Tara looked between her and me and bit her bottom lip. “I really don’t know. Perhaps—”
Pia held up her hand. “I have a crazy idea,” she said, getting up from the table. “I think you should work for us.”
Tara’s eyes opened wide. “What?”
“Sì.”
“You can’t be serious.”
Pia sat back down and folded her arms. “I am very serious. You can stay here at Valentini too. We have many casinas you can choose from.”
Tara looked at me and then back at Pia. “I would love that,” she murmured, almost too softly to be heard.
Pia smiled and clapped her hands. “Magnifico!”
The tension I’d seen building in Tara vanished. “If I agree, you have to promise to tell me about Estancia Valentini. I’ve heard stories, but I’m sure they were greatly exaggerated.”
“No, they are all true,” said Pia, laughing. “My family has a very colorful history. Estancia was my seventh great-grandmother. She descended from the female line of the Medicis.”
Tara turned to me. “Sounds like you may have found a compelling story to write.”
We had far too much to drink, even with all the food Pia arranged to have delivered to the winery. When she noticed Tara yawning, she suggested she stay at the villa tonight, and tomorrow she’d get her settled in one of the small casinas.
I took the hint, stood, and said goodnight. “It was a pleasure meeting you both.” I turned to our hostess. “Pia, thank you for your generosity.”
“You are welcome.” She smiled, looking between Tara and I.
“I hope to see you around Valentini, Catarina.” Emboldened by the wine, I took her hand and brought it to my lips. “Buona notte. Sogni d’oro.”
“Buona notte,” she murmured in perfect Italian.
8
Tara
“He likes you,” said Pia as we walked up to the villa.
“He’s drunk.”
She shook her head. “I watched him all night. He couldn’t take his eyes off of you.”
“He was looking at you too.”
Pia shook her head a second time. “Not the same way.” She stopped when we got to the villa’s terrazza, and looked out at the vineyards illuminated by moonlight. “I’m glad you are staying, Catarina.”
“I am too. Thank you, Pia.”
“I’m the one who should be thanking you. You have a great deal of knowledge about wine. Someday, you will tell me how you acquired it. But not tonight.” She put her arm through mine and led me inside and up the stairs.
Something occurred to me. “Wait. I’m sorry. I can’t work here.”
“Why not?”
“I’m here as a tourist. I’d have to leave Italy to get a work visa.” I couldn’t tell Pia, but there was no way I could do that.
She shook her head. “Not to worry. We will pay you in cash. That will work, yes?”
It was the only thing that would work, actually. “Again, if you’re certain.”
“Sì, naturalmente. Now, come. You can stay in here tonight.” She looked at my bag. “I didn’t think to consider you wouldn’t have your things.”
“I don’t have much, but you’re right, I left them at the pensione in Sienna.”
“We can make arrangements to collect them tomorrow.” She tapped her cheek. “Hang on. I’ll be right back.”
When she was gone, I pulled out my phone like I did several times a day, hoping there’d be word from either my father or Brand. There wasn’t.
“I know that look,” Pia said, coming back to where I waited in the hallway, with towels and I guessed something for me to sleep in. “There are things that haunt you.”
“Several, in fact,” I mumbled, looking away from her.
“Me too.” She sighed and took my hand. “I am happy you’re here, Catarina. I think it’s where you belong. At least for now. I can tell already that we will be friends.”
I smiled. “Me too.”
After she showed me to my room and said goodnight, I thought about how long it had been since I met anyone I felt such an immediate connection with. It wasn’t since I was very young and met Pen, Ava, Aine, and Quinn.
After using the lavatory and changing into the nightshirt Pia had loaned me, I checked the burner phone one more time and snuggled into the most comfortable bed I’d slept in since I left America.
I woke the next morning to the sound of a knock at the door. It took me a minute to remember where I was. “Coming,” I murmured.
When the door opened, I pulled the sheet up to my chin.
“Perdonami,” said the young woman. “Didn’t you say ‘come in’?”
“It’s fine. Um…can I help you?”
“I’m Lucia. Pia asked me to let you know breakfast is being served on the terrazza. She is there now.”
“Grazie. Can you please tell her I’ll be right down?”
Lucia backed out of the room and closed the door behind her. I got out of bed and looked out the window. From there, the vineyards that covered the hillsides were breathtaking. Every view I’d seen since arriving at Valentini was. It was so perfect, it looked like a film location.
My fingers itched to paint some of the Tuscan landscapes. How long had it been since I thought about painting? Maybe while I was in Sienna, picking up my things from the pensione, I’d look for a place where I could buy some art supplies.
Remembering Lucia had said Pia was waiting for me, I checked my phone and then quickly washed up and went downstairs where I found her having breakfast with the man we’d spent time talking to most of last evening.
“Good morning,” he said, noticing me before Pia did.
“Buongiorno, Mr. Knox. Pia.”
“Please, call me Ben.” He stood to pull out a chair for me.
“Did you sleep well, Catarina?” Pia asked.
“Very well, thank you. Again, I appreciate your hospitality.”
