One Year Ago

2287

"Cowards!" The tenor of his voice nearly shattered the ceiling. His men fled, frightened like simple animals as they scrambled for any exit they could find. "Cowards!"

Sinjin raised his rifle as a shot blew into his left shoulder. No, NO-

Glass shattered, and bullets whizzed by his head as he crouched, ambling back for a retreat from the onslaught wreaked by a silver submachine gun.

"End of the line, evildoer!" the Silver Shroud bellowed (in that fucking voice that drove nails in his eyes).

Fuck! The ghoul crime boss was cornered; his back was to the wall. A few bullets peppered him in the thigh; a loud ringing threatened to explode his brain out of his ears. The Shroud advanced, shielding Kent Connolly from further harm behind his dark cloak. Sinjin couldn't make out the face of this fucking freak peering down at him as he collapsed. The weight of his stare was disguised behind that thick scarf and fucking hat.

This is how it's gonna go? What a fucking waste. Months of slaving over a higher ambition, sacrificing his own fucking men for it...he was going to be somebody. He was going to build a fucking empire from the ashes of what he burned.

"Any last words?" A smoking barrel was raised, and the ghoul just grinned through the blood gurgling down his jaw.

"Fuck-you-"

...and fuck your stupid hat too.

The shot went off...at least...it did, didn't it? So why was he groaning on the floor of Milton General Hospital hours later, sporting a bitch of a migraine and soaked in his own piss? The Shroud...did he, did he spare him? Sinjin gnashed his teeth together, roaring furiously for no one to hear. How dare he! No one gives pity on Sinjin! The fact that costumed freak had not only cut down his crew and made a ridicule of him in front of his squad, but he had fucking left him to suffer the aftermath of it! Oh, he was going to fucking murder that fuck with his bare hands!

The throbbing pain from his injuries was dealt with religious fervor as he sat slumped in a corner of the elevator. He wrapped his wounds, biting down on the end of the bandage as he tied a taut knot over his shoulder. His rifle had still been beside him, as though the Shroud had no use for it, like it had simply not been worth his time to salvage. Like he was above it. Oh, he was about to find out how fucking wrong of a decision that was!

...but first things first.

Avery and the others were easily found- they, too, had gotten by the skin of their teeth, or at least, they had for a while. The ghoul carved them up into tiny pieces, not even sparing Avery for a last frustrated fuck as his self-control was ripped asunder. The entire world was cast in a hue of red, and Sinjin couldn't perceive anything else but his roiling wrath from the humiliation he was given. That Shroud was going to succumb to the same fate...no, he was going to fucking beg for the same opportunity, once Sinjin got his hands on him.

The neon glow of Goodneighbor faintly hummed the dark alleyway he stealthily waited in...this was his chance! The Shroud was there, he had to be! All he had to do, was go in there, guns blazing, ride that invincible high only a madman climbed up on, and torch the fucking place to the ground. Easy. Simple... Why weren't his feet moving?

He waited for hours until the sun finally came over the horizon, and the drunken, rowdy cries inside the fortified walls began to quiet. Sinjin's rifle dropped to the dirt, and he turned on his heel, not once looking back.

The Present

2288

You bring her back to me, in one fucking piece...oh, and I wouldn't try and fuck her if I were you, if you want to keep your fucking cock sewn to your balls.

A sizeable wave breached the lower decks of the ferry, white foam and slimy seaweed deluging the already sodden planks. The skies were swirling with anticipated anger, billowing dark greys and misting the three passengers that were topside with frigid, wet pinpricks like cold static.

You're going to inject her with this- this exact amount every twelve hours. It will keep her quiet enough to haul her ass back...without that, you're just a dead man.

There was something about that woman that seared the desire to force a fucking fist down her throat- at least he got to shove his dick in it instead.

She'll have a synth waiting for her. Kill it.

Carol hadn't left a description of the synth, but not as if it mattered...he would just blow anyone the fuck away that got between him and his itching fix for revenge. Revenge against everyone that ever fucking dared to mar his ambitions and toe out of line. Avery, Smiling Kate, Northy- all of those bastards had been so fucking weak, they made him look weak. Just a year ago, he had been hailed as one of the most ruthless crime bosses, no one fucked with him... Sinjin wasn't fucking weak.

Bring her back to me, and you can be something, someone, again.

