She leaned over the side, kept her eyes looking down. It flashed blue, then beige. A sandy bottom, not more than twenty or thirty feet. She glanced at the island. Maybe a bit more than a half mile from shore. She looked over the side again, kept her eyes on the bottom. Not deep blue, still light blue. Maybe fifty feet.
The two men in front of her laughed and Jess looked up. They looked at something on a phone’s screen, then glanced back at her with sick grins. She squinted to see what they looked at. Two bodies, writhing together. Were they watching porn? Her skin crawled as she realized it was a video of her and Giovanni. They’d recorded them last night, in that apartment.
One of the men looked at her, realizing she knew what it was. He said something in Italian, laughing with a mouthful of broken teeth.
Enzo came out of the boat’s cabin and glanced at what the men were looking at. “Would like to get her legs wrapped around my head, too,” he laughed, but seeing Jess watching him, his face hardened. He smacked the man holding the phone. “Spegnerlo!” Enzo spat. “Show a little respect.” He took the phone away, turned it off.
Jess hadn’t expected that reaction. What was that about?
On the floor of the boat, Giovanni groaned and rolled to one side. He squirmed to sit upright and looked at Jess, then glanced at Hector and Enzo.
Enzo grinned at him. “We’re going back to where this all started, Baron Ruspoli.”
This whole time, Jess had a feeling she’d been missing something. “Where what started?” She looked at Enzo, then at Giovanni.
Giovanni avoided her eyes and looked down grimly.
Enzo laughed. “You didn’t tell her, did you?”
Jess looked back and forth, at Giovanni staring down, at Enzo smiling at the both of them. “Tell me what?” she demanded.
31
CHIANTI, ITALY
CELESTE SAT AT her favorite spot in the western gardens of the castle, at a stone table set under the huge oak trees with a view down the valley to the village of Saline. Sparrows darted overhead in an endless sky, songbirds sang in the boughs of the oaks. The gravel paths crisscrossing the lawns were now littered with fallen leaves. Old Leone, the groundskeeper, still hadn’t returned.
In fact, nobody had returned.
Since the flurry of emails from Ben the day before—detailing everything he knew, saying he was crossing into Italy and just hours away—nothing. Just silence, the sound of the wind through the leaves, the crickets chirping peacefully through the long night. The evening before, Jess and Giovanni had left a message with Nico saying they found Enzo and Hector, and expected to be back by morning.
Yet here Celeste was, having breakfast alone.
Actually, not alone.
“More coffee, Madame Tosetti?” Nico asked. He deposited a tray of fruit and cheeses and cured meat on her table.
Celeste admired Nico’s gentle eyes. “You’ve been so kind to me. A real gentleman.” She took his hand. “And I mean a gentle man.”
Nico bowed and kissed her hand. “It has been an honor to serve you, Madame Tosetti.”
Celeste felt a tenderness from Nico, a closeness, as if he were family. Perhaps because she ached for hers. Her mother and father were long dead, and she was an only child. So her only family was Jess. And Ben. And if Ben was right, this was the final day before Nomad. What television stations remained broadcasting were filled with hysterical rants or endless, depressing snapshots of riots and burning cities, scenes impossible to reconcile with this beautiful, peaceful mountaintop.
“Would you sit with me for a moment?” Celeste asked Nico.
“Of course.”
Nico sat opposite her, but instead of facing Celeste, he turned to admire the view, letting her enjoy the moment, sensing that she just didn’t want to be alone. In the morning she’d tried to convince him to drive with her to Vaca, to try and find Jess, but he’d gently pointed out that they might miss them, or might not be here when Ben came.
They had to stay here, he’d argued.
Nico had locked the place down tight. It was a castle, after all. Designed to be defended.
“Don’t you have people you want to go to?” Celeste asked Nico. “Family, loved ones…?”
Taking a deep breath, Nico turned to her. “I am where I want to be.” He turned back to the view.
She turned up the volume on the digital satellite radio on the edge of the table. The news was frenzied, but she couldn’t disconnect. She needed to know what was going on.
“…NASA saying that Nomad has entered the inner solar system, past Jupiter’s orbit, confirming reports from independent observers and amateur astronomers that it will pass Earth in the next twenty-four to thirty-six hours. New fighting in Kashmir…”
So Ben was right.
Celeste glanced at Nico, but he didn’t react, didn’t look at the radio.