing down tears. She wasn't going to cry. At least not in front of him. Even if he was going to help her, it didn't mean she had to like him.

/

Negan was always an untrustworthy fuck even before the end of the world. A cheater, a vow breaker. Nowadays he didn't bother trying to earn people's trust. He didn't even care that much about their respect as long as they did as they were fucking told. He harnessed something else, a delicate mix of fear and admiration. People didn't like him, he wasn't trying to start some best buds fantasy baseball bullshit, he didn't need a badge of approval. People, men, they didn't want to be his pal they wanted to be him. Hell, who the fuck wouldn't?

No matter what Rae said, she hadn't reserved her judgment for him just yet. She was teetering on the edge. She wanted his help but she didn't want to ask for it. Call it what you will but he found a perverse sort of personal challenge in getting this woman to put her faith in him.

Negan wanted to taste a woman who handed herself over without a fucking motive. Helping her with Jacob would definitely earn him a place in her good books and at the same time he could squash the weasel who was muscling in on his game. Negan was the only Master of the Universe and he wanted to fucking keep it that way. He'd take the fucker out and then he'd take all his shit. By all accounts it would be a glorious flex of his power for a woman in need. Correction, a beautiful woman in need, made his unexpected generosity of spirit a whole lot more fucking palatable.

"Better start talking Red."

"When I met Jacob he was nice, charming, well spoken. He said he wanted to help us and he did. He helped me find the medicine we needed. Gave us extra food. One day he asked us to join his community. He said we'd be safer if we were all together."

"You refused?"

"Not at first. Not everybody trusted him. Not everybody wanted to leave our home."

"So what happened?"

"We followed him. Me and three of my people. We had to be sure."

7 months earlier...

"Look we're doing what you want so give me a break okay?" Rae pleaded, ducking under the low slung branch of a tree. She was getting tired, it had been a long hike from where they left their truck and she had a million things that needed doing back home when they returned from this fool's errand.

"We wouldn't have to do any of this if you hadn't invited him back to the house in the first place," Miguel spat. For months he'd been giving her a hard time about Jacob. In fact, ever since Miguel had first shown up he'd given her a hard time about one thing or another.

"Jacob's helped everyone," Tim backed her up like always, smiling and pushing his stringy blonde hair from his eyes, "all you have is a hunch, Miguel."

"Yeah well two tours in Iraq, I learn to trust my gut." Miguel thrust out his chest, like he always did. It reminded her of an ape and she half expected him to start pounding it with his fists before he jumped into one of the trees. Then he turned to her, one dismissive glance, "maybe Rae would too if she wasn't too busy spreading her legs."

"Hey!" Boot's pushed barged past her, jumping over a half fallen tree to size up to Miguel, "that's enough. Rae and her family have been good to us brother. I don't forget that and I don't disrespect it neither."

Great. She wanted the ground to swallow her whole.

Their was a distant scream and then another one. Boots held up his hand and everyone stood still, barely breathing. They could hear footsteps pounding over the forest floor, twigs snapping and leaves rustling.

"Halfers?" Boots pulled his knife from his belt.

"I don't know man," Miguel gestured his hand, indicating for everyone to follow him towards the sound.

"Please, help me, please." A flurry of mousy brown hair, dived from where the tree's were choked with dense brush. She stumbled to the ground before clawing towards Rae, grabbing hold of her leg. Tears and terror were all over her face, her words were coming out an incoherent jumble.

"Fucking shut her up," Miguel shouted.

Rae knelt down to shush her, stroking her hand along the side of the woman's face, "you're okay-" she began.

A burst of men sprang from the undergrowth and there was a moment of confusion as everyone merged. The butt of a rifle cracked across a head, a fist connected with a stomach, arms, legs, shouts and screams filled the jumble then recognition set it. Both groups split down the middle taking a stance over an invisible divide on the forest floor.

"Jacob," Rae gasped, his always perfectly coiffed hair was uncharacteristically dishevelled and he'd earned a small cut on his forehead that had a trickle of blood pooling into his eyebrow. "Whats going on?"

He glanced quickly to the woman. "I think a better question would be what are you doing here Rachel? You're a very long way from home."

"I uh… came to see you."

"Okay," Jacob ran his hand through his hair before taking a white hanky from his pocket with a flourish that opened it up. He pressed the material to his cut before inspecting the blood staining the white with a frown. "This is all a misunderstanding. She's an ill woman, we're trying to find her before she harms herself or someone else."

Jacob gestured to two of his people, "my men will take her now and we can go talk," he smiled but it didn't quite reach his eyes and the icy blue that had always seemed so mesmerizing in its purity now just seemed cold.

"Please." the woman grabbed her hand, "he'll kill me."

"She killed one of my men." Jacob grimaced at the pressure he was applying to his forehead, "she's owed a punishment."

