2020-08-02 - Damage Control

On each floor of the Bayside Apartments there are two elevators. One of them is closer to being centered between the various apartments on each floor. This can be accessed from the downstairs garage and the lobby of the building. This will also be the elevator the majority within the building use to reach their floor.

Then there is a second elevator off to one side of the long hallway on every floor. This second elevator also has both an underground and ground floor entrance and can be found beyond the hallway once you walk passed the pool and gym on the ground level. Conveniently, this is where the delivery doors to the building can be found as well.

Not that Byron takes that particular elevator when he escorts Lilith to the fourth floor, making his way with keys in hand, to one of the supposed model apartments used to entice new tenants into renting. However, that second elevator is positioned directly across from this room.

When the door is swung open, the interior looks similar to any other apartment within this building. It's large and spaces, for one, being one of the rooms with two bedrooms. There's a decent view of the bay off the balcony, but a better view from the master suite. It's tastefully furnished and while staged to show off the apartment's elegance, the colors are neutral to give potential renters a somewhat blank canvas to work from.

Not expecting that they were followed this soon after their encounter, Byron still ensures that the door is locked as he tosses his keys into the bowl within the foyer. In his other arm, he's carrying a box with the game console within among other important documentation and such that are linked to it. It's only then that he feels comfortable enough to speak openly. "I've gone ahead and messaged Frank, sent him a picture of our boy Officer Liu. They'll be on the look out for him." Like they are on the look out for Turner and some of his accomplices whom Byron had either met or had seen pictures of.

If there's anything amiss within this apartment, it's all carefully hidden behind secret compartments and the like.

This isn't the first time Lilith has tagged along into one of the model apartments, but then, she's not sure it was this one precisely, she didn't pay much mind to which apartments in which building he's used to show different floorplans and base decor variations. It's not odd for Byron to think to use a model, and Lilith has no idea what this room may be capable of holding. She does know exactly how many racks of hundred dollar strapped bills fit in a large Victoria Secret sequined gym and overnight bag (roughly 2.4 mil if she's careful). However, it's not the gym bag she gets.

See, Lilith has walked the halls of these apartments and the casino with sizeable expensive shopping and lingerie bags on multiple occasions. They're nice and large with rope handles and absolutely no one is going to question those designers on those packed full shopping bags in this apartment building, no matter what camera catches them. Hell, she used them to migrate half her things over from the loft when she was moving things gradually into the Penthouse, the bags are just that versatile as totes, plus she has tissue paper wrapped around the stacks to poke out and make the packages look nice and officially like a bunch of overpriced (and sexy) clothing or shoes.

There's a couple of makeup case bags with stolen precious gems and metal jewelry, as well as some small items and handguns she hasn't yet wiped the serial numbers/marking engravings/etc. from to fence-- it's also unclear how much of that cash is actually real. She left dummy cash (real and fake) and jewelry (same deal) around the loft and shop, which is a calculated loss in the event the shop is set ablaze, but it's a tolerable one that won't find her taking a Felix dirt nap in the event she has to tell him she LOST his assets in bulk. The woman sets the bags down and looks at Byron with a serious nod before starting to walk the perimeter of the room and kitchen, hand trailing the neutral wall space.

Again, she doesn't know there's compartments, so it might be apparent what she's thinking about while pacing this wander of survey and thought once the loot is put down. Byron learned she doesn't only have the stashes he found while on a cursed-ring hunt, she's gotten more innovative at hiding things since then-- she literally tore into three secret places that would take very strategic construction equipment to find otherwise, assuming someone knew where to look. It's incredibly clever and efficient, but there's a cost, of course, each time she accesses the areas, like a power tax or toll for security.

"... are you sure you want to do this?" Lilith pauses her little hunt that Byron may or may not interrupt anyway, turning to look over her shoulder at the bags, then him with her brows soberly knit downward, "Once I put this on your property, you're abetting me, you're not just obstructing justice by not reporting what you know. This is Club Fed level crime, babe." She's serious about that, despite the bare attempt to make light of the fact they'd at least get to go to Federal Prison, the paradise of prisons for White Collar criminals, not the gross ones! After a noise through her teeth she adds, "I know you know that. I know we agreed to live our lives together and this is part of my life, unfortunately, just like lots of other things. I just..."

