KAYA

Chicago was a bustling city, even at night. All bright lights and car honks. It was a view I'd seen a fair number of times.

But never once from Erex Di'Castillo's car.

That had changed tonight when he gave me another ride.

We hadn't talked much except for what was necessary after Amella was detained. But that was by design. We were occupied, yes, but this was also an opportunity for me.

"Do you think she'll be released?"

"Depends. Can't really say."

I hummed in response, "What do you think about the case? Is she in the wrong?"

He glanced my way, sleeves folded as he maneuvered the steering wheel, and we zipped past another car on the highway.

"Depends."

Ah, I see. So he's taken the diplomatic route. He won't divulge his opinions until he trusts me. Of course, I'm still a long way from earning it. But I'd thought we'd definitely made some progress. No issues, though. I could give my opinions, at least.

"I think she shouldn't be convicted." I firmly stated, aware that he, too, probably agreed with this line of thought. It was the righteous, the morally correct one, after all.

"Bold words to say." The low timbre of his voice would have some women shiver. 

Combine that to his corded forearms on such blatant display and his expert maneuvering of the steering wheel, and it'd have women on their knees.

I'm not exaggerating. I simply know that because I've observed male and female interactions, I keep up with the trends, and I need to keep up with information so as to pretend I feel things normally.

"Very low." Erex answered, his tone detached but words honest.

At his answer, my eyes shifted from his forearms, and I cleared my throat, again paying attention to his side profile. "Don't you get frustrated by the system?"

A quick glance from his caribbean blue eyes, "Doesn't everyone?"

I nodded slowly, looking away. "What will happen to Darius?" I paused, "Fated to be thrown from one foster home to another? Carry the burden of thinking he was his mother's biggest undoing for the rest of his life?"

"That's just how it goes." Non-committal. I think that's what his tone was like. Not emotionless, not distant, not bitter, just....accepting. And I'd been hoping for more of a show of emotions. Before I could say anything, though, he spoke as we passed a green light. 

"You sound bitter about it, though." 

I blinked. I'd sounded.......bitter? 

I didn't intend for it to sound that way, though. I'd just unintentionally thought of what he'd have to go through and remembered.....my mother.

It was when he addressed me again that I realized I'd taken too long to respond. 

"Have a strong moral compass?" He threw me a dry smile, brittle and odd.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I wouldn't be in the FBI otherwise." The words should have sounded indignant. I hope I managed the emotion convincingly enough.

You couldn't exactly say that I was a righteous person. Actually, no, I wasn't one. 

But I tried to be. I'd learned what accounted for morally correct actions. To do a good here or there. I tried. But my line of work and lack of emotions didn't make it quite that easy of a task.

We were getting closer to our apartments. Just a couple blocks now.

Yellow lights from the street lamps flashed in my peripheral, and a female dancer was putting on a street show in one corner. I watched her, wondering if she was a mother doing what she could to put food on the table. She looked old enough, and there was a small girl going around with a cap, urging people to probably drop a cent or two. Someone nice might even put in two dollars. She could be her daughter.

A memory surfaced, but I buried it before I could feel any semblance of emotions in a moment where I didn't need them. Nothing made me truly feel except some memories of a woman with blush pink lipstick and a broken smile for me.

I had noticed how Erex had reacted to the interactions between Amella and Darius and decided on the topic we'd share a heart-to-heart on for today. It was that easy.

"Mothers are magical." The words were out before I could stop them. 

I thought it and I said it. I skipped the evaluation part, and I knew that was a mistake, but I didn't have enough time to process and nit-pick the emotional discrepancies in my behaviors. 

A brief pause where nothing but the steady hum of the engine filled the car and then—

"They're the strongest people when it comes to their babies. Not all mothers, of course. But, yeah." He exhaled harshly, but I didn't look at him, still watching the dancing woman as we steadily crossed the crowd.

I saw the opening, my senses honing onto the opening he left, and I latched onto it like a shark in blood infested water does when it finds its prey.

"Are you close with your mother?" The question wasn't curious, just laden with a disconnected undertone, so it'd look like a natural question that popped up in conversation.

I felt his attention on me then. For a full five beats of my heart, his gaze burned a hole into the side of my face, but I refused to look at him. A challenge. A blank face. And a conversation that had been leading to just this question.

"Yes." Erex raked a hand through his raven hair, some strands falling over messily, and I looked away from his reflection in the window when he caught my eyes. "Everything I am is because of her. She's the strongest fucking woman I've ever known."