"He's lying, he's crazy," the woman was shaking, her hands grasping at her shirt pulling open the buttons to reveal the unmistakable swell of pregnancy.

"Hand her over Rachel." Jacob's hand rested on the revolver holstered at his hip, "straight swap."

What? That's when she noticed Boots. Two of Jacob's men pulled him to the front of the group, shoving him onto his knees. His eye was swollen and red, his lip busted open.

"She's pregnant," Rae stated the obvious, surely he wasn't considering hurting a pregnant woman, it was inhuman. "I can take her home with me."

"It doesn't work like that Rachel. She's dangerous and my people want blood. One way or another they're going to get it."

She looked at the woman who was pleading for her life. Aside from her stomach that had been concealed under baggy clothes she was tiny, defenceless and terrified.

"Jacob," she half laughed. He wasn't serious, a few days ago he'd been bringing over a bag of licorice for Zoey. Her palms started sweating, her heart started tapping out an irrepressible rhythm. He wasn't the kind of man to kill a woman. Surely she hadn't been that blind?

"I didn't want you to be a part of this Rachel," he pulled out his revolver, the tiny clicks of the hammer being cocked was like a sonic boom in the silence that had mounted in this small cluster of trees. "Hand her over and we can forget about it."

She pushed the woman behind her, "I... can't."

Jacob pressed the gun to the back of Boots' head. "Think about it Rachel."

Her breath caught, time slowed, the look in Boot's face was resolute. No fear. He shook his head, so gently she might have missed it if she wasn't studying his every feature. "Don't do it R-" he began.

Bang. Jacob didn't even look at Boots as his body crumbled to the ground.

Rae screamed, it was unstoppable, the scream of a mad woman. A high pitched screeching sound she'd never heard leave her lips before that day or after. All this time, everything that had happened, all the people who had died but this was the first time she'd seen a man murder another in cold blood. She didn't even think about shooting, fighting, saying a single word. All she could do was scream. She watched everything else unfurl like it was a nightmare.

Miguel raised his gun.

Jacob's men raised theirs.

"Don't try it Nacho," Jacob waggled his finger, "not unless you all want to die today." His men were five to their four, no without Boots, three. Only three.

She could see the tension in every ripple of Miguel's face, his vein was bulging in his neck, his finger was shaking over the trigger, "you're gonna regret this!"

"See you next Friday Rachel," Jacob said without remorse, like all this was nothing more than a chance meeting in a supermarket. He even smiled as he nodded to his men, leading them away.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," the pregnant woman kissed her hand in between choked sobs.

Rae stood motionless staring at the speckles of blood that were clinging to the front of her shoe.

"W... w... we... should go," Tim stuttered.

"Not without Boots," Miguel demanded, flinging his rifle on his shoulder before he heaved his friends body into a fireman's lift.

She reached her hand out, the tips of her fingers brushed against Boots' trousers, "I can help-"

Miguel shoved her, his face as hard and hateful as she had ever seen it. "You don't get to touch him, puta."

Now...

"There's no children in his community, no elderly, no sick. If you're not strong enough you're given… mercy. At least that's what he calls it," Rae was fidgeting with her fingers, the colour in her face was drained taking all of her sass with it.

Without really considering it Negan reached out, covering her hand with his. It was like ice, long icy fingers that wanted heating up. She looked at him studying his face before her hands slipped from the table onto her lap.

"We're strong, behind our walls we can defend our home, it would be a bloodbath but we could do it. But it isn't like that, he doesn't attack us. He watches. I don't know how, I've never seen it but my people leave and most times they don't come back… at least not alive. He's taken everything from the surrounding areas, including all the medicine we need, he's set fire to our crops. The road block's we set up to protect us from the halfers keep getting opened back up. He's choking us, forcing us out into the open, we don't have enough people to play his game like that."

Fucking hell, he knew he should have been more concerned about her situation. It was a fucked up situation but he was immune to fucked up shit. He wasn't immune to Rae, she looked so tempting sitting there with her runaway freckles making a little path along the bridge of her nose, reminding him about the dot to dot they created all over her alabaster skin. It was fucking distracting. He cleared his throat, tamed his cock and scratched at the scruff that was taking over his face. Not that it mattered, but, "what exactly were you planning on doing baby doll?"

Her eyes downcast, her body slumped into the chair, "I don't know."

"I figured as fucking much."

"We're not useless… we're just not an army."

"One more thing?"

She looked at him, wary green eyes.

"What the fuck did you circle on that map?"

Her brow furrowed, her words a sheepish whisper, "Jacobs compound."

Negan laughed, very fucking sneaky. "You were gonna let me drive into a fucking shitstorm?"

"Well… no… yes… I guessed you'd figure it out. Or…" she licked her lips, pondering her next words, "you seem like the kind of man who can take care of himself."

"Yeah. You better fucking believe it doll. Looks to me like I'm the answer to all your fucking prayers."

A/N- Thank you for all the response on the last chapter :)