Chapter 10 Matteo
Matteo
“Idon’t need a fucking chaperone,” Declan grumbles from beneath his mask as we head down the stairs to the basement.
We’ve been making these trips twice daily for the past few days, taking turns walking our mouthy prisoner up and down the halls in hopes that she’ll loosen up and share what she knows about what goes down behind closed doors in Helix or anything that could remotely help us nail her father to the wall.
So far, Akio and I have been unsuccessful, managing only snide comments and threats from her.
Today is Declan’s first day on Fallon duty, and after what happened on the roof, I’m reluctant to leave him alone with her.
“Debatable,” I reply, sliding my mask into place as we stop in front of the door to the panic room. “Knowing you, you’d get a wild idea and toss her into the pool, threatening to drown her until she squeals something useful.”
Dec tilts his head in my direction. “Well…”
“No,” I grind out. “It wasn’t a suggestion.”
“You’re the one who brought it up.”
“I didn’t–” I sigh. “Never mind. Let’s just do this.” I unlock the door with the retina scanner, and step into the room. Then freeze.
“Fuck me.” Declan groans quietly from beside me, his eyes glued to Fallon’s bare ass sticking up in the air.
She’s bent over on the floor in the narrow space between the bed and the wall with one leg stretched toward the ceiling and her forearms bracing her body weight.
She glances over at us for a brief second, but flicks her gaze away in dismissal.
“Morning,” she says. “Or evening? I can’t really be sure since there’s not even a fucking clock in this shithole.” She swings her leg forward and lowers into a stretch that makes my dick twitch. Which only serves to piss me off more.
“Where the fuck are your pants?” I bark, trying and failing to ignore the way her panties barely cover her in this position.
“You haven’t washed any of the clothes you gave me, dickhead.
I need to stay active so I’m working out without pants.
Got a problem?” She rolls her eyes and stretches forward to touch her toes.
“I mean, it’s not like you’ve given me anything to freshen up with either.
Not a hairbrush, no deodorant. You know, some basic necessities a girl needs? ”
I grind my teeth so hard it's a miracle I don’t crack any. “Get up. Get dressed. It’s time for a walk.”
“Oh, goody,” she mumbles sarcastically while pushing to her feet and grabbing a pair of sweatpants we’d lent her off the bed. “Surprised you haven’t got a leash for me yet.”
I turn my head away to give her a sense of privacy while she dresses, but Declan has no such inclination. He leans his shoulder against the wall and crosses his arms, his gray eyes trained on her. “Don’t tempt me, Poison. You might look good wearing a collar.”
She shoots him a scathing glare, but says nothing, trudging past us and into the hall. She knows the drill by now, and she knows there’s no use in trying to escape down here.
We fall into step on either side of her, close enough that her shoulders brush against our arms. Yeah, we could give her a little space, but that’s not the point of this. We’re not here to make her comfortable. We’re here to push for answers.
“Tell us about your dad,” I start. “What does he do in his spare time?”
When she doesn’t acknowledge me, Dec adds, “Who does he spend his time with?”
Fallon doesn’t answer him either, keeping her eyes trained forward, her chin lifted high in defiance as we stroll down the long hallway, past the concrete rooms we use for less savory means of extracting information.
“Does he travel?” Dec asks.
Still, she gives us nothing.
“Did he ever travel with your mom?” I try.
Her shoulders tense, and she picks up speed, walking faster as if trying to outrun our questions.
Yeah, good luck with that. “Did you go with them?” I ask, matching her steps until I’m in front of her and walking backward so that she’s forced to look at me. “What did you see? Who did you see?”
Her shoulders rise with each rapid fire question, and she tries to step around me, but I cut her off. Those beautiful green eyes glare up at me, but I don’t give her an inch, stepping into her and making her back up until she bumps straight into Declan’s chest.
I meet his gaze over her head. She wants to play the quiet game with us? Well, we can play games.
Together, we crowd into her space until Fallon’s back meets the wall and we’re towering over her.
“Stop it,” she grits out between clenched teeth.
“Why?” Declan skims his fingers up her side. “Do we make you nervous?”
“You make me murderous,” she says while slapping at his hand. “I already told you I’m not involved in any sex trafficking but you refuse to believe me, so why should I keep trying to convince you?”
“We believe you,” I say, stepping even closer and breathing in her alluring scent. God, why does she have to be so fucking beautiful? “We know you’re not involved.”
That grabs her attention. “Then why the fuck am I still here?”
“Because you’re a stubborn fucking brat. Now, answer our questions.”
She glances between the two of us, trying and failing to hide the heat blooming in her eyes at our close proximity, despite her annoyance. But I see it. And so does my brother.
“You want to know what I think?” he asks, dipping his head so that he speaks directly in her ear.
“Not particularly,” she says, her voice noticeably breathier than before.
Declan chuckles. “I think you get off on being scared.” Her eyes widen at his words and then flick to me, gauging my response.