Her hand leans against a counter edge while standing between open concept kitchen bar and living space, staring at the man, "I'm not arguing. It's just... hard to... it's like smearing mud on one of your good suits, somehow, I don't know. We can think of something else, this can be temporary, or--" Oh ho, cold feet now that she's looking at Byron and imagining him in a prison jumpsuit! Really, that is NOT what this problem is, but it doesn't matter, those things are all 'what if' triggered up about now. But after a breath, she tries again, "... if you're really okay with this, I'll be as quiet as I can manage about 'storage construction'."

Due to the nature of some of Byron's business, once they reached the gates to the Apartments and Byron was able to pass along the message to Frank that they'll be needing their privacy, certain security recordings are being played on loop. That doesn't mean that Frank can't observe what's going on on the fourth floor and he does watch to make sure that Byron and his lady are safe. What it does mean is that if anyone checked the tape for this, they would see nothing but an empty hallway for hours on end.

With Lilith pacing, trying to figure out her next move, Byron moves to draw in the curtains for each of the windows, shutting out any view inside. He keeps steady watch on Lilith all the while as he goes through the motions of ensuring their privacy and he listens to her worries. "The more you talk about that, the more I kind of want to dump those things at the old house." The Thorne House, "Give them the headache to deal with." He then stops what he's doing to stand beside her, offering a comforting hand to her shoulder, "I mean it too."

Barring that they do that, Byron is quick to say, "In my mind, it's always safe to move things that need to be hidden around." This was his idea for that cursed ring too! Sort of. "It might be here one day, in another room the next. Or in another place entirely." The man has his contacts and there's plenty of places to stash things. He says this, especially, when Lilith brings up... storage construction. There was already storage construction done here! As well as a nice supply of firearms.

"I can handle that. For now. We use these model apartments sometimes as storage." He pauses as he reaches out to place fingertips beneath Lilith's chin to gently lift it, "We're in this together, remember. And I am not going to some corrupt cop bring me down." He then asks, "Speaking of... we should check that thing for a bug or tracker. Maybe take it apart entirely."

Lilith is only stayed by her guilt when it comes to finding a spot to structurally disassemble, effectively making and sealing away her own personal hidey hole. She took that time to make extra sure that Byron wants to kind of be a criminal with her and risk his... sparkling image (mmhmm). Turning toward the touch at her shoulder, she makes slow spin in place while listening to the man make some nasty backup plans, then some logical ones too that imply... she doesn't need to rip down part of a tile wall? That's a bit confusing and mildly disconcerting, what storage do these apartments have that she doesn't know about? Also, she really wants to break something for the sake of feeling it, even after almost breaking her hand trying to physically do just that with a glass case.

Needless to say, one of those bags was carried on an arm, not in hand on the way up, she's even reflexively nursing it close to herself now, turned toward Byron to look up at his dark eyes. Her face tips upward too with the drawing touch and lift of her chin by the man's fingertips, and then, despite anything else that's going on, she can't help but turn a small, adoring smile on for him and his 'fuck Liu' mentality in this. Then he tells her they should break the PS4 for investigation purposes and she's REAL quick to nod a few times fast, eyes cutting over toward the machine briefly as her hands rub at the man's suited torso, "... yes. That's a great idea, actually. And we can talk about steps and what comes next so we're on the same page."

Dissecting a PS4 will also keep her delightfully busy for a few minutes, at that, if she breaks it down into component pieces and pulls it apart instead of just flat out breaking it to no investigative effect. Before Lilith can hop over and grab the machine to start that, though, she says to Byron after laying on a kiss with rise on toes, "What happened when you touched the warrant? And were you doing anything else while Liu was in the building? It's hard for me to tell with you, you're subtle about method. I didn't want to mess up whatever you might have been trying to do." A pause, "We need a hand signal or something for when it's time to rage. We could synchronize our death lasers."

An idle glance is given the doorway leading to the guest bedroom, possibly where anything hidden would be stashed. At least one possibility.

Still, knowing that he told Lilith to tinker with the PS4 with one of her hands still banged up, Byron holds some regret over that. In fact, before she heads over to the grab the thing, he was about to do the same for her when she stops him with a kiss and then her inquiries.

So now his full attention is back on Lilith, his own hands coming to rest at, first, the sides of her arms, before his palm brushes down her limbs to take up that one injured hand once more, brushing over the bandage with his thumb gently. Licking at his lips to taste her essence that lingers there, he relays what he did learn. "The signature is legit, alright. But the official who signed it did so out of fear. I'm thinking of talking to him, figure out if he knows who's pulling all the strings now."

