Demand Read online

  Shaking off the thought, I test my phone, which somehow still works, and I stick it and my gun in my now semidry purse. Shoving the strap over my head and across my chest, I step into the cozy bedroom of brown and cream with high ceilings and bring the massive bed, which I hope to continue to share with Kayden, into view. Memories and emotions created in this room stir inside me, only to be muted by the sound of the alarm going off inside the security closet, by the fireplace.

  Startled, I go to the closet and punch the button by the mantel to enter, then sit down at the desk built into the wall to quickly scan the exterior castle’s camera footage, but I find nothing obvious. Certain the alarm wasn’t an error, I waste no time making my way out of the bedroom, down the hall and winding tower steps, to the arched wooden door separating our tower from the rest of the castle. Punching the button on the wall next to the door, I watch it lift, and before it’s even at the halfway point I’m under it, exiting to the castle’s center foyer. I expect to find commotion filling the room, and my heart falls when I discover I am alone—and all remnants of Enzo’s emergency, including the carpet he’d bled on, are missing.

  Fearing the worst, I ignore the east tower where Adriel, Marabella, and Giada live, and dash toward the stone stairwell leading to the central tower, where most of The Underground business takes place. I’m two steps from the top when the sound of the east wing’s door begins to hum. I whirl around and watch Giada and Adriel enter the foyer below, Adriel’s big, stocky body dwarfing her petite frame. Both seem to be scowling.

  “Adriel, stop walking,” Giada demands, her dark wavy hair bouncing around her face. “Stop and talk to me.” He keeps walking, but she stays with him. “You said you were done with The Underground.” She switches to Italian, as if that might make him listen.

  Seeming to be at his wits’ end, Adriel turns to face off with her, and I have a bad feeling that his choice of all black isn’t about hiding blood. It’s about fighting. It’s about the cartel and war.

  “Ella.”

  At the sound of Kayden’s voice, I turn to find him standing just at the top of the stairs, and he’s also wearing black jeans and a black T-shirt, with a double shoulder holster, the attire seeming to confirm my concern. This is war.

  “What’s happening?” I ask, hurrying to the landing to join him, one main worry overtaking all else. “Please tell me Enzo’s not dead.”

  “He’s alive, thanks to you.” Kayden motions down the hallway to his right. “We moved him to a bedroom and Nathan’s working to stabilize him.”

  “If he’s not stable, why was he moved?”

  “Gallo triggered the alarms, snooping around outside the gates. He can’t get onto the grounds, but the timing is of enough concern that we can’t ignore it.”

  “Did he see something when you were rescuing Enzo?”

  “Nothing that we’re aware of. But where Gallo is concerned anything is possible.”

  “Damn you, Adriel!” Giada yells on a sob, and I twist around to watch her march toward the east tower while Adriel walks toward us.

  “It’s time that girl is relocated,” Kayden murmurs irritably. “No matter how Adriel feels about it.”

  I turn back to him. “She’s afraid he’s going to fight and die, like Kevin, her father, and maybe Enzo. Has the cartel found us?”

  “If things go as planned, we won’t be fighting.”

  “Considering you’re heavily armed, I’m not comforted. What does that mean?”

  “You’re safe here now. I contacted the cartel and headed off an attack.”

  “You did what?”

  “I don’t do the sitting-duck routine well, sweetheart. In fact, I don’t do it at all. And as it turns out, Raul’s brother was trying to challenge his role as king. Raul now wants to share an expensive bottle of tequila with me tonight, to celebrate his brother’s death.”

  “No. No, this is a setup. This is a trick. You’ll get there and he will kill you. Tell me you aren’t considering this.”

  “We confirmed the rift between him and his brother. This is a good gamble.”

  “Gambling is for Vegas, not your life. Do a virtual toast with the man and forget the tequila already.”

  “It’s not that simple, sweetheart. Nothing with these people ever is.”

