“She’s a grown adult who seems to see Kayden far more clearly than you do.”
“That’s not the denial I’d hoped you’d give me.”
“She called for police intervention.”
“No, she didn’t,” I spout back. “She called you because she wanted to lash out at Kayden and Adriel. I won’t let you hurt her. I’ll call your boss. I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her.”
“Whatever it takes? You’d think Kayden just spoke, not you.”
“Said the man risking his career to hurt another. He didn’t kill the woman you loved. A car accident killed her.”
“Right. He just fucked her and me. Am I calling Giada, or are we going inside?”
“I’m not disrespecting Kayden by inviting you inside his home.”
“Kayden isn’t here.”
“It’s hishome.”
“It seems it’s become yours. A lot seems to have become yours—a topic we’re going to discuss once I’ve seen that Giada is safe and well. What are you hiding . . .” He pauses and adds, “Eleana?”
A shiver of foreboding slides down my spine at the way he says the name, but I decide to walk right through the flames. “I’m still remembering my favorite foods. What am I supposed to hide?”
“Maybe you remember and aren’t telling me.”
“I wish that accusation were right,” I say, thinking of the necklace, the uncertainty about my life, the gun, and that man I keep remembering who I do not want to be Niccolo.
“You don’t want me in that house,” he accuses.
“You’re right,” I declare. “I’m protecting Kayden’s privacy from a man who’s determined to destroy him.”
“I’m protecting Giada, a young woman who called me sounding frantic and worried. And I’m protecting you, even if you don’t see it yet.” He punches a number on the phone, obviously calling her, and at this point, I have to expect the worst from Giada. But if I stop him from calling, it will only make him more suspicious. Considering I don’t know the laws of Rome, I can’t be certain what will constitute his freedom to enter the castle, which means I can’t be certain what he will do next, either.
But remarkably, Giada doesn’t seem to be answering the call, and with each passing second, I can breathe easier, while Gallo’s jaw sets a bit firmer, until finally he removes the cell from his ear. “She didn’t answer, and my concern for her safety constitutes my right to enter the castle. We’re going inside.” He doesn’t wait for my agreement, walking toward the castle, and I tell myself Matteo is watching; he’ll stop Gallo before he gets too far. But what if he doesn’t?
I start to pursue while my cell phone rings. Praying it’s Giada and I can get her to call off Gallo, I glance at the caller ID and find Kayden’s number. I stop walking and punch the “answer” button to hear Kayden say, “Why the hell are you with Gallo?”
“He was standing in the driveway, intending to stop you from leaving, and you said people die when Raul gets uneasy. Kayden, listen to me. Gallo claims Giada called him, frantic over trouble in the castle.” Gallo starts up the front steps. “And right now, he’s headed to the front door with the intent of going inside.”
“Matteo won’t let that happen.”
“He has yet to show himself.” No sooner than I say the words, Matteo steps onto the porch. “Okay, I was wrong. Matteo just headed him off at the door.”
“And the police chief is about to call Gallo.”
“Thank God,” I say, air gushing from my lungs. “He’s trying too hard to get into the house for comfort.” I shove fingers through my hair. “I can’t believe Giada did this.”
“She’s a problem I can’t ignore any longer.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be in your meeting?”
“I’m about to walk in now.” He changes the subject. “You protected me and The Underground.”
“You doubted that I would?”
“You pulled a gun on me,” he reminds me yet again.
“Because of the blood, and the necklace, and the moment.”
“I can explain the photo.”
“Good. I want you to.” I glance toward the porch again, and report, “Gallo just gave Matteo his back and took a phone call.”
“Then it’s about to be over,” he says. “I have to go now, but if you need me, really need me, call me. I’ll find a way to answer. But be sure it’s an emergency—and take Giada’s damn phone from her.”
“Happily,” I say, and the idea of hanging up and maybe never seeing him again has me grinding out, “Don’t get killed. I’m the only one who can kill you. Understand?”
