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.”
Chapter 11
Fallon
It has been at least a day, more like two based on meals, since I landed a solid hit on that masked asshole. He absolutely deserved it, but damn it if my anger didn’t get the best of me there. Mom has always been a touchy subject for me and that conversation took me back to the day she was declared deceased, allowing access to the funds that she left me. I couldn’t hit my father, who pushed the entire process forward, so lashing out at this guy who keeps digging at my wounds… Yeah, it felt good.
