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Chapter 5: Distance

Collateral Damage Masterlist

Pairing: Changbin x Original Character [Rory] x Lee Know

Includes: Underground Crime Member Changbin, vigilante original AFAB main character, antihero district attorney Lee Minho

Word Count: 3.7k

Warnings: 18+ only, NSFW (in Future chapters), mentions of criminal behavior, mentions of past trauma (which include physical and mental abuse), angst, miscommunication, mentions of death and murder, mentions of gun violence

Minho's POV

Before...

"I think we have a way in to finally take down the Allister's." Jason said as he lit his cigarette. He had picked up the habit while being an undercover cop. He pocketed the lighter in his leather jacket and then came to sit in the camping chair opposite of me on his balcony. The early afternoon sun made the day warm but since it was a cool October day it was tolerable. Jason had summoned me over to talk at his apartment when he woke up at noon. He had managed a day off of sorts from his undercover job.

"And what would that 'in' be?" I leaned forward, elbows resting on my knees with my hands clasped. We'd been trying to find a way to get to Mark Allister, leader of the Allister Syndicate, for years now. As an undercover cop Jason had managed to slip into Allister's ranks and had been there for just over a year. He had become well trusted and close to the Allister inner circle in that time and it was finally paying off with being able to catch and prosecute third party connections of the crime family, but the big fish was taking down the Allister's themselves.

"His favorite pet. Rory." Jason said pointedly. He eyed me, waiting on my response because he knew exactly what my reaction was going to be.

"The pet? What the fuck Jason, she's bad news." I leaned back in the shitty camping chair I was currently sitting on. I ran my hand through my hair attempting to not lose my cool.

"Nah man, there's... she has more to her story." There was a somberness to his tone that wasn't there before.

"What part of that's Marks favorite pet don't you get?" I asked crossing my arms in a failed attempt to get comfortable in the god forsaken camping chair. "She's at his beck and call, you know that."

"Or so you thought." He slowly drew out the words. His eye brow quirked in my direction as I continued to stare blankly at him. He took a long drag on his cigarette and blew the smoke out.

"Please explain to me what the hell is going on." My frustration coming through in my words.

"Me and her, we mostly go on recovery or enforcement jobs together. We had just finished a job and were heading back to the compound. Normal conversation, nothing out of the norm for us whenever we work together. All of a sudden she changes topics and asks me how my vacation time worked." He took another drag of the cigarette before continuing. "I had no idea what the hell she was talking about so I asked her what she meant and you know what she said?" Jason paused, his usual story telling theatrics amping up as he went.

"Do tell." I said flatly, cutting my eyes at him. He smirked knowing I hate when he goes all dramatic.

"She says 'well most cops can probably put in their PTO on a schedule but you? You're working 24/7 undercover, I was just curious how your vacation time worked.' all casual and cool just as if she was talking about the weather!" He began chuckling while I stared at him in confusion. How could he laugh at something like his cover being blown?

"How the fuck does she know?" My stomach flipped from the anxiety of Jason being ousted.

"I denied it of course! Played dumb like I had no idea what she was talking about but she wasn't having it. She knew man, she just knew. She said she had a gut feeling." He waved his hand in circles in the air as he spoke, "Something about her intuition. She said she always felt something was different about me since I first came into the family's good graces." He shrugged and snuffed his cigarette butt out in one of the empty beer cans in front of him. "It's fine though Minho, relax. She's not going to out me."

I couldn't believe this. I sat dumbfounded in my chair. Her fucking intuition? How could Jason trust her so blindly? The Allister's would surely kill him.

"She wants our help, Minho." Jason pulled me from my swimming thoughts. His tone sincere and serious.

"What help could she possibly need from us?" I leaned forward resting my elbows on my knees again.

Jason rolled his eyes, "With taking down the family, man."

"You mean shes going to bite the hand that feeds her?"

"The same hand that feeds her also abused her, so yeah Minho, maybe she's ready to bite back." Jason's defensive tone didn't go unnoticed. This girl had somehow gotten her claws into him. That had to be it.

"So she fucks you and now your pussy whipped?" Surely that was why this guy was so chummy with her.

"Wow, thanks. You think I'm some simple minded idiot who only thinks with his dick instead of his brain. Got it." Jason pulled out another cigarette and lit it.

