Lost in Italy

by Stacey Joy Netzel

  She hated the suspicion that ate at her earlier blind trust.

  Simone raised red-rimmed, tear filled brown eyes to Halli. The woman was still beautiful.

  “Please forgive me. I did not know—”

  “Oh, please, no—don’t apologize.” She hurried over, and after a slight hesitation, leaned to hug the grieving woman. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

  Fresh tears overflowed Simone’s lashes as Halli straightened, but she didn’t break down. “Thank you.” After a moment, she blew her nose and sniffed with determination. Looking from Halli to Trent, she said, “I will help any way I can. They must pay for what they have done.”

  Instead of being relieved, Halli’s stomach churned. She clasped her hands together, her knuckles white. If they exchanged the video for Ben, there might never be a way to prove the identity of Lorenzo’s real killer. How would Simone feel about that? Would she try to convince Trent to turn the evidence over to the authorities no matter what?

  “You’ve done enough already, we couldn’t ask for more,” Trent said.

  “You do not have to ask. I freely offer.”

  “Grazie.” Trent brushed his lips across her cheek before rising to his feet.

  Simone stood as well, and put a hand on his arm. “I will be out in a moment to properly bandage Rachel’s wound and administer the antibiotics.”

  Trent rubbed her shoulder. “Take your time, I know this is hard.”

  “Si, but better if I keep busy, or else I will stare at the door, wishing him to enter.”

  Halli preceded Trent out of the room, but stopped in the living room. After a glance to make sure Rachel wouldn’t overhear, she faced him. “What are you going to do?”

  “About…what?”

  “The video. The cops suspect you shot Lorenzo, and my video proves you didn’t.”

  Confusion drew his brows together. She hesitated voicing her suspicion outright, but for Ben’s sake, she had to know exactly where they stood. With effort, she put some backbone into her next words. “I need to know you’re not going to suddenly decide to save yourself at the last minute and my brother gets the short end of the stick.”

  Indefinable emotion flashed in his eyes, was eclipsed by anger, and then his expression went completely blank. “I cannot believe you just said that.”

  When he moved to brush past her, she caught his arm. It was his left arm, and his jaw clenched as he jerked free.

  “You’re the one who pointed out the possibility to Lapaglia,” she reminded. It took everything she had not to add, You’re the one who stole the card from my camera.

  “I need him to believe he’s got the most to lose here, or he’ll never make the trade. It’s as simple as that, sweetheart.”

  I, not we. Halli held her chin high even though she wanted to cry in despair. Trent stalked away, leaving her stranded in the same spot she’d started yesterday. Desperate for help but unsure who to trust. God, this was exactly why she hated being dependant on someone other than herself.

  A touch on her shoulder made her jump. Simone murmured some words in Italian, then said softly, “Do not worry. Trent is an honorable man. He will do what needs to be done.”

  Hardly reassuring coming from the woman who’d accused him of murder and pointed a gun at them less than an hour ago. Had she figured out yet that saving Ben meant giving up the evidence that could convict her lover’s killer? Halli followed her into the kitchen and saw Trent had picked up her camera. Had he put the card back?

  Please, let him have put it back.

  “Explain for me what is going on,” Simone requested as she started Rachel on IV antibiotics.

  His gaze flicked to hers for a split second before shifting to Simone. Halli read his shuttered expression and spoke before he could.

  “Yes, please, explain for all of us. Or are you going to pull the ‘it’s safer if you don’t know’ bullshit again?”

  He glared at her, and again, she read his expression. Pain in the ass.

  Jerk, she silently replied.

  He set aside the camera, faced Simone, and boosted himself up to sit on the kitchen counter. Halli frowned at his presumptuous choice of location, but Simone didn’t give him a second glance as she began to apply a new bandage to Rachel’s leg.

  “My brother came over here about five months ago to film a segment for his latest documentary on the black market trade of exotic and endangered animals,” Trent began. “As you know, two months later, he was found dead in my villa and the police ruled it a suicide. Blamed it on his depression, said he wasn’t taking his medication. But I talked to him that morning and he was fine. I grew up with him, I knew the signs.”

