Work Text:
They argue constantly now. Beth isn’t sure if it’s residual tension from the night Rio shot Dean or because she’s suddenly decided she’s tired of being Dean’s doormat.
The first time he’s stunned when she raises her voice at him.
The next time he pushes back a little.
Now they wait until the kids are in bed or at a friend’s house before tearing into each other like two dogs.
His favorite topic is Rio. She knows it got under his skin that right before Rio turned to shoot him he gently ran his finger down the side of her face and that she stood there and let him. Hell, Beth wanted him to. There had been this tension brewing between them since the moment she’d left her strand of pearls in that rusty warehouse.
“You have a family, Beth,” Dean snapped, a glass of whisky in his hand. He drinks too much now. “You can’t go gallivanting off to God knows where with that man.”
The way he hissed out the word told her all she needed to know – Dean’s jealousy was rearing its ugly head.
“It’s because of my family that I’m doing this,” she volleyed back, emptying the dishwasher violently. “It’s because of what you did that I have to do this.”
“I saw you that night,” he hissed. “You let him touch you. How about that time in the bedroom? Did I interrupt?”
“Dean-“
“How many times Beth?”
“What?”
“How many times have you slept with him?”
Beth stands stunned for a moment.
“How dare you.” She managed to get out as her anger boils over. “I am the only one in this marriage who has honored their vows.”
“I saw the way you looked at him at Kenny’s party, like you wanted to jump his bones while our kids played feet away.”
“Dean, stop being ridiculous.” Beth sighed as she piled up plates and shoved them viciously into the closet.
“You’re telling me that if I hadn’t walked in, he wouldn’t have bent you over and –“
“Dean, enough!”
The room was abruptly quiet.
Beth’s heart was pounding in her chest and she refused to look at the fuming man sitting at her island. She didn’t know what was worse – Dean’s nastiness or the fact that there was a part of Beth that recognized the truth in his words.
“What could he possibly see in someone like you?” Dean asked in a voice laced with venom and malice. “You’re worn out, Beth. A middle-aged woman schlepping around four kids in a minivan, going to PTA meetings, and volunteering at schools – you think that’s what he’s into? He probably looks at you and laughs. You’re just another white suburban woman who’s lashing out in a last ditch effort to convince herself that her entire life hasn’t been a complete waste.”
Beth’s hand tightened around a glass to the point her knuckles turned white.
“Why do you think I slept with Amber?”
The words cut through her – still, after all this time, still, after she was convinced that she’d moved beyond it.
“You’re frigid. You’ve been like that since Emma was born. You’re boring.”
Beth couldn’t stop her eyes from filling with tears and she loathed that Dean still had the power to tear her down with a few well-placed words about her deepest insecurities.
“What could he possibly see in someone like you?”
Beth gathered herself. There was no way in hell that she was going to let this man blame her for what he had done nor was she going to let him convince her that she was lacking in anyway. She’d robbed a grocery store for crying out loud. Elizabeth Boland was no longer the same woman who’d stood prettily at the end of an aisle, doe-eyed and sharing her sickly sweet vows with her future husband. She breathed in deeply, ready to lay it all out for him, when his eyes flickered into the darkness, widening in fear.
She turned.
The shock of seeing Rio stepping out of the darkness caused the glass in her hand to fall, shattering into a million pieces that skittered across the floor.
No one moved.
Rio’s gaze flickered to Dean for a moment, the corner of his mouth lifting in a sardonic smile as he shook his head once. When his eyes turned to her, Beth was rooted to the spot. There was something primal there in his gaze that she’d only ever seen glimpses of. Now he unleashed the full impact of his dark eyes on her.
He took small, measured steps towards her, the glass crunching beneath his boots. His scorching gaze trailed hungrily and salaciously down her body, caressing each dip and curve of her form. She’d never felt so naked, so alive. For a brief moment Dean faded into obscurity as this predator hunted her in her own kitchen. He came to a stop directly in front of her with such commanding energy that Beth had to fight the urge to step away.
There was always a boundary neither of them crossed, some unspoken rule that they never let their guard down in front of one another. It would give the other too much power. Now Beth was stripped bare of her defenses, raw and vulnerable beneath his heavy stare. He was astounding in that moment, giving her as much vulnerability as she was unwillingly giving him. There was balance. Equality.
There was no coming back from this moment, the shift between them permanent; Beth could feel that to her core.
His eyes languidly perused her face as if he had all the time in the world. Beth could feel her face flush beneath his scrutiny.
“He cheat on you?” Rio asked, his voice a rough whisper. Beth gave a single hesitant nod.
“Let me give you a piece of advice, car man,” Rio’s velvety voice rumbled in the quiet kitchen. “When you find yourself a queen, and you manage to lock that queen down, you keep treating her like the queen she is. You don’t go looking for a side piece.”
Rio had turned to stare at Dean over the island to make sure his words were sinking in. There was a brief pause as Rio deliberately adjusted the gun tucked into his waistband.
“Now some women are born queens. Come right on out with the world wrapped around their finger. Others don’t know they’re queens – sometimes they never know. But then there are those who wake up one day and suddenly realize what they’ve been missing.”
Rio turned back to Beth. She kept her face towards him, but kept her eyes locked on his chin. Beth couldn’t bring herself to meet his gaze.
“Now those – those are the ones you gotta to watch. They’re unstoppable.”
His hand lifted, slipping along her throat, cupping the back of her neck. Beth felt herself sway toward him. “This one here? She’ll burn you to the ground before you even know you’re on fire.”
Beth’s gaze flickered to his. There was something incredibly twisted thundering through her veins as she suddenly realized these words meant more to her than when Dean promised her forever in front of their friends and family. Here was a man who saw her for what she was and what she was turning into. There was a transformation happening, and he was watching silently yet proudly from the sidelines, quietly coaxing it from her.
He must have seen the softness in her expression because there was a sudden victorious gleam in his dark stare. Rio smiled at her, a brief flash of his white teeth. He gave the back of her neck a gentle squeeze, drawing her slightly towards him (she could smell what she assumed was his deodorant – something spicy) before he withdrew slowly, reluctantly.
Rio stepped away, heading towards the back door. He paused, turning to look at Dean over his shoulder.
“I hear you talk to her like that again, next time, I won’t miss.”
With another cocky smile directed towards Elizabeth, Rio vanished back into the darkness.