When it’s over, he carries me to the bed and lays me on the mattress. “Don’t move,” he orders, and then he disappears, returning with a towel. I accept it and roll to my side. He slides in behind me, his big body cradling mine. “I don’t own you, but right now I wish I did. I don’t want you to go to that meeting.”
I rotate to face him, my hand going to his face, the torment in his eyes stealing my breath. “Kace,” I whisper.
“I love you,” he says. “I’m asking you not to go.”
“I don’t want you to go, either. Can’t we just do it together? Live or die together?”
His lashes lower and his expression is all stark lines and shadows. His reaction hurts me. “I won’t go,” I promise.
His lashes lift and the sea of relief I find in his blue eyes undoes me. He undoes me. Just as he completes me. And I do not regret my promise at all. At least not now, but some part of me fears I will, sooner rather than later.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
I fall asleep with Kace holding me and wake to him kissing my neck. “Aria, baby.”
My lips curve and I decide I want to wake up every day of the rest of my life with this man calling me baby. I roll over, cozy in a warm, dim room with the fire crackling in the corner to find him deliciously shirtless and lying next to me. “What time is it?”
“Seven. We need to get up and try to adjust to Rome time. Kayden and Ella want us to go to dinner with them.”
I swear my stomach growls with the idea and I raise up on an elbow. “Pasta?”
He laughs. “Yes. Pasta.”
“Then yes to dinner as long as I have time to shower.”
“You do. We’re meeting them downstairs at eight.”
Turns out an hour is plenty of time to shower, spend some naughty naked time under the hot water, and get dressed. For me, that’s black jeans and a long-sleeved maroon sweater. For Kace it’s distressed jeans and a black sweater with biker boots. He doesn’t shave and turns out that a full two days’ stubble looks really ruggedly good on him.
By the time we’ve grabbed our coats and headed downstairs, the effects of the drugs are officially gone, and I’m feeling like myself again, riding the high of being in Italy, proud of myself for stepping out of the shadows. Adrian and Savage are waiting for us in the main foyer.
“Are you going with us?” I ask.
“Not this time,” Savage says. “We’re off to do some serious drinking on our own.”
“You’re safe with Kayden and Ella,” Adrian says, “especially in this neighborhood.”
“And ho, ho, ho,” Savage says, hands to his sides. “I’m not leaving until after the big reveal. So Merry early Christmas. You get to keep me a little longer.”
“Considering you saved my life, Savage,” I reply, “yes. Merry Christmas.”
Somehow this leads to Adrian telling an elf joke. A stupid elf joke. “What do call an elf that runs away from Santa’s Workshop?”
“A rebel without a clause,” Kace says.
Adrian gapes. “No one knows my stupid jokes.”
“One of the guys that toured with me for years had about a million,” Kace says. “I know them all.”
Adrian bristles indignantly. “Doubtful. I have plenty.”
“Try me,” Kace says and Adrian does. Three jokes, three punchlines Kace knows.
Watching them, I’m reminded of Sara’s words once again: he’s just a man. Kace is a superstar who could be arrogant and demanding. Instead, he’s down to earth and real with people. I love this about him and cherish these moments when there is no war before us. There is just life and laughter.
In fact, I’m laughing when Kayden and Ella join us and it’s not long before Kace and I are strolling the brick streets with Kayden and Ella, the brisk night air not too chilly, and actually quite perfect. Everything about living again is perfect. At some point, we break into pairs, with me and Ella walking alone, just in front of Kace and Kayden.
“Who won the battle over you going to the meeting?” she asks.
“Him,” I say, casting her a sideways look, “but I made him work for it.”
She laughs. “I bet you did, but it’s natural that he worries about you. I’ll teach you some self-defense moves tomorrow. Maybe he’ll change his mind.”
I cave to my curiosity and ask, “Were you really in the CIA?”
“I was. So was my father. He trained me from a very young age, much to my mother’s distress. She wanted me to be a ballerina and I was. In between drills with my father, I earned an audition to Julliard.”
“And?”
“And one day I was home with my parents when two men burst in. I killed two of them and saved my mother, but not before they shot my father. And killed him.”
“My God, Ella.”
“It’s not so unlike you running to another country in the middle of the night.”
“I didn’t see my father die like you did.”
“But the not knowing is painful. I spent a big portion of my life hunting for answers to why my father died and who killed him.”
“Did you find them?”
“With Kayden’s help, I did. And yes, I killed them.” She squeezes my arm. “We aren’t so different.”
“No,” I concur. “I suppose we’re not and I’d certainly kill whoever killed my father if I had the chance.”
“I’ll teach you how,” she promises, and she’s not joking.
And oddly, considering we’re talking about killing people, it’s another moment when I realize that my circle of friends is growing and I can almost feel my life blossoming into all that it should have been and will be.
The restaurant is a cozy little place and we’re in a private room with a view of the busy streets below, people milling about. We drink wine and talk treasure hunting and on the surface, The Underground seems to mimic the business Gio and I operated before all this exploded around us. But beneath the surface, I can tell there is much more to Kayden and Ella’s world. “What is The Underground, really?” I ask.
Kayden’s eyes narrow. “We hunt for treasures.”
“What kind of treasures?”
“Hard to locate treasures,” Kayden replies. “Objects, information, people, and we do so in high stakes, dangerous circumstances.”
“And the Blue Owls?” Kace asks, and I know he’s thinking of Gio. I sure am.
“Steal their treasures from anyone and everyone,” Ella says. “and when you cross the wrong people, you start wars and get people killed. Sometimes they even kill to get what they want.”
“And the formula is worth killing for,” I say, filling in the blanks. “Gio should never have gone home. He should have left this alone.”
Kace hands me my wine glass. “And then you might still be hiding.”