“I do,” I say, “and I know that creating Rae Eleana Ward, and replacing my picture once Gallo saw it, took skill. I’m not questioning your skill.”
“It took phenomenal fucking hacking to get into the international database and never be seen. No one gets into the castle that I don’t want to get in here. And if they try, I have ten kinds of trouble set up for them. We’re secure here.”
“Matteo,” Adriel calls.
He points at his shirt. “Trust in the Italian Stallion,” he says, giving me my second wink of the day, and a glimpse of the man I know before he takes off down the hallway.
Still, I stare after him. His mood is odd, but I’ve never questioned his abilities before, and that could be what he’s reacting to.
Either he failed to protect us or I’m blacking out in ways that are concerning, but at least it should be visible on our security film when I can finally watch it all. Shaking it off for now, I head toward the door of the store, about to enter when Carlo appears. And just as I remember, he has this edgy, dark, Italian Stallion kind of vibe that manages to make you think of leather and chains. His pants are, in fact, black leather. His twin guns are strapped over a black tee that’s poured over his muscled upper body. That long dark hair of his is tied at the nape, while those green, cutting eyes are focused on me with the same all-consuming, too-attentive look I remember from the past.
“Carlo,” I say, standing my ground, aware he enjoys the skill he has to unsettle people.
“Who are you exactly, Ella?”
“Aside from the girl who could draw your guns before you can?”
“You think you really can?”
“Try me,” I challenge him before I can stop myself.
“As tempting an offer as that is, that would displease Kayden.”
“And you want to please him?”
“Seems I do.” He gives me an incline of his chin and starts to move before hesitating. “And you wouldn’t need to draw my weapon if you had your own. You need to fix that.”
With that rather too-observant assessment he steps around me, and my gaze lands on Kayden, who stands only a few feet away. And just like that the room is charged, the air thick, the distance reaching far longer than the few feet between us. But I won’t let it win, not now or ever.
I cross the threshold and punch the button to shut the door behind me. “I really need to talk to you before this meeting.”
“As I do you,” he says. “We need to be upfront in this meeting about your past with Neuville and the CIA connection.”
“I agree. I don’t want them asking me who I really am, like Carlo just did. Kayden. When I was standing on the porch, I realized why I hesitated when you proposed.”
“Now is not the time for this.”
“It’s relevant to the meeting, or I wouldn’t do this to you. I’ve been trying to be as convinced as you are that Evil Eye protects me and everyone here.”
“It does.”
“Not from a crazy, obsessed billionaire mobster with a personal vendetta. Garner Neuville will come for me and that necklace, and any thought I had that my leaving or hiding would save you and everyone here was a lie I told myself. He will just use the others and you to draw me out of hiding. Whatever decisions you make in that meeting have to take this into consideration. He’s crazy, Kayden, and if he gets the necklace, terrifyingly powerful.”
I take his hand and turn over his wrist, displaying his second tattoo, the box with a king chess piece inside, reading the English meaning of the Italian words trailing up his arm. “Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.”
“In death we are equal,” he says, stating the meaning. “Never underestimate your enemy. Garner Neuville and I will never be equal, nor have I underestimated him.”
“You’re counting on Evil Eye,” I say. “But you don’t want me to go to Paris.”
“You aren’t going to Paris, Ella.”
“My point is your point. Evil Eye is revenge for the dead. I’d rather just make him dead before he kills you, Kayden. And he will kill you if you give him the chance.”
“He would be a fool to cross Evil Eye. His punishment would far exceed death before death followed.”
“I know that you believe that,” I say. “I also know that you know Europe and The Underground and the mobs in both France and Italy. But I know this man. He’s an insane monster. Please hear me, Kayden. I cannot lose you. And I can’t bear the idea of someone here dying because of me. You told me not to go to Paris and you were right: I was just desperate to protect everyone here. But now, I’m asking you to hear me out.”
His hands come down on my arms. “Easy, sweetheart. I hear you. I’m listening.”
My hands go to his forearms. “You can’t wait to maneuver his second-in-command out of the way before dealing with him. He will come for me, and if he gets the necklace, too—”
“He won’t. I’ll adjust my strategy going into this meeting, and I’ll assume Evil Eye doesn’t exist to him.”
“And that means what?”