“What about Hector? What did he do?”
“He did nothing,” Giovanni said from between gritted teeth. “It is Hector who was stolen.”
Jess blinked, pulled her hand back. “Hector was kidnapped?”
“He is gone, that is all I know.” Giovanni slumped onto the bench. He put his face in his hands. “I called the police yesterday, before you arrived, but they have more on their hands right now.” He looked up at Jess. “Perhaps I should call them again, tell them I have you. That might get them back here.”
Jess let go of the metal bars again, retreated a step on her crutches. “No, don’t do that.”
Stuck in an Italian jail, interrogated for terrorism? As much as it didn’t make sense, she believed what Giovanni was telling her. But if the police took her now, she’d never get out. She glanced at the brightening sky. How much time was left? She needed to get out of here.
“Why shouldn’t I?” Giovanni demanded, getting to his feet. “Tell me everything. No more lies.”
“Christ, Giovanni, I don’t know what’s going on.” Think, come on, think, Jess urged in her head. “The people you brought here, for security—is anyone else gone? Who could have taken Hector?”
“Nobody else is gone.” Giovanni took a step toward the door, toward Jess. “I sent Leone to follow Massarra, your new friend that drove you here…and Enzo, we sent him into Rome to collect some things, but we haven’t—”
“Enzo?” His face flashed in Jess’s mind. When their things were stolen. Half-glimpsed, she wasn’t one hundred percent sure before. But now Giovanni was saying that Enzo was in Rome? Sent by Giovanni? “Did you send him? He’s the one that stole our things.”
Giovanni took two more steps to the door, his face inches from Jess’s. “Why would he do that?”
Enzo had creeped Jess out the moment she met him. Something in his eyes. Still, a creepy feeling wasn’t proof of anything. Then she remembered his eyes, staring at her in the staircase, when she came down from the observatory. Jess cursed. “He heard me, when I was talking to you, saying that Nomad was coming.”
“In the observatory?”
“Yes.” Jess nodded emphatically. “After we talked, I came down the stairs, and he was there.”
She hadn’t made much of it at the time, but the enormity of it now weighed on her. Revealing that death and destruction was coming, but keeping it a secret? “Did you talk with him about it later?” she asked Giovanni.
“No.” He shook his head. “You said not to tell anyone. I closed the castle, made preparations and asked Hector’s mother and father to return, but I didn’t tell any of the staff, not except for Nico.” He pointed to his right. “He’s the only one I trust.”
Jess followed his hand and peered into a dark corner of the courtyard to see Nico sitting on another bench. She hadn’t seen him before. She looked back at Giovanni. “You closed up the castle after I told you about Nomad? And you didn’t tell Enzo why? Don’t you think he might have…I mean…”
Nico stood. “I’m afraid Jess might be right.”
Giovanni’s head spun to look at him. “What? Why would Enzo attack Jessica?”
“He might not be stable.” Nico walked toward them. The sun broke over a mountaintop on the horizon, spilling bright light into the valley. “Your father hired him as a favor to a friend. Enzo was in jail. A new start is what your father was trying to offer him.”
“Why did you never tell me this?” Giovanni slammed the door with his fist.
“Your father asked me to keep it a secret, but I’ve been watching him. For the past three years, he’s been perfectly faithful and reliable…but now Jess is saying he attacked her in Rome.” Nico joined Giovanni at the door. “I believe her. And Enzo hasn’t returned our calls since he left.”
“Rome is a mess,” Giovanni countered.
“Yes, but I did some digging on Enzo when we hired him. He doesn’t come from where he said he did.”
“And you never told me?” Giovanni’s face reddened.
“Your father, he died, and I promised…”
Giovanni closed his eyes. “Hector is the last in an unbroken line of a thousand years of the Ruspoli family. We need to find him.” He turned to Jess. “Excuse us, I need to talk to your mother, confirm something.”
Giovanni put an arm on Nico’s shoulder. “Could you get Jessica something warm?”
Nico nodded. “Of course.”
Shaking his head, Giovanni walked away, past the twisted branches of L’Olio, and up the castle’s exterior staircase.
“I am very sorry,” Nico said as they watched Giovanni disappear into the main building. “This is just…”
Jess shivered. “Crazy, I know.”
23
CHIANTI, ITALY