Lost in Italy (4 page)

She drew back, then followed his gaze to see a large, dark blue SUV-type vehicle up ahead on the side of the road. Two uniformed men stood at the rear, alongside the pavement.  One waved a red and white paddle and the other—Halli’s heart went nuts all over again—had a very big, very scary-looking gun slung around his neck and shoulders.  The kind the bad guys used in the movies.

“Oh my God, who are they?” she whispered.

“
Carabinieri
.”

Even the name sounded scary. 
Instinctively she cast Trent in the role of protector and leaned closer.
“Are they bad?”

“Italian military police.”

He flicked on his right turn signal and downshifted to pull over in front of their vehicle with a few short jerks.  Halli sat up straighter at the word
police
.  Thoughts of protection quickly transferred from Trent to the armed military men.

“
It looks like it’s just a random checkpoint,” Trent added.  The tightening of his fingers on the steering wheel and flexing of his forearm muscles belied the casual statement.  “You keep quiet, I’ll handle this.”

Unable to believe her luck, she glanced behind at the two men approaching, then whirled around and reached for the door handle.  Trent’s hand encircled her wrist before she could open the door.

“I said I’ll handle it,” he warned in a low, controlled tone.

“Let me go or I’ll scream.”

She pulled against his hold, but his grip tightened.  “Don’t do this, for both our sakes.”

An unexpected vulnerability in his voice made her pause.  He removed the mirrored glasses and their gazes locked for a timeless moment.  Her breath caught as she stared into the beautiful hazel eyes that made women’s hearts beat madly all around the world.

Darn if they didn’t have the same affect on hers.

The voices of the two officers reached her ears.  She pulled again and this time Trent let go.  She reached for the handle once more, but her hand wavered.

No
.  She would not be sucked in like a besotted fool.

“Halli.  Please.”

The husky, desperation-tinged entreaty hit its mark. 
Darn him
.

But, then again, he didn’t know her.  He couldn’t know she found it impossible to say no when someone pleaded with such raw, naked honesty.  Could it be he was telling the truth and she should trust him?  Having been conned by her own parents growing up, she was never quite sure when to trust her instincts.

Yet...those had been real bullets whizzing past her ear as he sped through the narrow streets of Lenno like a maniac.  The three holes in his windshield proved that.  Did they also prove that he probably
had
saved her life?

She glanced back over her shoulder.  The officer with the gun stood back a few feet, weapon not quite raised, but ready none-the-less.  The one with the paddle stopped next to the driver’s side of the convertible, one hand on the side arm at his waist.

“
D
ocumenti
, per favore
.”

Halli met Trent’s gaze once more.  The plea in his voice reflected in his expression.  She gave a silent sigh and released the handle to sit back in her seat.  A flash of relief darkened Trent’s eyes before he removed his cap and turned a smile to the officers.

“
Si, si
, I got it right here.”

The first officer’s eyes widened and he let loose an excited stream of Italian.  The second relaxed his hold on his gun and stepped forward with a big smile.  Halli caught
Trent Tomlin
and
Shain West
.  Obviously, they were familiar with the movie star.  She watched Trent pump each man’s hand with an aw-shucks grin.  When the officer holding the big gun beamed at her, she thought about her similar reaction not that long ago.  She cringed inside even as she smiled back at the man.

Had she been this star-struck?

She’d stuttered and blushed like a virgin teenager.  Yeah, she’d been pathetic.

Squaring her shoulders, she decided it didn’t matter.  Now that she’d gotten to know him a little, she was over his celebrity status.  Humiliation firmly set aside, she focused on the conversation between the three men.

Trent Tomlin really was one hell of an actor.  He spoke a combination of English and Italian, just enough, apparently, to bond nice and tight, so that when the paddle officer finally turned his attention to the bullet holes in the windshield, Trent laughed it off with a grimace.

“There was a goof up—
un spaglio
—at the movie set. 
Domani,
they will change the glass
.
”

“
Domani
?”

“
Si
, tomorrow,
domani.
”

The other officer pointed to the rear of the car and asked another question.  Trent nodded and spouted more words she didn’t understand.  When the officer looked at her again, she kept smiling, not sure what else to do.

One guy winked at Trent and they shared a laugh before he extended a small notebook and a pen.  Halli got the feeling she should be insulted, but not a word had been spoken.  Trent flipped to the back of the book and signed one piece of paper and the cardboard with a flourish.  After a couple slaps on the shoulder and more handshakes, the officers returned to their vehicle.

Halli glanced at Trent, expecting to see a triumphant grin for his success in fooling the men.  The act certainly had been impressive.  Instead, he leaned his head back, eyes closed, no smugness to be found.  The misery etched in his features made her heart skip an empathetic beat.

Before she could do more than blink, he blew out a deep breath, straightened and shifted the convertible into gear.  She choked down any sympathy, grimly reminded by his hands fisted on the wheel and his now inscrutable expression that while he may be known around the world, he was still a stranger.

One very capable of deception.

He donned the hat and glasses once more, effectively shutting her out.  The wind whipped her hair in her face as he accelerated and she raised a hand to brush strands from her eyes.  Other than a brief glance to her side of the car, he kept his gaze trained straight ahead, his jaw tight, face blank.

Unease rippled through her.  The ground alongside the convertible sped by at a dizzying rate and she cursed the stupidity that had convinced her to trust her unreliable instincts.

“So, what now?” she asked over the rush of wind.

“Now we switch cars at my house, find a battery, and see if you caught a murder on that video, sweetheart.”

Chapter 2

“There!  Ben, that’s it, that’s the street!”

