seventeen

Kayden answers my silent reply by cupping the back of my head and kissing me hard and fast before wrapping my hand in his and leading me to the exit. We step outside and I shiver with the night that has turned colder, and Kayden responds, cocooning me in the warmth and shelter of his body, but I think that it’s him who needs shelter.

We fall into easy steps together, silence settling between us in that comfortable way it had over dinner last night. Blocks pass, and even with the absence of conversation, I can feel the heaviness of his thoughts, but I also believe he just needs me to be with him. I know this, and I don’t know why but I have this sense of togetherness with him that, beyond the emptiness of my past, I do not believe I have had before in my life. Even if I have, what matters is this man, and having it with him.

His cell phone rings, and for some reason, the sound fills me with dread. Without his pace faltering or his arm moving from my shoulders, he digs it from his pocket, answering the call and listening a moment before replying in Italian. It’s a quick, terse exchange that ends when we reach the entrance to the castle, his expression unreadable as he releases me to slide the phone back into his pocket and punch in a code to open the gate.

“Two-seven-two-seven,” he says, giving me the gate code, and I remove my phone from my purse and type it into the notes.

“Got it,” I say, as we cross to the private grounds of the castle. “I’ll delete it once I get all these numbers straight in my head.”

He hits a button to close the gate and wraps his arm around mine as we begin the walk toward the front door.

“I’m not trying to be nosy, but please just tell me that call wasn’t bad news.”

“You aren’t being nosy. You’re being concerned about one of my men, and that will never upset me. Matteo pinged Enzo’s phone and hacked his email. There’s been no activity in twelve hours.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“If you don’t want to be found, you go radio silent. It could be a choice, but it still means he’s in trouble.”

“You didn’t get to tell me what the job was. Can you? Will you?”

He hesitates. “Recovering a stolen piece of art.”

“You didn’t seem to want to tell me that, but it sounds like a reasonable job. Why didn’t you want him to take it?”

“Because the man who stole it has connections to a drug cartel. I finally agreed that he could commission the hunt, on the condition that he do nothing but find the painting and report the location to the client, without recovering it.”

“You think he tried to recover it.”

“He’s young, and as most young men do, he thinks he’s immortal. So yes. That’s what I think.”

A drop of rain hits my nose, and I stupidly look up to be splattered in the face. “Come on,” he says, grabbing my hand as we launch into a run and rush up the castle steps, reaching the overhang just in time to avoid a downpour.

“This is a crazy amount of rain,” I say, wiping off my coat. “You’d think it was rainy season in Paris.” I go still, and Kayden arches a brow. “Paris,” I whisper. “Kayden, I know Paris.”

“During rainy season,” he adds. “Matteo did a broad sweep for the name Ella, but I’ll have him hyper-focus on Paris. Do you remember anything else?”

“Of course not. Why would I make this easy on us? I don’t even know where that comment came from.”

“It’s a seed that might grow, and that’s better than no seed at all.” He snags my fingers. “Come here. I want to teach you how to get in the door.”

“I need a lesson?” I ask, letting him put me between him and the door. “Is it that complicated?”

“Not complicated, but there is a specific process or you’ll set off the alarms.” He taps the panel by the door. “First the code.” He keys it in. “Two-seven-one-one.” He holds up a key. “Then the lock. If you do it the opposite way, it won’t work.”

“And the alarm sounds.”

“Exactly.” He unlocks the door and flattens the key into my hand, curling my fingers around it. “That’s yours. You and I are the only two people who have access to enter through this door. Don’t tell anyone the codes and don’t let anyone use your key.”

“Not even the people who live in the castle?”

“That’s right. This way, if one tower is breached, the others aren’t.”

“You don’t trust Adriel or Giada.”

“Trust isn’t high on my list, and I don’t like people in my private space.”

The significance of that statement being his bringing me to his tower immediately, and my oversight earlier today. “Then I should tell you that I let Giada hang out with me in our tower. I didn’t let her go anywhere but the living room.”

His eyes glint steel. “I don’t want her there.”

“Why, Kayden? She’s just a young girl.”

“I don’t always have a reason, just a gut feeling, and they never fail me.” He changes the subject, making it clear he doesn’t want to talk about Giada. “Let’s go to bed.” He pauses and softens his voice. “Together.”

Together. It is a word I do not believe he knows well, but he offers it to me, the certainty warming me in places beyond my skin. “Together,” I repeat, sealing what feels like a deal.

The flecks of deeper blue in his eyes tell me that he is pleased with my reply, and as he had in the bar, he reaches around me and opens the door. Nervous energy spikes through me and I enter the castle; my feet carry me to the center of the foyer, where my gaze lands on the center tower steps. I swallow a knot in my throat at the knowledge that death occupies the rooms above. I wonder if Elizabeth felt safe here. I wonder if Kayden thought he could protect her. I wonder if he even knew that at that stage of his career, with Kevin still alive, he needed to protect her. And I wonder if this place is haunted by ghosts, or just the heartache of loss.

Kayden steps to my side, his gaze following mine. “We lived in that tower together for all of three months before they were slaughtered there like animals, which is why I hate every inch of it. I kept it sealed for three years.”

I shiver at the words “slaughtered like animals” and I turn to him. “You have no idea who did it?”

“No,” he says, scrubbing a hand through his hair. “But if it had been about me, they would have come for me, too, and believe me, I wish they had.”

“If not about you, then Kevin?”

“It had to have been about something he was involved with, and Elizabeth just happened to be here when they came to kill him. She wasn’t a Hunter. She was a fashion designer by trade, who made me feel like my life was a little more normal. I met her at a retail store, looking for a gift for Marabella.”

“She gave you an escape from this world.”

“She hated The Underground and I pulled back from it because of that.” He hardens his voice to pure steel. “You need to know that won’t happen again. Had I been more involved with what Kevin was doing, I might have stopped it from happening. And so we’re clear: not only do I hate that fucking tower, I hate your being in it. Let’s go upstairs.” He walks to the door dividing the main foyer from our tower and punches in the code.

I hesitate, unmoving in the aftermath of his obvious anger. But it is not at me, though I have obviously stirred to life demons he hasn’t fully restrained. And while I am not sure what that means for us long term, I do know he needs someone to anchor him to the present and drive away the past, if only for tonight.

Crossing to stand next to him, I dare to link my elbow with his and say, “I hate that tower, too.”

He disengages our arms and wraps his around my neck and brings my chest to his, his breath a warm tease on my lips. “That was the right thing to say,” he declares, his mouth slanting over mine for a quick, deep kiss, the taste of his lingering anger spiking my taste buds and then fading as he releases me and leads me across the threshold to our tower. We pause just on the other side, and when he hits a button to close our door I have this sense of us being sealed in our own private world, at least for the rest of this night.