"That's not what I meant, I-"

"Yeah, yeah, save it." He smoked his cigarette for a while, staring at the brick wall of the building next to us instead of at me. "And for the record I would never fuck Rory. It's not like that." He retorted shaking his head.

We sat in silence for a while longer. Jason was obviously emotionally invested in this. It was important to him, and somehow this woman was important to him. Here I was being an asshole, not willing to try and meet my best friend halfway. Hell, he was basically my brother. The one person who had always had my back was asking me for me to give him the benefit of the doubt.

No matter how much Jason opened up to me about what was happening in the Allister Syndicate, I would never fully understand the things he was having to do to survive undercover. And if he'd only been doing this for a year and already had tons of fucked up stories, Rory probably had millions.

"I think you'll understand more if you meet her." He finished his cigarette letting it join the other one in the beer can. "You want this, I want this, and most importantly the police chief wants this. We can take Allister down, but only with Rory on our side."

I sat there weighing the whole ridiculous idea. When something is too good to be true, it usually was.

"I need to know why Jason. Why has she suddenly had a change of heart."

"Because it's not a change of heart." He said simply, everything else he wanted to say he said in the look he gave me.

I processed what he just told me.

If what he was saying was true, then Rory Clarke was the Trojan horse we had been waiting for to take down the Allister Syndicate.

The present...

She was going to be pissed more than likely when she woke up, but maybe the bacon, pancakes, and coffee I was working on would make her more forgiving of my transgressions.

"Minho what the fuck?!" As if on que her voice rang out from the small bedroom that was on the opposite side of my already small lake house.

"You fucking abducted me?" She said walking out of the bedroom. The living room and kitchen were all one room that she quickly passed through until she was standing across the countertop bar from me. Her hair and makeup all askew, the same sexy little dress from lastnight clinging to every sinful curve of her body. The definition of a 'hot mess'.

"Good morning to you too." I said as I grabbed two mugs from the cupboard.

"It's 2 in the afternoon, so no, no good morning. Why are we at the lake house?" She was definitely irritated at me. Good thing I liked being on her bad side.

"Because." I said flatly.

"That doesn't explain anything, that's you just saying what you want to say since you don't want to tell me the truth." She protested.

She always loved calling me on my bullshit, even though she knew nothing pissed me off more. Most people didn't want to cross me, but Rory never backed down. It was honestly one of my most favorite things about her even if it made me extremely angry. She's the only person who I let get away with it.

"I swear to god Minho you better-"

"Fine!" I barked, "The district attorney potentially being caught carrying an unconscious girl from a car into an apartment at 6 am wouldn't look very good, would it?" I poured coffee into the mugs before sliding one across the counter to her. "There's you're answer."

She glared at me as she weighed my words. Then her gaze shifted to the coffee before scanning the stove where pancakes and bacon cooked on a griddle.

"So instead of just driving me to my apartment and waking me up, you thought this was less weird?" Her sights set back on me.

"I don't have to explain myself to you if I don't want to."

She shook her head and grabbed the cup of caffeine from the counter. Turning around she headed back towards the bedroom.

"I'm going to shower." She grumbled over her shoulder as she walked away, her dress hugging her ass. An ass that I shouldn't be lusting over, but fuck. I absolutely was.

Once she shut the bedroom door I busied myself with finishing the breakfast I had started making. I got the pancakes done then shifted my focus to not burning the bacon. Which you wouldn't think was a hard task, but it was made hard because my mind kept thinking about Rory's naked body in the shower that was oless that 8 yards away.

"Fuck" I blew out with an almost silent exhale. I scrubbed my face with my free hand while the other gripped a spatula in a death grip.

I needed to pull myself together. I was acting no better than a horny teenager. The throbbing hard on I was sporting confirmed that well enough.

She was so sinful yet so angelic and beautiful. Completely perfect in every way to me. My mind seemed to race with ever pent up thought I had ever felt in the past 5 years.

I had her doing these fucked up jobs and endangering herself constantly. Meanwhile I'm moonlighting as the head of a crime ring, all while my day job as district attorney kept me and her light years apart from each other. Never talking. Never connecting. Work was all we knew and it was easier to keep doing that than to actually talk.