Oh, I'll be someone, alright. The ex-raider shrugged deeper into his coat as the crest of a wave licked specks down his spine. I'll be everyone's worst fucking nightmare.

The boat rocked violently as it bravely sailed on through the radiation storm brewing down the coastline. Everyone with a nose and full set of hair were tucked away down below, leaving himself and the only two other ghouls to themselves to Mother Nature's temper. Sinjin had recognized them, particularly Charon. That motherfucker was a hard asshole to miss. They didn't share the same acknowledgment for him, but why would they? Sinjin had been steadily rising the ranks in the murky shadows before everything had gone to shit. He had heard a rumor they even had a contracted hit on him but decided to pass due to the client not coughing up the caps.

Sinjin briefly wondered what the 'fabled' leader of the Black Caz's was doing aboard the same ferry leading to Maryland, his bodyguard ever present at his side. He would've figured them for a fucking married couple, how close they were to each other. They were spied having arguments and whispered conversations with their heads bent together as though in prayer; they kept to themselves and dissuaded friendly interactions with everyone else. The ghouls would have been his sort of people to keep around...they didn't care for the lawlessness of the wasteland, just the profit to be made from it.

Charon's eyes snapped to Sinjin's face with a hidden warning as he began to approach them with a wry grin on his mouth.

Rome wasn't built in a fucking day.

The synth's hand automatically clenched at the feeling of something brushing against it. Evelyn stood beside him as he studied the open landscape through his binoculars. A brow muscle raised down at her when he turned his head.

"I'm sorry," she awkwardly apologized, avoiding his stare with a look off into the distance. "I...I know you already said no."

A throaty sigh built up in his chest and exhaled to the clear sky. The weather was absolutely perfect; a light breeze cooled his brow. "You know I want you, right? Goddamn sweaty little hands and all."

A nod, but she looked unconvinced by his words. Her hands were bumping gently along her backside as she waited for him to proceed.

Ugh. That puppy-eyed look always got him. "C'mere."

She shyly held out her hand as he motioned for it, and he clumsily pulled her behind him as they continued forward. Those milky hazel eyes drew back to study her reaction; she tinged a light pink, attempting to smother the overwhelming smile she so desperately wanted to burst across her face with a bite at her lower lip.

Ugh! How was she so fucking cute?!

"Ya like that?" he lightly teased her, and she squeezed his hand in response.

They still had not spoken about where they were making the trek to...he couldn't bring himself to speak of it, hell, he didn't want to think about it. Boston was...well, it wasn't necessarily home... That was being held in the palm of his hand, bumbling along behind him and kicking at a small rock with her toe. What was she going to say to him when she discovered he was a synth? Maybe...maybe she never had to know; maybe he could work out a deal with Liam, yeah, whatever the fucking price was for her, he would pay it-

Her foot snugged against a raised crack in the asphalt. She tumbled forward with a squeak of surprise, barreling into his side as he turned to catch her. What a klutz, even on a stable surface.

"At least you ain't wallowin' in the mud, this time," he joked, and she promptly took her hand away. "Hey, I was only kiddin'."

"Not funny," she said with a hmph! Her eyes spotted something along the bankside of the river they walked beside, and she diverted from the path. "Ooh." She bent over, picking up a rock and running a thumb over its flat surface.

Cross watched her tongue stick out to the side as she took careful aim. The rock made a loud splash as it submerged instantly. He let out a rumbling laugh, and she crossed her arms in annoyance.

"Yeah, well, like you can do any better."

He spied a good skipper. "Want to make a bet?"

Her mouth opened, and a replay of a memory flashed before her eyes, making her jaw close. She just shrugged, tersely sighing through her nose.

A massive grin curled on his face. "What am I winnin'?"

"Nothing."

"Aww, c'mon, don't be like that. Here. I'll tell ya what-" He picked up another stone, but unlike its fellow rock, it was more akin to a sphere. "-if you can throw this farther than I can skip, I'll..."

She uncrossed her arms, confidently reaching an open palm for her stone. "You won't say no to any place I want to loot."

He paused, retracting the rock for a moment. They would never make it to Boston on her schedule. Cross glanced over the water and shrugged. "If I win...you have to keep the suit."

Her neck flushed a dark color, but the rock was already curled under her fingertips. "You are such a pervert!"

