Demand by Lisa Renée Jones Page A

don’t cower.
    â€œWhy are you here, and not attending to your business?” I retort, my fingers curling around his T-shirt, beneath his leather biker jacket. “This was not an emergency. This was not a reason for you to leave what you were doing. That you did makes me look to your men like a distraction you can’t afford.”
    â€œ Why were you with Gallo?” he demands.
    â€œBecause had I not met him for coffee, he was going to take me to the police station for questioning, and we both know that would have put me on Niccolo’s radar.”
    â€œAnd yet,” he bites out, his fingers flexing at my waist, “you didn’t call me.”
    â€œYou said only to call if it was an emergency, and Gallo being an asshole is not an emergency.”
    â€œ Last night , Ella.”
    â€œExactly. The note you left said you were wrapping up loose ends from last night , and I don’t want you to think I don’t know the definition of an emergency. That’s like the boy who cried wolf, nor do I want your men to think I represent a distraction.”
    â€œLet me worry about my men.”
    â€œI’m not going to do that; not now or ever. If you want a puppet who’ll burden you with everything and care about nothing you do, then I’m the wrong choice for you, Kayden. That’s not who I am, or who I hope we are together. You didn’t have to come here. I would have called you the moment things turned in the wrong direction.”
    â€œWhat part of once it’s gone wrong, it’s too late, don’t you understand?” he demands. “Why didn’t you go to Adriel?”
    â€œAside from the fact that he’s been vocal about me being a distraction you don’t need, and the reason I was worried about your men?” I don’t give him time to reply, getting to the real issue. “Gallo said that any interference by Adriel, you, or anyone, would mean not only me visiting the police station, but Giada, too. And I wasn’t willing to let her run her mouth in an interrogation room.”
    â€œHe had no legal right to do that—which you’d have known, had you called me or gone to Adriel.”
    â€œIt’s more complicated than that,” I say, hesitating to bring up Giada when he’s this angry.
    â€œDefine complicated .” I hesitate a moment longer and he is not willing to wait. “Ella—”
    â€œGallo claims Giada sent him text messages last night that were damning enough to ensure that you couldn’t stop him from questioning her or me. She swears there are no messages, even though I told her Matteo would find out if she was lying. But I couldn’t take the risk that there were texts.”
    â€œAnd yet you tried to handle this on your own.”
    â€œI did handle it, Kayden. I’m not arrested. I’m not at the station and on Niccolo’s radar any more than I was before today. You don’t owe the police chief yet another favor, and no one has told one single Underground secret. I’d be back in the castle trying to throttle Giada right now, if you hadn’t just yanked me into a dark hole.”
    â€œThere’s a bigger picture here that you need to understand—but that isn’t a conversation we can have when I have men and business waiting on me at the castle.”
    He reaches for my hand and I grab his jacket. “Wait. Please. If this is about my past—”
    â€œIt’s not.”
    â€œI didn’t betray you, Kayden. If it’s about trust—”
    â€œOne of my men died last night, Ella,” he says, his low voice rough, almost guttural. “The last thing I needed today was to find out that you were with Gallo, when we don’t know what Giada told him. One wrong word, one careless whisper, and he will take you and my men down to destroy me.”
    â€œI promise you, when you have time to listen, I handled him well.”
    â€œEven