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“Calm down, Aria,” Gio orders. “You’re losing your shit.”
Kace is instantly behind me, his arm wrapping my waist, molding me tight to his powerful body—almost as if he fears if he doesn’t hold on tight, I’ll be lost. “Easy, baby,” he murmurs, his voice vibrating on my cheek. “Let her go, Gio,” he orders tightly, and I can feel the bristle of power the moment Adrian and Adam step to our sides.
“Yes, let me go, Gio.”
My brother doesn’t look at Adam, Adrian, or me. He’s once again wholly focused on Kace. “You hurt her and I will kill you.”
“You wouldn’t even be around to know,” I snap. “I hate you right now, Gio. I really do.”
As if burned, Gio releases me and takes one step back, just enough to breathe, before he says, “We need to talk, Aria.”
Kace doesn’t release me. He’s still holding onto me, as if his life, and mine, depend on him keeping me close.
“We needed to talk before you ever went down this hellish path and took me and Kace with you.” My voice is lower now, my control finding its legs again. “No one knew Kace was a part of this, including him, until you made this happen. Now, Kace and I are hunted, maybe for the rest of our lives.”
“You really think this asshole didn’t know who you were when you met, Aria? He did. What did Angelena say to you?”
Kace’s hands settle on my shoulders. “Let’s take this upstairs.”
Gio’s stare lifts above my head to glare at Kace. “I bring up your deceit and suddenly you want to take this upstairs? If I go up, your goons stay down.”
Adrian says something in Spanish, and Gio’s gaze shifts to his. “You know Italian?”
“Spanish and Italian have more than a few shared words I’ve learned over the years. Especially the really offensive ones like that one. You called me a goon.” He gives Gio a wink. “Just returning the favor.”
Gio glares at him and then spears Kace with a stare. “Hiding behind your goons,” Gio says again to Kace. “What are you afraid of?”
“That you’ll hurt her more than you already have,” he says, and while I can feel the tension in his hands, in his energy, the words are cool and calm. He doesn’t take the bait Gio intends to set him off, a testament to just how affected Kace was by Alexander in California, how affected he still is by the past. “You come up. Adrian and Adam come, too. That’s non-negotiable.”
“You know what, Gio?” I say, drawing his peeved attention. “I trust them more than you right now. Stay or go. I don’t care anymore. I’m done worrying about you. It’s time I worry about me.”
With that, I rotate, and Kace drapes his arm around me, setting us in motion toward the front door.
And as if this day can’t get more complex, Alexander is standing at the door, watching us, smirking. His lips curve in a devious smile and he enters the building, leaving me with no doubt that somehow, some way, he intends to use what just happened against Kace. Worried, I glance up at Kace. “Ignore him,” he says.
“That never works.”
“This time it will,” he assures me.
“Because you’ve handled him?”
His lips curve almost brutally. “Exactly, baby.”
I want to ask more, but we’re at the door, and Steven steps in front of us. “A problem I can assist with?” he asks.
“Just my brother,” I say. “Sibling love. It’s brutal sometimes.”
His eyes light. “Don’t I know that well. My brother is the only man on earth I’d die for, but I’ve also come close to killing him a few times.”
“Gio Alard,” Kace says. “He’s allowed up. Once. Just once. Today.” He palms Steven what I think is a hundred-dollar bill. “Make sure everyone here knows, please.”
He gives a tiny nod. “Right away, Kace.” His gaze shifts to me. “Anything you need?”
“No, thank you.”
Kace guides me toward the sliding doors, and I fight the urge to look over my shoulder, hating how much I want Gio to follow us. Once we're in the elevator, Gio is nowhere to be found. “He’s not going to come up,” I say, my disappointment just plain cutting.
The elevator shuts and I shiver with the chill of my wet hair. Kace reacts, folding me close, his hand settling on my coat, just over my backside. My hands slide under his jacket, my palms absorbing taut warm muscle and I sink into him, welcoming his strength now. Envious of the place he is in life. He’s lived hell and found his way of coping.
Now it’s my turn.