There was a story there. For me to unearth. Another way in.

I turned around then, finally locking eyes with him as we stalled in the traffic. My eyes should have been slightly wide to emphasize that I'd caught the ferocity of his words and been surprised by them. "She sounds like a wonderful woman, then." I narrowed my eyes at him then, "But I'm sure she'd raised a gentleman and not someone who slammed doors on their nice neighbor's faces. But oh well, to each their own." I shrugged.

He gave me a side eye, an amused hook to his lips. "It was a moment of weakness."

"Excuses." I huffed. "I'll let her know the same when I meet her."

He stiffened slightly and I rose a brow as if I hadn't known why he reacted that way. Amusement turned to suspicion. "And why exactly would you ever meet her?"

I gave him a 'duh' look.

"Um, you literally share a balcony with me. If she ever visited you, I'm sure I'd cross paths with her." I pointed out.

He blinked as if he'd forgotten that and then cleared his throat.

That was the exact reaction I required from him. Get him to share things with me one at a time, make it seem like I'd be a constant for a while, ruffle his feathers and then give him space so I didn't seem too imposing and he was left wondering about my every word. Throw him off-kilter until I was the only thing on his mind.

That was an art I'd mastered.

"What about your mother? Will I get to meet her?" He rose a brow, turning into the parking lot of our apartments but I was staring at him. "I'd like to tell her that her daughter is a siren and  a rather mischievous minx. But probably a little capable too." He made a faux noise of disgruntlement.

Emotion was what clogged my throat in that moment.

I knew it because I felt like I did on rainy days. Drab. Grey. Weird. I felt something. And it reminded me of that sinking feeling the day I lost the one person who cared for me. That was the way I knew how to associate this single track of feelings.

It had been a rainy day.

"She's dead." I was still staring at him and his eyes snapped to mine.

I wasn't sure what emotion I was displaying or was supposed to but I think it was the first time I'd dropped the mask, the pretense of emotions from my face and my entire being in front of someone who didn't know a thing about me.

It came easily.

To be emotionless. To sound dead. That was the real me. I didn't have to fake that when he asked me a question that required me to respond....just as I was.

Besides, faking sadness and tears didn't seem like the correct approach at the moment.

Erex shut off the engine.

He held my eyes, as if gauging my response and I'm sure he was met with blankness. It was often unnerving for people on the other end. When I'd been younger and knew no better, even in the mafia hell I lived, people would be unnerved by the look an eight year old girl could level them with. 

"I'm sorry." No pretense, just an acknowledgement as he looked away, his hand on the car door, ready to open. No winces, no cringing, no sincere apology or remorse.

Well, at least, it wasn't visible enough for me to put into place. And I was good at that.

But I wasn't done. "You knew that already, though, didn't you?"

He stilled, tilting his head slightly. "Whatever do you-"

"You were given my files before I arrived. And they contained all personal information." I cut him off, my voice just as monotonous. 

He leaned back in the seat and licked his lips, staring straight ahead. And then his mass of hair fell sideways, silky strands covering his hooded blue eyes as he tilted his side profile just enough to meet my eyes from his peripheral view.

"I suppose you do have some capability aside from..." His eyes trailed my body up and down in a slow heated perusal before he smirked - a cruel tilt. "Just keeping you on your toes, Morfina. Attention to detail is key for an Agent after all."

He'd just insinuated I slept my way to this position and was basically a dumb blonde bimbo with air for a brain. How.....typical.

That was good. That was male. I could deal with that. It was the easiest thing ever because if there was something I'd been subjected to my entire life, it was the predatory glances from cruel, greedy men and using my body to entice them.

It was good. 

To know he was no different.

So then why did I have that weird sensation? The one where I'm reminded of rainy days and nostalgic chocolates?

Instead of recoiling or letting him get the upper hand, pretending to be a damsel in distress, I chose to go on the offense. I turned to fully face him, leaning closer, and letting my words come out soft. Dainty.

"Keep it up, then. I'm ready to beat you at every step." 

Challenging.

The center console was the only thing imploring me to keep distance as I leaned so close that he was mere inches from me. I breathed in deeply, his clear scent of pine and something distinctly masculine, infiltrating my senses. 

His caribbean blue eyes flashed, his jaw flexing subtly as his lips parted to match my soft tone, "Is that a challenge, mia Morfina?"

The use of his pet name didn't escape me but I didn't address it right now.