  Halli’s chest tightened in unavoidable sympathy. The combination of grief and anger that’d appeared on paper in his journal was twice as potent when it bled into his gravelly voice.

  “Still, I questioned my judgment, wondered if maybe I had missed something…until I remembered a conversation we’d had a few days prior. He’d gotten footage of a smuggler based in Lenno importing illegal animals from Switzerland, via Lake Lugano.”

  “Alrigo Lapaglia,” Halli stated.

  Trent nodded. “Sean was excited about following the lead and I was on location on the last day of a hellish shoot that was three weeks behind schedule. I barely listened, gave him a virtual head pat, told him his film would be great, and went on my way.”

  “This was revealed to the police?” Simone asked the question before Halli could.

  “Yes. And their response is what started me digging deeper. All Sean’s camera equipment had been confiscated at the beginning of the police investigation—if you’d even call what they did investigating. When I requested everything be returned, there wasn’t a single bit of film for the two months my brother had been in the country. His notes, contact list, cell phone, all of it was gone. Sean was meticulous about stuff like that. He filled notebooks for every film he ever made, even as a kid. So I laid it all out for Lorenzo to see what he thought.”

  Simone’s hands paused over Rachel’s leg as she looked up at Trent. “And he offered to help you?”

  “Yes.”

  She took a shaky breath. “He has been so unpredictable and on edge these last few months. I knew he’d started something, but he never told me it was with you.”

  Trent frowned. “When I asked, he seemed happy to help. He said retirement wasn’t what he expected.”

  “Si. For years he planned to buy a boat and fish away the ‘good years’.” Fresh tears gathered in her eyes. “But the last time I asked him about it, he told me to mind my own business.”

  “I’m sorry, Simone,” Trent said softly. “If I’d have known…”

  She shook her head. “It is not your fault. Please, continue.”

  He scrubbed his hands over his face and raked his fingers through his hair with a deep sigh. “We started the investigation about a week after Sean’s death, and it didn’t take long to realize these guys had a network of connections extending beyond what we’d ever imagined. The market for these animals is in the billions.”

  “What kinds of animals?” Halli asked.

  “Tigers, leopards, monkeys, lizards, birds—you name it. Endangered and exotic animals are the third largest smuggling commodity in the world, right behind illegal drugs and firearms.”

  Quiet up until now, Rachel said, “Really? I had no clue.”

  “Many people don’t. Lapaglia’s got guys scattered around both lakes and the entire Lombardy Region. Local police, town officials, Carabinieri—and that’s not counting his regular guys.”

  “Or the guard at the consulate this morning,” Halli added.

  “That’s one we didn’t know about,” Trent admitted. “Anyway, we got word a shipment was due in sometime this week. Lorenzo went into the villa wired, posing as a buyer, hoping to get some names on tape. I didn’t like the idea, but he insisted, said just because he was retired didn’t mean he’d lost his touch for undercover work.”


  A sad smile touched Simone’s lips. She finished with Rachel’s bandage and pulled out a syringe, attached a needle, and stuck it into an upside down bottle of clear medicine.

  “Unfortunately,” Trent continued, “one of the officers working with Lapaglia had transferred to Lorenzo’s district just before he retired. He showed up at the villa yesterday morning, blew Lorenzo’s cover, and…well…”

  “And that’s where I come in,” Halli supplied so Trent wouldn’t have to say the obvious. “I was filming swans on the lake and caught more than I bargained for in the background.”

  Simone listened as Halli continued with a brief rundown of events leading up to their arrival on her doorstep. Trent interjected a comment here or there, but for the most part was quiet. Halli noticed he leaned forward every few minutes to look into the living room. She guessed he was watching the clock. Waiting for Ben’s call, just like her. She kept taking, trying not to think of the minutes crawling by.

  Simone returned her attention to the syringe in her hand. She tapped it with her finger, squirted out a small amount of liquid, and approached Trent.

