A surprise.
Where did he want to take her? Jess had resisted, but her mother gently insisted. With Hector missing, Jess couldn’t imagine what could be so important that he needed to show her, right now. Despite cleaning up, she was exhausted after barely sleeping in two nights.
Perhaps he wanted to illustrate why he’d been so harsh?
He didn’t need to do that, not with Hector kidnapped. She understood. They’d called the police again, left an offer of a huge reward. After talking to Hector’s father in Africa—they couldn’t get flights back—Giovanni even contacted the local mafia. Old family connections, Giovanni had explained.
After eating, Jess soaked in a hot tub of water in an ornate bathtub, washed her hair twice, luxuriated in drying herself with thick white towels. On the bed in her room she found a collection of summer blouses and slacks. From Giovanni’s mother, Celeste had explained. Jess had never even asked about his mother. She didn’t like to pry, and he hadn’t ever spoken of her. She was sure her mother knew the whole story, but that could wait. The clothes fit perfectly.
Celeste tried calling Jess’s father, Ben, to tell them where they were. Frustratingly, his phone was off again. They left voice messages, and then email messages telling him they were back at the castle and safe. They tried calling the ESOC at Darmstadt directly, even using the emergency number Ben gave them, and Giovanni managed to find a contact that got them through to the overloaded main desk. But the receptionist only said that yes, Dr. Rollins was at the facility and she would try to get him to contact them.
The car hugged the road, Giovanni saying nothing as he expertly piloted it through olive groves and lines of vines sagging under loads of purple grapes, workers hunched over in the rows between them. They crested a ridge, moving from the shade of the junipers into bright sunshine. Emerald pastures dotted with the dark green spikes of cypress trees and spiky stubble of vineyards stretched to the horizon.
Jess felt like they soared across the countryside, the frustration and tension of the last two nights ripped away by the air streaming through her hair. They’d find Hector. Jess figured Enzo just wanted money, and Giovanni had enough of that. Everything would be fine. She leaned forward to turn up the satellite radio tuned to BBC World News.
“…new reports indicate that Uranus is shifting dramatically in its orbit. NASA and the European Space Agency still have not been able to see Nomad, but scientists are saying it's already affecting Earth’s orbit, and will enter the solar system in a matter of weeks…”
“Goddamn it, I wish we could talk to my dad,” Jess muttered under her breath.
“…this just in…”
It was hard to hear over the rushing wind. Jess increased the volume.
“…unrest in the Middle East taking a rapid turn for the worse…Egyptian and Iranian forces amass troops on the border after Israeli airstrikes into Lebanon yesterday. Israel is saying that no options are off the table, including a nuclear response…this just after a similar threat by Pakistan this morning with renewed fighting in Kashmir as NATO threatens tactical strikes within its territory…”
Giovanni grimaced. “Turn it down.”
Leaning forward, Jess switched the radio off. She wanted to hear what was going on, but evidently he didn’t. Reaching the bottom of the valley, they wound their way back up the other side. The feeling of elation had passed, and Giovanni sensed it, reducing their speed. Bales of hay dotted a pasture to their right. They passed a farmer getting onto his tractor, another already out tilling his fields.
Jess watched them in disbelief. “What are they doing?” The workers in the fields, the farmers planting crops—it seemed so futile. Didn’t they have something better to do with their last days?
Giovanni glanced at her. He looked back at the road and downshifted as the hill grew steeper. “The reconverted farmhouse you stayed in, across the valley. Do you remember it?”
The night before Jess and Celeste had arrived at Castello Ruspoli the first time, they had stayed in a guesthouse in another part of Chianti. Giovanni must have done his research and checked their story. Jess nodded. “The one run by the English couple.”