“You might not say that when you see how hard I’ll make you work.” Pia grasped my hand with hers and winked. “I’m just kidding.”
Actually, the idea of work sounded so good to me. Admittedly, it was a feeling I’d rarely experienced before, and it shamed me.
“No! You are at Valentini. No more sad thoughts.”
As much as her exclamation stunned me, her words did more. How was this woman I’d only met yesterday able to read me so easily? Was I really that transparent?
“Ben, what do you have planned today?” Pia asked.
“I have a meeting in Florence, and then I intend to visit Chianti.”
I noticed he was drinking tea rather than coffee like Pia was.
“Are you British?” I asked, remembering that before he spoke yesterday, I’d been sure by his coloring and the way he carried himself, that he was Italian.
“I’m more of a citizen of the world,” he answered. “My father is American and my mother is Venezuelan. We traveled around a lot when I was a kid, but spent much of my childhood in England.”
“Is that where you live now?”
He shook his head. “We moved back to America when I was in high school.”
That explained the difficulty I was having placing his accent. The fact that his mother was Venezuelan also explained why, initially, I believed him to be Italian. “What part?”
“Boston.”
I loved the city and said so.
“It’s one of my favorites too.”
I looked over at Pia; she was studying the two of us and smiling. “Perhaps you’d rather wait to start your new job tomorrow,” she said, taking a bite of pastry. “You could visit Florence and Chianti with Ben.”
“No,” I said, perhaps too quickly. “Um, as nice as that sounds, I’ve been sightseeing quite a lot and am looking forward to learning more about Valentini.”
“Perhaps another day,” said Ben.
“Perhaps.”
I stood and went to the buffet that had been set out on the terrazza. It all looked so good. Ben stood to
o, grabbed another plate, and piled it with fruit. “This will be my downfall,” he said, pointing to the pastries before adding two to his plate.
“It doesn’t appear it will be an issue,” I said, not bothering to mask my perusal of his body. I smiled when his cheeks flushed. Mine did the same when he looked me up and down like I had him.
“For you either.”
“Just to be safe, I think I’ll stick with fruit. I’m still full from last night.” When I turned around to return to the table, Pia was gone. “Where did she go?”
Ben shrugged. “I’ve no idea.”
I set my plate on the table and poured myself a cup of coffee, added cream, and breathed in the aroma. It was heavenly. “What?” I asked when I sat down and noticed Ben staring at me.
“That sound…you made it a lot last night too.”
“Sound?”
“You’re very…expressive when you like something. It isn’t just the murmurs of pleasure; your eyes roll back in your head a little.” His voice was so soft and sexy I felt like I was falling into a trance.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled.
He leaned forward and rested his forearm on the table, almost close enough to touch. “Please don’t apologize. I quite like it.”
I looked away, unable to speak. It had been a long time since I had any real interest in a man. In fact, Pen had mentioned it a couple of times. “You might not be so bitchy if you got laid,” she’d said on more than one occasion. A sad feeling, the one that washed over me whenever I thought about my friends, sat heavily on my chest.
“She’s right, you know?”
That if I got laid, I wouldn’t be so bitchy? Had I said that out loud? “I’m sorry, what?”
“You’re at Valentini. No more sad memories.” Ben repeated Pia’s words from earlier.
“There’s no switch to turn them off,” I muttered, surprising even myself. I couldn’t talk about the reasons I was sad, not to anyone, but especially not to a man from America.
He touched the back of my hand with his fingertip. “You’re too beautiful to look so sad.”
I looked into his eyes. “Thank you.”
He sat back abruptly when Pia rejoined us. “Am I interrupting?” She smirked and then winked.
“I think we need to cheer Catarina up,” said Ben.
I looked between them. “I’m fine.”
Pia tapped her cheek. “I have an idea.”
“Oh, no,” I groaned under my breath, and she laughed.
“For you to be really good at your job in Valentini’s tasting room, you should visit some of the other wineries in the area. That is the work you and I will do today. Since it is Monday, our tasting room and many others are closed. This will be the perfect time for us to visit.”
“That doesn’t sound much like work.”
“It’s research. We’ll visit Chianti.”
I stared at her with wide eyes.
“Sì.” She nodded. “That is what we will do.” Pia looked at Ben. “And when your business is complete, you can join us.”
“Pia!” I gasped.
“I’d like that very much,” said Ben.
I looked between them again, incredulous. “I think you should give me a tour of Valentini instead today.”
Pia nodded again. “We will do that this morning. This afternoon, we will go to Chianti. There are two wineries in particular we should visit. Casavetti, which is owned by my father’s sister and her husband. The other, I’m not sure is a good idea.”
“Which one?”
“Vitticio.”
I’d heard of it and would certainly like to visit. “Why isn’t it a good idea?”
“Paolo Vitticio.” When she rolled her shoulders, the expression on her face changed drastically from a frown to a wide smile. “He is married now, so it will be fine.”
I made a mental note to ask about him later when Pia and I were alone.
“It’s a date, then, sì?” Pia looked at Ben.
“Yes. Absolutely.” Ben looked at me.
