Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Kathleen got out of the shower and toweled her hair dry. She was exhausted, and the shower only made her sleepier. She wrapped herself in another fluffy white towel and went into her bedroom.
“Ah!” she yelped as she put a hand on her chest. “Enzo, you could have warned me you were here.” She stared at him accusingly. Suddenly, it occurred to her that she was standing there wearing only a towel, and heat filled her cheeks.
His gaze danced over her skin, and her body reacted as if he were touching her. Her nerves tingled, an insistent pulse struck up between her thighs. She drew a shaky breath and clutched the towel tucked between her breasts.
A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he finally brought his gaze up to meet hers again. “And where’s the fun in that?” he drawled as he slouched in the armchair near the windows, his legs out in front of him, crossed at the ankles.
At least he was a few feet away. Any closer and she was sure he would hear the pounding of her heart.
“I could have come out naked,” she continued as she glanced around for something more to cover her.
She had left her sleep shorts and tank top in the bathroom and wasn’t going to start rummaging around for a robe or anything while he was watching her.
Somehow, that seemed like giving in, and she wasn’t about to give him that satisfaction.
Instead, she wrapped her arms around herself.
The towel gaped on her chest, and she moved one hand to press the folds back into place.
“I would have enjoyed that.” He grinned unabashedly.
She shook her head and tried to will the heat out of her cheeks. “Why are you here?” she demanded, still flustered.
His face lost its smile. “There have been developments.”
“Developments?” she frowned. That didn’t sound good. Enzo looked serious, too serious. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Enzo raked her body with his gaze once again, and the hint of a smile was back. “So, it turns out Ernie was never the prize at all.”
“What?” Kathleen frowned in puzzlement.
“During the fracas by the Duomo, Ernie broke. Must have happened when the guy on the bike threw him through the air, and he landed on the pavement.”
“Ohh. That’s kind of sad. Ernie was ugly, but I had kind of taken a shine to the guy.”
“Not so sad. Inside was a treasure map, complete with an X marking the spot.” He snorted.
“A treasure map?” Kathleen’s voice went up an octave, and her heart picked up pace again.
“Really? What location is on the map? What kind of treasure is it? Oh my God, a treasure map! Who would have thought that ugly little Ernie would be carrying something so important?” All signs of exhaustion disappeared with the excitement of a treasure map. Suddenly, she wasn’t so sleepy.
“I know, right? The perfect place to hide the map.”
“So, come on, I want details,” Kathleen demanded. “Don’t keep me in suspense.”
Enzo grinned. “I can see you’re excited. The answer to your question is, I don’t know.”
“Wait, I asked multiple questions,” she clarified.
“Yes, and I don’t know the answer to any of them. There are no words on the map, no identifiable landmarks, and the symbols, although obvious, don’t really tell me much. There is a fountain and a statue or two, but seriously, that could be anywhere in Europe or the world, for that matter.”
“Well, what about what kind of treasure? Does it say anything about that?”
Enzo shook his head. “It doesn’t even have anything you can judge scale by.”
Kathleen put her hands on her hips, forgetting all about only wearing a towel. “Well, what does it show?”
“Not much.”
“I want to see it,” she demanded.
Enzo grinned and got out of the chair. “It’s down in my office.”
“Great. Let’s go.” Kathleen started walking toward the door.
“You might want to get dressed.”
Kathleen, who was by the door, glanced down. “Shit.” She whirled around and banged right into Enzo’s chest.
“Oh, sorry.” She met his gaze, and electricity danced across her skin.
His lazy smile made her breath catch. She hadn’t been this close to him before, and it was wreaking havoc with her senses.
She knew she should back up and move around him but again that seemed like giving in.
Like he would win the unspoken battle between them.
He reached out and stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. “Ah, Kathleen.” His eyes darkened, and her mouth went dry.
She licked her lips, and his gaze followed her every move.
She opened her mouth to say…something, anything to break the spell, but it was too late. His head dipped down, and he captured her mouth in what was at first a soft kiss, but then it turned more demanding as his tongue slipped between her lips. He probed her mouth, and she met him with every move.
He wrapped his arms around her, and his fingertips were heated where they stroked her bare skin.
She leaned into him, twining her arms around his neck and pulling their bodies closer.
Her heart rate soared as he deepened the kiss.
Excitement thrummed in her blood. She wanted more.
To feel more of him. To have him against her skin.
He ran his hand down her back and cupped her ass through the towel to press her against him. Heat pooled between her thighs. God, she wanted this.
The peal of her cell phone destroyed the sexual charge between them.
Enzo broke off the kiss with a look she couldn’t quite decipher on his face before he let her go.
“Come down to my office once you’re dressed.
I’ll show you the map, but don’t mention it to anyone.
” He gave a nod to the phone, which continued to ring from where it rested on the bed. He turned and went out the door.
Kathleen had to grasp the dresser for a second to get her balance before lurching across the room to her cell. “Spam Risk.” That’s what it said above the number.
“Just fucking great,” she growled. Interrupted by telemarketers. Sometimes life truly wasn’t fair.