With a light furrow at his forehead, one brow lifting, he can't help but ask with a cheeky grin, "What sort of mischief do you think I could do in a situation like that? Admittedly," His voice adds emphasis to that last word, the next part coming out with more than a faint hint of annoyance, "I wish I did do something. Shut the whole thing down, but I want answers and that guy, he shines. But I don't know what he's capable of." At first he blinks, his smile then becoming more genuine, "Hand signals...? I mean, it would've been helpful, I'm sure." Or... he could have just told her his intentions telepathically. Or tried. But that's still not something he comfortably touches on.

Leaning in to place a soft kiss against her lips, he tells her, "Have a seat over there, I'll get the console. You know, I could just fry it if I find anything odd attached to it, but I don't know what we're dealing with here." He then better explains himself, "Does Liu really want the game system? And why? All this time, I thought he had it planted on you as evidence of a crime and that this has little to do with the game system itself. But then why leave to come back another day?"

"Ah-hah." Lilith breathes as Byron explains, watching him with her bandaged hand in turns with full, thoughtful eye contact, "Good ol' fashioned fearmongering and coercion of public officials, good times. Makes sense, too. I don't know what was going on with his breath, but him putting it all over me made me feel icky... imagine the feel of being rolled on a public toilet floor in an Indian restaurant. It was making me angry, and honestly, tonight you're going to have to wash me twice on principle."

The brunette holds up her battered and wrapped right hand like it's the reason Byron is going to be washing her, a slip of rueful smile to go with the gesture. But face it, even without (stupid) casualty of the hand, all Lilith really has to do is stand there and foist a sponge on the man. Those hands are generally always ready to play roaming slip and slide on her body in the shower, with or without soap. And that grin...

Suddenly, though, Lilith is sober again in the face when she informs Byron, "... he's like me, but I can't quite tell how strongly so without looking closer. I didn't want to exert any powers when he had just put a gun away. The last thing we needed right then was for him to misunderstand what I was using my abilities to do on the off-chance he noticed." There's a pause as the woman's dark head shakes in bare, brief gesture. Spiritualists hurt and they can hurt badly and quickly if they're good and lucky and tactical enough about where they aim, she knows this firsthand, "Seriously, though, the way things work here, some kind of on the sly touch or gesture when everything is hair-trigger..."

The woman makes a noise in her throat as if she's filing that away to touch on and figure out later. It's not a bad idea. There may be times Byron is working subtly and wants Lilith to hold off, there may be times when they're ready to leap together into more violent methods. It's pretty tactical and the way they touch each other or stay in general orbit of each other when shit hits the fan, it's not like anyone would catch on, they know each other's body language VERY well and... oh. Byron kisses. His lean to mesh their lips again definitely tables that thought and planning brigade.

After drinking in the kiss and instructions, she backpedals slowly away, then flounce turns to get out of her heeled sandals on the way to the coffeetable. Comfortably bare-footed, Lilith settles down at one end of the table surface on the floor at cross-legged sit in her little sundress, awaiting the machine's arrival, "I don't know if he actually wants it back or was just using it as a convenient excuse to get in with a plant. Could honestly go either way. But it's uh. Kind of funny that a game console comes in not long after the game store burns, apparently courtesy of Liu..."

There's a few clicks of Lilith's tongue then, "Almost feel like I should talk to Abitha to get the gritty details of what happened at her shop so we can get a better idea of what the man might be planning. I guess there's the off-chance she has stock serial numbers on her order receipts on a business icloud or something, too. Might be handy to be able to tie it to her shop to tie him to the fire? Unsure." Then she sighs and uses her good hand to play with some hair thoughtfully, "I think I should tell Joey, but he has enough on his plate right now, so maybe not immediately. I kind of want to... see which way this is leaning before I go triggering a Kelly into hamfisting people."

Then she mentions, "... probably should tell de la Vega something about the visit too, just so he's aware. Mostly because if we don't say anything and he learns about it after the fact, it looks like we're hiding other things and we so do not need that right now."