  “Again, what does that mean? I’m pulling teeth here! Just tell me everything. I need to know everything, Kayden.”

  “The way Raul sees things, we’ve disrespected him by trying to steal from him.”

  “But you didn’t try to steal from him. You told Enzo to find the painting and report the location to his client. Not take it.”

  “Whether Enzo followed orders or not, he is my man, my Hunter, and by default, I’m responsible for his actions. I now owe Raul a favor.”

  “You killed his enemy brother.”

  “Which many of the cartel will see as grounds for war, even if he secretly doesn’t.”

  “What does he want from you?”

  “He won’t disclose the details over the phone.”

  “Because he can’t kill you over the phone.”

  “That’s not how this works. You need to understand that the cartels, like the mob, have rules. This is about honor to them.”

  “Honor among criminals? Seriously?”

  “As hard to digest as that is, honor is everything to them.”

  “It scares me that you know that.”

  His eyes glint hard and he steps closer to me, anger crackling off of him. “You want more truth? Well, here it is. It should comfort you that I know about their rules and honor, because if I disrespect them, they will kill my Hunters. More truth: I am a part of that honor circle. Without hesitation, if the mobs or the cartels disrespect me, I will not hesitate to kill any one of the criminal asses reporting to them, leaving the world a better place. And if I don’t act that decisively, and they don’t fear me, I can no longer protect anyone.”

  “You’re testing me, to see if I can handle this world, can handle this life. I told you: yes. But do not lie to me, directly or indirectly.”

  “You held a gun on me, Ella,” he says, the anger he had not shown in the shower now front and center.

  “But I didn’t shoot you,” I say, repeating his words.

  “And that means what?”

  “It means that you shook my trust, but you didn’t destroy it.”

  He snags my hip and pulls me to him. “I did not lie to you.”

  Like lightning, my anger shifts. “Tell me later,” I say, my throat thickening. “After you cancel this meeting.”

  “You just said you can handle this, as long as you have the truth. So here is the absolute truth. There will be times I walk out of the door that are high risk. Saving Enzo was high risk. Meeting Raul Martinez is not. He wants something from me. If I’m dead, I can’t give it to him.”

  “When it’s high risk, will you say it’s high risk?”

  “Will you accept that it is, without doing what you’re doing right now?”

  “Yes. I will. Unless it’s on a night I tried to stop one of your men from bleeding to death.”

  “Fair enough. Then I will tell you.”

  “Swear to me.”

  “I do.”

  “How is a cartel even in Italy?”

  “They’re the mafia’s source of drug distribution.”

  “Niccolo’s source of drug distribution,” I say of the mob boss, and the man we both think I know far too intimately. “He owns this city.”

  “But he doesn’t own us. The Underground is far more powerful than you understand right now.”

  “You mean you are.”

  “Yes. And I didn’t get that way by being stupid or nice.”

  “Is Adriel going with you?”

  “Yes.”

  “You know that once he’s back in The Underground, he’s not getting out.”

  “His father and Enzo’s were best friends. I can’t keep him out of this.”

  “I’m not suggesting th
at you do. I’m just making sure that beyond the moment, this is what you want.”

  He says something that’s swallowed by a sudden series of fast, loud beeps. “What was that?”

  “A warning that someone breached the fence,” Kayden says, stepping around me and starting down the stairs.

  I follow him, discovering that Adriel is now at the bottom of the stairs and a thirty-something man with long dark hair tied at his nape has joined him. “Were you followed inside the gates?” Kayden asks, stopping in front of the stranger.

  “This is me you’re talking to,” the man says as I step to Kayden’s side. “In five years, when have I ever been careless?”

  “It’s Gallo,” Matteo calls out from the top of the stairs, diving frustrated fingers through his wavy brown hair on his way to us. “And he’s making a beeline for the porch.”

  “There’s no way he followed me in,” the stranger reiterates.