“Today is not the day I die, or the day Gallo wins.”
“Promise—” The line goes dead and my stomach knots. He’s about to negotiate with a kingpin, and considering Gallo is charging toward me, I can’t even fully digest that reality. I stuff my phone back in my pocket and step forward once again, meeting him halfway.
“We need to talk,” he announces.
“Talk about what?”
“You,” he replies, “and believe me when I say that you’re going to want to hear what I have to say.” His cell phone starts to ring in his hand. He glances at the number. “I have to take this call.” He steps around me.
Turning, I am stunned to discover he’s heading toward the gate, obviously intending to leave. “Jerk,” I whisper, certain he’s just playing a game with me, taunting me, and no doubt hoping I worry and squirm.
“Ella!”
At the sound of Matteo’s voice, I turn again to find him waving me forward. Jogging toward him, I am certain of three things. One, Gallo’s not going to stop coming at Kayden until he destroys him. Two, if he keeps digging around, he’s going to get me attention from Niccolo that could get us all killed. And three, Giada, in her immature, self-centered way, helped Gallo get dangerously close to all of us.
Suddenly furious over her careless actions, my pace quickens and I climb the porch steps two at a time, Matteo backing into the foyer to allow my reentry into the castle. “What the hell were you thinking, running out there like that?” he demands, shutting us inside and locking the door.
“Someone had to distract him, and we both know that couldn’t be you without creating more trouble. And it’s a good thing I did go out there, because now we know that Giada is the one who let Gallo onto the property.”
“That little bitch.”
I wish I could disagree with him, but right now, I can’t. “Kayden wants us to take her phone.”
“And lock her in her room,” he growls, already stalking toward her tower, while I quickly follow, shocked when he keys in the entry code by the arched wooden door.
“You have the entry code?”
“Not to Kayden’s tower.”
Which is mine, and I’m not sure why I’m relieved. “You could hack it.”
“I can,” he says. “But no one else can. I set it and I’m that good.” The door begins to lift.
I duck under the barely open door, and into the foyer of the section of the castle I’ve never visited.
Straightening, I find this tower to be identical to the one Kayden and I share, with a library directly in front of me and a huge, winding stairwell to my right that I know will lead to a top level. Matteo joins me and we start up the steps, the anger I’d felt at Giada a few minutes ago a stone in my chest that’s quickly becoming a boulder.
“What did Giada say to Gallo? And since Kayden told you to take her phone, I assume he knows?”
“I told him,” I say, glancing in his direction. “And all I know is that Gallo claims that she called him in a frenzy of some sort, and reported trouble in the castle.”
We step to the landing and find Giada and Marabella waiting for us at the top, Marabella’s blue dress covered by an apron, while Giada is in jeans, a sweater, and a jacket, with her purse cross-body style.
“Going somewhere?” Matteo asks her.
She glowers at him. “When a man is bleeding to death in yo
ur home, and the cartel is after him, it’s smart to be ready to run if necessary.”
“Necessary?” Marabella demands, her tone proving her kindly nature toward Giada is as tested as mine. “What’s necessary is that you respect this house and Kayden, which you did not, and do not, do.” She holds up a phone and looks to me and Matteo. “She won’t be making any more phone calls, but I can’t get her to go to her room.”
“I was trying to protect my brother,” Giada states, arguing her case, and looking to me as she adds, “You know I have to protect him.”
That’s it. She’s officially turned the pebble into a boulder, and I close the space between us, stepping toe-to-toe with her. “That man who was bleeding in your home is named Enzo, and I can still smell his blood and feel it on my skin.”
“Ella—”
“He’s barely started his life, and he, too, is mourning the loss of a father who just happened to be close to your father. And he now has less chance of surviving, because we had to move him too soon. And do you know why we had to move him? Because you let Gallo onto the property. Enzo could die because of you.”
Her chin lifts defiantly. “He could die because of The Underground.”
