“Tito, I need to speak with you, alone. Come.” He turns on his heel, and Tito looks back at me apologetically. This is the first time I’ve looked into his eyes all day, and it was a mistake. My heart quivers, and my limbs feel limp as he turns away from me and heads out the door with Vince.
Whatever is happening cannot be good. And waiting for what feels like hours is horribly stressful. My entire body is breaking into a sweat, and before I can get the courage to go outside and see what’s going down, Tito bursts through the room.
The look on his face is like none I’ve seen before, red and fiery, burning with anger so outrageously dangerous that I want to hide under my desk. The entire mood in the room shifts from anxiety to crippling fear. It’s like a natural disaster is about to strike, and my death is imminent. No one can contain or control it; it’s all burning down.
“Scout, don’t fucking lie to me.”
“W-what—” I feel my breaths getting shorter, and the room starts to spin. He knows. He fucking knows everything.
“Are you working with the FBI?”
“I- it’s not—”
“I’ll make it easy for you. You are. And you fucking lie to me.”
“I didn’t LIE!” Is all I can yell because how am I supposed to remain calm at a time like this? Everything that’s been bubbling up to the surface is now exploding out of me, and I don’t know how else.
“What do you call going behind my back, convincing me you care about me, stealing my prototypes, and promising the FBI my family’s downfall in exchange for money?!”
“Who the hell told you that?”
“So it’s true?”
“Not entirely!” I plead my case, though most of what he said is correct. “I care for you!”
“That’s the only thing you have to say?”
“I do care for you!” I take a step forward, but he shakes his head, twisting his face into a look that tells me not to come closer. I drop my arms and beg him with my eyes to believe me.
“If you cared for me, you would have never done this.” He turns to leave, and this time I don’t care what his boundaries are. He has to know how I feel, has to know I’m desperate and have been desperate this entire time to change my situation.
“They trapped me,” I call, leaping forward and grabbing his arm. He turns around, a deeper set of fury in his piercing-green eyes that no longer seem changeable. But I have his attention, so I try. “They told me they were going to kill you and—”
“When?”
“When wha—”
“When did you agree to this?”
“I don’t know, right after I started working for your family….”
“So you knew the entire time what you were doing.”
“No,” he raises a brow at my response. “Well, yes, but I regretted it the moment I knew what I actually signed up for. Everything between us is real. I didn’t want them to kill you or your family.”
“Death would be better than this.”
“What?” My entire face is tingling as I hold back my tears.
“I would have preferred todiethan to know that the one person I thought truly cared for me, cared about the things I do, and wanted my family to succeed… Was just lying to me the entire time.”
“But I didn’t lie about how I feel for you!”
“But see, that’s just it. What makes you think I can believe that, Scout?” He presses his middle and index fingers to his temples, distressed. “What makes you think I can believeanythingyou’ve said or will say ever again?”
“Because I did it to keep you safe.”
“Bullshit. Why else?”