From where Byron was standing, he was lucky enough to not be fully assaulted by Officer Liu's halitosis, but he makes a face at Lilith's description of the man's foul breath, A face that tightens when she tells him that Liu is a Healer like her. That gives him a lot to think about, but somewhere in his head, he knew. The Control Pad burned down for one. And he ruled out that the guy wasn't a Mentalist like him. That left him with a 50/50 chance of being correct in his assumption, but the burning leaned more towards him being a Healer. That made him dangerous.

"Right, my thoughts exactly. Though I'm not sure why he decided to drop pursuing this entirely if all he wanted was to bust you for a planted stolen goods. I mean," He randomly gestures with a lone hand as he moves to pick up the PS4, "If he wanted us to bribe him to shut him up, then he should've said so. And I've no concrete evidence that he's working for this new cartel. All that Clayton told me was that Liu was hard up for cash with a debt to the casino. Something that's being looked into. I'd hoped that my bringing the casino up with trigger something in him. And the way he left immediately after that, maybe it did."

Bringing the console over to where Lilith is settled down, he sets it onto the space next to her, though not taking a seat, himself, just yet. "The thing is, I'm not quite sure that we'll be able to handle this in the legal manner. With corruption and fearmongering already in play, people are taking sides, whether they want to or not." Pulling out his phone, he presses a few buttons, then lifts the phone to his ear. It's most likely to his security team. "I can reach out to de la Vega. And Joey as well, unless you want to talk to him." He won't come out and say because this is your personal issue, knowing how she often doesn't let on about this debt of hers, even though he knows that they are in this together now.

"A Healer, huh? It all makes sense." His father was a Spiritualist as well.

Sometimes, what Lilith does is absolutely fascinating, even to her after all this time. And taking items apart, while it doesn't have the same 'oomph' or high that her lashes of violence provide, it's satisfying to her in a different way. It feels like control and method when she can't control much else. She was always a tinkerer, there's entertainment value in this for her as much as she's taking search precautions, and it's a nice pick-me-up for stress in a very subtle way that Byron can see in Lilith's seated posture once she starts to focus. Her bare shoulders lose some tension, as she reaches out to start dissecting it into pieces, first the outer case like she's cracked a jigsaw puzzle.

Lilith is listening to Byron, but she's absorbed in focus too, so still and slowly methodical with her good hand. Like a surgeon with no tools, her focus hones raw power into laser pinpoint precision use of her abilities. Piece by piece, she gradually dislodges the machine into componential pieces. The AC unit kicks on overhead, blowing a loose piece of hair with flutter over one of her eyes, but it's not her eyes she's using to see, precisely. Her nose wiggles a little, though, as the wisp of hair tickles alongside it, a very unwitting semi-Bewitching (pun) little gesture of expression.

"It was a very 'Goodfellas' or LAPD dirty cop kind of reckless approach. You're obviously good for bribe money if he actually had anything on me, maybe he just wanted the in to look for some real leverage. There wasn't any, of course, and honestly, I think those guys were just told to toss the place as a matter of number intimidation and busywork." The woman is eyeing each piece to get a sense of where it's going to go when she returns the item to original state, which should leave out any foreign pieces if she can't identify where it belongs. It's hard to explain that, though, and it feels good to be doing this, maybe she'll try to manually screw some of it back together when finished... but it's been a long time since she took apart a game station (or tried, the boys generally yelled and stopped her).

"That said, it's possible he wants to skim long term, not just take a bribe-- he might feel he has to tough me into it to comply with threats, seems like the kind of guy that uses them as a security blanket. Thinks as long as he can back it up, he can say or do what he wants, I'm sure. We can't even assume he knows how I do business and who my boss is and he may just be trying his own protection racket like a mafioso for the steady income and power and influence. Because if he's not with an opposing cartel, he may not be sure of actual risk, considering. I don't know. Another reason to talk to Abitha, see if they've conversed and what was implied."

Lilith's gaze finally cuts to Byron, though and it is very, very intense to go with her quiet tone of voice while the prolonged, shared look lasts.

"... he fucked up, though. Gave you something of his and he let me see him. If it gets too nasty, we'll just..."

Get close enough for Lilith to try and take his ass out from a distance like a psychic assassin. Not the best plan for a few reasons, but hey. It's an option.