  “Renzo’s cousin, Luca, works for the Carabinieri here in Milan,” she said. “He might be able to help you.”

  “Maybe.” Trent’s attention zeroed in on the needle. “What’s that for?”

  “Antibiotics.”

  “Don’t you just have some pills you can give me?”

  “Discretion has limits. I secured what was at hand.”

  His jaw clenched, released. “Right. Sorry. You need my shirt off, or can I just push up my sleeve?”

  “You can drop your pants.”

  His mouth opened and just as quick, clamped shut again. With a sigh, he slid down off the counter and reached to unbutton his jeans. Heat crept up Halli’s neck at the thought of seeing his ass right there in the kitchen. She averted her head as he turned around, only to find Rachel watching the proceedings with unapologetic interest.

  Halli couldn’t help another look of her own. Big deal, right? She’d seen it before. Larger than life on the big screen, no less. Unfortunately—or thankfully?—she wasn’t quite sure, Simone’s body blocked her view.

  “Relax,” Simone instructed Trent.

  A moment later, she stepped back and Halli got a glimpse of one taut cheek before he yanked up his briefs and pants. When he turned around mid-zip his gaze happened to catch on hers. One corner of his mouth lifted in a smirk.

  It wasn’t fair. He didn’t look the least bit uncomfortable, and here she sat, caught looking, and feeling like her butt had been exposed.

  She abruptly stood and stalked down the hall to the bathroom. Anything to escape his scrutiny, which she still felt all the way down the hall. Inside the privacy of the small room, Halli splashed cold water on her face a few times before wiping dry. It helped the heat in her body, but not the uncertainty frazzling her nerve endings.

  Exhausted from the events of only this half day, she sat on the toilet lid and buried her face in her hands. She wasn’t going to cry. She’d meant it when she vowed to quit being a victim. She just needed a moment to fortify herself and put things in perspective. Take a few deep breaths. Form a new plan.

  And how have all those plans worked out for you so far?

  She ran her fingers though her hair and dropped her hands onto her lap at that sobering question. Who was she kidding? Any plan she made needed input from Trent, especially if the video was in his pocket. They had to talk before Alrigo called back.

  If he called back. She refused to think about that possibility and forced herself to her feet. Not that Trent would be very receptive to her input right now, but none of them had the luxury of time.

  Back in the kitchen, her gaze was drawn to him like metal to a magnet. A look of concern in his eyes surprised her, but he straightened from where he leaned against the counter and turned toward the sink. Away from her.

  Not far from his hand rested Simone’s gun and the cell phone. Both ready for use in the blink of an eye.

  An uncomfortable ache settled in the region of her chest at this evidence of his willingness to help when he had so much to lose. Not to mention all he’d done already. Without her asking. Heck, without her even knowing she needed him most of the time.

  She knew her responsibility to her brother, but she owed Trent a debt of monumental proportions. He’d saved her life three—no, now it was four—times. Not to mention Rachel. The only thing that could ever hope to repay a portion of that debt was the video that proved his innocence. Did she dare let him keep it?

  If he refused, her trust in him would be secure.

  If he accepted, her obligation would be wiped clean and they’d have to find another way to save Ben. Maybe with the help of Lorenzo’s cousin Simone had mentioned. That thought brought no reassurance.

  Until a glance at Rachel spotlighted the right choice, if not the solution she desired.

  An exchange was Ben’s only chance. The video wasn’t hers and it certainly wasn’t Trent’s. She owed it to her brother, and her sister, both of whom had protected and watched over her ten times more than their parents ever had. They were all each of them had.

  So why, with the decision effectively taken out of her hands, did guilt sharpen the pain in her heart?

  The ring of the cell phone shattered the oppressive, expectant silence. Everyone froze. On the second ring, Trent simultaneously answered and spun around to face Halli. His gaze locked on hers as he spoke.

  With a curious light in his eyes that made her heart pound, he walked forward.

  Extended the phone.

  “Your brother wants to talk to you.”

  Chapter 17

  “Ben?”

