nineteen
Kayden and I leave his room to head to breakfast, and the memory of me running down the hall in a towel manages to take precedence over the photos in my hand. “Marabella is going to embarrass me, isn’t she?” I ask as we reach the entryway to the living area.
“Oh yeah,” he confirms, amusement in his voice, his lips quirking in a near smile.
We cross to the kitchen and I glower fiercely at him. “You think it’s funny.”
He grins. “Guilty as charged.”
“It’s not funny,” I chide. “It’s embarrassing. I’m not hungry anymore.”
I try to turn away but he snags my waist, kisses my temple, and before I can steel myself for the impact, walks me in front of him and through the kitchen entry. “Ciao, you two,” Marabella greets us from behind the island, her ear-to-ear grin instant. “Have you worked up an appetite?”
I groan and cover my face and Kayden chuckles, sounding way too sexy for how infuriating his amusement is becoming. It’s made worse as he says, “Why yes, we have. In fact, make my pancakes a double stack, please.”
I sink into a chair at the table and set down the notebook, dragging my journal and the file I’d left behind last night to join it. “Can you put booze in my coffee, please?” I plead, while Kayden sits down next to me and taps the notebook, obviously eager for me to take a look. I grimace and add, “Make that a double shot, not stack, for me.”
Marabella giggles like a schoolgirl and delivers two cappuccinos to the table, a cute apron decorated with patches of strawberries covering her knee-length dress. “No booze for you,” she tells me. “Kayden doesn’t keep any in the castle.”
She hurries away and I ignore the notebook to pick up my cup. “You’re more of a control freak than I realized.”
“I’m hopeful that comment comes with a good memory of last night.”
My cheeks heat with the replay of his words in that shower. I will lick you. Bite you. Pinch you. Spank you.
He leans closer. “What are you thinking, Ella?”
“I was just thinking—”
“Right now. What are you thinking right now?”
I swallow hard. “I plead the Fifth.”
His lips quirk and he leans back in his chair. “That’s no fun.”
He’s playful and funny, and enjoys teasing me way too much, but I like this part of him too much to mind. “You don’t drink because it creates a lack of control you don’t like.”
He lifts the cup, his eyes lighting with wicked heat. “Control is much more alluring than the other options. Don’t you think?”
“Hmmm. I don’t think I’d know, but maybe I’ll give it a go.”
“You can try.”
I set my cup down, the delicious scent of pancakes cooking filling the air. “I will.”
“Looking forward to that battle of wills,” he assures me, tapping the notebook. “Let’s get this over with and go get naked again.”
I inhale a sharp breath, ready to do anything other than look at those photos, including broach the awkward subject of David. “I need to talk about something else first.”
“I’m listening.”
“David.”
“David,” he repeats, the name a blade sliding through the air. “The infamous fiancé.”
“Kayden—”
“Tell me.”
“He gave me a necklace. It was a large butterfly, and I found a handwritten note inside it.”
He goes very still, the lines of his face sharpening with his tone. “What did that note say, Ella?”
Unease flits through me. “I don’t remember. It could have been a silly love note.”
“You claim to just ‘know’ things. Is that what you think it was?”
“No. No, I do not.” He studies me with hooded eyes, his lashes hiding his gaze from my prying eyes, and I can’t take his silence. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“Because I don’t like what I have to say.”
My fingers curl into my palms. “Just say it, please.”
“I think you were what is called a ‘carrier.’ ”
“I don’t like how that sounds.”
“For good reason. A carrier is an innocent person who’s targeted to transport items from one country to the next.”
“How do you know this?”
“The Underground has encountered just about everything over the hundred years it’s been around, and we have databases to store the history of those experiences. And I’ve personally encountered this kind of situation.”
“And you think David chose me to be a carrier.”
“It fits. Usually someone is directed to get close to the potential carrier and ensure they meet certain requirements.”
“What requirements?”
“You really want to hear this?”