“A date? Or work?” I asked.
“Both,” answered Pia, grinning from ear to ear.
9
Halo
Given how late it was when I returned to the farmhouse last night and the time difference, I waited until I’d finished breakfast to call Striker.
“You’re sure it’s her?” he asked.
I sent him a photo I’d taken of her and Pia last night. “See for yourself.”
“Yep. That’s her. What have you found out?”
“Not a lot.” I told him about her arriving with a tour group yesterday and how one thing had led to another, resulting in Tara being offered a job at Valentini.
“A job?”
“That was my reaction.”
“Interesting. Do you think she’ll stay on?”
“I do. At least temporarily.”
“This assignment might be over a hell of a lot quicker than we anticipated. My guess is her father is close by.”
As much as I wanted to locate Richard Emsworth, I wasn’t in any hurry for my time with Tara to end. Not that I’d admit it to Striker.
“I’ll have the alerts K19 placed for Tara Emsworth pulled from the international agency wires. When you meet your AISE contact, advise him we’ve located the daughter and will continue surveilling her to see if she leads us to her father.”
As much as I didn’t want to ask, I had to. “Do you think she’s aware of what her father was involved in?”
I heard Striker sigh. “Aine certainly doesn’t believe so.”
“Picking up cash in Switzerland doesn’t look good.”
“Her being in Italy doesn’t look good either. Which reminds me McTiernan said that AISE believes her father has ties to the Calabrian crime syndicate.”
This was not good news. The ’Ndrangheta had been operating in the Calabria region of Italy since the eighteenth century. It was said that the organization’s narcotics trafficking, extortion, and money laundering activities accounted for three percent of Italy’s GDP. By some accounts, their annual income was $50–60 billion US dollars.
Like Sicily’s Cosa Nostra, the ’Ndrangheta syndicate was comprised of approximately one hundred organized sub-groups, called cosche, each of which claimed sovereignty over a territory, usually a town or village. Within Calabria alone, it was estimated that there were six thousand members. Worldwide, that number doubled.
“Listen, Halo, if Tara is somehow involved, she’s in way over her head. The Calabrians are considered to be the biggest cocaine smugglers in all of Europe. They aren’t people to fuck with.”
“Copy that.”
The reason my base was in Tuscany, specifically at Valentini, was my AISE contact on the Emsworth investigation was none other than Matteo Casavetti, whose family’s winery Pia had suggested we visit later today.
Pia, however, was completely unaware of who her cousin really worked for. Many agents employed by AISE worked undercover for the majority of their careers, given the level of corruption in Italy. To her, Matteo was the second son of her aunt and uncle, who worked at the winery along with his three brothers.
“We appreciate the support,” said Agent Casavetti when I joined him at a field office in Florence. He led me into a meeting room where I was stunned to see a woman who worked for Valentini already seated at the table.
“This is Agent Lucia Cesare,” he said when I raised a brow. “She asked to join us today to discuss the visitor who arrived at Valentini yesterday afternoon.”
She stood, shook my hand, and sat back down.
“I’m assuming you’re speaking of Tara Emsworth.”
“She knows her father’s whereabouts.”
I looked between her and Matteo, who was seated beside her. “Is that right? Do you have proof she does?”
Lucia shook her head. “She should be brought in for questioning.”
“That may be the way AISE would handle it, but I can assure you, it isn’t the way I intend to.
”
“This isn’t your jurisdiction.”
“Excuse me?”
“This is an AISE investigation.”
I looked at Matteo a second time. He hadn’t said a word, and it was pissing me the fuck off.
“If that’s what you think, this meeting is over.”
Matteo’s eyes opened wide. “What do you mean?”
“If you’re under the impression I answer to you, you’ve been grossly misinformed. You don’t want to do it my way, I’ll go above your head. Way above. I’ll have no problem continuing my investigation with or without AISE support.”
When I stood, Matteo held up his hand. “There is no need for this. AISE is more than happy to do it your way.”
“For now,” I heard Lucia mutter under her breath.
What the fuck? I pulled out the brief and thumbed through it. There was no mention of Agent Cesare being assigned to work undercover at Valentini. In fact, there was no mention of her at all.
I set the brief aside, rested both hands on the conference table, and leaned forward. “Why wasn’t I informed of Agent Cesare’s involvement?” I asked the question of Matteo, but didn’t take my eyes off Lucia.
“She is not working this investigation,” he responded.
“Then, what is she doing at Valentini?”
“The reason is unrelated.”
“The reason?”
“That Agent Cesare is undercover.”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t work that way. You tell me why she’s there, or again, your involvement ends now.”
“That information is classified.”
Without another word, I picked up the brief, shoved it in my bag, and walked out. I knew, without question, that Doc would back me on this. There was no way I could be working this op from Valentini when another investigation was occurring simultaneously. That they hadn’t shared anything about it, made it exponentially more dangerous for me.
I was almost to my car when I received a text from Matteo, telling me he’d received authorization to read me in.
“That’s better,” I muttered under my breath, turning to go back inside.
Halo (K19 Security Solutions Book 8) Page 4