𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐍 | 𝟏𝟖+

6 | Demands

"Cato Leveque," he states. "What'd he tell you?"

Cato. He's dragged me out here to his smokey apartment to question me about Cato. Of course he wasn't interested in me, because he sees me as a tool he can use to get back at my master's son.

Cato might drive me wild, but I'm not a rat just aching to confess every secret about him. There are inadequacies that I know of him from our time as children, and I'm not willing to spill it out just to a random, handsome stranger.

"Cato?" my heart sinks into my stomach. "Is that what this is about?"

"You see, after I spoke with you in the courtyard, I went back inside. Cato left and went up the stairs, and I saw him go into your bedroom last evening. What'd he say to you?"

I clench the blanket around my shoulders with tight fists. So Thomas was spying on me. In the garden. Down the hallways to my bedroom.

"Stalker," I spit at him. "It's not nice to pry in someone's personal life like this."

He shrugs. "I have a job to do."

"Then do the job somewhere else, with someone else."

"You're really a tough one to crack, aren't ya?"

I shake my head. "Why am I important to you? If you want to know about Cato, ask him yourself."

"How often does he visit his parents?" Thomas questions curiously, as if he didn't hear what I just said.

"Thomas, I'm not talking to you about Cato."

He didn't like that answer. Not one bit.

A tendon stiffens from within his neck as he leans forward, setting his large hands on his knees. "I don't know what Cato's shown you, but you need to throw everything you know about him out the fucking window."

"Like I should be taking advice from you."

"He's dangerous, Maureen," he uses my name for once instead of 'daffodil'. "Word got out about his latest discovery from hell knows where in outer space. He tell you what it was?"

Cato mentioned very little about his discoveries, even after asking if he could tell me about them. Instead, he offered to one day, show me them with my own eyes himself.

"I'm not telling you anything about Cato."

He taps his fingers, the speed accelerating as his patience dwindles. "I didn't realize that he'd be such a sensitive topic for you."

"I just-" I hold my tongue. I can't confess feelings for Cato here. Not to him. "I just don't know who you are. How can I trust you? You brought me up to your apartment, you steal me from work, you stalk me on the Leveque's property-"

"I thought we started over. Those don't count."

"I'm not someone who just forgets," I look away from those magnetizing blue irises. "The world has a way of making things happen for a reason, doesn't it?"

He leans forward a bit, intrigued by my voice.

"So, you love him," Thomas mutters the assumption, his tone bitter. What does this have to do with Cato's discoveries? "He's a dick, you know. A fucking asshole."

The words cut me right in the heart, opening up a wildfire of rage that consumes me. I spring up from the chair, fists clenched tightly until my knuckles turn white. "You don't know Cato Leveque like I do. He's not dangerous." I gnaw at my lip, the pain of it preventing me from lashing out. "Now if you excuse me, I'm going back to the Leveque's estate-"