He searches my face, his eyes probing, and if he were anyone else, I’d say he sees too much. But he’s Kace and with him there is nothing that is ever too much, but there’s also nothing that can be said in the elevator car with a camera. I lean into him, my forehead pressed to his chest, my mind racing. Why wouldn’t my father tell Angelena to give that journal to my mother? Was he having an affair? The idea cuts as much as the disappointment of Gio leaving. I thought my parents were happy. Suddenly everything that felt real might be a lie, and I don’t even know what to do with that.
The ride is eternal and somehow short. Kace and I enter the apartment and he helps me with my coat, shrugging out of his. “I’ll grab you a towel,” he says, walking a few steps to enter a hall bathroom I don’t think I’ve ever even been inside. He returns quickly and acting every bit my gentle hero, he dries my hair.
“Booze, coffee, or hot chocolate?”
“All three?” I ask.
His lips curve. “Booze, coffee, and hot chocolate, coming up.”
A short while later, the fireplace is aglow in the corner, and I’m standing in the living room at the window watching snow flutter past the window. I imagine every flake as a page in a story, and I can’t read any of them. “Hot chocolate to soothe the soul,” Kace says, stepping to my side with a steaming cup of hot chocolate in his hand. I accept it, and the heat of the mug is a welcome warmth against my palms when I remain cold inside. I walk to a chair and sit down.
“You heard what I said about Angelena?” I ask. “Her voice clicked in my mind right before Gio showed up.”
Kace perches on the coffee table directly across from me, our knees just barely touching, but I feel every touch we share in every part of me. That’s how connected we are, how hypersensitive to him I am, our connection bittersweet considering the obstacles before us.
“I did,” he says. “I called Blake when I was making the hot chocolate and let him know.”
“Gio told me she disappeared right after Dad, Kace. He told me Sofia was looking for her. And he told me this just yesterday, and yet, she called me today. She’s Sofia’s mother. It’s one big set-up.”
“Maybe. Are we sure Sofia wasn’t looking for her because she thought she had answers, like the journal?”
“I don’t know what to think. Why would my father have her protect it? Why not my mother? Or Gio?”
“Perhaps he felt your mother would protect you at all costs, including the family legacy.”
I take in his suggestion with a blink and a pinch of hope. “Maybe. But what does that say about their relationship?”
“Don’t start doubting what you know about your parents because of a phone call. You don’t know the agendas at play here, baby. And I was around your parents. They adored each other. They were in love.”
His cellphone rings and he shifts, removing it from his pocket to answer. “Yeah, Adrian? All right then,” he says. “That’s unexpected. Right. Thanks.” He disconnects. “Gio is on his way up.”
Emotions ping around inside me and I take a warm, sweet swig of much-needed chocolate. “I’m not sure what to think about that.”
“That makes two of us.”
He starts to get up and I catch his hand. “He’s going to keep insulting you.”
“I know.”
“And yet you invited him into your home.”
“Our home, baby. Our home. I love you, Aria, and he’s your brother. I’m not judging him just yet. I’d e
xpect him to be protective. And we don’t know everything there is to know about Gio right now.”
My heart swells with love for this man. “I love you, too. And thank you.”
He leans in and kisses my cheek. “Thanks is never what I want from you. We’ve talked about this. Ask me what I want.”
“What do you want?”
“You. Just you. In an excessively long and creative list of ways.”
The doorbell rings and he reaches for my cup, taking a long swig of chocolate as if it’s a replacement for the drink he really needs. He hands me my cup back. I set it on the ground by the chair and when he tries to get up, I catch his arm. “He tried to tear us down through me. He failed. I know my brother. Failure is not an option. He’s going to come at you hard, Kace.”
“If he wounds me you can make me feel better when he’s gone.”
“Kace, I’m serious.”
“You didn’t know my father, but I assure you, baby, there is nothing your brother can bring that he didn’t.”
“You’re human, Kace, and we’re still new.”
His fingers splay on my cheek, his thumb stroking my jawline. “You don’t know me, or us, as well as I want you to if you doubt how strong we are. But you will, baby. You will and soon. That’s a promise.” He leans in and kisses me and then stands up, heading toward the door.
Nervous, buzzing with adrenaline, I push to my feet and place the river at my back, steeling myself for what comes next.
