Irritation flickers over his hard features. “You seem to have missed the part where I said it’s not gone up on the auction block.”
“That means nothing,” Kayden interjects. “Whoever mugged her, be it your men or otherwise, could be holding the necklace and biding their time.”
“Three hundred million dollars says they won’t hold it,” Niccolo snaps back.
“A price tag that could get them killed if they don’t have the right broker says that they would,” Kayden counters. “And you’d better hope it’s not The Jackals they go to for help, because I promise you: Alessandro will own that necklace, not your men.”
“Assuming they took it,” he states, “which I still doubt.”
“And yet they’re missing, and so is it,” Kayden reminds him.
“Yes,” he says keenly. “They are missing—and it seems to me that aside from Ella, you’re the only other person who’s been placed at that scene that night.”
“Murder isn’t my style,” Kayden says, never missing a beat, “and you know it.”
“But you will kill, if necessary,” Niccolo states matter-of-factly.
“Yes, I will,” Kayden replies, equally matter-of-factly. “But I didn’t have the pleasure that night.”
“As you say,” Niccolo remarks, his lips twisting. “Whatever the case, Alessandro’s not a problem.”
“In other words, he’s on your payroll.”
“Of course he’s on my payroll,” Niccolo says. “Anyone and everyone I was able to eliminate as competition to get that necklace, I did, and I will continue to do so.”
“Alessandro’s the redheaded stepchild that wants to be us. He wants to be you. He will take that necklace and sell it out from under you.”
“You underestimate me, Hawk, if you think I don’t know these things about him and don’t have the leverage to ensure that he does exactly what I say.”
“What leverage?” Kayden asks.
“You also underestimate me if you believe I’ll tell you that.”
“How do you know it wasn’t he who attacked Ella in the alleyway, intending to double-cross you? How do you know he’s not double-dipping and also working for your brother? Or even for Raul?”
“The kingpin of the drug cartel?” I ask.
“Yes,” Kayden confirms, answering me but focusing on Niccolo. “He knows about the necklace. He wants it.”
“Of course he wants it,” Niccolo states, “and as you keep forgetting, I know Rome. I know my business. And he’s not a problem.”
“Raul is not a man who can be threatened.”
“But he can be bought,” Niccolo replies. “And he does bleed. He’s contained, as is Alessandro. End of topic.”
“Nothing is done until I say it’s done, when it comes to the safety of those I protect,” Kayden states. “Raul will turn on you if he gets even a sniff of weakness, which we know you have right now. And Alessandro is not just a Jackal. He’s the Jackal, and my enemy.”
“Thankfully you’ve made your Evil Eye apparent where Ella’s concerned.”
“And should I have to invoke it on him, consider yourself part of that for bringing him into this.”
“Relax, Hawk,” he says, his eyes flecked with amusement. “I’ve ensured he knows that should my brother get anything he wants, including her, he will pay a price worse than death.”
“Then why,” Kayden says, “is Alessandro handing out her location to the private investigator her friend hired to find her?”
“Perhaps he felt that the more questions this investigator was asking, the more attention it brought in unnecessary places,” Niccolo states.
“In other words, you thought the investigator was asking too many questions,” Kayden surmises, the timing of this visit suddenly far from coincidental.
“Or perhaps,” Niccolo continues, homing in on me, “Alessandro thinks your past is where he’ll find the necklace.”
“My past has nothing to do with that necklace,” I say firmly. But there is this odd, uncomfortable niggle of something in my mind that I can’t explain, and a flickering image that I can’t quite materialize. “And your Jackal made a misstep,” I add, now worried about Sara’s safety and desperate to get her out of the picture. “What if this man Chris Merit, who’s funding Sara’s hunt for me, is after the necklace?”
“I myself own several Chris Merit works,” he says. “He’s well known and highly respected. He’s also far more concerned about curing children’s cancer than finding that necklace.”
“Maybe he wants the necklace to fund research,” I counter.
“He’d have to explain all that money, and even he, a billionaire in his own right, wouldn’t be able to do that without joining the likes of me and my methods. And he will not. But we’re certainly watching him and your friend, Sara. But tell me. How does someone with amnesia selectively have such certainty?”
I blink at the odd question. “What certainty are you talking about?”
“You said that your past has nothing to do with the necklace. You seem quite sure about that, but not a great many other things.”