If this place was so top secret, why bring me directly into it?
Naz said something heated again, and the conversation seemed to pick up where it had left off.
My eyes were trained across the great expanse of nothing and that area where the light had flickered before being swallowed by darkness again.
Something was out there.
Something dangerous enough to keep from this island, an island so far away from civilization that it took a plane or boat to get to it.
The light did its thing again, and I realized…it was turning around something. A building, maybe? A yard with a fence? It seemed so far away, so maybe that was why it was so faint, but it was definitely out there.
I was half listening to the conversation while I sipped my coffee, but when Omero said a name, Naz went completely silent.
Luca Fausti.
Whatever he was fighting for or against, he must have discovered in that moment that Luca had ordered it. I turned and Naz was staring at me, but I wasn’t sure if he was seeing me.
“What?” I asked.
It took him a moment to answer, and his green eyes were heavy. “Remember how I told you to tuck your heart in deep,uccellino selvatico?”
He waited until I nodded to continue.
“Now, you should forget you were born with one.”
SIXTEEN
AVA
Ominous…thatwas the only way to describe the feeling coming from Naz. I should have taken the feeling and made something of it—fear, like on that plane when I thought our wings were going to be clipped—but I had beenmefor so long, all I could summon up was curiosity.
This was what I did. What I lived for.
And Naz wanted me to forget I had a heart to do whatever I was going to have to do?
Done.
A heart was a literal thing to me. The vital organ all mammals have to pump blood.
But it still caused a fuck-ton of problems for everyone when it came to storingfeelings.
If I could have survived without it, I would have given mine up alooongtime ago.
Naz called me a bird, but I preferred to think of myself as a jellyfish, or a starfish, or even a sea anemone. I’d looked it up. None of those had hearts, and they were still doing all right for themselves.
“Uccellino selvatico.”
My attention automatically focused on Naz when he called me that. I’d been so caught up in my thoughts, I hadn’t noticed the movement around me. Omero was standing at the door waiting, and men were moving behind him. Preparing for something no doubt.
I ditched my cup in the trash and went to stand next to Naz. He grabbed my hand and held it in a vise grip. We followed behind Omero and a few of his men. The other men walked behind us.
We were led to another room with uniforms hanging up on a long wooden pegs, closet style. Polished boots were lined up on the floor, probably in a variety of sizes. One of the guards grabbed two, handing them to Naz and Beni. He looked me over, then searched through them. After he found what he was looking for, he handed me the uniform.
“A hat,” Naz said in a tone that could have frozen over all the water and created another Antarctica.
The guard searched the top shelf and handed him one. He nodded outside of the room and said something in Italian. Beni said something to Naz after the guard left, and then he left, leaving Naz and me alone.
“I know I’m not supposed to snoop,” I said as he started to undress. “But…can you at least give me a clue as to what the fuck is going on here?”