“I have to hear this.” He still hesitates. “Kayden, please.”
“The targets have no family and very few people in their lives to miss them.”
Okay. I’m officially twisted in knots. “Confirmation my family’s dead.”
“I’m speculating, Ella, but Matteo found no missing Ella who traveled from San Francisco and no one in the DMV that fits your profile.”
“They wiped me out completely. But there have to be people who know me. Jobs? Sara?”
“Of course there are, but they aren’t going to make it easy for you to be found.”
“That’s a lot of effort.”
“Not for someone like Matteo.”
“What about a police report in the States? A missing persons report.”
“Nothing. Not there or in Europe, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t filed. It could mean it was erased from the computer databases and if it’s reentered, a flag will ensure it’s erased again.”
I can see where this is headed. “What happens to carriers when the job is done?”
“Ella—”
“What happens to carriers when the job is done, Kayden?”
“They end up dead.”
I am remarkably calm considering the harshness of that explanation. “That would explain so much.”
“There’s good news in this.”
“There is not good news, Kayden.”
“Hunting you because you’re a carrier will not remain a priority.”
“Unless I’m a carrier gone rogue who did kill someone.”
His cell phone rings, and he ignores it. “We don’t know you killed anyone.”
“I know, Kayden. But I need to be realistic here and so do you. Please get your phone. It could be about Enzo.” He hesitates. “I’m good. I’m fine.” And it’s amazingly true. “Please take the call.”
His lips press together and he digs it from his pocket. “Gallo’s boss.” He answers and says something in Italian before covering the phone and eyeing Marabella, telling me he doesn’t want her to hear the conversation. I guess Adriel was wrong. Marabella doesn’t know quite everything. “I’ll be right back,” he murmurs.
I nod and sip my coffee in an effort to dislodge the cotton in my throat but fail, my gaze landing on the notebook I don’t want to open. “Where’d he go?” Marabella asks, rounding the counter with plates in her hands, as well as a small pitcher of syrup she’s juggling between her arm and breast.
“He had to take a call.”
“Always on that phone of his,” she says, setting her load down on the table, a sweet maple scent teasing my nostrils as she claims the seat across from me. “Thank you for what you did with Giada. She really took to you.”
“We had a good time talking and watching TV.”
“She says you might go shopping?”
I inwardly cringe at the realization that I haven’t called her back. “We’re going to plan it soon.”
“Excellent. She’s a good girl with a hole in her heart.”
My understanding of that statement becomes more complete by the moment. “I can see that in her.”
“You’re going to be good for her.”
“You’re good for her. Maybe all three of us can go shopping.”
“I’d love to, but I’d never catch up with you ladies. It wore me out doing your shopping.” She presses a finger to her lips. “Don’t tell Kayden, but Giada helped me. She’s closer to your age, and I wasn’t sure what you would like.”
“Oh. I’m surprised she didn’t tell me.”
“I asked her not to tell anyone. Kayden’s a very private person. He wouldn’t like her being involved.”
He is private and he doesn’t want Giada involved in much of anything, which I aspire to change, but right now, the idea of shopping reminds me of my lingerie. “The store where one of you bought my lingerie. Is that nearby?”
“It’s right next to Piazza di Spagna, which is the shopping area where we bought the majority of your items. It’s a drive, not a walk. I think that’s where Kayden got all of your Chanel items.”
I smile. “It’s hard to imagine him in a women’s department store.”
She laughs. “I’m sure all the women wished he was shopping for them. He’s quite the catch. Lucky you.”
“Lucky me,” I agree, and with every tidbit of my life and situation revealed, I become more determined than ever to enjoy every “lucky” moment.
And right on cue, it seems, the sexy man in question returns with a notebook computer in his hand, reclaiming his spot at the table while Marabella glances between us, a smile playing on her lips. “I should leave you two alone.”
