Chapter 4 #2
“Ready when you are,” Doug confirms with a nod as I hover behind Jedd, my arms crossed over my chest, silently raging.
Stone clenches his jaw, giving me just a moment of reprieve as he focuses that haunting stare on my piece-of-shit boss.
Though I have to admit, I get a kick out of the way Jedd seems to shrink under Stone’s scrutiny.
He doesn’t all-out wet his pants, but it’s enough to shatter that egotistical confidence.
“Not so fucking brave now, asshole,” I mutter under my breath, so silently that not a soul could hear me.
Only the guard closest to me seems to smirk, and I can’t help but wonder if perhaps my version of quiet isn’t as silent as I’d always hoped.
Perhaps this is why Janette, in the office, has always had such big issues with me.
Fuck her, though. And fuck Jedd too.
“Stone Blackthorne, twenty-seven years old, and serving four life sentences,” Jedd starts as though he’s introducing an MMA heavyweight champion to the ring. “A hundred and ninety-six years. That couldn’t have been easy news to hear.”
I scoff. A hundred and ninety-six? It was a hundred and ninety-two, but one quick glance at my notes and he would have known that.
Stone’s laser-sharp gaze slices toward me for just a moment before settling back on Jedd. “That’s your fucking question?”
“I, ummm . . .” Jedd pushes his hand through his graying hair, looking frazzled, and I try not to smirk at the way this murderer has somehow got me doing an internal happy dance.
“I thought we’d do a quick introduction, you know, ease into it, and then we’ll get down to some of the heavier questions. You know, warm up to it.”
Stone just stares at him, not impressed, and I can tell without a doubt that this is about to be the biggest waste of everyone’s time. Jedd has shot us all in the foot. We might as well start packing up.
“Alright, Mr. Blackthorne, how would you prefer to do this?”
His gaze shifts to me again, sailing over my face before dropping to my throat. “A blade would be nice. I’d start with that pretty little throat.”
I swallow over the fear and fix him with a stare of my own. “He is not asking how you’d like to murder me, Mr. Blackthorne. He’s asking what we need to provide you with in order to gain your cooperation.”
Stone just stares again like that cold-hearted killer in the courtroom, not giving a flying fuck about the people around him.
Jedd sighs. “So you’re not going to give us anything? You’re just content with having us drive two hours out of our way to sit here and watch you scowl at my team? Content with wasting my time?”
“Take it up with my lawyer. I didn’t ask for this.”
Jedd pushes out of the chair, letting it scrape against the ground. “Alright, pack it up. I’m not interested in having any more of my time wasted.”
“What?” I gasp, stepping in closer to the table. “You’re just going to give up like that? You asked one bullshit question. You didn’t even try.”
“I don’t need to try, Aria. I have been doing this for longer than you’ve been walking this earth, and I know when I’m not going to get shit out of somebody.
He’s a lost cause, and coming here has been a waste.
And for the record, all of this is going to be compensated out of your paycheck the second we get back to the office. ”
I scoff. “After stealing my interview out from under me, you’re delusional if you think I’m coming back to work for you.
You can do your own grunt work from now on,” I say, before turning my furious stare on Stone.
“As for you, you can stop wasting my time. I came here to get answers, and I’m not leaving without them. ”
“Is that so, Menace?”
“Damn right, it is,” I say, my emotions going back and forth so ridiculously fast that I’m giving myself whiplash. I drop into Jedd’s empty chair and glare across the table, my hands resting on the cold metal, barely an inch away from Stone’s. “Who were you protecting?”
Stone’s brow arches, and it’s the first time anybody has gotten even a small reaction out of him. “Excuse me?”
“Don’t act dumb. It doesn’t suit you,” I tell him. “I’ve been studying up on you, and it’s clear that you’re an intelligent man. Your silence isn’t simply an act of stubbornness. It’s your way of keeping somebody else’s name out of it, and I want to know who that is.”
He leans forward, bracing his weight against his elbows and shifting the table beneath him, pushing it closer into me. “You think you’ve got it all figured out, don’t you?”
“What really happened that night?”
“Read the articles. It’s all there.”
