“Certo. Subito,” he says with a nod, his jaw clenched tight as he ends the call and meets my eyes.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, a thousand irrational fears take flight in my mind.
“It was Luca,” he says, making his way around the table. “Steven’s been arrested in Pesaro.”
He grabs his jacket off the back of his chair and pulls the keys out of his pocket. Steven is a jackass. Only last week he received a warning from Urbino’s carabinieri for being in the fountain and the week before he sprayed a fire extinguisher through Lindsay’s open dorm window screen, but no one could prove it was him. He should have been sent home by now.
I push my chair back and James stops and meets my gaze.
“Stay,” he says. “You have questions that need answers.”
I ignore him and look around the table, giving an all-encompassing wave.
“I’ll see you all tomorrow?” I ask. “Nina, thank you as always.”
There’s a murmur of agreement and well wishes, then Nina throws me a wink and shoos us off.
We don’t speak until we get into the car.
“You really don’t need to come,” he starts. “You needed to ask about—”
“Stop, James. We’ve had this fight already. Besides, I want to.”
“It’s an hour away and we have to pick up Steven’s passport first,” he says.
“I don’t care. The Batphone rang so we are in this together.”
He smiles over at me but still doesn’t start the car. I lift a brow.
“Shouldn’t we be hurrying?”
James’s smile widens and my heart does a somersault. The silence around us feels pleasantly heavy.
“I think Steven could benefit from a little extra time in the cell.”
I laugh and his gaze falls to my mouth. I stop laughing, forgetting what the hell was funny in the first place. In fact, there’s nothing in my mind but the memory of that kiss in the garden and how badly I want more. I turn my body and lean back against the door, watching the way the muscle in his neck and jaw move as he grinds his teeth. If he doesn’t start the car I’m going to do something reckless, like climb over the gear shift and—
“We should go,” he says thickly, eyes still on me.
“Should we?”
He breathes out, lifts the keys, and puts them in the ignition. The engine revs to life and I relax into the seat, realizing that I have an hour to study James’s profile and the way his strong hands work the gearshift. I put down my window and let the night air rush over my bare arms, but the space around us still feels stifling. His fingers graze the outside of my thigh as he shifts into second and I tip my head back against the seat and shut my eyes. It’s going to be a long night.
VENTISETTE
James
By the time we get to Pesaro, my skin feels freshly slapped from Ava’s eyes studying me for over an hour. Despite the fact that we have a lot to unload between us, our silence in the car is like a physical force pressing down and in on us, heightening every thought of what I’d do to her if I just pulled the car over into one of the many moonlit fields we pass along the autostrada. Thank goodness for manual transmission, because if my hand wasn’t occupied with the gearshift it might have found its way up her thigh and—
“James,” she says, and when I swivel my gaze to her it’s obvious it’s not the first time she’s said my name.
She pulls her lips inward to suppress a smile.
“Should we get out?”
I wonder how long we’ve been parked here. The entrance to the Sezione polizia stradale Pesaro is dimly lit with the municipality’sred-and-blue flag dangling just above. I turn off the car and start the debriefing.
“Let me do the talking,” I start.
