Witness Protection ✔

The truth surfaces

Cassius POV

For as long as they sat in the study no one disturbed them, much to Cassius's surprise. It seemed that whenever they got the chance to talk someone always barged in to take one of them away. The only downside was that there were a ton of cameras in this room and they couldn't do much more than just talk.

"So have you ever gotten hurt during an assignment?" Nathalia asked him. She'd been looking outside for a while but now her focus was solely on him. He could see something was bothering her but he wasn't sure what. There was just so much going on in their lives right now.

"No," he answered truthfully, "I've never gotten hurt, none of my clients have ever been injured either. Well, except you of course."

He took pride in his perfect track record. It was one of the reasons why he climbed the ranks so fast. It also was the reason he had authority over Chris, who despite being older than him was ranked below him. He knew one of Chris's clients got seriously injured because of a mistake he made some time ago. Normal people would feel guilty over that but the only thing that bothered Chris about it was the fact it had become a setback in his career.

Trying to lighten the mood didn't seem to help because she was still looking straight at him, something she found hard to do at times meaning something was up right now.

"Never been close to getting hurt?" she asked innocently, as though the question didn't bear any weight. But it did. Cassius knew immediately where she was going and he wondered who had told her about it. At this point, it could be anyone. Nico because he talked too much, Chris because he was trying to scare her, or literally anyone else that had been there while he was gone that morning.

After a while, he shrugged, "It doesn't matter, what matters is that nothing happened."

He didn't want to have this conversation, he knew he should've told her but it just didn't make sense for him to do so. She'd just feel unsafe and there were no benefits in informing her of the fact that the men that were after her almost succeeded. His answers were constructed in a way he didn't give away too much information since he wasn't sure what she did and didn't know.

"It does matter when you lie and say you didn't know anything about it. Like when you said you had no idea what happened to the first house after we left when you knew all too well they actually showed up there," he could see she was mad at him, which was fine. He could deal with her being mad because of something he did. What he didn't think was fine was the fear in her eyes.

She doesn't fucking feel safe anymore, He thought.

The fear in her eyes hurt him in a new way that he hadn't experienced before. Despite the fact she'd felt scared numerous times during their time together she'd never actually felt unsafe. Until now.

He wanted to reach out to her. He needed to take her into his arms and tell her everything was fine. He needed to kiss her until she'd forgotten what was going on but he couldn't and he damned the cameras in the room.

"I didn't think knowing about that would do you any good," he said calmly. Like her outburst hadn't affected him in the slightest. "Besides, I didn't lie. So don't accuse me of that. I found out after we got here and read the reports. You asked me that question a long time ago."

Guilt flashed across her eyes and he knew she understood. But the anger remained and he didn't blame her for that.

"Were they at least arrested?" she asked after taking a few deep breaths to calm herself, sounding calmer than before.

He wasn't sure how to answer that. On one hand, he didn't want to tell her the truth. That the house was shot up and burnt down and that they'd disappeared before the police arrived. But he knew she wouldn't ever be able to fall asleep and if she did she'd probably have those nightmares again. But she would probably never trust him again if she found out he had lied.

"No," he said. "They're not. But Na--Katherine, you're safe here, I promise."

She was about to reply but he cut her off before she could, "Do you trust me?"

He could see the struggle in her eyes. He knew she trusted him but the fear she was experiencing was completely justified after what had happened. Years of experience had taught him anything could happen and although they were prepared to the max, he couldn't guarantee her safety one hundred percent.

Slowly, she nodded. The tension in his shoulders slowly went away and he hoped she'd stop asking questions.

"I want to go back," she suddenly said. He didn't know what she meant by that but he let her talk without him interrupting her.

"You know, to the old house. When everything was still simple and peaceful and I only had to worry about nightmares. I-- I don't want this trial to be over. I'm not ready to start over."

A single tear ran down her delicate cheekbone and her face was contorted in one of pain. He knew how she felt because he felt the same. He wasn't ready to let her go.

He never got attached to his clients, it was just a job after all. Afterward, he'd go back home, take a week off and then start over again. But this time had gone so differently and he didn't even know when that started. It just suddenly was.

It hurt to know that this time he'd have to let her go and she'd have to build her life from the ground up. He just hoped she'd find someone who could protect her when he couldn't anymore.