One of the goons opens the back door and I start to get in, but Kayden gently shackles my arm. “Wait here with Adriel until I set ground rules,” he orders softly. Fully in his role as Hawk, he doesn’t await confirmation from me, assuming it and already stepping toward the car, and I do not question him. Not when Niccolo is watching. Instead, I stand my ground, Adriel appearing at my side like a guard dog ready to snarl and bite, while my gun is ready to snarl and bite right along with whatever weapon he chooses.
I sense his dedication to doing whatever is necessary to protect not just Kayden, but me, another reason for me to warm to him when I’d once thought that impossible. Kayden enters the car, and less than a minute later he leans out and offers me his hand. I do not hesitate to press my palm to his, and while his touch is always welcome, it serves a purpose now. It’s a message to Niccolo that we are united and that I’m not only under Kayden’s protection, but that of The Underground. Yet there is no fear in me, not even of Niccolo. I am instead appropriately on edge about a powerful man who plays games, with me the one holding the card, or rather the location of the necklace that he wants to hold himself.
I move forward, and the instant I’m inside the car sitting next to Kayden, my mind quickly ticks through observations—a process I instinctively know started with my father’s training. Everything is in slow motion. It’s like an out-of-body experience. In a matter of seconds, I register Kayden’s leg next to mine while his hand slides away from me, then the door shutting and fine leather cradling my body. The spicy, masculine scent of Kayden merging with Niccolo’s, which is somehow soapy and clean in a sterile kind of way, like a hospital you want to escape but cannot. There is also a window sealed between us and the driver at Kayden’s and my back. Last, I focus on Niccolo sitting in the center of the seat across from us, looking gaunt, his scalp freshly shaved, his expensive blue suit too large yet he manages to own it, like he intends to own us. He will fail.
“Ella,” he greets me, those cold eyes still hollow of emotion and laden with sickness, with the death haunting him, landing on me.
“Niccolo,” I say, ensuring he knows that I will meet him tit for tat at every turn.
“Let’s skip the dinner party greetings,” Kayden says, no doubt purposely, and successfully, pulling Niccolo’s attention to him.
“Police Chief Donati has been dealt with,” Niccolo states. “Should he give either of you trouble again, I’ll want to know.”
“Dealt with how?” Kayden asks.
“Effectively,” he states, offering nothing more. “And he’ll ensure your Detective Gallo is also dealt with, as I understand he’s a nuisance.”
“Please tell me that’s not code for killing him,” I say, incapable of keeping my mouth shut at this point.
“But my brother is a more complicated situation,” he says, ignoring my words, as he cuts his gaze to me again. “Have you remembered where my necklace is?”
His necklace. It is not his necklace, but the property of the British government, an artifact long ago stolen that he will never possess.
But instead of correcting him, I speak the only truth he needs to hear. “I only remember what it looks like, and that at some point I had it.”
“Do you remember promising it to me for safe passage from Paris to Italy, as well as my protection from my brother?”
“I do not.”
“But you remembered him?”
“Flashbacks of a monster,” I say willingly, not hiding my hate for Garner. Niccolo needs to know I have no distorted memories of his brother that would suddenly make me hand him the necklace.
“Who will pay for his sins,” Kayden adds, his voice etched with hard promise.
Niccolo’s gaze swings to Kayden. “And me? Will I pay for my sins, Hawk?”
He’s goading Kayden with the murder of his family, which Niccolo has all but admitted to. I turn my back to the door to read both men’s expressions, preparing to react to any problem, and doing so with the sureness that Adriel will not allow me any surprises from behind. But if Kayden is agitated, his energy doesn’t darken, his expression doesn’t harden. In fact, his lips quirk, his eyes filling with amusement that I swear is genuine, his elbows settling on his legs as he leans closer to Niccolo and goads him right back. “I don’t need to make you pay, now do I?” he asks softly. “That bitch Karma already found you for me, and we both know it.”
Niccolo’s gaze sharpens with the implication that Kayden knows of his illness. “Karma’s my sister, Hawk. And she might be a bitch, but it turns out we’re getting pretty damn friendly, so watch yourself. She might find you, too.”
“Is that a threat, Niccolo?” Kayden asks. “Because I don’t respond well to threats, especially when they come from someone I know will act on them. It makes me turn an Evil Eye on them. Not that it would matter to you. You just said that Karma’s your sister, and we all know how you regard family—seeing as you’d like nothing more than to take out your own brother.”
“Enough with the word games,” Niccolo snaps. “We have a common cause now. We both want my brother destroyed.” He flicks a look at me and then back at Kayden. “And she’s the key you seem to want to protect.”
Kayden goes still, his mood darkening, easily read by the crackle of energy around him, before he shocks me by pulling me closer and shoving back the sleeves of my coat and sweater to reveal my newly inked skin. “I am, and I will, protect her, Niccolo,” he declares, his voice soft and yet somehow intense, fierce, and I can barely breathe from the unnamed emotions stirred by his complete, utter devotion to protecting me.
For his part, Niccolo shows no emotion or immediate reaction, his expression remains unchanged, his gaze fixing on my hawk tattoo, lingering there for what feels like an eternity but is only seconds, before he looks at Kayden. “Is that a claim for the woman, or for a necklace worth three hundred million dollars?” he asks, his voice cold, calculated, and etched with accusation, and I’m not sure if it’s meant to rattle Kayden, me, or both of us, but there is no time for me to react.
Kayden’s response is instant, something about Niccolo’s response is more than the word games I take them as. He moves and in a blink, draws his gun and points it, not at Niccolo’s head but at his groin. “It would be a lethal mistake to underestimate what she means to me,” he says, his voice etched with the same cold calculation as Niccolo’s question.
But there is more. Kayden didn’t pull that gun as a threat or a bluff. This is the man who killed the woman Kayden loved and the man who raised him, so he knows it’s the wrong choice. And Kayden knows all the reasons he can’t kill Niccolo now. He needs to ensure the new leader is of his choice, but that doesn’t change one fact: He wants a reason to justify killing Niccolo. And he wants that reason here and now.
two
The glass window behind us starts to lower. Adrenaline surges through me, and it takes me all of ten seconds to reach into my purse for my trusty gun, good ol’ “Annie,” and point it at the driver, who has clearly b
een watching us. “Don’t even think about it,” I warn before he even lifts the weapon I know he’s holding, counting on Adriel to have our backs from outside the car.