“Because it doesn’t matter. Fallon is not a factor in what moves Cerberus makes other than the fact that she may or may not mean something to her dickhead father. For fuck’s sake, we’ve had her here with us for over a month and we haven’t gotten any closer to nailing Sebastian Helix to the fucking wall.”
“That’s not Fallon’s fault,” I argue. “And you’re wrong. She recognized the car that showed up tonight. She told me who the driver was without hesitation. She’s holding up her end of the deal.”
Matteo sinks back into his chair, his jaw clenched. “Well, maybe she should hold on to her end of the deal somewhere else.”
Dread sinks like a stone in my belly as silence fills the room.
“You don’t mean that, Teo.”
“I do,” he says, meeting my gaze across the desk. “She’s becoming a liability. A distraction. Not just to you, but to all of us. You and I both know when Fallon Helix enters the room, we forget about everything else. And we can’t afford to forget.”
“She’s not leaving,” Declan growls out. He leans forward, bracing his forearms on the desk. “And fuck you if you think I’ll let you send her back to her old life, working for her father, with that motherfucker Clay sniffing around her, without any protection.”
“Dec,” Matteo sighs. “You’re too attached–”
“I don’t care!” He stands, slamming his hands across Teo’s desk and sending papers flying. “Be honest with yourself for one goddamn second and admit why you really want to send her away.”
“I already told you,” Teo grits out. “She’s a liability. Besides, she wants to go back to her life. We can’t hold her here forever. You think she’s really going to fall for you, for any of us, when she’s a prisoner?” He laughs, but there’s no humor to the sound. “You’re pathetic if you believe that. Both of you are.”
“Watch it,” I warn. He can vent his frustrations, but he knows better than to cross a line. I’ve known for a while that Teo was struggling with this… whatever this is all three of us have going on with Fallon. It’s never bothered me that she has a connection with my brothers too, but I know it’s not something Teo ever pictured for himself. These past weeks, having her work with us, having her be a part of Cerberus, have been the happiest of my life. I’m not keen on sending her away, not just because it would mean she’d have no protection against the dangerous fucks in her life, but also that she wouldn’t be part of my life anymore. But I see Teo’s point. I’m terrified that keeping her here, locked away without her consent, will taint these growing feelings.
“I’m pathetic?” Declan grins, and it’s not at all friendly. “Says the man who’s too scared to admit he has feelings for someone and wants to send her packing instead of, I don’t know, actually fucking doing something about it.”
“Enough,” I bark. “Both of you are acting like assholes.”
Dec turns wide eyes on me. “Don’t tell me you actually agree with him?”
“Yes,” I say, but when Matteo gets a smug as fuck look on his face, I add, “And no.”
“What does that even mean? You either want her to stay or you don’t.” Declan’s fists clench at his side as he stares down at me like I’m betraying him by siding with Teo. But that’s not what I’m doing. Not really.
“I want her to choose us. To choose to stay.” I flick my gaze from Dec to Matteo. “Both of you are right. She deserves to live her life however she wants to, whether that’s with us or not. While I can see the benefits of sending her back to work to be some sort of mole for Cerberus, I also can’t fucking stand the thought of her being surrounded by those snakes.” I drop my head, palms pressing against my eyes. “But we can’t give her that choice unless we’re honest with her about everything.”
“Then let’s go upstairs and lay it all out for her,” Dec argues. “She knows enough about what we do for Cerberus already.”
“You honestly think she’s going to choose us after she finds out what we’ve been hiding from her?” Teo raises his brows. “Go for it. But you’re going to be disappointed.”
I sit back in my chair with a groan. Fuck. We’ve really dug ourselves into a hole here. Fallon is going to be so pissed when she hears what we’ve been keeping from her, especially after she confided in us about what she thinks happened to her mom. “She’s going to hate us.”
Realization washes over Declan’s face. “We can explain why we kept it to ourselves. She’ll understand, right?” When neither Teo nor I answer him, he rocks back on his heels, letting out a growl of frustration. “I’m going for a fucking run,” he says before stomping out of the room.
Matteo and I stare at each other, letting the silence linger as we both deal with our feelings and concerns regarding the woman sleeping downstairs.
“He’ll get over it,” Matteo says, sitting forward and fiddling with the straps of his mask. “After she leaves, he’ll realize she was nothing more than a fun challenge, nothing more than a distraction from our goal.”
I stand and head for the door. “Tell yourself that all you want, brother,” I toss over my shoulder. “You’re fooling nobody but yourself.”
With that, I leave his office and aim for the garage, throwing on my leather jacket as I do. I kick-start the engine and peel out of the drive, needing another taste of that freedom and joy I’d felt tonight, wanting to drown out this anxious sense that Fallon will slip through our fingers and it’s our own fault.
Chapter 27
Fallon
Matteo has been in a mood for several days, back to barking orders whenever he sees me, which of course, I ignore. Despite their reminders that the outer doors will remain locked during the day, they sometimes forget to actually lock them. I haven’t done anything about it, but I’ve kept it in mind for later use. That use showed up today.
I’m lounging on my bed with the TV on low in the background while I read one of my books that Akio brought me. I’ve been trying to convince him to fetch my Kindle, but no luck so far. A sudden blare of a horn yanks my attention away from the story. What the fuck was that? The TV has the volume so low there is no way...
Text appears on the screen.