Lingering near the couch, standing closer to where Lilith is seated, he watches as she takes the gaming console apart. He would object to her use of her Talents, but she had an injured hand, so this would have to do. Hell, he could've gotten a screw driver and tried his hand at it. Through most of this, he's conversing with his security. For not focused on the ones protecting the Apartments, before sending out a text to the ones keeping watch on the Pawn Shop. The Casino was a far larger affair, but even his security there was infiltrated when someone put out a hit on Monaghan.

Once he's done speaking to Frank, asking questions in a firm tone, the phone is finally lowered and he returns back to his converseation with Lilith, "In all honesty, I was first going to just fry the whole thing. If there was a bug, it would be useless after that. I mean, I have doubts that the console itself is of any importance and that there's something stashed in it that would be what Liu is after."

Slowly nodding to Lilith's thoughts on the whole shake down, Byron just has to ask curiously as he observes her put the thing back to gether again, "And the Control Pad? Why did that go up in smoke? Unless that was a warning to us all. Then again," This last part is spoken hurriedly, before he returns to a normal pace, "We have no idea how many times he visited Abitha before then, so yes. That's something to inquire about. Then again, it may have been my influence that prevented him from doing his worst. If he did do anything though..." Byron was ready for a fight, so used to being dragged into far darker and warped realities that is the Dream world and the Veil combined.

Looking down at the phone in his hand, he has thoughts on calling de la Vega right now. If anything, the Interim Chief should at least know that the Pawn Shop was marked. "There's only so much that I can do with his card. And often business cards don't hold much emotional residue at all." His free hand reaches into his pocket, producing the card from within, "If I'm lucky, I'll be able to know where Liu is located every so often, but that's no guarantee." His eyes move from card to Lilith now, "Let's hope that anyone else that he hits plays smart before we get a chance to take him down." He may say 'we' collectively, not relying on just the both of them.

"I was going to tell you to fry it because bug or tracker seems a little stupid Bond-style, but these have hard drives installed too, see. If this came from Abitha's shop before it was in my shop, why'd he stop to get it before planting it in mine if he was just torching the place anyway? I guess it's possible he ripped it off first too and this was just in one of the stacks, but... might as well entertain the idea there might be something on the hard drive useful or damning."

Lilith still hasn't said anything about Byron being the one to reach out to Joey, not just the interim Chief. She's still mulling that one for a couple of reasons, but eventually she says, "Need to use the burner to talk about anything of particular note with Kelly..." And yes, she has that one in her bedside drawer, so regardless of who is going to reach out and when, she's at least decided that much while thinking over how immediate such contact should be. What if they intimidated him right back and he decided the risk wasn't worth the reward, what if it all blows over and he moves on? (Yeah, okay.)

Settling back before finished, Lilith rakes her working hand back through her hair to hold some of the dark, sleek locks in a wadded tousle for a few beats, eyes up on Byron, "Mention of the Casino might have spooked him. Might have been the mentioned surveillance limiting him too, or your influence, or both, who knows. He didn't just want the machine back, if he even wants it at all and isn't just using it as a prop-- he wanted the security footage of the pawn. I don't stream it into a cloud because Turner would probably have someone hack in and creep watch me. Instead, I have it feeding to two difference drives and sources, one inside the shop, one outside, so I'll have backup, not that it'd be hard to copy for more backup."

There's a pause, "Any idiot would make a copy before handing wanted footage over, though, seems moot too, so... hell. Maybe he just wants both of these reasons to meet again and they don't matter at all. We'll see what footage shows first, I guess. I'll contact Abitha starting tomorrow, see what's what with the questions and details there..." She's still seeming to be leaning toward at least tomorrow about the other calls too. And to be fair, they need to get their own ducks in order and eat and clean up and decompress at some point, Byron has men watching things in the meantime, and it's doubtful Liu will strike so quickly if something is up his sleeve.

Byron takes everything that Lilith says, mulling things over his in mind. "In my mind, the drop off was the set up... but him coming back for it, I have no idea why he wants this thing if he's not planning to leans in on you for money." To the topic of Kelly, Byron, of course, has his ways of contacting the man, but he will allow Lilith to do so once she mentions the burner, "Good call. Just let him know what's up. What happened. What we have in our possession and..."

His free hand reaches into his pocket for that card again, flipping it over through his fingers.

Whatever thoughts were in his head are broken when Lilith brings up the security footage. "Let's take a look at that. I mean, what would it have caught? Besides the identity of whoever dropped the console off at your store. I mean, if he needs that evidence wiped in order to incriminate you in this crime by saying that you... stole it after you burned the game shop?" The businessman's eyes narrow. Is that Liu's game?