Maybe it was being in this place, maybe it was being with her, but it all took me back. The memories like waves in the ocean.

Jason and I had been working for years to build our empire. We played both sides to get where we needed to be. A cop and an attorney who took things into their own hands by being a part of underground crime.

We worked for years to make connections and expand. Finding like minded people that we could count on. We weren't good guys by any means but we were a hell of a lot better than the monsters that were in power in the city. We were criminals who took out criminals.

The corruption in Levanter City was rampant. Justice was the furthest thing from the minds of the city officials. The only thing that the district attorney before me cared about was the money lining his pockets. Blood money given to him by the Allister family.

I was able to expose his true self to the world and get him indicted. He had a brutal trial that was broadcast for everyone to see. He was slapped with a 40 year sentence, which I thought was less than he deserved, but at least he wasnt eligible for parole. My personal favorite thing, aside from taking his job, was that I had made a few calls and ensured he was serving his time in the shittiest cell block available.

That was another job I wouldn't have been able to accomplish without Rory by my side.

My mind drifted to the car ride from lastnight. I spoke more to her in that car ride than I had in the past 5 years. That thought elated me, but the fact I was the one who had sent her into that club to gather intelligence and had almost gotten her killed made me rage with anger at myself.

I can't blame her for getting caught. Shit happens. She did what she could and handled herself well like always, but fuck. The moment Yeji called me with a code red for Rory I lost all rational thoughts. I just had to get to her and make sure I kept her safe while my guys handled those fuckers. The car ride to get to her took an eternity and I was going half mad speeding through the city to get to her.

Maybe I should have just had Renaldo Marquette and his men terminated to begin with. The information we pulled from him wasn't all that great anyway. Then I wouldn't of had to send in Rory, and that disgusting piece of shit Marquette wouldn't have felt her up.

How dare he fucking touch her.

I was glad he was dead.

"Ow!"The bacon grease popped and landed on my hand. I realized the bacon was almost verging on over cooked so I quickly got it out and put the pieces on a paper towel lined plate to drain. Placing both the pancakes and the bacon in the slightly warm oven, I'd let them stay there until Rory got out of the shower.

I leaned against the counter with my coffee. My thoughts still buzzing around the fact I had put her in harms way.

But never again.

Rory was a highly capable operative who didn't want or need me to get in her way. I tried my best to respect that even though it drove me absolutely insane. As a person who loves control, not being able to have any control with Rory pushed every pressure point I had.

If we both weren't so fucked in the head maybe we'd sit down and talk it out. That was the problem though. We were both absolutely out of our minds. Work was our greatest distraction and we both drowned ourselves in it. She wouldn't talk to me like that even if I tried.

I had yelled at her last night. She didn't really deserve that type of treatment but my sanity was hanging on by a thread after learning what Marquette's men were going to do to her. I had already been making changes to my organization, unbeknownst to Rory, but this incident confirmed I was doing the right thing.

I wouldn't risk her life anymore. She meant too much to me.

The walls in the lake house were paper thin so I heard when Rory cut the shower off. Setting my thoughts aside I grabbed plates and silverware to go set the table.

I had just finished laying the breakfast spread out in the middle of the table when she emerged from the bedroom wearing an old oversized T-shirt of mine. I kept some clothes here for the random times I stayed at the lake house. She must have found it in the dresser.

Rory's damp hair had been towel dried and it was curling up at the ends. Her makeup she had on last night was beautiful but seeing her bare skin had always been my favorite. I couldn't recall the last time I'd had the pleasure of seeing her like this.

Every night I imagined her in my mind, whether I was daydreaming of her being with me or laying in bed beside me. Hell sometimes even imagining we were talking about work with each other.

I could even guarantee she would be in my dreams when I slept. It didn't matter if it was a good dream or a nightmare. She would always be there.

I guess being obsessed with a woman you could never have would do that to you.

I gritted my teeth and occupied myself with serving her a stack of pancakes and some strips of bacon onto her plate. She took the hint and sat down, adjusting her chair till she was comfortable.

God that fucking shirt. It barely covered her. Her hard nipples were poking through the thin material and this conversation I needed to have with her was now made ten times harder. Why did I have to talk about work when all I wanted was to stare at her. She probably wasn't wearing any underwear and-

"Minho?" Rory's voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

"Uhm, yeah?" I cleared my throat.

