GUILTY (Gabe's Trials)

A few good men

The door finally opened after what seemed to be an eternity of solitude, Mathew's blank face coming into view. I sat back down onto the bed, my initial excitement turning into impassivness. Mathew was not the person I needed to talk to since he only followed Gabriel's orders. If I wanted out -and I did want out- I needed to talk to the source himself.

"You're awfully quiet. Do you need something?" Allowing a deep sigh to escape me, I risked a glance in the man's direction. There was no way in hell I was going to get what I needed.

"I could use my phone, if you care to bring it to me." A small, amused smile pulled at his lips, the answer to my request more than obvious.

"And do you also happen to need something that I can actually help you with?" I shook my head on a smile. I had nothing to complain about -maybe except for the fact that I was being held hostage in Gabe's luxurious bedroom. "You're offending the cook, you know?" Sitting next to me on the edge of the bed, my murderer's friend nodded his head towards the untouched bowl of tomato soup placed on the moving tray in the corner of the room.

"I'm not that hungry, that's all." A smirk replaced his earlier smile, the man watching me patiently.

"And you weren't hungry yesterday, nor the day before that. You need to eat something, judge. You can't possibly live on air only." His soft voice and gentle smile almost made me forget who he was working for, but that only lasted for a moment. 

"What do you want, Mathew?" Smiling, the man turned to look at me again.

"What I want is irrelevant, Julia. You need to understand what it is that you want. Stop making things harder on yourself. Just give the bastard what he wants -what you want too." Well, that was going to be difficult since we appeared to want different things.

"I can't, Mathew..."My voice was barely a whisper, my eyes shut tightly. I refused to admit it to myself. I refused to let myself be dragged back into his world -a world that has almost killed me already.

"Let me ask you something, judge." Looking up at the man still watching me closely, I swallowed hard before nodding my head at him. I had a feeling that I was not going to like what he said. "Why did you follow me that night? Why did you take the car from Angie and drove to the bar?" My eyes widened at the realisation that he knew about Angie's help to me. Had his fiance told him about it or had he simply figured it out himself? "Don't look so surprised, Julia. You're insulting my intelligence." I hurried to shake my head in denial. Insulting Mathew's intelligence was the last thing I wanted to do. "So why did you do it? If you have no feelings for him whatsoever, then why did you follow me to Rosso?" And again, my murderer's fucking wingman had me exactly where he wanted me. 

"Point well made, Mathew." The man smiled and made to stand, but then stopped the moment I could no longer hold back my laughter. "How comes we always seem to end up this way -me, locked up in Gabriel's bedroom and you, babysitting me?" The smile on his face widened ever so slightly.

"You attract trouble, judge. I should really start asking for a raise." With that, my babysitter/ bodyguard/ friend -because, no matter what, Mathew was my friend too- resumed his walking, only stopping once reaching the door. "Never call the police on me again, Julia. I mean it." He said over his shoulder, his head just slightly turned in my direction.

"You're a good man, Mathew and I'm really sorry about that! I didn't mean for everything to get so out of hand." Briefly nodding his head, the man turned the knob, opening the door and stepped out of the bedroom.

$$$

I must admit that seeing Tom walk into the bedroom with an entire platter of cakes balancing on his arms was not what I'd expected the moment I heard the key being turned into the lock several hours after Mathew's departure. The man gave me a strained smile while fighting to place the platter onto the chest of drawers on the far side of the room, my indifferent facade finally cracking as I stood up to help him.