“Niccolo is providing me proof.”
“Which is what?”
“Do you really want to hear this?”
“Yes. It’s my life. I don’t want to be sheltered, and I’m not going to have a meltdown here.”
“The woman at the club helped you reach out to Niccolo, and she owes him a favor. She says she took a picture of you after the beating and I have to use it, Ella.”
I have a fleeting memory of her stroking my hair the night I’d bitten that bastard’s tongue. Anger overrides shame, and I drink the rest of my wine. “Have you seen the photo?”
“Not yet.”
“Won’t it make me look weak to The Underground?”
“You survived and escaped a mafia king. You do not look weak.”
“I’m not weak,” I repeat, maybe trying to convince myself, which really sucks. “I don’t want to see the photo.” I down his wine, too. “Do they have tequila? I have some noise in my head right now I’d like to mute, and since we can’t have sex, it seems like a good option.”
He lifts his hand and a waiter appears, and after a short conversation, Kayden stands up. “Come on.”
“We’re leaving?” I ask, letting him pull me to my feet.
“I want to show you a taste of Italian nightlife next door. They’ll hold our coats here.”
“Okay,” I say, feeling slightly dizzy. “But I’d better skip that tequila. Apparently the wine did the job.” He wraps my waist to steady me and leads me to the back of the restaurant and down a hallway. We reach a door he opens and suddenly there is loud Italian pop music, dim lights, and a narrow stairway.
Kayden puts me in front of him, his hands on my hips, and we walk up the stairs. I’m greeted at the top level by a blue-hued darkness and a dance floor filled with people. Scanning, I find an oval bar to the left, and some sort of sky bridge up above. Kayden steps to my side and drapes his arm around my shoulder, leading me to the bar, where he orders drinks.
“This doesn’t seem like your kind of place,” I say, leaning on the bar.
“Bars are gutters of information,” he says, leaning on the bar next to me, his arm pressed to mine. “And as a bonus, there are drunk people divulging it left and right.”
“Now it seems like your kind of place,” I say, and not for the first time, I think of his skill as a chameleon.
Two shots appear in front of us and Kayden stuffs euros into the ticket tray before lifting both of the glasses and facing me. “Bottoms up
, sweetheart,” he says, offering me mine.
I accept it but don’t drink. “I’m pretty tipsy.”
His hand slides around my hip to my backside, easing me closer. “I’ll protect you.” But the way he says it is more like, I’ll give you ten orgasms. Motivated, I down the drink, grimacing at the taste.
He laughs and downs his shot, then sets our glasses on the bar. “Come on,” he says, leading me past the dance floor and through the crowd, our destination a set of stairs leading to the sky bridge. Again, he places me in front of him and holds on to my hips, and it’s a good thing he does. The steps are narrow and I really, really feel a buzz now. Once we’re at the bridge level, Kayden leads me down a hallway away from the bridge, and then to another set of stairs with a chain across them.
“Doesn’t the chain mean this area is closed?” I ask.
“I know the owner.” He lifts me over the chain, joins me, and we climb yet more stairs until we reach a closed area of the bar. “Our private party,” he says, snagging my fingers and leading me to the railing that wraps around the center room below.
“This is the best place to be in a bar,” Kayden says as we gaze down at the crowd. “Above the world.”
I face him. “You can’t get those drunken secrets up here.”
“From up here, you target those who have them and are drunk enough to talk about them.”
“You always have an angle,” I say, and suddenly my head spins and I sway. Kayden catches my waist and walks me backward several feet until I’m leaning against a big beam, his powerful legs holding me steady.
Then an American song starts playing. I can’t feel my face when I’m with you. But I love it. But I love it. I start laughing. “I really can’t feel my face, Kayden. But I like it. If I didn’t trust you, I couldn’t let myself be like this right now.”