“And say things they don’t think I’ll understand near me,” I supply. “That’s devious.”
“This crowd is devious,” he says. “We have to keep up or get stabbed or shot in the back. We won’t, but I’m sure a few people will try to come at me tonight through you.”
“Gallo’s given me plenty of practice dodging those kinds of bullets.”
His cell phone buzzes and he reaches into his pocket to glance at the screen, replacing it in his pocket as he says, “Matteo has a visual on the ballroom.”
The unexpected announcement puts me on edge all over again and I don’t know why. I want Niccolo to find me. And I must stiffen or react because Kayden wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me closer. “What just happened?” he asks.
“If you suspect bad things might happen tonight,” I say, “just tell me.”
“Bad things can always happen, and I won’t pretend otherwise. What are you specifically concerned about?”
“You have Matteo doing live monitoring of the party.”
He stops walking, facing me, his hands on my shoulders. “I always have a tech guy tap the security feed for these events. The playback makes for interesting viewing, which you’ll see when we watch it tomorrow. I asked for Matteo specifically because you’re here for the first time by my side, and I will always want the best for you.”
We. It’s a good word but it, and everything he just said, reminds me of just how protective he is. “Don’t shelter me,” I warn. “Don’t put me in a situation without arming me with the facts, no matter how good, bad, or very damn dirty.”
“I have every intention of letting you get very damn dirty with me, sweetheart. In all places, things, and situations. Okay?”
I study him, searching his face, and I don’t believe for a minute that he’s going to stand by those words if he thinks he can protect me from something. But I do believe that he thinks he will, and for now, that’s enough. “Yes.”
He wraps my arm around his. “We’ll watch the videos together in the morning,” he says, turning us toward the music, and under a giant archway that leads us to another stairway. “It’ll help you get to know all the players.”
“I’d like that.” As we grow nearer to the sound of heavy chatter, and even louder music, a thought hits me. “I can’t believe I didn’t ask this. What if I see someone I know?”
He smiles. “Amnesia is like pleading the Fifth Amendment. You don’t know who they are, or what they’re talking about. And I’ll be with you. We’ll wing it together.”
“Wing it,” I repeat in disbelief, but as we reach the top of the stairs, and more cameras begin flashing again, it’s clear that’s the best plan I have right now. “I think I need a drink.”
“Don’t drink and drive,” he replies, moving us past several reporters to enter a ballroom speckled with glitzy gowns and tuxedos, a dance floor in the center, and at least five hundred candles dangling from long ropes above.
We stop just beyond the crowd, which I guess to be in the hundreds, and we both scan the room, my gaze going toward the two giant ice sculptures framing the musicians to our right. “Butterflies,” I say of their design. “That can’t be a coincidence, can it?”
“Nothing with these people is a coincidence,” he confirms. “It’s a message to someone, and we need to find out who before we leave here tonight.”
A waiter stops beside us and offers us champagne, which we both wave off. “What happened to needing a drink?” Kayden asks.
“It’s better if I’m sober when I pretend to forget people I just remembered, and ask subtle questions about things I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t know about. And that statement was just so ridiculous that it sounds like I am drunk.”
Kayden’s eyes light with amusement and mischief, his fingers lacing with mine. “I’m hungry. I need either a private place to have you for a snack, or the only good thing about these events—the food.”
“Where is the food? Because I’m starving.”
He bends our elbows and places our connected hands together, my bracelet on full display, and then indicates the far corner. “The goal line is directly in front of us and to the right. That is where we find pasta and chocolate, and mock the crowd with full stomachs. Between us and it, though, are people who want to keep us from that reward.”
I laugh. “So what’s the plan?”
He gives me a serious, focused look. “An all-out American football attack. Straight up the middle. Got it?”
“Got it,” I say, playing along, the nerves I didn’t realize had attacked settling down to a tolerable level.
We start walking, and before we’ve gone three feet, we’re tackled from the left. Then the right. Before I know what has hit me, I’m being introduced to people, struggling to understand questions and remember accented names.
Except one.
Suddenly, Kayden and I are standing in front of the politician in the photo Gallo showed me this morning.