"I asked you a question." Her eyebrow quirked as she scanned my slightly deer in the headlights reaction.

Shit, that's embarrassing.

"Sorry..."

"Still over thinking everything I see." Oh, if she only knew the things I was thinking of currently.

She got up heading into the kitchen. "The syrup in the pantry?"

"Yeah."

She opened the small pantry door and rummaged around for the syrup. The shirt barely covered her ass.

Confirmed. No underwear on underneath.

Before coming back to the table she grabbed the pot of coffee from the coffee maker too.

Watching her do all of that while looking the way she did was going to be burned into my memory. I didn't know if that was good or bad. I guess that depended on who was interpreting.

"Now," Rory sat down pouring each of us more coffee, "I know you didn't just bring me here because you didn't want to be seen and I know it's certainly not because you love making breakfast food. So don't fucking lie and tell me why I'm here." Her eyes leveled with mine.

She definitely knew how to get straight to business. She popped the top of the syrup bottle and poured her desired amount over her stack of pancakes. Sitting the bottle down she slid it to me.

"Can we eat first? I don't want everything to get cold."

She sighed, irritated at my suggestion. " Fine, but only because I'm starving."

She was right, because in no time she had devoured most of her plate. I had finished mine entirely so I leaned back in my chair for a moment sipping on my coffee. I savored the simplicity of this moment being here with her. It was ironic that so much distance was between us even though this table was truly the only thing separating us.

"Oh my god, that was delicious. I forgot how good you were at making pancakes." She let out a sigh of contentment before leaning her elbow onto the table and rested her chin in her hand. "So... what is it that's got you kidnapping me and bringing me to the woods?"

In another universe maybe I'd tell her I brought her here because I wanted to barricade us here so no one could bother us. Maybe I'd tell her how I loved her in a way that was all consuming and I couldn't live without her. And maybe I would finally have the chance to kiss her.

But no. Those were things I'd never get to tell her and at this rate, my lips would never know what hers felt like and I forced myself to be okay with that.

"I, uh, have a job for the whole team." A puzzled look crossing her face before I finished with the part that would certainly make her realize why I drug her all the way out hear to tell her.

"It involves...Jason."

Rory sat up straight. There it was. The tension. Bubbling under the surface between us like always.

I hated how awkward this all felt. How at one point we used to sit at this table and look at each other warmly. How we used to laugh together. How she would share anything with me. This was the place where I fell for Rory, and this was the place that I lost her too.

But that was the past.

"It's the 5th anniversary," I continued. "and his mom Maria called me this week...she wants to do a charity gala in his honor."

"That's really nice of her. Jason would like that." There was a tightness in her voice. Rory turned her eyes to her plate. She picked her fork up to push a piece of unfinished bacon back and forth.

"He probably would...but there's a problem." I took another sip of my coffee from the mug I was holding with a vice grip. Time to drop the bomb I had been dreading. "Somebody is murdering people and dressing the bodies up in cop uniforms."

Her fork froze, eyes cutting to me. "Cop...uniforms? And the victims are civilians?"

I nodded. "Each victim has been identified, none are actually law enforcement."

"How many victims are there?"

"8 and presumably still counting."

Her gorgeous dark eyes pierced through me as her mind tried to makes sense of it.

"And what does this have to do with the charity gala?" Her tone somber. There was a catch and she knew it.

"All of these victims....their first name is Jason."

Her fork fell from her hand and clattered on the plate. She froze, her breathing accelerating slightly. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to steady herself. The urge to wrap her into my arms suddenly burned through me.

But I couldn't.

I wouldn't.

I refused to to comfort her. Because comforting her would also be comforting myself and that was a road I would never go down. I didn't deserve to be comforted.

I wondered if she was going to be sick. She used to get so anxious that she would throw up, but she held it together. Her hands had moved to the edge of the table bracing herself. When her breathing evened out she opened her eyes and turned to me.

"Tell me everything, Minho."

