“I thought I’d lost you,” he confesses, a tormented quality in his voice that I feel straight to my soul, an echo of exactly what I’d felt. “Are you okay?”
“He’s dead. That makes me absolutely fucking fabulous.” My hand flattens on Kayden’s chest, and I can feel his heart thundering under my palm. “He just . . . and I . . .”
“Tell me he didn’t—”
“No,” I say, saving the part about the tattoo for later, when we’re alone. “He didn’t.” I lean back to look at him, focus on the things that won’t take me places I can’t go right now. “Matteo’s dead. Neuville had him killed.”
“We found him, and my only regret was that I didn’t get to do it myself.”
“What about Gallo? Did you kill him?”
“Gallo came clean. Like I said, he’s a good cop and that part of him won over the hate. Especially when Neuville threatened the lives of his sister and other civilians. He was afraid to warn me on the phone, or I would have gotten to you sooner to prevent this.”
“I was rooting for him,” I say. “I’m glad he wasn’t one of the bad guys.”
We turn down the street where Neuville lives, or rather lived, and I stiffen, sucking in air as memories assail me, flying through my mind as if I’m skimming pages in a book.
“I’ll go in,” Kayden says, his hand squeezing my leg, and I blink to realize we’re already in front of Neuville’s insanely expensive home, a black stone building in one of the most expensive areas of the city.
“No,” I say. “He’s dead. His ghost isn’t going to haunt me. We came for the necklace, and I know where I put it.”
Our driver opens the gates, clearly possessing the code, and it’s not long before I’m in the marbled foyer, with many people, including Blake, in my path.
“Holy fuck, woman!” He charges forward and hugs me. “Thank you for saving her.” He leans back and looks at me. “I’ve gotten fond of those two, and had no idea just how deep this shit really was.”
“I’m the reason she needed to be saved,” I say, the words rasping out of my suddenly raw throat.
He gives me a probing stare. “That sounds like ten years of therapy that you won’t get, so just talk to her. She still loves you, I promise you.” He glances at Kayden. “Chris is another story. He’s going to want to hurt someone.”
“I’m sure it will be a fun plane ride to Italy.”
I glance at Kayden. “They’re coming with us?”
“Just until the dust settles and Blake finishes up here,” he says, his hand settling possessively on my back.
“Since when are you doing Underground cleanup?” I ask Blake.
“Since it makes damn sure my clients, who I also consider friends, aren’t attached,” he explains.
Kayden’s fingers flex at my back. “Let’s get this done and get out of here.”
I nod and hurry forward, making a beeline for the kitchen, a stunning room of navy, green, and white, pausing at the table where I find three dead men posed.
“Meet Neuville’s second and third, as well as Alessandro. He’s the one with the goatee,” Kayden says.
“Something tells me Neuville’s promise to make your life hell if he died isn’t going to go so well,” I say.
“The only thing the French mob is going to be thinking about right now is saving themselves from Niccolo, and dealing with law enforcement,” he says. “The police will find these three, and Neuville, in a few hours, after receiving reports of gunfire.”
“That works,” is all I say, and that’s all the thought I give them. They’re monsters better removed from this world, and I’m here for a reason. I go to the navy-tiled island and point to the silver, rectangular light fixture running the length of it. “It should be there, on this side.”
“You can’t even reach up there,” Kayden points out.
“That was the idea,” I say. “I had to climb up to put it there.”
He reaches over the top of the light and lo and behold, he produces the necklace. I let out a sigh. “Three hundred million dollars. There it is.”
“There it is.”
He sets it on the counter and opens a drawer underneath, removing a jewelry case. “This is our little special touch to the crime scene, which I put here for safekeeping until we’re ready to leave.” He opens the box to display a second butterfly necklace. “A five-million-dollar perfect replica,” he explains. “Adriel will place it in Alessandro’s pocket. The British government is going to pick it up and put it in their protective care. We’ll keep the real necklace. Our goal was to protect the real necklace when we found it, and we completed that process today. Now, if the fake is stolen, this won’t start all over again.”
“Where will we keep it?”
“We have a private vault under the castle,” he says. “No one but me, and now you, knows about it.” He places the fake necklace back in the drawer. “Adriel will make it all come together.”
Then he picks up the real necklace. “Let’s go back home, Ella.”
“Yes. Home.”
And for the first time in perhaps my entire adult life, and in the face of such horrible events, I feel like I have a home. And that home is Kayden.