where I’ve stashed the cash I’ve been collecting for weeks. I head for the door and open it, exiting to the hallway, when I hear two male voices raised in anger, his and another coming from the office down the hall. The office door opens and I hurry back into the bedroom, peering through a crack as they approach and then stop on the stairs in front of me.
“Ella,” Sasha says, jolting me back to the present. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. Sorry. I’m fine.” I realize that I blacked out again, and we’re now at the top of the steps.
“This way,” she says, dragging me to the right, behind a wall, but I can still hear Niccolo’s voice, and I know—I just know—that if I see him, I’ll remember everything I have lost and need to find.
I jerk free of Sasha’s hold, turning back toward the party and stepping just to the edge of the wall, my gut clenching as I find Niccolo in profile. “Ella,” Sasha hisses, closing her hand down on my arm again.
“One minute,” I whisper, planting my feet and holding on to her. “Just one minute. I have to see his face.”
And in that moment, as if he senses my presence, he turns and looks toward us. Sasha and I both jolt backward and start moving down the hallway, but I saw his face. “You’re a crazy person,” Sasha chides. “Crazy, insane, and did I say crazy?”
“Amnesia sucks,” I say. “I had to try and jolt my memory.”
“Did it work?”
“No. It didn’t work.”
“Some things are easier forgotten anyway,” she declares, echoing Kayden’s sentiments and turning us around a corner into a narrow hallway. “Here,” she says, opening a door, and we step inside a dark room that I think is a library.
“What are we doing?” I ask as she locks us inside.
“Undress,” she orders, reaching for her zipper. “We’re switching clothes so the staff thinks you’re leaving with Kayden.”
I don’t argue, wasting no time complying, and in about sixty seconds, I’m stepping into her silver gown while she does the same with mine. “Gorgeous,” she says, running her hands over the velvet. “I might forget to return this.” She eyes my feet. “What size?”
“Seven.”
“Perfect,” she approves, and we quickly make the exchange, trading purses as we head to the door, where she pauses and grabs my arms. “Ella. I hate this, but I have to have that bracelet. People have noticed, and they’ll know it’s not you—”
“Right,” I say, feeling sick to the stomach. “Of course.” But I can’t seem to make myself reach for it, and I’m not sure why.
Understanding fills her face, and she takes my arm and turns my wrist over, unlatching it. “I promise you,” she says, as it slides off my arm, “I’ll get it right back to you, by way of your man.” She closes her hand around it. “The stairs are directly in front of this door. Go down them and exit the palace. Adriel will be waiting at the curb.”
“How are you going to get down the stairs without Niccolo seeing you?”
“Kayden has a plan, but timing is everything, which means I need to move, and move now.” She opens the door and we exit to the hallway, where she shocks me by giving me a quick hug. “We’ll make him pay,” she vows, releasing me. “Go now.”
I grab the doorknob and open the door, entering the stairwell, and by the time the door has closed, I’ve lifted the silver satin skirt of Sasha’s dress and started down the steps. Niccolo’s face, his voice, try to claim my thoughts, but I shove them aside. Right now, I want to be out of this palace, and to know that Kayden and Sasha are as well. Three flights of stairs, and a blister on my right toe later, I exit the palace and step onto a sidewalk, and into the chilly night without a coat, the cold quickening my already fast steps. But there is no Adriel. I’m about to call Kayden when a black Rolls-Royce pulls to the curb, but I don’t breathe easier until a man in all black steps out.
“Adriel,” I whisper, hurrying forward as he rounds the hood of the car and meets me at the passenger side.
“You okay?” he asks, opening the door.
“Great. Peachy.” I start to get in, but he grabs me.
“Sorry,” he says, “but Sasha and I are fuck buddies. We need to make this look good.” He molds me to him, pressing his