Demand (Careless Whispers #2)(42)

“We’ve known that for a while, with my flashbacks.”

“And I’ve had this on my mind for a while,” he concurs. “When Gallo dragged you into the limelight today, it drove home what I knew needed to be addressed. Waiting for a hatchet to fall doesn’t work in our favor.”

“And that hatchet is Niccolo.”

“We don’t know who might think you have the necklace and be looking for you. We have to establish that you don’t have it. We have to take control—not allow it to be taken from us by Niccolo, or anyone else.”

“How do we establish that I don’t have the necklace, when I have amnesia?”

“We go public, starting with tonight. Let Niccolo find us—and when he does, he’ll call me.”

“And he’ll demand you hand me over to him, and probably try to beat the location out of me. And then he’ll be dead because I’ll kill him, and maybe life will be good.”

He cups my face. “Easy, sweetheart. Niccolo will never touch you. I won’t let that happen. I know you know that.”

“I won’t let that happen.”

He takes my hand. “We won’t let it happen. And Niccolo’s a businessman. He wants the power that necklace represents, but so do a long list of others, and he doesn’t want them to get it over himself. He’ll negotiate in order to be the insider when your memory returns—and the bottom line here is that he’ll tell us who you are. So we wipe out the unknowns and do just what I said: claim control.”

A million questions come to my mind, but I settle on the one that makes all of the others unnecessary. “If you really think this is the right move, then why not just go to Niccolo directly?”

“For the same reason that I need real proof that he killed Elizabeth and Kevin, before I kill him. Long before my time, The Underground was at war with the Italian and French mobs. The end result was an uneasy truce where all of us mutually respect each other’s business. If he thinks that I knew you were in that alleyway waiting for him, and I hid you, it could mean war. So we have to rely on the truth. I found you. I thought you were in the crossfire, and you have amnesia.”

“But won’t he be pissed that you were there for the necklace?”

“I’m a Hunter, and respecting that is respecting my business. I might not be willing to work for him, but he’ll easily believe that I’m chasing that necklace, and not for a client. I’ll eventually negotiate to find it for him, which, considering The Underground doesn’t work for him, will feel like a big win to him.”

“You say he’ll negotiate to be inside when I get my memory back, but I thought you didn’t want him to have the necklace?”

“We aren’t giving him the necklace. He’ll tell us who you are, and Nathan believes that will trigger your memories. We’ll locate the necklace, return it to the British government, and this will be over.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

“Being in control is always easier than sitting and waiting. But this is your decision, Ella. I’m not forcing you, nor will I ever force you, to do anything. So: do we play it safe and go back to the castle? Or do we make a public statement starting with this party?”

“There is no choice here,” I say.

“There is always a choice.”

“No. There isn’t. I can’t hide in a castle tower like Rapunzel and expect this to go away. And even if I could, anyone close to me could get hurt if I try and fail. I have to do this. I need to make me the target, not someone else.”

“We’re not on the same page here, Ella, if you think I’m trying to make you a target. You already are one. We’re going to get the bull’s-eye off of you.”

“I want the bull’s-eye off everyone else. I can’t live with putting anyone else in danger. But you should have talked to me about this the minute you considered taking me to the party!”

“I didn’t want Niccolo to have time to get inside your head and control you before we could even get here.”

“So you did, instead?”

“I knew you’d get to a yes eventually, so why give you more hours to worry, when all you do right now is worry?” He doesn’t wait for a reply. “Do you trust me?”

“I did.”

“Do you trust me?”

“Maybe I shouldn’t.”

“Ella—”

I sigh. “Yes. Beyond obvious reason right now, I do, and you clearly believe this is the right decision.”

“I do. I absolutely believe this is a path to the freedom and the answers we both crave.”

“And if Niccolo’s people try to grab me?”

“Once we make a public showing, with you wearing that bracelet, there are politics in play. You don’t touch The Hawk’s woman. If he does every division of The Underground, every hacker, every ex-mercenary, everyone who is anyone, will be his enemies, and believe me, Ella, no one, especially Niccolo, wants that. This makes you safer than you’ve ever been. The only reason I haven’t done it before is that it means you aren’t just with me. You’re with The Underground.”

“You are The Underground,” I say, thinking of what Marabella had revealed about Elizabeth today. “And why would you even want me by your side if I couldn’t accept that and all that comes with it?”