I made my way down the stairs, all eyes falling onto me once I shut the door behind me.

Probably because I ended up slamming it, which wasn't necessarily my intention.

Instead of looking back at them, my gaze instead fell on the three boxes sitting on the counter.

"You ordered pizza and didn't tell me?" I asked.

The room fell silent for a moment.

"You told us not to bug you on Saturdays." Dylan finally spoke up.

I pursed my lips as I thought that over.

Yeah, that sounds like something that I would say.

"Yeah ok fair enough," I said turning towards the door that leads to the basement.

The door that was, of course, being guarded by Clayton.

Great.

He was probably going to be the most difficult.

"We saved you a piece if you want it." I heard Dante say.

"If you don't then Ashton and Tanner agreed to fight to the death for it."

I turned my head to the two boys, raising an eyebrow.

"Did they now?" I questioned.

Ashton and Tanner both just shrugged like this was a common occurrence.

I breathed out a small laugh.

Even though these guys can be annoying sometimes, they could still succeed in making me smile.

"Well, as interesting as that sounds, I'll take the piece as soon as I'm done," I said as I walked over towards the door.

I paused in front of Clayton, giving him the look that told him to get out of my way.

He just peered down at me.

"Tyler said that no one is permitted to go down there." He informed, his voice showing some sort of leadership that he must think he has.

I just looked at him for a moment, trying to decide how he thought that statement was going to stop me at all.

"Wow, that's really awkward because, last I checked, I was going down there," I said as I took hold of the door handle.

The whole room froze as Clayton took hold of my wrist, forcing my hand away from the door.

I could even feel everyone else's nervous stares from behind me.

Everyone knew that I absolutely hated being grabbed.

"Did you not just hear me?" He stated lowly.

This boy was about to get his ass beat into the floor.

"I did," I hissed, "But last I checked you don't have authority in this house."

I yanked my wrist from his grasp, successfully making him take a step away from the door in the process.

"Why do you even need to go down there?"

What makes him think he has the right to ask?

"That's really none of your business," I responded.

He just glared at me, probably finally getting the idea that he was going to lose this no matter what

"Now if you'll excuse me," I stepped in between him and the door.

I let in a sharp aggravated breathe as he placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Dude she's gonna stab you if you don't let go of her," Dante cautioned

It's true. I could. My knife was sitting comfortably in the pocket of my hoodie.

"She's not supposed to go down there," Clayton yelled back, "He's dangerous!"

I quickly turned to face him, apparently startling him enough to take a step back.

"I dealt with him once, I'm completely sure that I can do it again. Alone."

Without another word, I swung open the door, stormed down the stairs, slamming the door on the way.

I paused for a moment once the door was shut, taking a deep breath before I resumed slowly making my way down the stairs.

I couldn't be agitated from the beginning, that would just set me up for failure.

The basement was darker than I remembered, I guess we never really invested in some better lightbulbs.

He finally came into view as I got down to the last steps.

Even while sitting trapped against a support beam with his hands cuffed behind his back, he still refused to show any worry or distress.

His signature smirk rose on his face as he watched me reach the end of the stairs.

"I was wondering when you would come to visit me," he said, shifting his position the best he could so he was sitting a bit straighter.

I could tell that his stomach still hurt from being kicked earlier.

"Hmm, I bet you were," I replied, taking slow steps towards him.

"I truly was," He admitted, "Did you come to thank me for your knife?"

I shook my head, squatting down to sit on my haunches in front of him.

"Unfortunately not," I played along, crossing my arms on my knees, "I'm afraid you'll have to do a little bit more to earn that thanks."

He didn't give a full response, instead, his eyes squinted as he fully observed my face.

I rose a brow, questioning his actions.

He didn't leave me hanging for long as his whole face suddenly lit up.

"Holy shit you have freckles!" He almost squealed, like it was the best news he had ever received.

I quickly stood back up to my original height, admittedly surprised by what he had said.

The look on his face caused a blush to spread across the bridge of my nose against my will.

Thankfully the poor lighting in this room wouldn't let him get the satisfaction of seeing it.

"What the hell does that have to do with anything?" I asked, trying my best to seem like he didn't catch me off guard.

He was flirting, which wasn't new to me, and I'm sure was something he did quite often in his line of work to get what he wants.

I guess it was what he decided to pinpoint on me that surprised me.

Usually, they go for my tits or how hard they wanna pull my hair.

He just shrugged, leaning against the beam, "I like freckles. They're cute. It's kind of a shame that you're whole 'Eleven layers of makeup' thing hid them from me."

I just stared at him for a moment.

What was he trying to accomplish by saying that?

What the heck is this guy's deal!?

I cleared my throat.

"I didn't come down here to talk about my face."

He gave me a pout, his shoulders slumping.

"Really? huh. That's kind of disappointing."

I quickly spoke, not allowing myself to start thinking about what he just said.

I knew it would just end up pissing me off.

"I came down here to ask you some questions," I told him.

He seemed to think things over, crossing one of his legs over the other.

"Okay. Ask away." He said casually.

Wait... it was that easy? Seriously?!

"Uh. Okay," I began, "How did you find me?"

"I followed the trail of oil that your motorcycle was leaving."

I froze.

"What?"

I got that bike a month ago, there's no possible way it could be leaking.

"Though," Leo began again, "I guess you could blame that on me."

Anger quickly surged through me.

"You shot my bike!?"

Leo just calmly shook his head.

"Nope just unscrewed a couple things. The first thing I did once I got here was fix it, you know, before one of your boys pointed a gun at my face and the other one pinned me to the asphalt."

I didn't even know how to respond to that.

"How did you even know that that bike was mine?" I asked.

I parked that thing a decent distance away last night, and Leo didn't even know I existed until after I killed that guy.

Or maybe he did.

He shrugged.

"I didn't. I just saw a bike parked in a pretty unusual and admittedly shady spot and figured that following it could lead to something good. Luck must have been on my side because a few minutes later, you were riding off on it."

I wasn't quite sure if that made sense or not.

Leo definitely seemed like the kind of guy who would rig a bike just to see where it lead, but something about this just ended up working too perfectly for him.

"So then why'd you follow me?"

I knew why. He wanted the case, but I just want to see what he says.

Deviation flashed behind his admittedly stunning blue eyes.

"I figured I could probably get something out of it."

My eyes narrowed as his smirk grew.

Of course he would give me that kind of answer. Knowing full well that it wasn't the answer that I wanted.

He knew that I wanted more of an explanation and knew that I wasn't going to ask for it.

Fine. if he wants to play this game, then we can play it.

I'm not the one chained up in a basement.

In a house full of people more than willing to sell him off as nothing more than livestock.

"Okay," I said, turning on my heels.

I didn't miss the surprised look on his face as I turned.

"Wait. That's it?" He asked, obviously not expecting me to be done with my questions.

"Mhm," I replied innocently as I leisurely walked over to the stairs.

I placed my hands in the pocket of my hoodie before turning my head.

"Is there a problem with that?" I asked, batting my lashes.

I'm pretty sure that he caught on to what I was doing judging by the grin that briskly returned to his face.

"Nope. Not at all. I just thought that it would only be fair if I got to ask you some questions as well."

I thought that over for a moment.

What the hell could he want to ask me?

I turned back towards the stairs.

"Sure. Get yourself out of this room and I'll let you ask me whatever you like." I said.

It was silent for a long moment.

"Is that a promise?" He asked.

Pft. Yeah sure buddy, good luck.

"You have my word."