In Enzo’s office, Kathleen sat across from him, her gaze shifting around to study each item on his desk. “Where’s the map?”
He grinned and slipped a piece of fabric from under the blotter.
She immediately rose and hustled to stand beside him.
His scent settled around her and made her heart rate tick up.
The kiss had sent her senses reeling, and she was still trying to center herself.
Standing this close to him was not a smart move.
Instead, she concentrated on the map, leaning over to study it more closely.
“You weren’t exaggerating. There’s nothing to tell anyone where this might be, nothing identifying what the treasure is.
Hell, if it didn’t have a big red X on it, I wouldn’t have known it was a map at all. Are you sure it is a treasure map?”
“Yes,” he confirmed. “I’m sure. Makes sense when you consider how many people seem to want it.”
“It does put everything that’s happened into context. Looks like quite a few people are after this map.” She turned to him. “So how do we find the treasure?”
He grinned, and then the smile slid off his face.
There was something going on, something he wasn’t sharing.
That was okay, she’d learned to be patient.
She’d get it out of him eventually. Turning, she went back and took the chair across from him again.
Distance was better. Necessary even…to keep a clear head.
“So, what do you know? How are we going to find the treasure?” She was brimming with excitement. An honest-to-goodness treasure hunt. How much fun was that? Dangerous, it turned out, but fun all the same.
“Now that we know this is all about treasure, I think it will make it easier to stay safe and keep the others at bay.” She leaned forward. “I mean, they obviously don’t have the map, and if we play our cards right, we can find the treasure without them even knowing we know about the map.”
She glanced at Enzo to gauge his reaction, but his face was blank. She huffed a little. He was being a serious drag. “What is it? What are you not telling me?”
“Kathleen, there are some very dangerous people involved in this.”
“Yes, I gathered that when we were being shot at.”
Enzo sighed. “Yes, those people, of course. But there is someone else. Someone far more deadly.”
What the hell was he talking about? “Care to explain?”
“I received a call from an old…acquaintance of mine.”
Kathleen immediately filled in the word enemy for acquaintance, because from his inflection, there was no doubt in her mind that’s how Enzo saw him. The tone he used said everything that his lips were not.
“Why did this man call you?” she asked. “Who is he?”
“His name is Alessandro Vitale. He used to clean money for La Famiglia here in Italy. Now he’s more like a go-between…
a man who makes introductions or brings parties with a common interest together.
He has the added bonus of being able to hide the money that exchanges hands and clean it without attracting the attention of law enforcement. ”
“And you two have history?” Kathleen suddenly wondered just who Enzo Valardi really was. She knew next to nothing about him other than the fact that he owned wineries and her brother trusted him with her life. She’d thought that had been enough, but maybe not.
“Yes, we have history. He tried to steal from my former employer, and I caught him. I forced him to make restitution, and he hasn’t forgiven me.”
“Got it. He’s an all-around scumbag. What does he have to do with this?”
“He knows about the map, and I’m sure one of the groups after it are men he’s hired.”
“Do you think they are the ones that tried to run us off the road and then shot at us tonight? Or do you think those are two different groups of people?” Kathleen rubbed her head.
When she said all this out loud, it became much more real, much less fun.
She was an innocent bystander with a target on her back.
“I think they are the same group, but I don’t think they are Vitale’s men.
I have no idea who hired them. I think Vitale’s men were at the square and waiting for an opportunity to get Ernie.
They probably would have grabbed Ernie from the original thief.
Vitale knows I would have had a lot of security on hand, so taking it from the thief would have been the path of least resistance. ”
“My question still stands; why is Vitale any more important or dangerous than the rest of them?”
Enzo rubbed his face. “Because he wants me to bring the map to him.”
“Why would we do that?”
“He is holding a friend of mine as a hostage.”
Of all the things Enzo could have said, Kathleen hadn’t anticipated that.
All thoughts of excitement disappeared, and a ball of fear formed in the pit of her stomach.
Hostage. The word rang in her ears. She’d been a hostage, and even when that episode was over, she’d continued to be imprisoned for years. The very word made her nauseous.
Enzo continued, “Bianca is the daughter of my former employer. Vitale is holding her hostage. He says he will let her go if I bring him the map.”
Kathleen’s thoughts swirled. This was so unfair.
She had been excited about the treasure.
Excited about the idea of hunting for it, and now someone’s life was at stake.
Seriously at stake. It was one thing for men to be shooting at them, but this…
This was entirely another thing. The shooters, well, it hadn’t been personal.
At least Kathleen hadn’t seen it as personal, and somehow that made it…
less scary. Less real. But taking this Bianca hostage. That was very real.
“What do you want to do?” Kathleen asked.
Enzo’s face darkened. “I want to rescue Bianca and kill Vitale.”
He said it in a matter-of-fact tone, but the look on his face and the energy that came off him in waves left no doubt in Kathleen’s mind that he was serious and every bit as dangerous and deadly as this Vitale.
The ball of fear in Kathleen’s stomach hardened into rock.