“Sasha has our phone numbers coded with nicknames, so that’s not a problem. I’ll get a hold of her. Before I do, though, a word of warning. The last time I talked to her, she said that now that Gallo’s suspended, he’s got nothing to focus on but hating you and fucking her. A meeting, I see. But pulling her away from entertaining him beyond that is dangerous. Do we really want to move her out of the equation?”
“She told me,” Kayden says. “And fucking Gallo from sunup to sundown is a poor waste of her talents. Just get her here for the meeting. She knows Neuville and Paris. I’ll decide the next step with Gallo from there.”
“Gallo will stalk me again if he gets the chance, but I can handle him,” I say. “But it’s Carlo who makes me very uncomfortable. Do we really need him involved?”
“He makes everyone uncomfortable,” Adriel says. “And he enjoys it.”
“Of that, I have no doubt,” I say. “But is that good?”
“Considering he makes no one as uncomfortable as he does Alessandro,” Kayden says, “it makes him a huge asset.”
“Why does he make Alessandro nervous?” I ask, surprised by this news.
“Carlo was his Adriel at one point,” Kayden explains. “They were as close as Adriel and I are, united in their rebellion against me, and Carlo got to know Alessandro’s intimate thoughts and weaknesses in ways no other person has. But as they say, there’s a fine line between hate and friendship, especially when a woman gets between them.” His phone buzzes and he fishes it out of his pocket, glancing at his text messages. “Well, this is unexpected,” he says, sticking it back in his pocket. “Marabella says that Giada wants to give me a gift of appreciation for all the time she’s lived here. And per Marabella, and this is a quote, ‘Come alone. She’s nervous enough as it is.’?”
“Giada?” Adriel says. “As is in my sister?”
“The one and only,” Kayden says, glancing at me. “I’m beginning to think alien abduction stories are true, and she’s been returned to us a different person.”
“Not aliens,” Adriel says, his gaze landing on me. “This is all you, Ella. You woke her up, and I appreciate that.”
“Let’s hope it sticks,” I say, thinking of those missing pages of the journal, praying it wasn’t her, despite really not knowing how she could have gotten it. “And for all we know, she’s going to attack Kayden. He’ll throttle her, and all will be normal in our world.”
“I’ll head on down,” Kayden says, his gaze meeting mine, and the subject of Giada seems to already be set aside. “I want you in this meeting. It’s in our War Room, but I’ll meet you in the store when I finish with Giada and we’ll go together.”
Together. That word works for me, and when I look at him, I feel a punch in my chest with the connection. I sense that he feels it too, though he doesn’t show it, but I’m not sure what that means to him at this point. “Okay. So I should go down there in about half an hour?”
“That works.” He nods, giving Adriel a quick look. “Get me Sasha.”
“I’ll call her before I head downstairs,” Adriel confirms.
Kayden nods and heads toward the living room, and already Adriel is dialing. I stand my ground, waiting for him to finish, making it clear I want to talk to him. His caller, Sasha I assume, answers quickly, and the conversation is over just as fast before he returns his cell to his pocket.
“Sasha’s on her way,” he says. “And clearly you have something else to say, so say it.”
His directness doesn’t surprise me. Adriel isn’t exactly what one would call a warm and inviting personality. “I’ve been keeping a journal.”
“I assumed as much, when I handed you a book labeled ‘journal’ in the store the other day.”
“Right. I forgot that. Anyway. It’s supposed to help me retrieve my memories,” I say, “and it’s helped. That’s how I remembered the necklace. I started drawing it.”
“Where are you going with this, Ella?”
“Two pages were torn out, and one of them was a drawing of the necklace.”
Understanding registers in his eternally hard green eyes. “I didn’t take it, if that’s what you think. If I wanted to document something, I’d—”
“Take a photo,” I say. “I know. I thought it was Giada, but I checked the security feed. No one touched my journal that day.”
“So it was another day and place.”
“I’ve only taken it out of this tower once—that day,” I say. “And the only people who can get in this tower are me, Kayden, and Marabella.”
“It’s not Marabella,” he says. “There’s another explanation.”
“That’s what Kayden said. He thinks I removed it during a flashback.”
“If you space out like you did today in the car, I can see that.”
“Yes, but if it’s Marabella—”
“It’s not Marabella.”
“It would destroy Kayden if she betrayed him.”
“You’re right, but this is one time that I can say I have zero, and I mean zero, doubt in someone.”
“Those we trust—”
“Come up with another theory.”
“Someone hacked our security system.”
“Matteo has about four levels of hack notifications set up,” he says. “He’s truly one of the best in the world.”
“One of the best means there could be another who’s better.”
“You’re reaching, Ella. Someone is always here. If you’re not in the tower, Marabella uses that time to clean and cook for you. And I’m usually in the store, as is Giada.”