Nacho Figueras Presents (20 page)

Enzo looked at her. “I don't know. You made Antonia into who she is today, and since I am awfully fond of how she turned out, I don't think you could have been entirely terrible.”

This time Benny laughed. “So, you and my daughter, huh?”

Enzo nodded. “
Sí
. Me and your daughter.”

Benny shook her head. “You don't know what you're getting into. This family will eat you both alive.”

Enzo shrugged. “Perhaps, but I'm willing to take the risk. There is no life for me without Antonia.”

Benny looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, and then looked down and slowly rubbed her fingers over the back of her other hand. “I'm getting arthritis,” she admitted shyly. She sighed again. “I really did love Carlos, you know. And he loved me.”

“I believe that.”

“I was very young. Much younger than him. But we were like”—she made an exploding gesture with her hands—“fireworks, you know? I met him at a bar in the city. I was working as a cocktail waitress, putting myself through art school. He took me back to the hotel with him that night and we spent a week in bed.”

She smiled to herself, remembering.

“But you know, it wasn't just sex. It was like we never ran out of things to talk about, either. We fascinated each other. There was chemistry between us, of course, but it was more than that. I thought, for a while, that we were actual soul mates.”

Enzo nodded.

“When I got pregnant, he told me he was going to leave Pilar, that he wanted to start a new life with me. I thought I had done it, you know? I had found this amazing man, and we were going to have this beautiful child together, and I had my art and he had his horses, and we were going to have the most wonderful life…”

She reached over to claim her drink back from Enzo and took a sip. “But he didn't leave her,” she said blankly. “All through the pregnancy, he said he would. But he never did.”

“I'm sorry,” said Enzo simply.

She nodded. “He only saw Antonia once, just after she was born.” She smiled. “Noni was the most beautiful baby. You can't imagine.”

He smiled in return. “I think I can imagine.”

“I had already given up on Carlos. I knew he would never leave Pilar. That his family here was the family he had chosen. But when he held Noni, something happened. I watched him fall instantly in love. He looked at her in a way that I had never seen him look at anyone before.” She laughed bitterly. “Certainly not me, at least. He looked…greedy, almost. That was when I knew that he would take her from me if he could. He didn't want me, but he wanted her. And that's when I knew we had to run.”

She shook her head and rubbed between her eyes. “I know that Noni's childhood was hard in lots of ways. I was probably not always as on top of it as I maybe should have been. But at least we were together, right? A child needs her mother. I mean, what would she have been here? Can you imagine Carlos just coming home and plunking this kid in the kitchen and saying, ‘Hey, boys, here's your new sister! Hey, Pilar, here's my bastard daughter!' You think Pilar would have just smiled and opened up her arms and embraced her?” She snorted. “Except that she did, I guess, as it turns out. But the old man had to die first before she was willing.”

She looked at Enzo, seeming to take his measure with her eyes. “You're not one of them, are you? You're not part of this whole crazy family dynasty thing?”

Enzo shook his head.

“So, what do you think? Do you think Noni is strong enough to deal with all this? All this money, this insane lifestyle…I just feel like it will ruin her. I'm afraid she'll get sucked into something she's not equipped to handle. She could lose a piece of her soul, you know?”

Enzo thought for a moment. “I was part of a family like that once,” he said hesitantly. “I lost myself in the way that you worry will happen to Antonia. I understand what you're afraid of, because I think, if you had asked me that question even a year ago, I would have agreed with you. That you can't be part of something like this and not be changed for the worse. But Noni is strong. She already knows who she is. And this family—Pilar and Alejandro and Sebastian, Kat and Georgia—they are not what you think.”

She looked doubtful and opened her mouth to speak, but he held up his hand.

“You were right about Carlos. Carlos was about the money and the image and the power. He was about winning and he cared very deeply about how people saw him. I think maybe you were right not to let him take Noni. From what I have heard, Jandro and Sebastian did not have the easiest of childhoods. Now that Carlos is gone…this family is somehow different. Did you ever meet Victoria?”

She shook her head. “No, but Carlos talked about her often.”

He nodded. “I only knew her for a brief time, when I first started working for the Del Campos. But she was an extraordinary woman. While she was alive, Carlos, well, he was obviously not perfect, but she held him in check. After she died, he just seemed to lose his way. He ran wild. The family fell apart.”

He looked out the windows at the dark summer night, considering. “Now, all these years later, it's like she's here again somehow. I mean, not her literal presence but her…spirit, her influence. When I see the Del Campo family together now…” He smiled. “Well, I think I would like to be a part of it.”

He looked at Benny. She had tears in her eyes.

“As long as Noni and I are here, Benny, there will always be a place for you here, too. If you want it.”

Noni reached out and grasped his hand. “Thank you,” she whispered.