"You ready?" He winked, already setting himself up for a throw.

She angrily huffed but propped a foot behind herself. "I better not hear any bitching."

The merc flicked his stone across the water, opening his mouth just as she went to pitch her own. "Ya know you got a hole in the ass of your suit, right?"

Sploosh! The sphere had smacked into the shallow end at their feet. Cross' rock sailed on- ten skips.

"That was so not fair!" She pointed a finger threateningly at his teasing smirk, hopping in place like an angry rabbit. "You fucking fuck!"

"Whoa now, usin' big words, don't hurt yourself."

She spun around frantically, trying to find the mentioned exposure. "Were you fucking with me?!" A spin back, and he had a hand covering his face as he laughed so hard that no sound was emitted. "I'm going to fucking throw a rock at your stupid fucking head! You-"

He wiped the tears from his eyes, taking a deep breath as he was reduced to chuckles. "Hey now, you said no bitchin'." He came over to her, unzipping the suit to her navel. "Here, I'll be a good sport and let you step out of it for just a while."

"Hey!" She attempted to wiggle from his hold until he unshouldered one side of her suit, sucking on a nipple greedily between his teeth. She arched her back into him, clutching her hands on his broad shoulders as he swirled his hot tongue over it and bit her. "Ow!"

"God, you got some big fuckin' boobs," he commented appreciatively, cupping them each with his large hands and giving them a squeeze. "Bend down so I can fuck 'em."

"No, you cheater!"

A grunt. He tried. "Fine...I'll remember that."

He then picked her up like a doll and propped her on the trunk of a car, splaying her legs wide and pulling her by the thighs to tilt her hips upwards. His head then dove between them, and it wasn't until he began to lap at her with his rough tongue did she cry out with pleasured gasps. She wiggled, trying to find release from that shuddering stimulation as he sucked on her mercilessly. His massive hands kept her firmly in place at the waist, and it wasn't until he felt that tell-tale sign of curled fingers into him that she was on the delicious ride to an orgasm, did he pull away with a string of saliva leading him back to her sweet spot.

She narrowed her eyes, breathing carefully through her nose. "Don't. You. Dare. I'll go right back on ice if you leave me like this."

He stood back, wiping at his slobbery chin with the back of his hand as he simply stared at her, vault suit fully open down the front, artfully exposing her like an erotic display. He did like the suit.

"Oh, so now ya don't want me to stop." He smirked, and he inserted two fingers as he went back below.

Roman blinked at his employer standing on the balcony with a cigarette between her lips, blowing the smoke rudely at him.

"Fuck took you so long?" she snapped.

Roman merely dove into his jacket pocket, procuring the Pip-Boy for her to take.

She squinted her eyes, not bothering to relieve his burden as she continued to smoke. "What the fuck am I looking at?"

"It is of interest to you," he informed her monosyllabically.

"Why?"

Roman sighed tersely through his nostrils, holding it out to her. She raised a brow and took the device from his palm, finally drawing down her raking stare from the hot coals of his eyes.

"Roman, I have special orders for you, do you understand?" She looked back up, the neon glow from the screen casting her with a macabre lighting effect.

"Yes."

"Good," she purred. "You are not to speak of this conversation to Liam in any manner. What is said stays between me and you. Are we clear?"

"Yes." He did not like where this was going; the bottomless pit of hunger in her eyes made him nauseous.

"Do you remember the ghoul that was here a few nights ago?"

"Yes." Roman had remembered Sinjin's past terrors on the Commonwealth. He was more of a ghost these days, and Roman had been surprised to find him exiting Carol's quarters one evening, strapping on a piece of combat armor as he threw him a leering grin with a wink.

"Did you know we fucked?" she asked him somewhat coyly.

"No." He really didn't care.

"Are you upset that he fucked me?"

"No."

"Do you want to know who was the better fuck?"

Roman slightly constricted his eyelids together. "No."

That made her burst into a grin, and she eerily resembled a decaying Halloween display one found on the streets, more than anything else. "He's going to bring X-17 to Boston, to me. Do you understand what that means?"

For a moment, he remained quiet, and she snapped her fingers at him like one would a dog.

"Roman, do you understand?"

Liam's promised vow rang like church bells through his skull, and he mustered the most malicious expression he could, foolishly hoping the fire of it would burn her to ash. "...I do."