"A challenge you've already begun losing." I let myself smirk just the slightest bit, the heat of his body surrounded us. I let my eyes deliberately drop to the collar of his new shirt.

He brew in a sharp breath, a twinkle of morbid amusement in his drowning ocean eyes. "The cat has claws, does she?" 

I let my lip curl, threateningly in an almost snarl of derision. "She also uses them well."

His full smirk unfurled then, edged with something darker than he'd shown me in the past two weeks of our acquaintance. "That, mia Morfina, remains to be seen." 

He clicked open the door, slipping out of with grace he shouldn't have possessed. Yet, silently, I exited the car as well. Our gazes looked as my five-foot seven frame was opposed by his six-foot one. Then without another word, the man turned and I followed as he locked the car.

Erex Di'Castillo made for a rather handsome picture as he closed the distance between the elevator and himself, wide set shoulders and flexing muscles adding to that towering height and sharp cut jawline of his. 

"I should've known the first impression truly is the last impression." He didn't stop at my words, only a soft huff of a sardonic chuckle escaped him. "You're anything but a gentleman." My words were reinforced with steel as I faced an unknown territory where I wasn't in control of the conversation and the executions.

He only slowed down slightly, humming in response. "If I remember correctly, which I know I do, I warned you way back that you wouldn't be able to handle my non-gentlemanly version."

I didn't realize I'd stopped but my hand on my purse was tightening. It was like an out of body experience.

His olive-skin glowed under the sparse light of the parking lot as he waved his hand in a dismissive wave, without breaking his pace, the other one tucked into the pocket of his fitting pants. "I'm sure you use those manicured nails of yours quite well in the bedroom. But sadly for you, I have no interest in finding out just how well."

He turned his face, just to flash me a cocky grin that stretched ear to ear.

Taunting me.

It was in that moment when I had a sudden urge to slip out the switchblade in my purse and stab him with it. A very unnatural, bodily urge that made an appearance very rarely.

"Breathe easy, mia morfina. We've only just begun." He looked like he was getting a hit unlike any by pushing my buttons. 

But that was the thing. I didn't have buttons to push. 

Except, I hadn't realised it until he mentioned that I was breathing heavily. Deep inhales and controlled exhales, my chest heaving in a tantalizing manner and yet his eyes hadn't dropped once to peak at the cleavage that peaked from under the low-cut but still decent top.

Was that his curtsey a fruit of his 'gentlemanly' behavior? Or was he just not interested? Was he truly an asshole?

I couldn't....

I couldn't tell.

I couldn't predict.

And in that moment, as he vanished from my view, I recognized what he'd made me feel.

Anger.

Like burnt fires and waning air, crackling embers and the touch of hot iron on skin. I could place it now, recognize it and as soon as I did, I wanted to erase that knowledge from my brain, scrub the feeling away.

Anger was an emotion that shared boundaries with pain. Or disappointment. I was feeling neither. Or well, I knew those weren't emotions I'd feel if faced with this situation.

This urge that made me want to stop and put a knife in that very attractive forearm of Erex's was exactly the kind of unprecedented behaviour I was not afforded.

I was left alone in the parking lot under the apartment building. With just my thoughts to keep me tormenting company. The comforting sounds of the city buzzed in and I licked my lips.

I looked down at my nails.

Manicured. Perfect. Dainty. Wouldn't want them broken. Just like Erex had pointed out.

Sharp.

Just the way Marcello hated them.

I ran a finger over one of my nails. Pressed the pad of my thumb to the index nail. Pressed on it until a crescent shape formed on my pale skin.

I hadn't kept an eye on the time but it was when my phone pinged that I broke out of my silent daze of pondering and calculating.

I slipped out my phone, wondering if it'd be another visit from Bruno or perhaps another message from the Unknown man but it was neither. Instead.....

Unknown number: Hi, Hola, Eve this side. Am at your door. Wanna hang out? :)

Me: No.

A/N

Welp. A little late I am, I know. But like always, I only hope the chapter was enjoyable and to your satisfaction. We got to see another side of Erex today. And Kaya too. 

It was progress but also three steps back.

Opinions on the switch that apparently flipped in Erex today? What about Kaya feeling anger? And lastly what about Eve's impromptu message?

Let's see what happens, eh?

don't forget ot vote, comment and give some feedback next time! I truly appriciate it! thenkuuu. Take care of yourselves and see you until the next time the!

~Skyler