“According to Adriel’s text message,” he says, returning his phone to his pocket, “he followed us from the bar. I hope you memorized that file, because now is the time to get your memory back and shut him down.”
“I did. I’m ready. I hope.”
“You’ll do fine. Just follow my lead.”
“It’s almost midnight, Kayden. Why would he be here? What if he found the real me? What if I—”
“Easy, sweetheart. We couldn’t find the real you. He didn’t. And he’s here now for the same reason he was at the house at three a.m. last night. He’s on a mission to rattle me, and you because of me, it appears. Let’s show him he can’t win.”
“Yes. Okay.”
“Good. We’re going to turn together and face him.”
I nod, inhaling as we move, his arm casually draped over my shoulder again as Gallo stops in front of us, his hands in his trench coat. “Twice in one day,” Kayden greets him dryly. “Proof there is a God.”
Gallo smirks and focuses on me. “I thought you’d like to know the results of your fingerprint search.”
Nerves attack me from all directions, and I can’t seem to form words. Fortunately, Kayden has no such problem. “So you tracked her down on our date at nearly midnight. Ever heard of a phone?”
“A date after being arrested,” he gibes. “At least you have something to talk about.” He glances between us. “Why don’t we find someplace to sit down and talk? Unless you’d both rather invite me to the castle. Or I can pick up Eleana in the morning and we can chat at the station.”
Eleana. Is that sarcasm, or confirmation of Matteo’s success? My heart jackhammers with fear, but Kayden is oh so cool. “We aren’t going to the station, and I ran out of invitations to the castle. Lucky for you we’re standing next to a twenty-four-hour coffee shop. And since you were obviously following either me or Eleana, or both, and know we just came from a bar, let me preface your disappointment. I don’t do drunk and stupid, so don’t count on this going anywhere.”
It’s then that I realize I might have smelled tequila on Kayden, but he’s so far from drunk, I’d be surprised if he had more than one shot. Adriel just used that to get me here, and I have the weirdest idea that he’s the one who told Gallo where to find us. Which is just me being crazy paranoid again, considering he warned us of his approach. Isn’t it?
Gallo gives us a deadpan look. “Let’s go inside.”
“Is that an order?” Kayden challenges. “Do you want to make this official? Should we call our attorney? Or perhaps your boss?”
Gallo bristles and fixes Kayden in a hateful stare. “We’re going to do this one way or another.”
“Yes,” Kayden agrees. “We are, but with two different agendas.”
I have no idea what that means, but Kayden urges me in front of him, placing himself between me and Gallo, and I have the sense that’s what he intends to do this entire encounter. I hurry to the door, feeling like I have two predators at my back about to go for each other’s throats. Kayden quickly joins me at the door, holding it open to allow me to enter the quaint little coffee shop, with a pair of large black chairs in one corner and a cluster of tables here and there. He indicates the largest of the quaint tables to our left, his hand on the small of my back as we travel in that direction.
Once there, I sit down facing the large window, the lights of the active street, where I’d rather be right about now, twinkling beyond the glass. Kayden claims the seat next to me, his arm resting protectively on the back of my chair. For extra measure, I pull my coat around myself, huddling into it rather than making an effort to remove it, which might suggest I’m willing to stay a while. Gallo isn’t about to make this easy on me, placing me in the spotlight of those brutal gray eyes as he sits directly across from me, but the fact that he keeps his coat on as well gives me hope this will be short, if not sweet.
“Good news,” Gallo announces, focusing solely on me. “We got a hit on your prints. As you know, your name is Rae Eleana, but I have the last name as well. It’s—”
“Ward,” Kayden supplies. “We were actually out celebrating her returned memory.”
He stares at Kayden, his look a blade of ice. “Funny. I thought you were celebrating getting out of jail,” he says, sharply shifting his attention back to me. “Just this morning you didn’t remember more than your first name.”
“I had a dream that was a trigger. My doctor said that’s normally how it happens. And some of the swelling in my brain may have gone down.” I press my lips together, having no idea where that came from, before I say something wrong.
“Interesting timing,” he says dryly. “What doctor?”
I bristle at the nosy question laced with accusation. “That’s rather personal, detective.”
He grimaces and leans closer. “What do you remember?”
“My name and that I’m from Texas. I know who my employer was, or rather ex-employer. I quit my job to travel.”
“And your parents?”
My shock and offense over his bringing up a topic that would upset me, if my file weren’t fictional, is not feigned. I hope. “Why would you go there? You have to know their loss is raw. In truth, that’s probably what I was trying to shut out with my amnesia.”
His lips press together. “I’m sorry.” He’s not convincing, but rather responding to being put in his place. “Why don’t I take you to the passport office tomorrow to get your passport replaced? I can help cut through the red tape.”