“Actually,” Kayden says, “I was going to tell you to take a few days off.” He glances at me. “We’re set for the passport office on Thursday, so we can hibernate and let your body heal until then.”
Two days to forget everything and luxuriate in this man sounds pretty darn good right now. “Hibernating sounds good.”
“As does a few days off,” Marabella adds, “but you must eat. I can cook in my kitchen and drop it by if you like?”
“You’re going to spoil me,” I say, “and soon I’ll be on a diet.”
“She’s right,” Kayden agrees. “You do spoil us. Take some real time off. We’ll manage.”
“All right then,” Marabella agrees, “but if you need anything just call me.” She winks in my direction and dashes away.
“Good grief. She thinks we’re going to be naked for the next few days.”
“We are,” he says, “which is why we need to deal with a few issues now. David. Do you know what he looks like?”
I’m a bit stunned by how quickly he’s back in attack mode, wondering what he’s learned that I don’t yet know. “I remember very clearly. Why?”
“Matteo did a search for all Davids that traveled to Europe from San Francisco, and there were too many to be an effective search. By cross-referencing with the California DMV he was able to narrow the pool based on age, race, and travel particulars.”
“I’d also make an educated guess that a generic name wasn’t an accident, and that David wasn’t even his real name.” He picks up the syrup and pours it over his pancakes, then sets it beside my plate. “By the time we finish eating, the files should be in my email. There are only ten, so it won’t take long.”
He lifts his fork and cuts his pancakes, and there is a hint of tension between us that wasn’t there before and can be from only one source. David. No matter who that man was, or was not, in the recent past I was engaged to him, and it bothers Kayden.
“Kayden,” I say, drawing his gaze to mine, and when he looks at me those piercing blue eyes are just a little too cold for comfort. “I’m not going to suddenly be in love with David.”
“You were going to marry him.”
“I can’t explain what my mind hasn’t told me yet, but I know I didn’t love him.”
He studies me for several seconds, his gaze probing, intense, as if he is trying to look into my soul and see my past and my future. “I believe you,” he finally says.
And since Kayden doesn’t say anything he doesn’t mean, I believe him. “I’m glad,” I whisper, and the tension uncurls in my shoulders as a breath I did not realize I was holding escapes my lips.
I reach for the syrup and his hand comes down on mine. “You’re mine to lose—not his to take.”
Mine to lose. The proclamation implies he has to work to keep me, not that he owns me, and it hits a nerve in a good way. “I was never his to take, Kayden.”
“Either way,” he says, “I still have to make sure that you don’t forget me.” He motions to my plate. “Eat. You’re going to need your energy.” And just like that, he is back to being playful and fun.
“What happened to resting and healing?” I ask, picking up my fork.
“I’ll be gentle. For now. Speaking of getting naked again, you need to call Nathan about that doctor’s appointment we discussed.”
“I’ll call him today.” A thought hits me. “You know, I wonder if Giada might need an appointment, too. She’s eighteen and dating.”
Kayden freezes with a bite near his mouth. “Are we seriously talking about Giada and birth control?”
“Better now than when she’s pregnant. She was so drunk the other night, she couldn’t remember how to get into the castle. And frankly, Adriel doesn’t seem like the motherly type.”
“Good point,” he says, looking utterly horrified at the idea. “Get her an appointment.”
I laugh at his reaction and take a bite of my food, a sweet, buttery taste filling my mouth. “That’s not Bisquick. That’s terrific.”
“Everything Marabella makes is,” he assures me, devouring a bite himself while I dig in for more.
“I’m stuffed,” I finally say, shoving aside my half-empty plate and watching Kayden fight through to the second half of his tall stack. “She’s been with you since you moved here?”
He sips his coffee. “That’s right. She outdates me by a few years. Her husband was here when I arrived as well.”
“What happened to him?”
“Heart attack about seven years ago. They’d been together for fifteen years. She had a rough patch, but taking care of the castle seems to make her happy.”
“She can’t possibly care for this giant place alone. Just dusting must be a full-time job.”