N
oni walked through the house, a plate of cake in her hand, trying to find Max and Jacob.

She wasn't quite ready to face her mother yet, though she knew it was inevitable. She thought that Enzo would be able to handle her, at least for a little while longer.

She smiled to herself. The man tamed wild horses, after all; even Benny Black should be easy compared to that.

Noni had already checked all over downstairs with no luck and was starting to worry a bit, but then she rounded a corner and saw her dogs, tails wagging, sniffing at the closed door to Sebastian and Alejandro's childhood bedroom.

“Good girls,” she murmured, giving them each a little lick of frosting off her finger. She knocked on the door as she entered. “Jake? Max? You guys in here?”

They were standing by a half-packed suitcase on Max's bed. Max looked as if he had been crying, and Jake was running his hands through his hair in an exasperated way. When he saw Noni, he quickly reached into the suitcase and picked something up. “Finish up, Max,” he said to his son before he turned back to Noni.

Noni looked at him and a sliver of fear struck her heart. “What are you guys doing? Why are you packing?”

“Daddy says we have to leave now. Before the cake even!” Max blurted as he carried over some clothes from the bureau.

Noni handed him the cake. “Well, here, I can take care of that, at least.” She smiled at Jacob, trying not to show her worry. “Leave? To go where? What's going on?”

Jacob bent to retrieve a pair of Max's shoes from under the bed. “I can't do it, Noni,” he said quietly. “I can't go to jail.”

Noni's eyes shot to Max, worried about what the boy was hearing. She was relieved to see that he seemed distracted by his cake and a handheld video game he had found on the floor. “What…what do you mean? I thought we agreed—”

“No,” said Jacob as he angrily threw the shoes into the suitcase. “You came up with a plan where everything worked out the way you wanted. You get Max, and you get your money, and you get to stay with Enzo. And I…I get conveniently shipped off so I'm out of everyone's way.”

“No, that's not fair. That's not what…I want to help you.”

He slammed the suitcase shut and locked it. “Oh,” he said, “you still can.”

She didn't notice the gun at first. He kept it very close to his body, hidden in his sleeve. After a glance over at his son, Jacob shook his sleeve back long enough for her to see it was pointed straight at her. She gasped, jumping back in terror.

He shook his head and whispered, “Stay calm. I know you don't want to scare Max.”

“Jake, what are you doing? This is insane.”

“I didn't want it to happen this way, Noni. I really do care about you. If you had just gone with the plan—”

“The plan was never going to…to…work,” she stuttered.

He shrugged. “Well, now we'll never know, will we?” He gestured at her with the gun. “Get out of the way. We've got a new plan now.”

Enzo and Benny were still sitting together in the sunroom when Pilar burst in. “
Perdon a mé
,” she said. She was a bit breathless. “Did you talk to Noni? Or Jacob or Max? One of the servers said they just saw them all drive away in Noni's truck.”

Enzo froze. He felt an icy flood of fear fill his limbs. What if Noni had suddenly changed her mind? What if he had lost her after all?

Then he heard Benny gasp.

He turned to her. She was chalk white.

“Oh no,” she whispered. “You guys, Jacob…Jacob is in trouble with the law…some drug thing…and he was so upset that Noni wouldn't…” She took a deep breath. “I told him that maybe if he just tried to talk it through with her, they could find a way to fix things. I didn't think he'd actually ever…Oh God, I think that he might have done something terrible.”

N
oni was relieved when Max finally fell asleep. She could feel the gun pressed into her side through Jacob's pocket as she drove, and she had been too terrified to answer the little boy's chatter and questions. She'd felt like she was hearing him from underwater.

“I don't understand what we're doing,” she said to Jacob. She tried to keep her voice calm and matter of fact. She didn't want him to know how scared she really was. “Can you at least explain it to me?”

They weren't heading out of the Hamptons like she assumed they would be. Instead, he had told her to drive to the Shelter Island Ferry, and now they were in line to get on the boat.

“You don't need to understand,” he said. “It will all be fine in a little while.”

“Listen.” She pinched herself to keep her voice from shaking. “I know you're scared. I know that you are under an incredible amount of stress. But…it's me, Jake. You don't have to use a gun on me. We can talk this through.”

He shook his head. “I tried to talk it through. You didn't listen.”

She slowly pulled onto the ferry and turned off the car. The ticket taker started making his way down the line, collecting money. He walked up to the window.

“Don't say a thing,” hissed Jacob. “Don't even look at him. Just roll down your window.”

She rolled down her window, careful to keep her eyes in front of her, even when the man said hello.

“Hey,” grunted Jacob in return. “One way.” He reached across her and handed the man some money and then took the ticket.

“Roll it back up,” he whispered.

She looked at him. “Please,” she said.

