“Yes, and I’m coming to you.”
I end the call. “Get out of the car, Sara.”
“Not without you.”
“Get out of the car, Sara, so I can kill the bastard.”
Neuville straightens. “You think Evil Eye is bad? Kill me, and the wrath I have planned for Kayden will make him wish he were dead.”
The door opens to my right and Kayden slides in beside me, the smell of him so masculine and safe and him, and the feel of his presence is like a breath of air I didn’t think I’d ever take in again.
“Your husband says to get out of the damn car, Sara,” he tells her.
“Chris,” she whispers, and she’s out of the car.
“Why is he still alive, sweetheart?” Kayden asks.
“Because she knows killing me comes with a price,” Neuville replies.
“Is there a plan we need to follow?” I ask.
“The plan includes hurrying the fuck up. He’s your prize. Do it and let’s move.”
Neuville has gone quiet, his eyes meeting mine, and I see in their depths that he knows what’s coming. He accepts it. He even challenges me to do it.
“This seems too easy, too humane. I thought we’d punish him.”
“And as much as I love how you think, we just need him gone, and to deal with the logistics.” Kayden raises his gun. “You or me? Let’s just do it.”
I point my gun at Neuville’s groin and shoot him, his scream radiating through the air. I let him feel the pain, just for a few seconds. I just have to let him feel it. And then I lift my weapon and shoot him in the head. He’s dead. The monster lives no more. Kayden grabs my arm and helps me out of the car, and Adriel is there waiting. “Where’s Sara?”
“We just put her and Chris in a car on the way to the airport,” he says. “I’ve got this mess.”
“We’ll meet Chris and Sara there,” Kayden tells me, and another car pulls up. “That’s our ride.”
We climb into the backseat, and I don’t know the driver nor do I care who he is. Not when Kayden’s taken my gun and is now cupping my face. “Ella,” he whispers, his mouth closing down on mine, in a deep, passionate, drink-me-in kiss that I return with all that I am. And when we come up for a breather, we linger there, breathing together, and fo
r me, finally breathing again, I realize.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he confesses, a tormented quality in his voice that I feel straight to my soul, an echo of exactly what I’d felt. “Are you okay?”
“He’s dead. That makes me absolutely fucking fabulous.” My hand flattens on Kayden’s chest, and I can feel his heart thundering under my palm. “He just . . . and I . . .”
“Tell me he didn’t—”
“No,” I say, saving the part about the tattoo for later, when we’re alone. “He didn’t.” I lean back to look at him, focus on the things that won’t take me places I can’t go right now. “Matteo’s dead. Neuville had him killed.”
“We found him, and my only regret was that I didn’t get to do it myself.”
“What about Gallo? Did you kill him?”
“Gallo came clean. Like I said, he’s a good cop and that part of him won over the hate. Especially when Neuville threatened the lives of his sister and other civilians. He was afraid to warn me on the phone, or I would have gotten to you sooner to prevent this.”
“I was rooting for him,” I say. “I’m glad he wasn’t one of the bad guys.”
We turn down the street where Neuville lives, or rather lived, and I stiffen, sucking in air as memories assail me, flying through my mind as if I’m skimming pages in a book.
“I’ll go in,” Kayden says, his hand squeezing my leg, and I blink to realize we’re already in front of Neuville’s insanely expensive home, a black stone building in one of the most expensive areas of the city.