Surrender (Careless Whispers #3)(26)

“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about an awkward silence,” Kayden says dryly.

I almost laugh, and probably would if there wasn’t a throbbing vein at Adriel’s temple I’m pretty sure would burst if I did. “CIA is a good guess,” I say, giving him a direct answer, crossing to stand on the opposite side of the island.

He scowls. “A good guess? How do you make a ‘good guess’ you’re in the fucking CIA?”

“I still have amnesia, Adriel. That isn’t fake.”

“Start at the beginning,” Kayden says, appearing at the end of the island between us, “back in San Francisco. With David.”

“The man you were traveling with that we can’t locate,” Adriel clarifies.

“Yes,” I confirm, “but I’m not sure David is where this originated. The PI who visited us today revealed what I had already started to piece together. My father was a CIA agent and somehow, in some way, I believe that’s relevant to all of this.”

“Not just an agent,” Kayden supplies. “A high-level, top-secret operative.”

“How do you think he’s involved?” Adriel asks.

“Relevant,” I correct. “Not involved. He was assassinated when I was a teenager.”

“Assassinated is a powerful word,” Adriel states. “It implies a hit.”

“It was a hit,” I say, “complete with men in black and guns, though the agency never officially called it that or gave us an answer.”

“It happened at Ella’s family home while she was there,” Kayden supplies. “Ella killed them before they escaped.”

Adriel looks at him and then gives me a skeptical look. “Didn’t you just say you were a teenager then? And since we’re talking CIA, I assume they were professional assassins?”

“I was already an expert marksman, which I doubt they expected from a teenager,” I explain. “And it was my father’s last wish.”

“For you to kill them,” Adriel says, sounding a little incredulous. “As a teenager.”

“Yes. He lay there in his own blood and told me to kill them, and he knew I could. He’d been training me since I was old enough to hold a gun and fight.”

Adriel’s eyes narrow on me. “Was he grooming you to be an agent?”

“No,” I say, ice sliding down my spine with the certainty that comes with my reply. “He was grooming me for the day they came for him or for us because of him.” I fold my arms in front of me and look at Kayden, speaking to him. “I think I was looking into his murder. I don’t know why I chose the present day, so many years after my father died, but whatever the case,” I look between them, “I pissed off the agency, and the result was me taking this schoolteacher job and lying low. But I also don’t know if that was my own choice or the agency trying to get me off the wrong radars.”

“If you were lying low, how did you get into this?” Adriel asks. “It sounds more like you were undercover, to me.”

“Maybe,” I say, my brow furrowing. “But if I was CIA and pursuing the necklace—”

“The necklace?” Adriel asks, his tone sharpening again, his gaze shifting to Kayden. “She knows about the necklace and you didn’t tell me.”

“We’re telling you now,” Kayden states. “Only you, until we decide otherwise.” And just that easily he ends the subject, glancing at me. “Tell him how you got the necklace.”

“David gave it to me as an engagement gift—which makes the idea of me being undercover seem illogical. If I were after the necklace, I wouldn’t have carried it to Europe and risked losing it. But it also seems completely illogical to think that I have a connection to the CIA and just fell into something this big.”

“How did you go from eloping to knowing Neuville and Niccolo?” Adriel asks.

I give him the rundown, including my history with David, what happened at the hotel, and even Neuville showing up, covering pretty much everything. “I didn’t know who Neuville was, beyond being a powerful French businessman.”

“So you were intimately involved with Neuville,” Adriel says, the statement hitting me in every wrong way possible.

My gaze jerks to his and I snap, “I fucked him or I died, so yes. I was intimately involved with him right up until the point that I held a gun on him in front of his people, and ensured he will never fucking stop coming for me.”

“Easy, Ella,” Adriel says, holding up his hands. “I was just trying to understand the dynamics.”

“The dynamics?” I ask. “The dynamics are—”

“You don’t need to do this, Ella,” Kayden says softly, his voice somehow managing to deliver a cool caress I feel in every hot, angry burning nerve ending in my body, of which there are many.

“He’s right,” Adriel states, his hands pressing to the counter. “I get it. Sasha’s told me about his appetites. He needs to pay.”

“He needs to do more than pay,” I say. “He needs to die—but I’m fully aware of the concerns about whoever takes over being worse.”

“Do you remember his second-in-command at all?” Kayden asks.

I shake my head. “No. I know his bodyguard, and I’ve remembered enough in the last few hours to know that he didn’t accidentally meet me—not that we really thought that was a possibility. I also think he planned to kill me when he got the necklace, but changed his mind. He decided he wanted two possessions for the price of one.”