7 A Question of He

Mateo's Pov 

My mind raced. I can't mess this up. Not here. Not like this. The whole thing I'm after will slip right through my fingers if I don't play this right. A direct fight was off the table, as it would unravel everything.

I took a deep, steadying breath, forcing the tension out of my shoulders, and forced that placid smile back onto my face. 

I stretched both my hands out in front of me, bringing both wrists together, and leaned them forward as he closed the final steps.

The cold, hard bite of the steel cuffs snapped around my wrists. And the big officer gave them an extra, vicious twist that dug the metal into my skin. 

Then he walked backwards, yanking on the chain link, and shoved me forward with a grunt that carried the force of his entire body. "Move it, pipsqueak," his broody, deep voice cut through the air, laced with contempt.

Old man Dhaval stepped right in front, trying to force me to meet his eyes, to drink in his triumph. But I ignored him. Completely. 

My gaze slid past his furious, wrinkled face and landed on the other officer. This one looked different. 

Leaner, quieter, with eyes that watched everything, while saying nothing. He looked like a man who knew what he was doing in life.

"Excuse me, Mr. Officer?"

My polite, almost conversational tone was a slap in the face to Dhaval. I saw his jaw clench so hard I thought I could hear his teeth grind. But I couldn't care less.

The leaner officer looked at me, with a flicker of surprise in his professional mask. 

"What exactly is my offence?" I continued, calming my voice. "I at least have the right to know... don't I?"

"You forced my daughter-in-law into filing for a divorce with my son!" Dhaval cut in, dripping the words with venom.

I turned slowly, finally giving him my eyes, and I let my smile turn into something colder. "How?... How are you so sure it was my doing?"

The old man’s question hung in the air, and I could feel the weight of the big guy’s gaze on me. 

Dhaval’s face was a mask of theatrical anguish, but his eyes were sharp with a cold, calculating fury.

"She's always hanging around you after our meetings," his voice began to climb, losing its polished sheen and cracking with a performative rage. "Every single time you come here, she's always with you!" 

He took a step closer, forcing the scent of his expensive sandalwood cologne to cloy on me. "How could you be so shameless as to be spending so much time with another man's wife?"

Crack! He slammed the walking stick down on the cobblestones again to startle me. 

It didn’t.

"How do you explain all of this?" he gestured wildly towards the large house, towards the imagined scandal, "apart from the obvious fact that now she's in love with you? How else would you explain her sudden decision to file for a divorce? Huh, Mateo?"

My eyes went wide for a moment, and a low, dry laugh escaped my lips before I could stop it. 

I pressed my eyelids shut, dangling my head as if in disbelief, but really, it was to hide the sheer contempt in my eyes. The absurdity of it was almost beautiful.

Dhaval’s breath hitched. "What?... What is so funny?" His eyes went wide, and the whites glowed in the dim light.

I lifted my head, meeting his gaze directly. "You think she's… in love with me?" I scoffed, letting out another series of laughs, not of joy, but of pure, undiluted mockery.

The old man’s composure fractured, and a look of genuine, panicked realization flashed across his face, but it was gone in an instant. 

"He... he warned me," he stammered, slapping a palm against his forehead and dragging it slowly, dramatically down over his eyes, his nose, until it covered his lips. 

"He warned me not to trust you. He said you could do something like this, but I..." He let out a frustrated groan, turning towards the quiet officer.

That single word was a key turning in a lock. He.

I dragged his attention back, dropping my voice. "He?" I let the word hang. "Aren't you a bit too old to still be following orders?"

He flinched, a little with an almost imperceptible twitch, but I saw it. 

He ignored me, turning back, trying to reclaim his authority. But I wasn't done. I had to press the wound.

"And since when did a famous mafia Consigliere begin to run to the cops for help?" I let my voice drip with feigned curiosity. "Isn't that a bit too... I dunno..." I rolled my eyes. "...shady?"

That one landed. I saw his shoulders tighten, and the knuckles on his walking stick turning white. The title, the accusation—it touched a nerve, all right. It scraped against the very foundation of his pride.

"Shaw." Dhaval’s voice was now a cold, calm knife, and there were no signs of all the previous bluster.

The lean officer stepped forward. "Sir."

"Please throw him into a cell until he's ready to tell me why he did this." He didn't even look at me.

"As you wish, sir."

Dhaval straightened his jacket. "Now, if you'll excuse me... I have other important things to attend to." He said it to the air, to the night, to anyone but the man in cuffs. 

He walked away, forcing dignity with his echoing footsteps, heading towards the distant glow and muffled music of the large party hall.

Shaw gave a slight, almost respectful bow to the retreating figure before his professional mask slid back into place.

And just then, Kane reminded me of my place, shoving me forward using a force so violent and sudden that I stumbled, and my cuffed hands only made it impossible to balance properly as the cold metal of the cuffs bit deeper into my wrists.

"Move it, pretty boy," the big guy grunted, lacing his broody voice with satisfaction. He was enjoying this. 

He guided me, not with a hold, but with another sharp push between my shoulder blades, toward the large, dark van parked a few meters away.

“Sorry…” I stopped dead, planting my feet. 

His solid mass collided with my back, the impact jarred my teeth, and I felt the air leave his lungs in a low, irritated grunt.

I turned my head as far as I could, forcing the muscles in my neck into a protest. “Excuse me, Mr. Shaw.”

Shaw, who had been following at a calm, professional distance, paused, fixing his sharp and analytical eyes on me. “What is it?”

“I need to make a call.”

It was the big guy who answered, with a hot foul wave of his breath against my ear. “Lawyer won’t have any use for you where we’re going.” 

I gave a slight, almost imperceptible shake of my head. “Yeah… Right. Thank you for that warning.” 

I kept my eyes locked on Shaw. “It’ll only take a minute.”