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“Mr. Black wouldn’t have it any other way,” she replies.
The elevator doors open to reveal a huge modern loft, the kind I’d imagine any billionaire playboy would stay in. To the right, a leather sectional sits in front of a concrete fireplace. To the left, a long dining room table is covered with dishes that are piled high with all sorts of foods—meats, cheeses, breads, and fruit.
Straight ahead, framed by a floor-to-ceiling window that spans the entire wall, is Mr. Black himself.
Gideon turns to us, his grin firmly in place, ice-blue eyes twinkling. He walks our way looking like a GQ model on a runway, dressed in a tailored gray suit, his chiseled features and dark, wavy hair flawless. He extends his hand to my father. “Don Fernando. Finally, I get to meet the man behind the legend.”
“Legend?” Papá asks as he shakes his hand.
“You managed to escape with Manny Valdez’s fiancé. Anyone else would have been killed before they reached the border. But not you. You made it all the way to Boston and built your own empire.”
Instantly, my father’s ego has him smiling. “It wasn’t easy. But I knew this is what was meant for me.”
“Fate.” Gideon then focuses his insanely gorgeous gaze on me. He takes my hand and brings it to his lips, kissing the back. The entire time, he keeps his eyes on mine, and there’s something about him that suddenly seems so familiar to me. “It’s lovely to see you again, Lou.”
My stomach twists and knots when he says Rowan’s nickname for me. “It’s Louisa.”
“Ah, forgive me.” He releases me and motions for us to move into the dining room. “I hope you don’t mind. I took the liberty of serving food.” As he makes his way there, Scarlet and Itsuki remain close to him. Sitting at the head of the table, he does a sweeping gesture to his right. “Please, have a seat. Enjoy.”
Appearing cool and confident as always, Papá takes the seat closest to him. He gives me a quick glance and nods to the chair beside him.
A woman dressed in black trousers and a white chef coat steps through a swinging door that I assume leads into the kitchen. With her, she has a bottle of red wine and proceeds to fill the glasses set before us.
“Thank you, Anita,” Gideon says to the woman. “Everything smells delightful.”
“Enjoy,” she tells us before disappearing.
“She’s absolutely the best, I highly recommend her,” he says, grabbing some of the steak and placing it on his plate.
Papá also helps himself to dinner, but I can’t bring myself to eat at a time like this. I feel sick and desperate to get this over with. Desperate to get Rowan back and beg his forgiveness.
“Mr. Black,” I begin.
“Call me Gideon. Formalities are for strangers. And we’re not strangers at all, are we?” His lips pull up, his eyes crinkling at the edges, and, again, I get that sense of familiarity.
It’s something I felt when Declan introduced him to me yesterday. Like I’d met him before somewhere, but I couldn’t quite place him. For a moment, I’d wondered if he’d done business with my father in the past, but I quickly rejected the idea. He would’ve told me.
Maybe he just had one of those faces. Then again, not many people have a face like that.
Papá taps his fingers on the table twice, something I take to mean “be quiet.” He’d told me that in this meeting, he needed to do the talking. But I’m so anxious, I can barely contain myself.
“We’re actually here on a matter of extreme urgency,” he says and sips his wine.
Without taking his stare off me, Gideon asks, “This wouldn’t have anything to do with Rowan Kane, would it?”
“In fact, it does.” Papá lets out a breath. “We would like him returned. Of course, we realize that it would require compensation.”
Gideon sits back, still observing me so intensely, it’s unsettling. “But just yesterday, you readily gave him up.”
“We’ve received new information since,” Papá states. “I understand he is jour enemy. He is mine as well.”
“So you want him to kill him yourself?” Gideon asks me.
“No!” The word bursts from me before I can stop it.
Papá glares at me. “Louisa!”
“I’m sorry, but this is taking too long, Papá.” To the blue-eyed devil, I say, “Giving him up was a mistake.”