He gestured at the window. She rolled it back up.

He met her eyes quickly and then looked away. “I know this seems bad,” he said. His voice took on a wheedling tone. “But I'm really doing this for Max. He needs you. I need you. We can't do this without you.”

“Don't you dare use Max as an excuse,” Noni spit out, suddenly enraged. “That's bullshit. You're delusional if you think you're doing Max any favors by dragging him into this. There are a million other ways we could fix this.”

He shook his head violently. “Not without me going to jail. Not without Max losing his father. You of all people should know what it's like not to have your father.”

She flinched as if he had struck her. “This is nothing like what happened to me. Nothing. He doesn't have to lose you. I told you I would—”

His face flamed red. “What kind of father would I be from behind bars? What would that do to Max? Seeing his dad in prison?” He poked the gun into her ribs. “Just drive,” he said tonelessly.

Enzo sat in line for the ferry, feeling like he might shatter into a thousand pieces. He was sure he was going to go crazy with the wait.

Benny hadn't known where Jacob kept the boat, but she knew that he had managed to get one. The Del Campo brothers and their wives started searching in Southampton. They had driven to the nearest dock, where they kept their yacht, and Hendy, Pilar, and Benny had stayed behind to talk to the police once they arrived. But Enzo, remembering the other night when he had seen Noni on Shelter Island, had a hunch about where he needed to go.

The ferry slowly docked, bumping up against the pilings. The ticket taker stood in the front and started waving the cars off in what seemed like an excruciatingly sluggish way.

“
!Vamos!
Come on!
¡Vamos!
” Enzo exploded, hitting the steering wheel with his hands.

Finally, the gate was lifted and he was waved on. It took all his willpower not to put the pedal to the floor.

“Hey,” he said when the ticket taker came to his window. “Do you happen to remember an old blue Chevy truck getting on recently? There would have been a blond woman, a man with a beard, and a little boy with red curls in it.”

The ticket taker nodded. “Actually, yeah. They were on the last trip round. Cute kid with glasses, right? And a real pretty woman.”

Enzo felt his heart speed up. “Did they…did they seem okay?”

The ticket taker wrinkled his forehead. “Well, I guess so. The woman didn't really say anything. The guy just paid and took the ticket and then they all stayed in the truck on the way over. Is everything all right?”

Enzo swallowed. “I hope so,” he said hoarsely.

Jacob ordered Noni to carry Max onto the boat. It was a small sailboat. Big enough for no more than two or three people.

Noni turned to glare at Jacob as she walked ahead of him. “I can't believe you would point a gun at your own child.”

“I'm not,” said Jacob. “It's pointed at you, not him.”

“Whose boat is this?” she asked as she stepped gingerly on board, trying not to trip with Max in her arms.

“It doesn't matter,” said Jacob. “He can afford to replace it.”

She blinked. “So now you're stealing a boat, too. Jesus, Jake, can't you see how you're just making this worse and worse?”

“Stop it,” said Jacob. “I don't need that. You're freaking me out. I need to stay calm.”

She looked at him and felt a lump in her throat. “Please,” she said raggedly, “please, don't do this.”

He looked back at her; for a moment he seemed to hesitate. “You're scared,” he said regretfully. He sighed. “I don't want to scare you, Noni. I just…I just need you to see reason, okay? I have to do this—for Max. I can't do it alone. I need your help. You're the only one I can trust.” He looked at her sadly. “We were happy once. It will take a little time, but I know we can be happy again. And I'm not crazy. I understand this is a terrible way to start things off, but I don't have any other options.”

“But you do have other options!”

He shook his head. “I don't.” He seemed to find his resolve again. “Now, take Max downstairs. And don't try anything stupid, because I'll be up here, ready.”

She closed her eyes in defeat and carried Max down into the cabin.

She laid him down on a little berth, took off his glasses, and looked around. She shivered. Ever since she had seen the gun, she'd felt like she was going numb, like she couldn't get warm enough.

She couldn't believe she didn't have her phone. She'd left it upstairs in her room at the house when she came down with Pilar, not wanting to be rude by carrying it to the party. Though she supposed it didn't make a difference. Jacob had already asked her to turn out her pockets and show him she wasn't carrying it.

The cabin was small, just two berths, one on top of the other; a tiny galley kitchen with a mess area; and a bathroom with a shower, sink, and toilet. Everything was very neat and well appointed, but she felt a tendril of panic as she imagined being trapped here with Jacob for weeks, maybe even months, on end.

Because she knew that's how it would be. She saw his plan now. He never needed a passport. He never planned on flying. A boat out was easy, and once they were in international waters, he'd be safe. They never needed to come back to the U.S. if he didn't want to.

