Page 111 of When We Fall: Part Two
“How do you know? What if it’s a trap?”
“It’s not a trap.”
“I-I have to tell Enzo—” I made to leave the room, but found Klaus at the door, blocking me.
“Move,” I snarled at him. He was a big son of a bitch, but I’d taken out men his size before.
“Sit,” Matteo called out to me. “Have a drink.”
“Fuck the drink! Fox needs me?—”
“Fox is dead,” Matteo said, looking over at me.
I blinked at his words, my heart clenching. There was no way. “What?”
“He’s dead,” he repeated. I watched him down his whiskey. “The only reason he’d push that button would be because there is no other way out. We made a deal. He pushes it. He dies. Wish fulfilled.”
“No. No!” I shouted. “What the fuck is the matter with you? Why are you doing this? You can’t fucking do this! You promised!”
“You’ve seen the horrors of the underground,” Matteo said softly. “They’ve been there for weeks. You went there and saw nothing on your investigation with Drake. But you heard the screams of the prisoners. Yes? You know what happens there.”
I nodded tightly. I had gone to the underground right after Fox and E disappeared and questioned Everett. He seemed genuinely confused at me even thinking he had something to do with it. I was an idiot. I believed him. The meeting was a short one because I walked the levels with Drake and didn’t see anything.
I fucking believed him.
My stomach roiled at this being my fault. I’d let my guard down and had been an idiot, trusting what I saw, not what I didn’t.
Fuck.
“Do not blame yourself, Alessandro,” Matteo said gently, his voice soft. “If Fox was able to press that button, it means he’s ready to die. It means it’s bad enough to die.”
I swallowed. I knew the horrors.I fucking knew them.To think he’d likely endured what I’d suffered at Everett’s hands made me sick. And E? Fuck. FUCK.
“I can’t just sit here,” I whispered. “Let me go with Alessio. Let me help.”
Matteo stared me down for a moment before sighing. “I cannot risk your safety. You will remain with me.”
“I can’t fucking stay here when this shit is happening! Fox needs me. E needs me!”
“You are not one of them?—”
“It doesn’t matter,” I shouted, pounding my chest. “It’s what’s right! I love Rosalie. I love Fox. I need to be there to help.”
Matteo said nothing as he continued to stare out the window. Klaus continued to guard the door.
I paced the room for what felt like forever before Matteo finally spoke.
“Go.”
I stopped and stared at him.
“What?”
“Go. Tell Lorenzo.”
I blinked rapidly for all of a second before I was out the doorway Klaus had vacated and in my car, my phone pressed to my ear.
Enzo’s phone rang forever without an answer.
