“But I was never going to—”
“Enough!” Alessandro’s roar makes me genuinely flinch, and I cower back against the wall, pulling my knees up on the bed as though there’s a monster waiting under there to grab my ankles.
The only monster in here is the one in the other cell, who’s come up to the bars and is staring at Alessandro with a curious smile.
Alessandro slams my cell shut and locks it, turning to leave.
“Thank you for the books,” Julian calls. “I wondered if I could get some pornography as well. To help pass the time.”
Alessandro pauses at the door, only half-glancing over his shoulder. “You want porn, see if you can persuade this one to perform for you. He’s very talented when he wants something.”
“It would be too much like watching myself jerk off,” Julian says. “Looking at Teddy MacCallum is rather like looking in a mirror. Is that why you liked him so much, Sandro? Because he reminds you of—” Alessandro has already stalked out. Julian’s eyes travel slowly from the door to me. “Oh, dear. I think I might have offended him.”
I pretend to ignore him, pulling up the blanket from the bunk and cocooning myself in them. It’s partly for show, and partly for comfort.
“So he caught up with you,” Julian says thoughtfully. “Did he?”
I pull the blankets tighter and say nothing. I figure that’s better than saying the wrong thing. Julian seems suspicious. Alessandro was right; he’s not easy to fool.
“Nothing to squeak for yourself, little mouse?”
“Don’t call me that.” It shoots out of me without thinking, and I follow it up with a glare.
Julian’s smile widens, and his unblinking eyes bore into me. “What happened?” When I ignore him again, he goes on in that light, lilting tone, “Cat got your tongue,topolino?”
“What do youthinkhappened?” I spit out, trying to sound angry and scared and guarded, all at the same time. I’m already feeling all those emotions, so it sounds convincing to my ears. “He found out who I was and he tracked me down.”
“And who are you, Teddy MacCallum?”
I scoot off the bunk, taking the blanket with me as a kind of cape, and approach the bars so I can see Julian better. I play my first card—one that Alessandro gave me. “You already know. You knew who I was the first time we met, the first time you heard my name. Didn’t you?”
This time it’s Julian who stays silent. He wraps his hands around the bars of the cell and stares back at me. “It really is like a mirror,” he says. “Did you ever stop to think that Sandro only wants you because you remind him ofme?”
“How did you know who I was?” I ask, staying stubbornly on-mission. I’m not going to let a snake like Julian Castellani slither into my head.
I scowl at him and he scowls back. He lets his face relax for a moment, and then makes the same frown, brows pulling together, mouth downturned…then relaxes. And then once more. It’s like he’s practicing.
He’s mimickingme.
The hairs on my arms stand up, even wrapped up in the blankets.
“Forget it,” I mutter, and go back to the bunk, curling up with my back to the wall. I’ll have to figure out another way to inch toward my goal.
But Julian’s not done. “I have friends,” he says. “I have friends who tell me things. That’s how I knew who you were.”
“I could be your friend.”
“Oh, I have no doubt.” He hasn’t stopped staring at me. As I watch, he pulls that grumpy face again, and it really is a little like looking in a mirror. “But friendship is never a one-way street. What would you want in return?”
“I want to know what really happened.”
“What really happened?”
“The day your father was murdered. You’re the one who looped the security footage—right?”
He gives a satisfied smile. “So,” he says, “Sandro reallyisthat much of a fool.” He goes back to his bunk and picks up his book. “Nice try, but you can’t play a player, Teddy MacCallum. I can still smell him all over you.”
CHAPTER46