“If Enzo weren’t working for Kayden, he’d be working for someone else, who wouldn’t tell him to stay away from trouble.”
“He’s dying,” she hisses. “He didn’t stay away from trouble.”
“He disobeyed orders, and why is this your judgment? Why?”
“The Underground is why my father is dead.”
My mind flashes to me leaning over someone I can’t picture. Someone bloody and dead, and I’m crying and scared and certain I’m next. “You’re going to be the reason some of us are dead. If you keep bringing attention to me, you’ll be the reason I’m dead! I don’t need attention, Giada. Stop getting me attention. Just stop!”
“Ella. Ella, easy now.”
I blink at the sound of Matteo’s voice, becoming aware of him to my left and Marabella at my right.
“Ella,” Marabella repeats. “You’re okay.”
I blink again and realize I’m gripping Giada’s shoulders, and I’m not sure if I’m shaking or she is. “Ella,” she pleads, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Ella, I—”
“Need to go to your room, like Marabella said.”
I let her go, turning and starting down the stairs, my legs trembling with each step. Who was the man who was dead? Who was I afraid of? I try to replay the memory in my mind, to will the images to materialize, but they don’t. I am a blank space, and it’s infuriating. I want my memories back, and, ironically, I barely remember the walk to the foyer, or the moment I punch the button to raise the door again. But it’s lifting and I impatiently duck underneath again, making a beeline for the stairwell leading to the central tower, and hoping for good news about Enzo. I really need some good news right now.
three
I’m halfway to the landing when I’m suddenly in his bedroom, whoever he is, and I’m on my knees in front of a drawer, staring down at a gun. I blink and I’m on the landing, staring at the closed door to Adriel’s collectibles store, and it just plain freaks me out that I seem to be blacking out. What is wrong with me? Aside from a man nearly bleeding to death while I held his wound shut?
I turn left, the direction Kayden had indicated I’d find Enzo, and travel down the stone hallway, the many closed doors reminding me that this entire tower was shut for years for a very good reason. This is where Kayden’s fiancée and mentor were slaughtered. The very idea has me shoving my hands in the pockets of my hoodie, with the impossible hope of warming any part of me. I just pray that maybe, just maybe, this place can now be the tower where Enzo gets a second chance at life.
Finally I reach an open room, pausing a moment before entering to steel myself for whatever awaits me inside. Inhaling, I round the corner, finding a room one might expect to be a getaway at an inn, with crackling flames in the fireplace framed by a pair of narrow, rectangular windows, and a sleigh bed directly in front of me, sitting on a blue-and-gray rug. But any coziness it might hold is turned bitter and chilled by the sight of Enzo lying in the bed, an IV feeding a bag of blood into his arm and a beeping heart monitor sitting next to the headboard. He is pale and lifeless, and I have a bad feeling about how this is going to turn out.
“Ella.”
At the sound of my name, I look to the far left corner to find Nathan sitting in a large leather chair, his white button-down shirt stained with blood. His hands are scrubbed clean, telling me he’s done what he can for Enzo. I walk toward him and tentatively claim the ottoman in front of him. “How bad is it?”
“The next few hours are going to be touch and go.”
“Should he be in a hospital?”
“What he needed was blood. We got that for him. The question is whether it was soon enough.”
“An hour ago, I didn’t want to know where that blood came from,” I say. “Now I do.”
“Kayden donates generously to a hospital nearby,” he supplies.
“That was a fast answer.”
“And an honest one,” he says.
“If it is—”
“It is,” he says firmly.
“Then it’s a better answer than I’d expected.”
He studies me a long moment, his intelligent brown eyes weary. “You’re very calm about all of this.”
“Considering I drew a gun on Kayden, I doubt he’d agree,” I surprise myself by saying, not sure what I hope to get in reply.
“There’s a new twist on foreplay,” he says, and any other time it would be funny. But not now. Not in this room.
“You aren’t going to ask why I did it?”