Rachel’s shout vibrated Ben’s eardrums.  He cranked the steering wheel to the right and stepped on the gas.  Halli was going to kill them.

Please let her be okay
.

He recalled Rachel’s gasp when she’d asked Halli a direct question, then looked into the back seat to see why she didn’t answer.  Crazy thoughts raced through his head when he’d checked the empty space, and Rachel’s horrified exclamation that he might have dragged her when he floored the little rental car to take advantage of a break in the fast-moving traffic didn’t help his guilt.

Why hadn’t they realized there was never a third door slam?  Since discovering her missing, the distinct sound of only two doors reverberated in his head on an endless loop.

Worse than that, they hadn’t noticed her absence for almost ten minutes.  But Halli never had been much of a talker, and she’d been sulking about her vetoed itinerary off and on since they’d landed.  Her silence in the back seat hadn’t even registered between the encroaching jetlag and his concentration on the narrow, unfamiliar roads.  Much as Rachel wanted her hair dryer converter, he’d wanted a shower and a nap and some food.

Instead, he’d lost his baby sister!

Now he felt like a complete jerk, not even worthy to be a big brother.  He prayed they’d find her, safe and sound, right where they’d left her.  And from now on, they’d follow her obsessive itinerary.  If only they’d done that in the first place, none of this would’ve happened.  Once again, all his fault.

Brake lights flashed in front of him and he rode up on the vehicle’s back end.  Swerving back and forth, he saw traffic was backed up and pounded an impatient fist on the wheel.  “Come on.”

“She’s gonna be there,” Rachel whispered.  “She’ll be there.  Pissed off, I’m sure, but okay.  She has to be.”

Ben glanced at his watch to see they’d left her behind almost thirty-five minutes ago.  Halli was smart enough to wait where they’d left her.  Besides, she didn’t have the guts to leave all on her own.  Much as he loved his sister, reality was, she’d never been able to overcome her desperate need for complete order to combat the effects of their rootless childhood.  He and Rachel had agreed to try and show her on this trip how freeing spontaneity could be, but not by leaving her behind.

Around the next bend, Lake Como would suddenly appear, like the last time when its shimmering glory with the mountainous background took his breath away and he’d swerved out of traffic to park on the wide sidewalk.  And it did, only this time his lungs seized not from the beauty of the lake, but at the sight of a crowd of people, a half dozen police cars and an ambulance.

With a body on a stretcher.

“
Oh my God, Ben
.”  Rachel’s hands flew to her mouth, muffling a sob.

His heart pounded against his ribs.  A swift jerk of the wheel landed them on the sidewalk again.  He barely slammed the vehicle in park and ripped the keys from the ignition before both he and Rachel were out.

Bam.  Bam. 
Two doors.  Not three.  The sound mocked him as they shoved through curious onlookers.  Metal teeth of the car keys bit into his palm.

A uniformed officer caught Rachel’s arm, but Ben kept going and made it close enough to see the person on the stretcher had shorter, much darker hair than Halli.  And it was a man.  Relief eased the tightness in his chest.

“It’s not her,” he called back to Rachel.  He pushed forward again, scanning the crowd, concentrating on the spot where Halli had been filming those damn swans.  Where was she?

A hand clamped onto his arm.  “
Scusa signori
, but for who are you searching?”

Ben turned toward the heavy Italian accent and met a pair of dark eyes that matched the hard voice behind the question.  Instinctively, he pulled against the officer’s hold.  “My sister.  We accidentally left her behind—”

The man’s grip tightened.  “You are American.”

“Yeah.”

“Come with me.”  The officer pulled Ben through the crowd, close to the spot where Halli last stood.  A head taller than most, the officer lifted his chin and nodded to someone across the chaos.

Ben yanked his arm free as he looked around.  “Do you know where my sister is?”

“What is her name?” the man asked as another officer escorted Rachel to Ben’s side.

Rachel moved close and clung to his arm.  “Where is she?  Did you find her?”

“Not yet.”  Ben turned back to the two men watching them.  “My sister is about five-foot-three. She’s got brown hair—”

“It’s more auburn, with red highlights,” Rachel interjected.  “And blue eyes.  Please, you have to help us find her.”  Tears began to stream down her face.  A breeze from the lake stuck strands of her blonde hair to her wet cheeks.  “We stopped to look at the lake, and she was filming some stupid swans, but we wanted to find our hotel.  She might have been getting into the car when we left.  We thought the ambulance was—”  Another sob drowned out her words as Rachel buried her face against Ben’s shoulder.

“Where is the camera?” asked the light-haired officer who’d come over with Rachel.

Ben frowned at the strange question.  “Probably still with her.”

“At what hotel are you staying?” the first officer demanded.

“The Grand Hotel in Menaggio,” Rachel answered.  “But we haven’t checked in yet.”

“Maybe she will go to the hotel,” the blond said, but more to the other officer than to them.

“I don’t think so,” Ben interjected.  Two pairs of eyes pinned him in place and he shifted restlessly.  “We weren’t gone that long.  It seems strange that she didn’t wait for us here.”

“We have taxi cabs here in
Italia
, eh?”  The dark haired officer’s tone indicated a less than favorable opinion of tourists.

“You don’t know my sister.  She’s not very confident by herself,” Ben explained.  “I can’t imagine her trying to find her way around all alone.”

“Do you know somebody here in
Italia
?  You meet friends maybe?  Maybe she call someone?”

Rachel and Ben both shook their heads as Rachel said, “She doesn’t have a cell phone with her.  We’re here on vacation.  We just flew in this morning.”