“I have a team of people come in at various times.” He chuckles and sets down his cup. “She loves bossing them all around.”
“Two control freaks in one house.”
“Used to be three when Kevin was alive. The two of them had a lot to do with defining my character.”
“Dare I say that Marabella’s your second mother?”
“Dare away. That’s exactly what she is. I was hoping she might be the same to Giada, but there’s a difference between being ten like I was when I arrived and sixteen when Giada moved in, and it’s huge.”
“Ten,” I say, and the idea of just how young he’d been when he’d hidden in that closet is simply devastating. “It’s amazing you’re as well rounded as you are.”
“Well rounded. I’ve been called a lot of things, including beautiful, but never that.”
I smile at the memory he’s apparently never going to let me forget, and go all in. “You are beautiful,” I say, giving him no time to turn that into a blush-worthy moment by quickly asking, “Did you go to public school?”
“I had tutors all the way through junior high, but Kevin insisted I go to public school for high school, and said he wouldn’t make me a full-time Hunter until I finished college. He thought it prepared me for life.”
“Was it weird going to public school after all of those years of tutoring?”
“Hell yeah. I skipped all the time, and when I was at school, I was in detention. The school said I had ‘anger issues.’ And Kevin was damn quick to call them on it, too.”
“He defended you.”
“Hell no. He said I had ‘asshole’ issues.” He laughs. “Then he proceeded to kick my ass and I straightened out.”
I laugh. “He was good to you.”
“He was my hero.”
A random image of my mother pops into my head, gone before I can fully appreciate it. “I think my mother was my hero, and I’m not quite sure what I thought of my father.” Shaking off the thought before I get emotional, I refocus on Kayden. “Tell me more about Kevin.”
“He was a total badass. No one crossed him without getting their teeth kicked in, but at the same time, he was the first one to be by anyone’s side if they needed help. He would’ve willingly bled for every single Hunter he looked after.”
“Like you.”
“Ella—”
“It’s okay, Kayden,” I say, holding up a hand. “I know I can’t have it both ways.”
“Meaning what?”
“If you were a jerk who didn’t protect your people, I wouldn’t be in your bed or your house. I’d find another way to survive.”
“I believe you would.”
“I would, and since it’s how you are that makes me want to stay, I have to embrace that and your world.”
His chest expands, and he shoves aside his empty plate. “I want to take you to the shooting range and find out how well you can really handle a gun.”
“Very. I promise you.”
“Humor me.”
I think of Elizabeth and wonder if this request is about peace of mind for him. “I’m fine with going to the range but I can promise you, you’ll be impressed.” Which makes me think of Giada again. “Does Giada know how to shoot?”
“Hell no, and I don’t want her anywhere near a gun.”
“You want her here, in Hunter central, but you don’t want her to be able to shoot.”
“I’ve lost three Hunters in five years, Ella, and that includes Kevin.”
While I’m relieved the number is lower than I’d expected, death is death, and I stay focused on my agenda. “She needs to know how to protect herself. Let’s get her in classes or let me teach her. Maybe it will make her feel empowered and in control. I know you, of all people, understand how that helps a person cope.”
“You aren’t going to let this go, are you?”
“I really think she needs to know how to protect herself.”
“You’re going to have to convince Adriel.”
“She’s eighteen.”
“Like I said. You’re going to have to convince Adriel.”
“She lives under your roof, so I will ask you but not Adriel. Is it okay with you if I teach her to shoot, Kayden?”
He considers me a moment. “Yes. Teach her.”
“Thank you.” I hesitate and he arches his brow. “Adriel,” I breathe out.
“What about Adriel?”
“He told me you two don’t agree on much of anything.”
“Did he, now?”
“I’m worried he’s not as loyal to you as you are to him.”
“That’s an interesting assessment.”
What’s interesting is that he isn’t defending Adriel.
