“Most of the night, yes.” Giovanni adjusted himself on the bench, leaned over and lit a cigarette. He faced her, his face lit orange in the glow from the burning tip of the cigarette. He took a puff.
Jess ground her teeth together. Taking a deep breath, she released the metal bars, unclenching her fists. Calm. Ranting wasn’t going to solve anything; wasn’t going to get her any information. But first things first. “I don’t know what’s going on, Giovanni, but I need to call my father, tell him where we are. All of our possessions were stolen in Rome.”
“Stolen? From you?” Giovanni scoffed. He puffed on the cigarette. “And I saw your father on television, saying Nomad might be nothing. Seems a different story than the one you told me. Who should I trust?”
Jess shook her head. “I think he’s trying to calm people down.” She took a deep breath, and her lungs filled with a pungent whiff of the cigarette smoke.
Her father used to smoke when she was little, in his study at the cottage in the Catskills. She loved the smell, even though she knew it was bad for you. The same odd way she loved the smell of gasoline. Someone said it was a sign of an addictive personality. She loved it just the same.
“I don’t understand why you’re acting like this,” Jess added. “You’re the one that texted me, asked me to come back here if we had problems.”
Giovanni stared at her, took another puff and dropped the cigarette, coughing. Still sitting on the bench, he ground the cigarette out underfoot, crunching the gravel back and forth.
“After Nico dropped us at the airport, you and I exchanged text messages,” Jess explained. “Don’t you remember? I even told you where I was staying.” She narrowed her eyes. Did Giovanni send Enzo? Why would he do that?
“And can you show me this…” Giovanni waved a hand in the air. “…text?”
“Like I said, everything we had was stolen in Rome.”
Giovanni raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. “Convenient.”
“You think this is convenient?” Jess growled, wrapping her fingers around the cold metal bars again, wishing she could wrap them around Giovanni’s neck. “They stole my leg.”
Clenching her jaw, she tried to fight it, but a tear spilled down her cheek. She wiped it away, turning her head to one side. When she looked back—just for an instant—Jess saw the tenderness she’d seen in Giovanni’s eyes before, but it flashed away.
His brows came together in a scowl. “Something far more precious has been stolen from me.”
Stolen? Jess exhaled and shook her head. Was he really so fixated on material possessions at a time like this? Staring at him, she waited for details about what was stolen, but he just stared back at her. She frowned. “Wait, are you saying you didn’t text me?”
“The police were here again.” Giovanni ignored her question. “Asking about Rome.” He paused to take out another cigarette and lit it. Taking a drag, he let the smoke curl out slowly. It wreathed around his head. “Were you involved?”
Jess pressed her forehead against the metal bars, letting their damp chill seep into her head. Why would the police still care about her selling that car? Didn’t they have bigger things to worry about? She shrugged aggressively. “Yes, I did it.”
“So you admit it?” Giovanni shot to his feet, his hands flying wide.
“I didn’t think you cared—”
“About destroying Rome?” Giovanni demanded incredulously.
“WHAT?” Jess let go of the metal bars, backing up into the recesses of the stable. “I sold a car, that’s all I did. You think I had something to do with the bombing in Rome?”
Giovanni stared at her, his face stony. “That’s what the police were here for, looking for you. A terrorist connection. Said they had a video.”
The air sucked from Jess’s lungs. She felt disembodied, the opening in the stable door floating away in the blackness. “That’s insane.” The words, barely more than a whisper, seemed to come from someone else’s lips.
“On that we can agree.” Giovanni took an aggressive pull from his cigarette, the tip glowing, bathing his face in an angry red. “You come here, prophesying about the end of the world, telling me to protect myself. So I bring in security, make preparations…then I see your father on TV, saying not to worry. And then Rome is destroyed.”
Jess shook her head. “I just think he’s—”
“And the police are back here looking for you, after I protected you, and then here you are again.” Taking a deep drag from the cigarette, he erupted in a fit of coughing. Shaking his head, he dropped the smoke and stamped on it. Breathing deep, he returned to staring at Jess; angry creases brought the frown in his face into high relief, even in the dim light of dawn.
“I know this is crazy,” Jess pleaded. She tried to think. “You did text me, though. Go and check your phone.” She pressed her face against the metal bars, reached one hand through them. “And what was stolen from you? I had nothing to do with that.”
The muscles in Giovanni’s jaw rippled. “Hector.”