  “He’s right,” Matteo confirms, joining us and placing Kayden and Adriel in profile. “I was watching the security feed when Carlo and his team entered,” he said, clearly naming the stranger. “No one slipped in with them,” he adds.

  “Then how the hell did he get in?” Kayden asks.

  “We’re secure,” Matteo insists.

  “Are we in the same fucking universe here?” the man I now know as Carlo asks. “Because in mine, Gallo is in the gate, and we are not fucking secure.”

  “Do you ever get tired of being a little bitch?” Matteo surprises me by snapping. “He’d need a passcode for the gate, and since Gallo doesn’t even play video games, he’d have to have hired someone to hack the system.”

  “I’m confused,” I dare to interject. “Isn’t there a way for visitors to enter the property? Otherwise, how did Gallo get to the door the night Giada was drunk and on the front porch?”

  Kayden glances down at me. “She claims he must have snuck in behind her.” He eyes Adriel. “And to Ella’s point, if I find out she let Gallo in—”

  A sudden incessant ringing of the doorbell begins and Gallo shouts, “Kayden, open up!”

  “Fuck me,” Kayden curses, scrubbing his jaw.

  “He’s the little bitch,” Carlo says. Proving that his five years of service has come with intimate knowledge of Kayden’s relationships, he asks, “Can you call his boss?”

  “Kayden!” Gallo shouts again, abandoning the doorbell to pound on the door.

  “I’m not owing the police chief another favor over Gallo,” Kayden says.

  More shouting and knocking ensues.

  “Gallo’s going to follow us when we leave,” Adriel warns.

  I have no idea why, but suddenly Carlo’s piercing green eyes are locked on mine, and there is something dark and dangerous in his stare, something that sends a shiver down my spine.

  “You’re Ella,” he states, and before I can confirm, he adds, “You saved Enzo.” His tone is flat, void of emotion, as if it’s an observation rather than a celebration.

  But whatever it is to him, it’s gut-wrenching to me. “I bought him time,” I say, and I swear I can almost feel the blood that must be on my skin beneath my clothes. “I pray Nathan can save him.”

  “Carlo,” Kayden says, dragging the man’s attention from me to him. “I’m going to ride with you and your men.” Shifting his gaze to Adriel, Kayden directs him, “You’ll drive the F-TYPE that I favor and lure Gallo in the wrong direction. Then circle back here and hold down the castle so Matteo and Nathan can focus on their jobs.”

  Adriel’s expression hardens. “You know I want in on this. And you need a man on your left and right—not just Carlo.”

  “Get your fucking sister out of here,” Kayden states, making it clear that he heard what I said to him and actually listened. “Then, and only then, can you exit retirement. Until then, you tend your store.”

  Adriel’s eyes flash with fury, but he wordlessly drops back from the group, disappearing in the direction of the garage.

  “Kayden!” Gallo shouts. “Open the fuck up.”

  Kayden gives Carlo a two-finger wave. “Go get your men ready.”

  Carlo turns away, but not before I catch the gleam of satisfaction in his eyes, and the word dangerous comes to mind again.

  “I have to go,” Kayden says, facing me. “Raul’s a vicious, paranoid bastard, and when you make those kinds of people uneasy, someone ends up dead.”

  “You know this kingpin well enough to know that about him?” I ask, still trying to get a grip on the politics of this, and really not sure how I feel about it all.

  “I know the police chief’s favorite beer, too, sweetheart,” he says, and before I know his intent I’m in his arms, his mouth slanting over mine, his tongue doing a deep, passionate stroke before he releases me, and without a word he turns away and starts walking.

  “Fuck,” Matteo curses, and I whirl around to face him.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Note the silence,” he says, holding out his arms. “Gallo heard the garage door open, and he’s standing in the middle of the driveway, clearly intending to stop Kayden from leaving.”

  While a paranoid cartel leader with an impatient trigger finger waits for him. I can’t do nothing, and there is no way that doing something won’t have consequences.

