There was no affection, no teasing, no loving displays.

There was also no visible abuse.

There was nothing.

Mostly that nothing came from Sadie. She was like a robot. Not just around her father but all the time.

She did everything right, everything exact, everything perfect. The way she dressed, ran her father’s home, organized his parties, everything.

She seemed to be able to do it with minimal effort. She never got stressed, frustrated, on edge. She was never anything but completely together and in control.

Further, she didn’t invite closeness or affection not only from her father but from anyone. She didn’t laugh or joke or lose her temper or display the barest hint of a personality.

She just did her job. All the time. Twenty-four, seven.

All that nothing made Hector want to make her feel something but she didn’t invite that either. She was ice cold.

This had the perverse effect of really making Hector want to make her feel something.

Then she started helping him, feeding him information.

He couldn’t f**king believe it. Not just because she was doing it but because she was really not good at it.

He’d even walked up to her father’s office door and seen her place a file in the drawer where she put information for him. The house had been empty before he entered it, he knew and undoubtedly she knew that Seth was away but it was still risky as hell especially leaving the f**king door open.

He’d stepped to the side so she couldn’t see him, guarded the door in case someone showed and disappeared when he heard her preparing to leave the room.

Anyone could have walked up and seen her do that. If anyone else but him had seen it, she’d have been dead.

Like her mother.

In the end he had to spend his time trailing her in order to protect her so she wouldn’t do something immensely stupid and get caught helping him and thus blowing his cover and getting him and more than likely herself killed.

And she was taking the risk for nothing. Most of it wasn’t even good information. Drug lords didn’t tend to keep sensitive shit in the safe in their home. However he couldn’t tell her that.

She never let on to anyone, not even a hint, that she knew who he was or that she was trying to help destroy her father.

She was always the Dutiful Stepford Daughter.

When she’d walked in that night, smiling a sweet but highly inebriated smile and telling him to kiss her, he didn’t hesitate. He had already made up his mind that when it was over, when he’d brought Townsend down, Sadie would be his. He couldn’t move in on her early, it could have f**ked up the case and he’d been working it for over a year.

But when she’d put her hands on him, pressed her body into his and he could smell her expensive perfume close up for the first time instead of the hints of it he caught when she drifted by him, he lost control and couldn’t stop himself from accepting her invitation.

This did not make sense. She was not his type.

He liked his women to have long legs, pronounced curves and lots of attitude. She had the curves but she was petite and what personality she displayed was frigid, nowhere near the hot-headed, in-your-face attitude he liked in his women.

He didn’t give a f**k about this, bottom line, he wanted her. When she gave him his shot, he took it.

He’d been furious when, close to the point of no return, she’d walked away leaving him hard and aching for more of her.

At the time, he thought she was playing games. When he had time to think about it, he decided, in her drunkenness, she’d lost control too but she’d found hers and, in the end, the games she was playing were games she needed to play so she could end up alive and breathing after he took down her father.

That was much better than dead, like her mother was assumed after eighteen years ago Elizabeth Townsend approached Indy’s father, Tom Savage, a cop and the widower of Elizabeth’s close friend, Katherine.

Elizabeth Townsend had wanted to be free of her husband, her life and wanted it for her daughter too. She didn’t want Sadie to grow up the daughter of a drug dealer. Therefore, she started to inform on Seth who had yet to make the big time, giving Tom information.

Until one day, she just disappeared.

* * * * *

Although Hector had been furious when Sadie had walked away from him, he’d waited and not approached her even though he wanted to. He knew he was close to closing the operation.

It was just over a week later when the DEA moved in.

He kept firmly detached from the process after. He demanded that other agents interrogate her and he didn’t get involved when they investigated her assets. He wasn’t surprised when she’d walked away and didn’t look back when the Agency froze the accounts and seized all property.

She’d done her job and she was moving on.

When they told him they were going to transfer him to DC, he quit. He’d had enough. Although he got off on the hunt, he’d never been big on rules and policy.

Furthermore, Sadie couldn’t get to him in DC.

He bought a house, went to work for Lee who also was not big on rules and policy and waited for her to come to him.

He didn’t think it’d take long. He’d never had a sweet piece go that hot for him that quickly nor had he ever lost that much control. He had no doubt that when their lives were no longer on the line she’d make her approach. She was a trust fund princess who walked away leaving him aching, it was going to have to be her that made the next move.

Sadie and he had unfinished business, he knew it and he knew she knew it and Hector intended to finish it.

However, by the time she made an appointment with Lee, he was losing patience.

* * * * *

He’d heard about Ricky Balducci and his brothers. Word on the street was Sadie was marked. The Balducci Boys had an unspoken deal, win Sadie, win the throne.

It was insanity and it was talk. The Balducci brothers were known for being both insane and entirely full of bullshit.

He was surprised that Sadie had come to Lee and he knew when she asked for protection that she’d been getting pressure from the Balduccis. Why she didn’t share this information with Lee, he didn’t know but he didn’t care either.

He didn’t want Lee involved. He could take care of it on his own. When Sadie left he told Lee he’d look into it. By this he meant deal with the Balduccis and deal with Sadie.

Her time was up. He was done waiting.

That night, he followed her from her gallery to her apartment and waited outside in case she went out.