“Having someone’s life in your hands is a lot of pressure,” he says, getting right to the crux of my emotions.
“Says the doctor covered in the blood of the man I tried to save.”
“He wouldn’t be alive right now, if not for you. What you did took a level head and training.”
“Tell me that if Enzo lives.” I glance at his blood-soaked clothes. “Do you want me to get you something of Kayden’s to change into?”
“My clothes are the least of my worries right now,” he says, a hint of his native Canadian accent in his voice I’ve never noticed before. It must be stress induced. “But thank you.” He studies me intently. “Where did you get medical training?”
“My father was some sort of Special Forces and trained as a medic. He taught me.”
He arches a surprised brow. “Did you get your memory back and forget to tell your doctor?”
“Small pieces of things are slowly coming back to me, as you said they would. But I’m a little concerned. Tonight I blacked out in the middle of my flashbacks.”
“Define ‘blacked out.’ ”
“I was angry at Giada for calling Gallo and—”
“She’s why he was here?”
“Yes, she is. I was furious at her, and it triggered a memory. One minute I was giving her a piece of my mind, and the next I was shaking her shoulders without any memory of doing so.”
“She’s the reason we had to move Enzo. She’s lucky it wasn’t me. What else?”
“When I was walking up the stairs to find you, I got lost in a memory, and then I was at the top level and I don’t remember the steps. It also happened about an hour ago, when I was changing clothes.”
“Has it happened before tonight?”
“No. Not like this.”
“Then I’d say it’s stress and trauma. If it continues for more than twenty-four hours we’ll run tests, but I don’t think it will.”
I give a nod, comforted by his lack of concern, and by the easy friendship I feel with him. “I know Kayden hasn’t told me everything.”
He doesn’t so much as blink at my sudden change of topic. “In our world, everyone is an enemy until they’re not. And sometimes even then, they are.”
It’s not the answer I want, but perhaps, as Kayden said e
arlier, it’s the one I need. “Does it ever get to you?”
“It gets to all of us.”
“Then why do it?” I press.
“I believe in Kayden.”
“Why?”
“Do you know how many men in The Underground would be criminals, if not for Kayden? He shows them another way. He wants more for them and the organization, and he keeps order in his two countries in ways you can’t even begin to comprehend yet. So my answer is, I’m here because he’s here.”
Footsteps sound and I push to my feet, standing next to Nathan. A moment later Adriel appears in the doorway, his hands on the frame, still dressed in black, still wearing guns, his gaze flicking to Enzo, then us. “How is he?” he asks.
Nathan gives a grim shake of his head and Adriel inhales sharply, his expression hardening, and I have a sense of him trying to rein in the emotions he never shows. I wonder if those emotions are why he’s not dealing with Giada right now.
“Do you know what happened with Giada and Gallo?”
“I know,” he confirms, “and I’ll deal with her. But it’s not in my sister’s best interest for me to do that now.”
It’s at that moment that the machine next to Enzo starts screeching and the green lines go flat. Nathan is on his feet in an instant, running across the room and pulling some sort of cart with an electronic box on top of it to the edge of the bed. “Get the sheets off of him,” he orders, yanking open a drawer in the cart and removing paddles that begin to hum in his hands.
I pull down the sheets and Adriel appears at the end of the bed, helping me get them all the way down Enzo’s body.
Nathan shocks Enzo with the paddles, and Enzo’s body lifts and trembles. Seconds tick by and we watch the monitor, but the green line remains flat. Nathan shocks him again, and again without success. The next few minutes become a blur of shocks and failures, until the dreaded moment arrives.
Nathan shoves the paddles into the drawer and announces, “It’s done. He’s gone.”
He pulls the sheet over Enzo’s face, and watching it is like being punched in the chest. I sink against the wall, squeezing my eyes shut, fighting images that I can’t escape. Suddenly I am transported into the past, leaning over that bleeding man again. I try to hone in on his face when I hear Adriel say, “I’ll call Kayden.”
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