  In what’s sure to be a defining moment in my life, I walk toward the front door and unlock it.

  two

  “No, Ella,” Matteo shouts, lunging in my direction, but I gamble that he won’t risk a confrontation with Gallo by following me outside.

  I step onto the porch and shut the door behind me. The lawn is alight thanks to the motion detectors Gallo has obviously triggered, but I don’t seem to be able to locate him. Hurrying across the porch and directly into a gust of air that reminds me a hoodie is not a coat, I scan for Gallo and suck in a breath as the wind punishes me for wearing just a hoodie in February. It’s not until I’m down the steps and on the circular drive that I spy Gallo to the left, just in front of the garage, and thankfully the door is now shut. “Detective!” I shout urgently, running toward him. “Detective!”

  He faces me, another gust of wind lifting his trench coat, and even his suit beneath is flapping around. I hug myself and run toward him, trying to convince him he needs to do the same, and it works. He jogs forward to meet me, away from the garage, and the instant I am in front of him, his hands come down on my shoulders. “Are you all right, Eleana?”

  “Yes. Of course.” I resist the urge to back away from his touch for fear it will shift his attention back to the garage and delay Kayden’s departure. “It’s just—”

  “Is Giada okay?”

  “Giada?” I blink in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

  The garage door opens behind him, and he releases me, turning toward it at the same moment that Kayden’s ice-blue F-TYPE Jag exits the castle, immediately followed by a black sedan and several motorcycles. Gallo murmurs something fierce in Italian, scrubbing his perpetual two-day stubble before fixing me in a fierce glower. “Did you distract me on purpose?”

  “Distract you from what?” I ask, because what else am I supposed to say?

  “Don’t play coy with me, little one,” he warns, closing the space between us to tower over me, taller and broader than I remember but just as cranky as ever. “We both know he was in one of those cars you helped to escape.”

  “Since when did driving out of your own garage become escaping?” This time I do take a step backward.

  “My badge and I were at his door and he knew it.”

  “The problem with you stalking him is that you’re always at his door, in one way, shape, or form.”

  “Stalking him?” he repeats. “He really is in your head now, isn’t he? I came to your rescue.”

  Now he’s making me angry. “You’re here because it’s Kayden’s home.” I fold my arms in front of me. “He’s had to leave. He asked me to talk to you.”

  “Kayden asked you to talk to me,” he repe
ats dryly. “Forgive me if I’m not buying the swampland you’re selling. And since when did you become an expert on his business?”

  “I’m pretty sure neither one of us are experts on his business.”

  “Indeed, and since he wants to keep it that way, this conversation is perfect timing, isn’t it?” He doesn’t give those words time to sting, moving on with, “You might not be frank with me, but others have been. Giada told me there’s trouble in the castle tonight. I need to see her.”

  More dread fills me, followed by a hot spike of anger at Giada, who I’m now certain gave him the code to the gate. I force myself to contain my fury. “Giada,” I say, thinking, plotting as I speak, “is trying to make you fight her schoolgirl battles for her. Bottom line, she slept with one of Kayden’s Hunters and her brother found out. The Hunter left and Kayden followed him to ensure this isn’t going to become a problem.”

  “What Hunter?”

  “I’m not going to tell you that.”

  His lips thin. “Of course you aren’t. I’ll need to talk to Giada to confirm your story. I’m certain you understand my duty to ensure she’s safe.”

  “Did she ever tell you she wasn’t okay?”

  “I need to talk to her. Bring her outside.” A cold breeze rips over us and I hug myself, prompting him to add, “Or invite me inside, where it’s warm.”

  “This is a family drama that doesn’t require your intervention.”

  “Half of what we do is family drama.” He reaches into his pocket. “I’ll call her and tell her to come outside.”

  This announcement jolts me, shifting my anger from Giada to him. “You want revenge against Kayden. Using a young, confused girl for that goal makes you a monster. A monster, Detective. Is that what the woman you lost would want you to be?”