Taken by the Heartless (HEARTLESS, Book 1) (NOW EDITING)

GAMES

   A few minutes later, Eros was seated in his office, facing the woman Javier had introduced as Ms. Peterson. They stared at each other without saying a word for a while, and Eros had to clear his throat. Was she expecting him to say something first? Why was she staring at him like that? Was she not the therapist? She should start by asking questions.

She inhaled and smiled at him. "Mr. Castillo, how do you feel now?" she asked.

Eros wanted to get grumpy and ask her to get on with the therapy, but he figured it might be part of the session. "I always feel better."

"So, can you tell me about yourself?"

Was she kidding right now? Was she not supposed to know who he was already? Javier should have filled her in on it. He didn't have time for all this. But when he was about to snap, he heard Javier in his head.

          'Talk to her, it's the procedures...'

"I run the Castillo Empire. It was an enterprise left to me by my father, Dominico Castillo, before he died..."

"Er...Mr. Castillo, I want to know you, not what you do," she interrupted with a warm smile.

Eros glared at her for a while. His engagement with women these days was becoming more appalling. He let them talk back at him and interrupt him now. It was never so before.

"Why don't you tell me about yourself?" he retorted gruffly.

She smiled and shook her head. "I am Joan Peterson, warm, passionate, and understanding, I am a psychiatrist by profession, and I love to see the good in my client. So, Mr. Castillo, who are you?"

Does she want him to spell out to her that he is a mafia? People knew they were in the mafia, quite alright, but no one could bring proof, and Eros won't go about telling people who he was in public. He was a businessman in public, in the media, and to investors. The mafia was an underground work he covered with business. Now, this pretty face is asking him to tell her who he is.

"Ms. Peterson, I think that's a complicated question you asked there, besides, I have something going on with me, something that keeps messing up with my brain, that is what I paid you for, not to know me or what I do." The smile didn't leave Joan's face, and it was pissing him off already. Does she think it is all a joke or something?

   "I know, Mr. Castillo, but to know what is wrong with you, I need to know you more. Tell me a little about your parents." She looked down at the pad and started to write something.

Eros cringed. His parents were the last topic he wanted to speak about. He told Javier to bring someone who would decipher what was going wrong with his head, not some nosey, probing therapist who wanted to dig up his past. This was why he had avoided them at all costs. "What?"

She looked up at him. "Your parents."

"They are dead."

"Any siblings?"

"What?"

"Brothers or sister?"

"None."

"Alright." She wrote down something Eros couldn't see on her pad.

Eros' heart was hammering against his chest now, and he didn't know why. He was sweating and wondered why her question made him more uncomfortable. It wasn't the question he had expected. He was going to kill Javier once he left here.

"How old were you when your parents died?"

Eros felt heat engulfing him as a memory flashed in his eyes; he was losing his breath and gasping for air without knowing. His head reeled, he heard screams and screeches, he saw blood, sharp blades...