I quickly thumb down the door lever and shove it open, entering into a foyer with yet more stone beneath my feet, and I discover a giant winding staircase on the opposite side of the stunning room. In awe, I happily give Kayden space to enter behind me and cross to the center of the room, seeing towering dungeon doors to my left and right. Turning in a circle, I admire the intricate trim work around the walls with what appear to be handcrafted roses. There is a flicker of a memory in my mind that I reach for, though I do not believe it’s about this place, but another. He sent me roses. Dozens of roses. I frown, not sure where the words came from, but nothing else follows, and I let it go to look up and inspect the conical ceiling, with more of the same design dissecting it into quarters.
Kayden joins me, stopping in front of me, his eyes half veiled, his energy dark, his expression all hard lines and shadows. “It’s gorgeous,” I say, when he doesn’t speak. “How big is it?”
“There are three towers in total. The central tower behind us is about eight thousand square feet. The east and west towers, divided by this room, are both around six. Adriel, his sister, and the housekeeper live in the east. You’ll be staying with me in the west.”
I’ll be staying with him. This pleases me, though I suspect he simply wants to ensure I don’t lead him on another race through the rain and frigid temperatures.
“This way,” he says, motioning toward one of the dungeon doors.
I nod and follow hi
m, watching as he keys in a code and then hits a button, and the massive wooden door begins to lift. “The door is code protected,” he tells me, “with an alarm if it’s breached. I change the code once a week, and each wing has its own code. Right now, ours is one-nine-eight-nine.”
“One-nine-eight-nine,” I repeat. “Got it. Is the central tower empty?”
“Adriel runs a high-end collectibles store out of it.”
“High-end collectibles?” I ask as we enter yet another foyer, with an archway directly in front of us that appears to lead to some sort of sitting room. “What do you mean by ‘high-end’?”
“Anything and everything, all high-dollar items, many of which are museum-worthy.”
“That can’t be as profitable as treasure hunting.”
“Yeah, well, his father was killed on a hunt two years ago when his sister was sixteen. She blames The Underground.”
We reach the next level and enter another foyer, and before he can continue forward, I grab his arm and stop walking. “He died because of a hunt?”
“Yes.”
“So what you do is dangerous.”
“We each choose the jobs we take, and accept the danger that comes along with them. Generally the higher the payday, the greater the risk.”
“And Adriel’s father, what was he after?”
“A file that proved a certain pharmaceutical company had faked the results to clinical studies to get FDA approval. Which I damn sure found and turned the payday into a trust for Giada. She gets it at twenty-five.”
“How much was it?”
“Ten million.”
I gape at the astounding figure he mentions so nonchalantly. “You gave her ten million dollars?”
“Yes.” Tightness forms around his mouth. “I gave her ten million dollars, but all that money doesn’t bring their father back, and it damn sure didn’t stop the pain.” There is a hint of rasp to his voice, and he cuts his gaze to indicate the room beneath the arch and the end of the topic. “You have to enter the living area to get to the kitchen. It’s well stocked, and Marabella, the housekeeper, picks up anything I need. She’ll do the same for you. She has a whiteboard on the counter to leave a note.” He points to the walkway forking left and right of the arch. “You’re left. I’m right.” He starts walking left.
I fall into step with him and enter a chilly corridor with high ceilings. We pass what looks like a library, and he motions to a set of stairs. “There’s a full gym on the next level if you want to work out. And this,” he says as we reach the door at the end of our path, “is your room.”
This is your room. The words echo in my head, and again, I have a memory of another time and place. He opens the door, and I enter ahead of Kayden to find myself in a much warmer room that is truly made for fairy tales. The spectacular bed is the centerpiece, thick, high posts of mahogany towering ridiculously high and draped with sheers. A white wooden fireplace is alight and sits to the left of the bed and directly in front of me, with a comfy-looking brown leather chair next to it.
“Marabella turned on the fireplace for you,” Kayden says, crossing the room to stand beside it. “It’s gas, one of the modernizations I made to the place a few years back, to offset how cold the castle can get.” He reaches for a switch and turns the fire off and then on. “Easy and effective.”
“Great. Thank you. It’s a wonderful room.” But I’m really thinking about him. Me. And that bed.
He motions to a rectangular, narrow, floor-to-ceiling window in the corner. “It doesn’t open or offer much light.” Next, he indicates the flat-screen TV on the wall above a heavy wooden dresser. “The remote’s in the dresser drawer, and there’s a mini-fridge on this side of the bed stocked with drinks and snacks.” He advances on me again, and while the man in my flashbacks moves with grace, Kayden is all loose-legged, rebellious swagger. And I like it. I like it a lot. “We can go shopping for anything you need once the rain dies down,” he adds, stopping in front of me. “In the meantime, Marabella took the liberty of picking up a few things that you’ll find in the closet.”
“She didn’t have to do that. You didn’t have to do that. Thank you, Kayden.” I lift my hand to touch him, and catch myself, folding my arms in front of me instead. Awareness flickers in his eyes, and I know he knows what I almost did and still want to do.
We stand there, a weighted silence ticking between us that has nothing to do with my words, and everything to do with the bed sitting behind him. He steps closer, but doesn’t touch me, his gaze drifting to my mouth and back up. “You have no idea how much I want to strip you naked and throw you on that bed. But you were right about memories. They keep the past we don’t want to forget alive, and they remind me of all the reasons I’m bad for you. And why I need to walk out of this room before I don’t give a damn anymore.”