Surrender (Careless Whispers #3)(27)

“You hid the necklace from him?” Adriel asks.

“I hid it from everyone,” I say. “I didn’t know why it was important or what it was worth, but I knew at least one person had died because of it. I had to know why, before I knew what to do with it.”

Adriel narrows his gaze one me. “And did you find out?”

“I don’t know that answer yet,” I say.

He studies me more intensely. “Did you offer it to Niccolo to get away from Neuville?”

“I want to say no,” I admit. “I hope I can say no at some point, but Niccolo says that I did. And I was desperate to escape, and I did come to Italy. If I did make a deal with Niccolo, I have to believe I had a plan to protect the necklace.”

“You know what I think about that?” he asks, his expression as indiscernible as his tone.

“That I suck.”

“That you’re honest,” Adriel says, “even if it’s painful, and I respect that. I’ve got your back. And I expect that our gun-wielding Lady Hawk has mine.”

There is no question the “Lady Hawk” reference is about me being Kayden’s woman, and considering all that is wrong between Kayden and me at the moment, it twists me into about twelve knots. “I do,” I promise. “I have your back.”

“We need to talk about Alessandro and Niccolo,” Kayden says.

Adriel’s gaze shoots to Kayden. “What about those two creates one sentence?”

Kayden gives him the rundown on the meeting and the ammunition Niccolo claims he has against Alessandro.

“I’m really fucking curious about what this file entails,” Adriel says, glancing at his watch. “It’s six o’clock now. So it’s supposed to be here in the next two hours.”

“And I want to be ready to act when it does, no matter what it turns out to be or not be,” Kayden says. “I’ve contacted Nathan, Matteo, Sasha, and Carlo and told them to get here for a meeting at seven. I need you to try to get Sasha out of Gallo’s bed in time to be here. I called her on a blocked line so that Gallo wouldn’t recognize the number if he was with her, and she didn’t answer.”

“Sasha has our phone numbers coded with nicknames, so that’s not a problem. I’ll get a hold of her. Before I do, though, a word of warning. The last time I talked to her, she said that now that Gallo’s suspended, he’s got nothing to focus on but hating you and fucking her. A meeting, I see. But pulling her away from entertaining him beyond that is dangerous. Do we really want to move her out of the equation?”

“She told me,” Kayden says. “And fucking Gallo from sunup to sundown is a poor waste of her talents. Just get her here for the meeting. She knows Neuville and Paris. I’ll decide the next step with Gallo from there.”

“Gallo will stalk me again if he gets the chance, but I can handle him,” I say. “But it’s Carlo who makes me very uncomfortable. Do we really need him involved?”

“He makes everyone uncomfortable,” Adriel says. “And he enjoys it.”

“Of that, I have no doubt,” I say. “But is that good?”

“Considering he makes no one as uncomfortable as he does Alessandro,” Kayden says, “it makes him a huge asset.”

“Why does he make Alessandro nervous?” I ask, surprised by this news.

“Carlo was his Adriel at one point,” Kayden explains. “They were as close as Adriel and I are, united in their rebellion against me, and Carlo got to know Alessandro’s intimate thoughts and weaknesses in ways no other person has. But as they say, there’s a fine line between hate and friendship, especially when a woman gets between them.” His phone buzzes and he fishes it out of his pocket, glancing at his text messages. “Well, this is unexpected,” he says, sticking it back in his pocket. “Marabella says that Giada wants to give me a gift of appreciation for all the time she’s lived here. And per Marabella, and this is a quote, ‘Come alone. She’s nervous enough as it is.’?”

“Giada?” Adriel says. “As is in my sister?”

“The one and only,” Kayden says, glancing at me. “I’m beginning to think alien abduction stories are true, and she’s been returned to us a different person.”

“Not aliens,” Adriel says, his gaze landing on me. “This is all you, Ella. You woke her up, and I appreciate that.”

“Let’s hope it sticks,” I say, thinking of those missing pages of the journal, praying it wasn’t her, despite really not knowing how she could have gotten it. “And for all we know, she’s going to attack Kayden. He’ll throttle her, and all will be normal in our world.”

“I’ll head on down,” Kayden says, his gaze meeting mine, and the subject of Giada seems to already be set aside. “I want you in this meeting. It’s in our War Room, but I’ll meet you in the store when I finish with Giada and we’ll go together.”

Together. That word works for me, and when I look at him, I feel a punch in my chest with the connection. I sense that he feels it too, though he doesn’t show it, but I’m not sure what that means to him at this point. “Okay. So I should go down there in about half an hour?”

“That works.” He nods, giving Adriel a quick look. “Get me Sasha.”