“I think you push us this far to see what we’ll do about it.
” His hand slides over the oversized shirt she’s wearing, to her neck, and up to grip her chin.
“You like the masks, the danger. Bet it gets your pussy wet.”
She shoves him away from her. “Get off me,” she pants. “I just want to go home.”
“To your cushy apartment?” I chime in. “Must cost you a pretty penny living in that place off of a public relations salary.”
“You say that like you don’t know exactly how much I make and how much I pay to live there. Cerberus knows it all, isn’t that right?”
God, that smart fucking mouth.
“You’re right. Cerberus does know it all. Like how you’re living off of the trust fund your mother set up for you.”
It’s like a wall of steel slams down behind her eyes, dousing any lingering heat. “We’re not talking about my mom. End of story.”
“Why not? You have information we need, and it could relate to your family. Including your mother.”
Fallon steps forward, pushing at my chest. “I said, we’re not fucking talking about her.”
“You want to know something weird I ran across while we were digging into your background?” I say, ignore the swirling rage building in her. “It was something we saw in a police report, after your mom went missing.”
“Enough,” she hisses, but I push on, even though the voice in my head is warning me to stop, to notice the tears of anger lining her eyes.
“You don’t think your mom is dead. You told a detective that you believe she left to get away from something. Or someone. And now you spend the trust fund money she set up for you without a care.”
“Shut up! You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Who was she getting away from Fallon?” I press. “Her life with your father? Her life with you?”
Fallon’s face contorts with hurt and then shifts into a potent rage before she lets out a scream. “Fuck you!”
In reality, I really should have seen the hit coming. And maybe I did. Maybe, deep down, I knew I deserved it and that’s why I took the punch without moving.
Her fist connects with my mask, right over my nose, the barrier doing fucking nothing to soften the blow. My head snaps back as pain shoots through me, the metallic taste of blood a second later telling me her aim hit true.
One punch isn’t enough. Fallon turns feral, throwing herself at me with fists and claws, screaming and cursing.
I grip her wrists, but that still doesn’t stop her from trying to get to me, to hurt me.
She kicks me in the shin just before Declan swoops in.
His arms snake around her middle and he lifts her off the floor, but she’s still flailing like she’s trying to come for me.
Fuck, I really hit a nerve.
“Enough!” he barks, then swings open a supply closet door lining the hall and shoves her inside before slamming it shut in her face. Fallon immediately starts pounding on the door, but he braces a shoulder against it, keeping it closed.
I rip my mask off and wipe at the blood streaming down my face. “Fuck! I think she broke my nose.”
Declan pushes his mask up to rest on his forehead. “Yeah, no shit. You were baiting her. What’d you expect?”
Inside the closet, there’s a loud bang like something hard being thrown against the wall. Great. Why couldn’t we have stuck her inside an empty room?
“I expect–” I cut myself off, lowering my voice to a whisper yell.
“I expect to get some goddamn answers from her. We’re supposed to put pressure on her, push her until she breaks and tells us everything we want to know.
But she’s too fucking stubborn to cooperate.
” There's a crashing sound just before the door to the closet shakes in its hinges, making Declan put more of his weight against it to keep it closed.
“This isn’t working,” Dec murmurs. “We need a better approach. As much as I hate to admit it, maybe…”
“Maybe I was right?” Akio’s smug voice says, drawing our attention to the camera in the corner of the hall, pointed right where we’re standing.
Fucking great. I’m sure he’ll be watching the clip of Fallon socking me in the face on repeat for the next year.
“It’s okay, you can say it. I won’t hold it over your head for long. ”
“Fuck off,” Dec and I yell at the same time.
A trickle of blood flows into my mouth, and I spit it to the ground. “Fine,” I say, lowering my voice again. “We’ll revisit what to do with her.” Another blood-curdling scream comes from the closet. “Later.”
We slip our masks back on and brace ourselves before letting her out.
Fallon lunges at us as soon as we open the door, her hair a wild tangle of chaos. Dec ducks, barely avoiding the disinfectant spray can she hurls at his head. I’m ready for her this time when she turns to me, catching her fists before they land a hit and twisting them behind her back.
“You're done. Back to your room.” I lock her wrists in my grasp and push her forward, but not before I sneak a peek into the supply closet, finding shelves hanging from the wall and boxes full of paper towels ripped to shreds on the floor and busted cans of cleaners strewn about. Ms. T is going to be so pissed.
Fallon is practically shaking with her anger the entire walk back down the hall to her room.
“You can’t keep me here anymore! You said it yourself, I didn’t do anything.
You know I’m not involved.” I release her wrists and push her inside, closing and locking the heavy metal door without a word.
The door is thick, but not thick enough to drown out her shouting, “This is such bullshit!”
Dec’s dark chuckle snags my attention as he stomps back upstairs. “And to think, you were worried about me.”