Greed grumped at her recoil. This wasn't the reaction he was going for. "Move in then, clearly you've made your choice to be micromanaged or he leaves you." He sat up with that queasy feeling still sitting in his stomach. "I'll even drop you off, maybe then you can sleep." He held his stomach, fishing for his keys. Perhaps turning her logic around would work. He didn't want her to take this offer because then he'd have to hold up a white flag. Greed was not going to hold up a white flag. ----------- Zoe shook her head, "You're unbelievable... you're doing this for my benefit, right? You're saying all these things because Mike is a bad guy and you're trying to protect me. Because there's nothing going on between us and you have my best interests at heart. Here is a guy who is saying he's going to give me what I'm asking for and he wants me, just me, he wants to build something with me and you can't see that because who the hell would want to do that with me, right Greed? If it wasn't Mike, if it was any other guy, would they love me or would they also be nefarious villains just waiting to screw me over?" She crossed her arms over her chest and huffed out an angry breath while she wedged into the corner between the seat and the door. ----------- For a few moments he remained calm, but then he slapped the steering wheel with his hands. "Because I know the darker side of people!" He raised his voice. If she was hurt because he wouldn't say anything was going between them, he was more hurt that she needed him to. She was getting greedy the more time she spent away from him. He was only trying to keep her for himself, why couldn't she just get with the program already? "I know what they want. I don't like him changing you!" It pissed him off. Here he was trying to mold someone into her and Mike was trying to wash away everything about her he liked. ------ Zoe jumped a little when he slapped the steering wheel, looking at him as he ranted. "Maybe I don't care! Maybe change will be good, maybe it's just the price I have to pay to be enough!" her own voice was raising and she practically shouted the last word before plunging into silence and turning her head away from him. It wasn't really about Mike. It was about Greed. It had always been. If she was different, if she was someone else then maybe.. ---------- "Until he throws you another ultimatum. What if he decides to move anyway and skirt you off with him? Then the home you talk so much about is gone. Not because your family left you, but because you left it." Yes he was being cruel. She had to hear it because maybe that would stun her.
"I don't want him to bleed you dry," that was his job, "I don't want him to change a goddamned thing about you." He slapped the wheel again, this time honking the horn. "That day you got fondled by a cop what did he say? What did he say when you told him?" He grabbed his keys to start up the engine, But his hands were shaking. "Let me guess, he perceived that you reacted out of line." -------- Zoe was downright shocked when he dragged family into it. She trusted him with her weaknesses and now he was using them against her? She punched him hard in the arm and then just shoved and slapped at his arm and side a few times, "You asshole!"
But she stilled when he asked what Mike had said about the bastard cop who'd touched her. She'd gotten a lecture from him. How she lost her job and maybe it had been a misunderstanding. She lost her temper with him and they'd had a bad fight about it and just dropped the issue. "It's not your choice." she bit out the word. "What about what I want?" she was so frustrated. Greed didn't want this and wanted that, Mike didn't want this and wanted that. But neither boy ever stopped to ask Zoe what she wanted. They just stuck her in the middle and played tug of war instead.