“That’s bullshit, and you know it,” I say, getting more frustrated with every unanswered question. “What was your relation to the six men you killed?”
“Next.”
“Why’d you kill them?” I throw right back, not allowing him even a chance to think.
“Try again, Menace.”
“Who are you protecting?”
He slams his hands down on the table, rattling the cuffs against the metal, losing control. “That’s none of your goddamn business.”
“Ahh, so I was right. You were protecting someone,” I say, letting him see the smugness that tears from my chest. It seems someone is a loose cannon when he doesn’t have hold of that perfectly sculptured control. “Who is she? It’s a girl, right? It’s always a girl.”
“Watch yourself,” he growls.
“Or what? You might just feel something for the first time in seven years? What’s got you so scared, Stone?
Why are you so goddamn terrified of standing up and defending yourself?
I know you killed those men. That much was clear from your court case, but anyone with a brain could tell there’s more to the story. ”
He’s stone-cold silent, waves of tension rolling off him like aftershocks from a deadly explosion, and I watch with increasing frustration as he shuts down, not willing to give me an inch, especially when I’ve been pushing for a mile.
“So, that’s it, huh? You’re just going to watch another opportunity to save yourself pass by?”
He clenches his jaw. “You done?”
I almost laugh in his face. “No, I’ll be done when I get what I came here for,” I tell him, adjusting my chair and giving him a childish smile as I hold up both of my hands.
“Now, I know words are a little tricky for some, so we’re going to play a game.
Hold your hands out just like this. Look, I’ll even do it with you. ”
He stares at me as though he wants to pull my insides out through my asshole, but the more I screw with him, the higher chance I have of making him break. “Okay, big guy, put a finger down if you’ve ever lied while under oath?”
I slowly put a finger down and watch as he doesn’t move a muscle. “Oh, come on. I thought we were going to do this together?”
There’s a moment of silence, and I let out a sigh. “No? Okay, hit me with your favorite food?”
Silence.
“What’s the matter now? Can’t comprehend the question? Taken a few too many hits to the head?”
“I understand the question,” he hisses at me. “Why the fuck are you asking it?”
“Well, I figured if you’re just going to sit here like a jacked beached whale, then I might as well get something out of it.
I’m thinking I’ll write a fluff piece. I could title it World’s Most Notorious Killer Taken Down by Homemade Lasagna.
Or would you prefer we start with your favorite color?
Perhaps something a little easier. Favorite corner of your cell? ”
Stone glares at me again. “You better hope like fuck you never find yourself wandering these halls without your little backup.”
I shove at the table, pushing it back toward him, not that it goes far under his impressive weight. “Who the hell are you protecting?” I demand, my chest heaving with heavy breaths.
Stone moves like lightning, pushing the table so damn hard the welds holding it to the ground break. My chair slides back with the momentum until I’m pinned against the wall.
“WHY THE FUCK DO YOU CARE SO MUCH?”
The guards race in, pulling back on his strong arms, just enough that Doug and Andy can help free me from the confines of the table. There’s no doubt that there’ll be a nice bruise plastered across the front of my chest come morning.
“Time to go,” Jensen spits, clearly not impressed with how I’ve wound up his prisoner, but I can’t find it in me to care.
Maybe it’s time I move on from Stone Blackthorne.
He put himself in this position, so perhaps it’s time I stop trying to help him when he clearly isn’t somebody who wants to be saved.
“Fine by me,” I say, getting back to my feet and hating how shaky my knees are as I watch the four guards try to get Stone restrained again, chains jingling as they’re wrapped around his waist, along with the ankle cuffs.
And all the while, he still stares at me.
“I will discover your secrets,” I tell him. “I’ll find out who you’re protecting, and when I do, nothing will keep me from working out what really happened that night.”
“Try all you like, Menace, but there are graves for those who dig too deep.”
I just smile, despite the fear pounding through my veins. “You don’t scare me, Stone Blackthorne,” I lie. “Good luck ending me from behind bars. I truly hope that you thoroughly enjoy your next hundred and eighty-five years here.”
And with that, the guards start dragging him out of the conference room.