Demand (Careless Whispers #2)(8)

“Today is not the day I die, or the day Gallo wins.”

“Promise—” The line goes dead and my stomach knots. He’s about to negotiate with a kingpin, and considering Gallo is charging toward me, I can’t even fully digest that reality. I stuff my phone back in my pocket and step forward once again, meeting him halfway.

“We need to talk,” he announces.

“Talk about what?”

“You,” he replies, “and believe me when I say that you’re going to want to hear what I have to say.” His cell phone starts to ring in his hand. He glances at the number. “I have to take this call.” He steps around me.

Turning, I am stunned to discover he’s heading toward the gate, obviously intending to leave. “Jerk,” I whisper, certain he’s just playing a game with me, taunting me, and no doubt hoping I worry and squirm.

“Ella!”

At the sound of Matteo’s voice, I turn again to find him waving me forward. Jogging toward him, I am certain of three things. One, Gallo’s not going to stop coming at Kayden until he destroys him. Two, if he keeps digging around, he’s going to get me attention from Niccolo that could get us all killed. And three, Giada, in her immature, self-centered way, helped Gallo get dangerously close to all of us.

Suddenly furious over her careless actions, my pace quickens and I climb the porch steps two at a time, Matteo backing into the foyer to allow my reentry into the castle. “What the hell were you thinking, running out there like that?” he demands, shutting us inside and locking the door.

“Someone had to distract him, and we both know that couldn’t be you without creating more trouble. And it’s a good thing I did go out there, because now we know that Giada is the one who let Gallo onto the property.”

“That little bitch.”

I wish I could disagree with him, but right now, I can’t. “Kayden wants us to take her phone.”

“And lock her in her room,” he growls, already stalking toward her tower, while I quickly follow, shocked when he keys in the entry code by the arched wooden door.

“You have the entry code?”

“Not to Kayden’s tower.”

Which is mine, and I’m not sure why I’m relieved. “You could hack it.”

“I can,” he says. “But no one else can. I set it and I’m that good.” The door begins to lift.

I duck under the barely open door, and into the foyer of the section of the castle I’ve never visited.

Straightening, I find this tower to be identical to the one Kayden and I share, with a library directly in front of me and a huge, winding stairwell to my right that I know will lead to a top level. Matteo joins me and we start up the steps, the anger I’d felt at Giada a few minutes ago a stone in my chest that’s quickly becoming a boulder.

“What did Giada say to Gallo? And since Kayden told you to take her phone, I assume he knows?”

“I told him,” I say, glancing in his direction. “And all I know is that Gallo claims that she called him in a frenzy of some sort, and reported trouble in the castle.”

We step to the landing and find Giada and Marabella waiting for us at the top, Marabella’s blue dress covered by an apron, while Giada is in jeans, a sweater, and a jacket, with her purse cross-body style.

“Going somewhere?” Matteo asks her.

She glowers at him. “When a man is bleeding to death in your home, and the cartel is after him, it’s smart to be ready to run if necessary.”

“Necessary?” Marabella demands, her tone proving her kindly nature toward Giada is as tested as mine. “What’s necessary is that you respect this house and Kayden, which you did not, and do not, do.” She holds up a phone and looks to me and Matteo. “She won’t be making any more phone calls, but I can’t get her to go to her room.”

“I was trying to protect my brother,” Giada states, arguing her case, and looking to me as she adds, “You know I have to protect him.”

That’s it. She’s officially turned the pebble into a boulder, and I close the space between us, stepping toe-to-toe with her. “That man who was bleeding in your home is named Enzo, and I can still smell his blood and feel it on my skin.”

“Ella—”

“He’s barely started his life, and he, too, is mourning the loss of a father who just happened to be close to your father. And he now has less chance of surviving, because we had to move him too soon. And do you know why we had to move him? Because you let Gallo onto the property. Enzo could die because of you.”

Her chin lifts defiantly. “He could die because of The Underground.”

“If Enzo weren’t working for Kayden, he’d be working for someone else, who wouldn’t tell him to stay away from trouble.”

“He’s dying,” she hisses. “He didn’t stay away from trouble.”

“He disobeyed orders, and why is this your judgment? Why?”

“The Underground is why my father is dead.”

My mind flashes to me leaning over someone I can’t picture. Someone bloody and dead, and I’m crying and scared and certain I’m next. “You’re going to be the reason some of us are dead. If you keep bringing attention to me, you’ll be the reason I’m dead! I don’t need attention, Giada. Stop getting me attention. Just stop!”