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 forLa Famigliahere 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. Whenshe 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 hiredthem. 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.
