Gallo smirks and focuses on me. “I thought you’d like to know the results of your fingerprint search.”
Nerves attack me from all directions, and I can’t seem to form words. Fortunately, Kayden has no such problem. “So you tracked her down on our date at nearly midnight. Ever heard of a phone?”
“A date after being arrested,” he gibes. “At least you have something to talk about.” He glances between us. “Why don’t we find someplace to sit down and talk? Unless you’d both rather invite me to the castle. Or I can pick up Eleana in the morning and we can chat at the station.”
Eleana. Is that sarcasm, or confirmation of Matteo’s success? My heart jackhammers with fear, but Kayden is oh so cool. “We aren’t going to the station, and I ran out of invitations to the castle. Lucky for you we’re standing next to a twenty-four-hour coffee shop. And since you were obviously following either me or Eleana, or both, and know we just came from a bar, let me preface your disappointment. I don’t do drunk and stupid, so don’t count on this going anywhere.”
It’s then that I realize I might have smelled tequila on Kayden, but he’s so far from drunk, I’d be surprised if he had more than one shot. Adriel just used that to get me here, and I have the weirdest idea that he’s the one who told Gallo where to find us. Which is just me being crazy paranoid again, considering he warned us of his approach. Isn’t it?
Gallo gives us a deadpan look. “Let’s go inside.”
“Is that an order?” Kayden challenges. “Do you want to make this official? Should we call our attorney? Or perhaps your boss?”
Gallo bristles and fixes Kayden in a hateful stare. “We’re going to do this one way or another.”
“Yes,” Kayden agrees. “We are, but with two different agendas.”
I have no idea what that means, but Kayden urges me in front of him, placing himself between me and Gallo, and I have the sense that’s what he intends to do this entire encounter. I hurry to the door, feeling like I have two predators at my back about to go for each other’s throats. Kayden quickly joins me at the door, holding it open to allow me to enter the quaint little coffee shop, with a pair of large black chairs in one corner and a cluster of tables here and there. He indicates the largest of the quaint tables to our left, his hand on the small of my back as we travel in that direction.
Once there, I sit down facing the large window, the lights of the active street, where I’d rather be right about now, twinkling beyond the glass. Kayden claims the seat next to me, his arm resting protectively on the back of my chair. For extra measure, I pull my coat around myself, huddling into it rather than making an effort to remove it, which might suggest I’m willing to stay a while. Gallo isn’t about to make this easy on me, placing me in the spotlight of those brutal gray eyes as he sits directly across from me, but the fact that he keeps his coat on as well gives me hope this will be short, if not sweet.
“Good news,” Gallo announces, focusing solely on me. “We got a hit on your prints. As you know, your name is Rae Eleana, but I have the last name as well. It’s—”
“Ward,” Kayden supplies. “We were actually out celebrating her returned memory.”
He stares at Kayden, his look a blade of ice. “Funny. I thought you were celebrating getting out of jail,” he says, sharply shifting his attention back to me. “Just this morning you didn’t remember more than your first name.”
“I had a dream that was a trigger. My doctor said that’s normally how it happens. And some of the swelling in my brain may have gone down.” I press my lips together, having no idea where that came from, before I say something wrong.
“Interesting timing,” he says dryly. “What doctor?”
I bristle at the nosy question laced with accusation. “That’s rather personal, detective.”
He grimaces and leans closer. “What do you remember?”
“My name and that I’m from Texas. I know who my employer was, or rather ex-employer. I quit my job to travel.”
“And your parents?”
My shock and offense over his bringing up a topic that would upset me, if my file weren’t fictional, is not feigned. I hope. “Why would you go there? You have to know their loss is raw. In truth, that’s probably what I was trying to shut out with my amnesia.”
His lips press together. “I’m sorry.” He’s not convincing, but rather responding to being put in his place. “Why don’t I take you to the passport office tomorrow to get your passport replaced? I can help cut through the red tape.”
“I can handle it,” Kayden assures him. “I’m good at cutting through red tape, as you saw today. We both know I didn’t threaten you.” His arm lifts from around me and he leans forward, his powerful forearms resting on the table. “By the way. While you were trying to trump up ridiculous charges against me this afternoon, your boss begged me to work for him again.”
Gallo stands, his hands pressed to the table, his stance a threat, his glower a promise. Kayden’s lips quirk in feigned amusement. “Problem, detective?”
“You are not above the law.”
“Neither are you. Don’t let bitterness turn you into something you don’t recognize as you anymore.”
“Speaking from experience, are you?”
“Damn straight, man. Let this go.”
Gallo glares at Kayden and I hold my breath until he says, “No.” Nothing more. Just . . . no, and then he pushes off the table and heads for the door. And while he might be leaving, and my identity has been protected, dread and certainty fill my gut. He’s coming for Kayden and he won’t stop until someone ends up dead. I am left with one question. What did Kayden do to create this kind of hatred in this man?
The silence between Kayden and me is absolute as Gallo disappears into the night, my unasked question in the air, a pin about to drop. Kayden doesn’t let it fall, but neither does he face me as he speaks. “Just before Callisto—Adriel and Giada’s father—died, I aligned The Underground with the police department, trying to take us to as ethical a place as I could get us. Not an easy task when the money wasn’t what my people expected to get paid. My contact for our first job was Gallo and a woman named Cira.” He hesitates. “I fucked her. She was just a nameless escape that would be gone when the job was over. I had no idea she and Gallo were in a relationship. She didn’t tell me and there were no signs.”
“So this is all because you were with his woman?”
He looks at me, his expression taut with the promise of more to the story. Something bad. Really bad. “Gallo walked in on us. He and I fought. She left in a fit of tears and proceeded to have a car accident.”
“Oh God,” I murmur, feeling the blood run from my face. “Please tell me this doesn’t end how I think it does.”
“I wish I could. She died, and he blames me.”
“But you didn’t kill her. It was just one of those horrific things that happen in life. His anger is illogical.”
“A need for revenge is rarely logical, but too often it feels like the salve that will heal the wound.” There is deep understanding in those words that make them more a confession than a statement. “He thinks he needs it to survive.”
“Does he?” I ask, and I’m not talking about Gallo any more than he is.
“Yes. He does.”
I don’t know what to say to that, so I leave it alone. “You aren’t going to take the job you mentioned, are you?”
He laughs without humor. “No. My people would dethrone me if I went down that path again. No matter how any of us frame our hunts as honorable, it’s always about money.”
“Is it to you?”
“I have more money than I know what to do with as it is.”
“It’s about Kevin.”
“It’s about a lot of things, none of them money.”
Revenge. I think he’s just told me it’s about revenge, and I want to ask for more, but he stands and faces me, offering me his hand, and I have this sense of the gesture being his silent question. Am I still with him? Has he scared me away? Perhaps that’s why he told me the story, but it hasn’t worked. His honesty, his willingness to share what is not easy to speak about, let alone live with, has done nothing but draw me closer to the flame that is the fire in this man. I slide my palm against his and he helps me to my feet, and when our gazes meet, I see in his eyes what I know myself. My decision to stay with him is a choice, and good, bad, or ugly, I’m staying with Kayden Wilkens. We’re both destined to live with the consequences that may follow.