  An unbelievable tide of relief swept through Ben at the sound of his baby sister’s small, hopeful, shaky whisper. “Halli. You okay?”

  “I’m okay.”

  Ben pictured her tear-filled blue eyes and his eyes squeezed tight like his heart.

  “How are you?” she asked.

  He’d exchanged handcuffed to the bed for tied to a chair, but kept that information to himself so the worry in her voice didn’t increase. “I’m fine. Where’s Rachel?”

  “She’s okay, she’s here with us.”

  More relief, just as profound. The pain in his swollen right eye was nothing now that he knew both his sisters were safe. He opened his eyes and lifted his narrowed gaze to the man who’d caused so much misery. Alrigo’d had Zucchi give Ben another round of bruises after Rachel’s escape, but it was worth it knowing the man’s plans had been screwed yet again. Until that bastard with claw marks on his face came in and gloated about shooting his sister.

  “Is she hurt?” Ben asked Halli.

  “She was shot in the leg, but we got help. She’ll be okay.”

  He took a deep breath and began speaking fast. “Listen to me, Hal, you and Rach stay out of this now. Don’t worry about me and don’t you dare come—”

  Lapaglia pulled the phone away from Ben.

  “—anywhere near them!”

  Ben glared as the man listened to his sister’s voice on the other end of the line. A grin spread his thin lips across his darkened face. “Hello, Halliwell. Clever escape back in Torno, carina.” He chuckled, then his grin faded fast. “Careful, Tomlin,” Lapaglia warned with soft menace. “Sounds like you have come to care for the girl.”

  The man’s expression of pure pissed-off matched his earlier one when he’d explained why he needed Ben to speak to Halli.

  When Eva had brought him breakfast shortly after their first conversation, he’d worked on charming information from her and succeeded when she’d let it slip that the movie star was the man helping Halli. He had no clue how a guy like Trent Tomlin had become involved in this crazy situation, but would be eternally grateful for the help the man gave his sisters.

  Rachel’s rescue made it at least three times Tomlin had bested Lapaglia in the past twenty-four hours. No wonder the Italian was pissed. Ben hoped to God
he got a chance to shake Tomlin’s hand when this was over.

  “You have your proof, now we make our deal,” Lapaglia said. “We meet tonight. On the lake.”

  Ben waited to hear details of this deal and the meeting, but was distracted when Nino and Eva entered the room. He tried to catch Eva’s eye, but beyond one glance, she coldly ignored him. So different from the woman who’d gently washed the blood away after Zucchi finished using him as a punching bag.

  Nino said something in Italian and Lapaglia turned to him with a frown. He barked something into the phone, then held a hand over the mouth piece. The three of them conferred softly, their speech rapid and quite heated. Eva threw up her hands in the universal sign of frustration. Lapaglia began to raise the phone, but Nino spoke again.

  Both Alrigo and Eva went still. Lapaglia’s face registered interest; Eva’s surprise. After a few more exchanges, Lapaglia cut a hand through the air and lifted Ben’s phone to speak in his heavily accented English once more.

  “I have determined your offer is inadequate. If Halliwell wishes to see her brother alive again, I will not only require the video, but additionally, a sum of one million US dollars. Cash.”

  Ben’s draw dropped in shock. A million dollars? “We don’t have that kind of money!” he protested.

  Lapaglia ignored him, concentrating on the phone in his hand. After a moment, his grin made another appearance. “That is precisely what Benjamin just advised. But you, my friend, have sufficient funds to make the deal.”

  Again Ben sat in amazement. He actually expected Trent Tomlin to pay a million dollars for a complete stranger? The man may have been nice so far, but nobody would be willing to help out that much.

  So what then, with no one to pay? His parents were in prison. He had no rich friends, and no one besides his sisters would value his life that high. They certainly couldn’t hope to come up with the money. Lapaglia’s next words made him wonder if he’d read his mind.

  “You may not believe Benjamin is worth more than a short video of questionable evidence, but I am positive Halliwell would agree with the value I have put on his head.”