Page 30 of The Devil We Know

I stand there in the middle of the room for a moment, unsure what the fuck I should do next. And then I curse, pushing down my urge to destroy something.

I honestly had no idea that Jessica has ties to a criminal organization. I’m more annoyed that we missed it, though I understand that unless we have good reason to suspect someone, we tend to only do a very basic background check.

Something we’ll be making some changes on going forward, given the fact this isn’t the first time that we’ve fucked ourselves over by not being thorough.

Of all the people she could possibly end up shackled to, Matteo is the worst of the worst. The man’s a fucking sadist, and he would think nothing of using her, abusing her, and then tossing her to the side, regardless of who her father is. It’s only dumb luck that he thought to bring her appearance to the attention of people that actually have a fucking brain.

I quickly change my clothes, pull on workout gear, and head toward the gym. I know they’ll have her housed in the guest quarters, which are on the same level as the gym, so hopefully, I’ll be able to find her without drawing any attention to myself.

The entire floor is quiet, which is typical for this time of day. The majority of people don’t bother working out, and the ones that do tend to do it in the morning. They reserve the evening and nighttime hours for fucking, fighting, or just generally partying.

I pretend to be doing a circuit around the gym, and after about thirty minutes or so, I head toward the locker rooms, quietly veering off in the direction of the guest quarters.

The empty rooms have the doors left open, so it doesn’t take me long to pinpoint where she’s being kept. She probably wasn’t very happy when she realized she was locked in, but hopefully, she’s smart enough not to raise too much of a ruckus about it.

I enter the room soundlessly, closing the door behind me and then scanning the dimly lit room, but coming up empty. A rustling comes from the bathroom, so I walk in that direction, and then she’s there in the doorway, a yelp of surprise echoing through the room.

“What the fuck, Matt?”

I can’t help but smirk, a small laugh escaping as I reply, “I think I’m the one that should be saying that, Jess.”

She glares at me, pushing past me and walking toward the bed as she says, “I think you gave up the right to ask questions when you ghosted me.”

“I didn’t ghost you. Ghosting you would have been not responding without giving you an explanation.”

She whirls on me, her hands resting on her hips as she says, “Explanation?” She pauses and then says quite sarcastically, “You need to forget about me.” She pauses again, glaring atme, and then laughs bitterly as she adds, “Quite the fucking explanation, you asshole.”

I grit my teeth, rushing toward her and stopping only a few inches from her as I snarl, “That was the only explanation I could give you without putting you in danger.”

She scoffs, her tone still mocking as she says, “Well, maybe if you’d been a little clearer, I wouldn’t be in the situation I’m currently in.”

“Explanation or no explanation, why in the fuck would you come here?”

“Because we were worried about you.”

“Who is we?” I ask incredulously.

“Your friends, you moron.”

My fucking friends. I’m completely appalled that my idiotic friends would do something so shortsighted as to send her here. “Why would they choose you?”

“Because I’m the only one no one would recognize,” she replies calmly. “Anyone else would be recognized too quickly to actually locate you.”

“And then you end up literally stuck with the biggest asshole here.”

“Well, I didn’t do it intentionally. And then, once I was there, what the fuck was I supposed to do?”

I take a deep breath, still shaking my head as I put a little space between us. “Why didn’t you tell me who your father is?”

She raises her brows at me and then replies, “Because it’s irrelevant.”

“How can it be irrelevant?”

“I haven’t seen the man in decades. I intended to never see the man again, so that seems irrelevant.”

“Well, it’s not fucking irrelevant now,” I spit out. “Is he going to corroborate your story, or is this going to be a bigger problem?”

She gives me a blank look for a moment and then grimaces. “I really don’t know. My mother’s dying wish was that I be released from the family duties to live my own life. I got a new name, background, and life, and I never looked back.”

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