Slowly the hand holding his phone drifts to stash the device in his pocket, it's almost as if Byron is bracing himself for something as he continues to toy with the business card within both of his fingers.

It almost looks as if Byron were daydreaming, just standing there, staring out blankly with the business card between his fingers. The flipping stops though and he's perfectly still. Then he awakens being drawn back to the present, his dark eyes blinking and his tall frame swaying in a subtle manner. This intense feeling of despair had filled him. Fear. Something which turned to angry nervousness.

Unlike the emotional signature he got off of Hank Winslow, this one... this was something that Byron /could/ understand. He could feel Liu's grief, the anger, the desperation.

"Right. I don't know, babe. I suppose we could speculate all night. But the more we think of possibilities to try and stay ahead of the game, they're going to turn into the more creative kind of 'what if' that borders paranoia. And I generally believe in the Occam's Razor principle, to degrees. Or at least as much as I can while living here." Lilith turns up a small, rueful smile while continuing to play fingers through her hair with eyes up on Byron from where she's seated. Then, after taking a breath, she starts planning steps aloud.

"We have what we have to try and figure this out, which is at least more than a sneeze in the wind-- there's three people to contact for different reasons starting first thing tomorrow. We'll look at the footage when we're up at home tonight, I have the paperwork and ID copy to compare and narrow down the day for review, at least. Signatures are dated. I don't notice any foreign pieces that aren't part of the original design while preparing to snap this machine back up... there is the matter of the hard drive, but again, we'll look into it when we have a way to do that without just plain frying it. And you have the business card to..."

Lilith notices Byron's fingers toying in his pocket, the way his position or bearing changes a little in preparation and she thinks she knows what's about to happen, speaking of that card. She knows he also prefers to be alone for such things, so instead of watching to see what he does or how he reacts when he gets what he gets, she leans back forward to start drawing the pieces to fuse back together into original state, little by little with an absorbed tilt of her head. She notices his reaction while regaining his senses, though, and that blip of exertion on his own part to confirm what's happening over his way in full.

The console is soon whole and Lilith somehow waits a FULL fourty-five seconds (she counts) to even look at Byron after she feels he's stabilized himself and whatever the proxy emotions brought. It's kind of sweet, the way she's making an effort to try and keep things the way he wants instead of watching him or immediately leaping to concern afterwards. She reminds herself it's what he does.

After that time is up, she pushes out of sit on the floor and rubs at the back of her thighs where the rug pile and pattern has made her itch. Pretty rugs aren't often comfortable to sit on with short skirt hems, also it's keeping her from jumping into his orbit to rub and touch him all better, "... anything useful?"

Swallowing deeply, the dark haired man felt ill, shaken by what he'd seen. He's never experienced that kind of grief and he hopes that he'll never have to. He's able to keep it together, however, though his ran cold. Breathe, he reminds himself.

Though Byron might be in whatever zone he's in during these reads, he does catch pieces of things going on in the present around him and he's quick to absently state, "Right, we'll look at the surveillance footage." Simply a repeat of what they were discussing earlier, really.

Another blink and he turns towards Lilith, tucking the card back into his breast pocket. He watches her with these intense eyes for half a minute, still processing everything he'd experienced. This is almost the way he felt in his car, when Lilith was angry enough to walk out on him, yet... it was worse than that. "I know what his frame of mind is. Down on his luck with nowhere to turn and a dying girlfriend in the hospital." Drawing in a deep breath through his nostrils, he shakes his head, "It's not good." His brow creases though as he replays the memory within his mind, "Felix Monaghan... I caught glimpses of him. I think he used loan Liu money, but stopped."

"... I see." Lilith says after pulling her hands away from her legs slowly, watching Byron a bit closely, herself. She's not entirely sure he's feeling all his own emotions again yet and glances aside at her sandals on the floor, unsure what to do with that particular tidbit. It's good to know, of course, but it also kind of gums up the idea of just whacking him to protect herself and Byron if needs be. Lilith knows what being pushed in a corner by life feels like, she knows it very well. And while she's not the most sympathetic person in the world, especially when she's threatened, it does quiet her to mull that all over.

