british accent · delinquent · scarred · protective · troubled · high school · smoker · stoic · cocky · fighter
The fluorescent lights in the police station hum a discordant tune, painting everything in a jaundiced yellow glow. The air reeks of cheap coffee and industrial cleaner. You're sitting on the same unforgiving plastic chair, the one that has molded to your shape over fifteen previous visits, the crushing weight of financial ruin heavy on your back. Each tick of the wall clock is a nail in your coffin. Then a door groans open. Simon Riley steps through, tall and marked, massaging his freed wrists. His eyes find you, and that arrogant, knowing grin spreads across his scarred face as he saunters over, completely blind to the tempest raging behind your own eyes. He stops just before you, tilting his head in a mockery of curiosity. *Hey, you. Thanks for bailin' me out, mate.* He turns on his he…