I started telling her some of the information, hesitant to tell her everything. I knew I was bringing all the horrible memories of the past back to the surface for her. The horrible night where our plans all went wrong and our best friend paid the ultimate price. The absence of Jason in our lives was felt every single day. The only thing that brought an ounce of comfort was knowing the bastard that did it was dead. Rory had put the bullet in Mark Allister herself. Everyone else was killed in a strategic gas explosion that fateful night on their compound. No member of the Allister syndicate survived aside from Rory.

For extra protection Rory was reported dead, but we made sure to give her a new identity. She was off the grid for a year before coming back to the city. She has multiple aliases that she used as needed but she was a ghost essentially. She had no family, no ties to the Allister's anymore, her only friends had been me and Jason. Restarting again in the city had very little risk.

When I finished talking she slumped back in her chair and chewed her bottom lip for a while. The wheels were spinning in her mind. I'm sure she was thinking of everything from 5 years ago. Who had we not killed and how was this happening.

"How long has this been going on?" She asked finally.

"There's consistently been one body every week."

Her shocked and angry glare burned through me. "So 8 weeks!? And you're just now telling me?!" She pushed her chair away from the table

"I didn't know shit 8 weeks ago! We didn't get confirmation on the names of all the John Doe's until this week."

"You could've just-" she spat out before stopping. She to took a deep shaky breath and looked down at the linoleum floor.

"You could have just told me something." She said softer. Her tone was etched with pain and anger.

Maybe I should have told her. I never included her in anything. The need to keep her oblivious to all the details had to be some sort of coping mechanism that was hard wired inside of me. I hid the truth from Rory because I thought I was protecting her but I was also punishing myself because I didn't deserve any close connection with her.

Jason died and I couldn't stop it. Rory held his bleeding body while he took his last breathes and I'll never be able to take her pain away. The less she's tied to me, the less I'll hurt her.

"All of the victims are random. Most of them were homeless and living in the streets." I continued, giving her the crumbs of details that I had. "There's nothing tying them together aside from having a shared first name. They're killed with a single gunshot to the temple. We've deciphered that they're instructed to put the cop uniform on first before they're told to get on their knees. Then they're executed. The locations appear to be all random too."

"You should have told me sooner." The words bubbling up out of her. Venom in her tone.

"I'm telling you now." I said coldly.

"Yeah and you had to bring me all the way out here to this dump to even tell me. You know I hate it here!" Her entire body was shaking with small tremors now. Anger absolutely raging through her veins.

"You're mad right? Mad that I didn't tell you weeks ago? If I tried to tell you in the city you would have just stormed off and left. Tell me I'm wrong!" Our eyes met and I could see the hurt I was causing her.

"Don't act like you know me." She sneered. The words were essentially a dagger into my own heart. The constricting pain I felt almost took my breathe away but I refused to show her that. She needed to think I didn't care.

A long silence stretched between us. No one moved, no one spoke. The only sounds were the birds outside and the low hum of the ceiling fan that spun in the living room.

"Tell me what the job is and this conversation can be over." She finally spoke, circling back to my first statement about having a job for the whole team. Her voice sounded strained.

Good.

She needed to keep loathing me.

"The gala." I swallowed the disgust I felt for myself. "This sick fuck is obviously trying to send a message so I have a strong feeling that whoever it is will show up there. Im going to have the whole team working on this. Several of you will be in attendance as guests. Some will be wait staff. Others will be eyes in the sky. The Gala will be held in about 2 months. I've got Jason's mom set up with an event planner who is on my payroll and they're working out the details with her. Once it's closer to time I'll have more information for you but for now, that's it. Just plan to be in attendance at this gala when I tell you to. I'll have more intel later."

When I finished talking she stood up and grabbed her plate before heading to the trash and scrapping it clean. She set her plate and coffee cup in the sink then left me in the kitchen alone so she could return to the bedroom.

I don't think I had ever hated myself more than in this moment, but I knew it was for the best. I would keep going with my mission to make sure Rory wasn't in harms way anymore. This twisted serial killer playing games with us was a hiccup I hadn't foreseen, but I would handle it. I would take them out.

My protection plans were already in place for Rory. The unfortunate part was that I wouldn't be able to do this last fight without her. Guess I would need to call in some more favors.

Morally gray, sweet and sour conflicted Lee Know makes my brain 🫠🫠🫠

here's some inspo board pics for this chapter