The woman takes the time to wander a few steps for slipping into her shoes again, briefly leaning down to adjust them, giving Byron yet another moment of space and time to process and shake whatever needs shaking. Then after looking at the bags awaiting stash, she draws in a breath and admits quietly, "... I don't think I want to do this anymore. I'm not sure I even want the shop anymore." There's a few heartbeats of pause while she looks down at the floor, but she doesn't elaborate anymore about it, "... we have to get through whatever this brings first, though."

Sighing to herself when she's done speaking, Lilith looks at the nearby man again for a prolonged few seconds. Then she steps forward to lift both her bandaged and good hand up to either side of his face with caress and draw of attention to her own eyes, "Hi. You okay in there? Want me to do anything to help you finish snapping back?

Yes, at that moment Byron was thinking: What if he and Lilith were in this situation? There was something heartbreaking about it and a heaviness difficult to shake. Was this really any different from that evening in his car where he thought he could have lost Lilith forever that night if he'd let her go? Liu didn't even let go of his girlfriend's hand as she lay dying. Then she was gone.

Yet... after fully recovering from the read, Byron's shrewd and sometimes unforgiving mind starts back up. Who was he kidding? He would /never/ be in Liu's situation, a life of poor mismanagement if you asked Byron. And this man was threatening Lilith and her business and for that sin, he could not be forgiven.

That still intensity remains in his eyes when Lilith cups his face between her soft hands, his gaze staring deeply into her own. "I'm fine." His word is firm, something which he realizes, but it soon pulls into a smile. "Are you?" He leaves that question hanging for a moment, before he relays exactly how he feels. "No matter what Liu may have gone through, he's taken the wrong course of action here tonight. While I have sympathy for his plight, something which we can all understand, if he really wanted help, he didn't do everything he could to get it." Licking at his lips, he then says, "I don't know if he found what he needed with this new cartel. I saw nothing about that in this memory. But he has other corrupt cops working for him and they're getting paid somewhere, I figure."

Still smiling, the hand which once touched the card, reaches out to cup at the side of Lilith's face now, stroking at her cheek. "Let's view the recording. See what else dirt we can dig up." He seals his words with a slow kiss, pressing his lips against hers.

When Byron's lips finally pull with smile, Lilith nods, small and mute assurance to the man as her hands drop away, trading off for the lift of more masculine hand to her own cheek. She listens at length with another small nod that's easy agreement to Byron's spoken sentiments on what he felt off of Liu's personal effect. She doesn't elaborate on what she's thinking, it's not real important once Byron has dropped his face to seal lips with her own, and though she keeps to slow and ardent, it's especially creeping more toward the latter. Her tongue presses and rolls with his in full, heated and measured open-mouth kiss.

Then as if to better prove how recovered Lilith is from the frustrating situation and scare of it, when she gradually draws back from the kiss, she slowly tugs Byron's bottom lip out with firm pulling before popping it free from trap of teeth to speak, "I've never blown you in a model apartment, I was hoping you'd just ask for a straight shot of adrenaline to feel right again. But I suppose... we should put things safely away, go upstairs and have a looksie at footage, yes."

So responsible! Except... her hand takes a dragging grip and wander along the front of Byron's pants to make brief, firm knead of what's beneath while she's saying that, what a tease. It's not even her good hand, her primary one is bandaged, but it certainly doesn't inhibit what she does. Stepping gradually back, she starts to turn toward the bags, "Anyway, I forgot. I'm supposed to be abstaining until marriage, hm?"

Byron could so easily be lost in this passionate moment if his mind wasn't trying to devise what their next steps should be, what he needs to do next, who he needs to contact. His mind just never stops planning and this situation that they found themselves in was a rather dangerous one. That doesn't mean that he pulls away. Oh no, he's good with multitasking even if that's making out and plotting his way to rule the world at the same time.

So he enjoys himself despite his mental calculations, feeling the tug at his lower lip, before pressing his mouth closed after Lilith's murmuring there. There's this serious 'Don't tempt me' look in his eyes at her bit of teasing. And then she takes this teasing to the next level, to grasp at the front of his covered crotch, something which lights up that fire inside of him. Yes, he's wearing that rather displeased 'Unbelievable' look with that familiar shake of his head.

"You are really asking for it, young lady. You're lucky that I'm madly in love with you." He says with a touch of frustration in his tone as he moves around the room to gather up the rest of their things with sex on his mind.