His phone beeps on the table, and he presses a button to read a message. “Matteo just sent us the passport photos.” He opens the MacBook he’d brought to the table earlier and powers it up.
I finish off my coffee and set the cup aside, finding it interesting that I feel none of the dread about these photos that I do about the ones of Niccolo’s crew. “I hope this tells us something.”
“I’m ninety-nine percent sure it won’t, but I never ignore a possibility. Which is why I’m a damn good Hunter.” He punches a couple of buttons and slides his chair over so that we are side by side. “Give them a look.”
I scan the photos on the screen that Matteo has aligned in two rows, and no one looks familiar. To be certain, I start at number one and slowly inspect all ten, one by one.
“Nothing?” Kayden asks.
I shake my head. “Nothing. What I don’t get is why he needed me, if we traveled together. Unless, maybe I met him in Italy?”
“Most likely you traveled together. Couples get less attention.” He closes the MacBook and sets it aside. “I know a guy who used to be a sketch artist for the FBI in the States. Are you okay with having him sketch David for us?”
“Yes. That’s great. When can he do it?”
“Not until Thursday. We can hit the consulate and then meet up with him.” He drags the photo album forward. “Unless, by some crazy chance, David is in these photos.”
“You think David works for Niccolo?”
“Niccolo is involved, so yes. I think it’s possible.”
“I feel like an idiot for being targeted. I can’t imagine myself being that stupid.” And suddenly my dread is far less than my need to know the truth. I open the book and start looking at the shots, each photo taking up a page. Nothing is familiar, and I’m frustrated until the last shot, which sends chills straight to my bones.
“Who is this?” I ask, pointing at the regal-looking man with thick, raven hair streaked with auburn.
“Is he familiar?”
Kayden’s tone is cautious and I look at him. “Who is he?”
“That’s Niccolo, Ella.”
“This looks nothing like the photo you showed me before.”
“Yes. It does. Are you telling me he’s familiar now, and he wasn’t then?”
“Let me see the other shot.”
He grabs his phone and hits a few buttons before bringing up the image he showed me when we were at Matteo’s house. I set the phone down next to the picture in the notebook. “They don’t look like the same man.” I tap the image on his phone. “This man has shorter, darker hair than the one in the photo.”
“They’re both Niccolo, so let’s be clear. You know Niccolo.”
“Yes,” I whisper, my chest tightening. “I know him. I might have tried to kill him.” I stand and Kayden stands with me. “I have to go. I have to leave the castle. You can’t have me here. I’ll get you all killed.”
His hands come down on my shoulders. “Deep breath, sweetheart. We already knew he was looking for you. Our plan is still good, but I need to know if it’s Niccolo who you keep having flashbacks about.”
“I don’t know, Kayden. The man in my flashbacks is still without an identity.”
“Everything is still as it should be.”
“A mobster is after me, so no. Nothing is as it should be. How do I even get out of this?”
“You don’t.” His hands frame my face. “I’ll get you out of this. I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”
“I do, but—”
He kisses me, hard and fast. “I’ve got this, and you. Now, let’s put him behind us. I don’t remember the last time I shut everything out and just relaxed. Do that with me now.”
“You can’t shut everything out with Enzo missing.”
“I have people looking for him and they know how to reach me. Let’s take a time-out, Ella.” He links the fingers of both our hands together. “Let’s go into the bedroom, get naked, have lots of sex, and I’ll talk you into a Marvel movie binge. Iron Man. The Avengers. Thor.” He starts walking backward, leading me around the table.
“Superheroes?” I ask, a bit of my tension easing.
“What’s wrong with superheroes?”
“Nothing,” I say, deciding to embrace being “lucky” with Kayden while I still can. “Nothing at all.”
“Good. Then The Avengers it is.” He scoops me up and starts walking to the bedroom, once again carrying me, and I know it’s his way of carrying me beyond this place and time.
But he’s not a superhero. He can die, and I won’t let that happen. Not because of me.