“Yes,” Kayden agrees, his hand slipping away from my shoulder, no doubt to free it for his weapon. “He uses impromptu meetings as a way to ensure he’s in control, and that everyone else is unsteady.”
In turn, my hand has settled under my coat where my purse rests at my hip, my fingers tugging the zipper open, then discreetly finding the cold steel handle of “Annie.” Adriel steps to my opposite side from Kayden at the same moment, and one of the men stops a foot in front of us and center, which means directly in line with me, but he looks at Kayden.
“Niccolo would like to talk with you a moment,” he says, but his gaze then flicks to me. “And you.”
“Come with me, Ella,” Adriel orders, his hand going to my arm.
“Ella stays with me,” Kayden says, and I can feel the instant, silent resistance in Adriel. He knows nothing of my involvement with the necklace they all hunt, and Niccolo wants to find it before anyone else. But Niccolo knows, and should I avoid him now, it will look as if I have remembered where it is but wish to hide it from him. The reality is that I have not remembered. And while I would never hand it over to Niccolo, at present I am not hiding it from him, and at least for now, that message is one I can look him in the eye and deliver. A message that this meeting allows me to deliver—and, in fact, buys us time to find the necklace and ensure he never gets his criminal hands on it.
I step forward, aligning my boots with Kayden’s, silently offering my agreement, though it’s not needed. Niccolo’s goon has already taken Kayden’s word as gold, and is now walking back toward the limo. Kayden doesn’t look at me, nor me at him, both of us focused on the back door of the limo. We step forward in unison, connected in ways that go beyond our personal bond that I understand now, but hadn’t before; nor, I suspect, had he. We both know danger. We both know the importance of keeping our eyes on the danger ahead, along with who and what awaits us is in this limo. We both don’t intend to be the ones who fall, if someone has to take a hit.
One of the goons opens the back door and I start to get in, but Kayden gently shackles my arm. “Wait here with Adriel until I set ground rules,” he orders softly. Fully in his role as Hawk, he doesn’t await confirmation from me, assuming it and already stepping toward the car, and I do not question him. Not when Niccolo is watching. Instead, I stand my ground, Adriel appearing at my side like a guard dog ready to snarl and bite, while my gun is ready to snarl and bite right along with whatever weapon he chooses.
I sense his dedication to doing whatever is necessary to protect not just Kayden, but me, another reason for me to warm to him when I’d once thought that impossible. Kayden enters the car, and less than a minute later he leans out and offers me his hand. I do not hesitate to press my palm to his, and while his touch is always welcome, it serves a purpose now. It’s a message to Niccolo that we are united and that I’m not only under Kayden’s protection, but that of The Underground. Yet there is no fear in me, not even of Niccolo. I am instead appropriately on edge about a powerful man who plays games, with me the one holding the card, or rather the location of the necklace that he wants to hold himself.
I move forward, and the instant I’m inside the car sitting next to Kayden, my mind quickly ticks through observations—a process I instinctively know started with my father’s training. Everything is in slow motion. It’s like an out-of-body experience. In a matter of seconds, I register Kayden’s leg next to mine while his hand slides away from me, then the door shutting and fine leather cradling my body. The spicy, masculine scent of Kayden merging with Niccolo’s, which is somehow soapy and clean in a sterile kind of way, like a hospital you want to escape but cannot. There is also a window sealed between us and the driver at Kayden’s and my back. Last, I focus on Niccolo sitting in the center of the seat across from us, looking gaunt, his scalp freshly shaved, his expensive blue suit too large yet he manages to own it, like he intends to own us. He will fail.
“Ella,” he greets me, those cold eyes still hollow of emotion and laden with sickness, with the death haunting him, landing on me.
“Niccolo,” I say, ensuring he knows that I will meet him tit for tat at every turn.
“Let’s skip the dinner party greetings,” Kayden says, no doubt purposely, and successfully, pulling Niccolo’s attention to him.
“Police Chief Donati has been dealt with,” Niccolo states. “Should he give either of you trouble again, I’ll want to know.”
“Dealt with how?” Kayden asks.
“Effectively,” he states, offering nothing more. “And he’ll ensure your Detective Gallo is also dealt with, as I understand he’s a nuisance.”
“Please tell me that’s not code for killing him,” I say, incapable of keeping my mouth shut at this point.
“But my brother is a more complicated situation,” he says, ignoring my words, as he cuts his gaze to me again. “Have you remembered where my necklace is?”