She wondered dully if he actually knew how to sail. She wondered about their lack of supplies. The galley didn't look well stocked. She imagined he was counting on her money, but she wondered how he expected her to access any of it since her purse was back at the house.

She ached when she thought of Enzo. She hadn't had the chance to tell him what was going on with Jacob. In fact, she had confided in exactly no one. No one else knew. What if Enzo simply thought that she had chosen to go with Jacob? What if he thought she had left him again? What if everyone just assumed she had disappeared of her own free will?

Max stirred in his sleep, murmuring restlessly. She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Shhh, shhh,” she whispered. “Everything will be okay, buddy. Go back to sleep.”

Then she sat down next to him on the berth, winded and freezing.
How, exactly was everything going to be okay?

Shelter Island was small, but there were a lot of docks and marinas on it. It was, after all,
an island
. Enzo sped through the streets, heading for the first dock he could find.

He saw nothing suspicious at the first marina. A few old fishing boats, obviously empty, and a sailboat too small for a lower deck where anyone could hide. He asked a couple of guys who were hanging on the dock and drinking beer if they had seen a blue Chevy truck, and they both shook their heads no.

He tried to think it through before he went to the next dock. He couldn't just blindly search. He knew he was running out of time.

He had seen Noni at the restaurant across from Crescent Beach. She had been with Jacob that night. Perhaps Jacob had been staying close to that marina.

He did a U-turn and headed toward Shelter Island Bay.

Noni tiptoed to the top of the stairs and peered through the porthole on the door. She could see Jacob moving about, pulling ropes and setting the sails. Her heart sank. It seemed from the purposeful way he went about things that he actually knew what he was doing.

She crept back down the stairs and shot Max a worried glance. He was tossing and turning but still asleep. She went into the galley, looking for a knife.

She found several. She stood for a moment, holding a wickedly sharp, thin fish knife, wondering if she could bring herself to use it if necessary.

She looked at the blade and remembered the day, just after she had started helping Jacob with the forge, before Max was born, when Jacob had taught her how to make horseshoes.

It was an odd thing to start with, considering they were making art, not doing farrier work, but Jacob said that it was the first thing he had learned to make when he started smithing, so he thought it should be the first thing Noni learned as well.

Her enormous crush on Jacob had only grown that day. He had patiently guided her through the process, introducing to her to all the tools, getting her geared up with a leather apron and protective eyewear, showing her how to light the forge and use the bellows to get it hot enough, how to pick the right bar of steel, how to heat it to the proper temperature to make it malleable. She had been surprised that a bright orange-yellow signaled a more pliable metal than a darker red.

She remembered being burned for the first time. A spark had landed on her wrist and she had almost cried, it hurt so much. Jacob had laughed at her and softly rubbed the spot with a bit of lotion. He'd told her it was a rite of passage. He'd shown her all his own scars. And suddenly, in a rush, she'd imagined taking his hands in hers and kissing each burn, slowly and thoroughly and one by one.

They had hammered it together, taking turns. Noni had not yet built up the strength in her arms to hammer out metal for extended periods of time, but he had let her do the finish work. She had been ridiculously proud, when she had held up that first somewhat crooked but recognizable shoe. After it had cooled, he had presented it to her as a gift.

She still had it. She'd hung it above the door in her blacksmith shop in Wellington, the U facing up so as not to let all the good luck run out.

She looked at the knife again. She looked back at Max, his bright red curls shining softly in the dim light. She put the knife down. She knew that she wouldn't be able to use it.

Her truck was there.

Enzo's headlights rolled over that familiar turquoise color and his heart almost beat out of his chest. It was just sitting there, empty, in the parking lot of the marina.

He pulled his truck right up next to it and jumped out, giving it a cursory glance as he passed it on his way down to the docks. This was a large marina, with a long row of boats floating along the boardwalk.

He kept to the shadowy side of the boardwalk, glad for the poor lighting and dark night. He did not want to be seen before he found them.

There were several boats with lights on. A small party was happening on one. A couple of young guys barbecued on the dock, while three women in bikinis lounged in beach chairs on the deck, laughing and talking. He could hear music from their radio, Adele belting out “Set Fire to the Rain.” He slipped by them, holding his breath, praying he had made it in time.

At the very end of the dock, he saw a small sailboat with a lone man busying himself on board.

Enzo's breath caught in his throat.

It was definitely Jacob.

Noni heard Enzo before she saw him. There was a sudden pounding of feet on the deck above and then a shout and a crash. Max startled in his sleep, but Noni laid a hand on his chest and he slept on.

She inched up the stairs, fearful of what she might find above. She could see nothing through the porthole, just an empty deck, so she slowly pushed the door open and stuck her head out.

“Noni!” shouted Enzo. His voice was harsh and guttural.

She rushed out then, only to find Jacob, his face bleeding from a cut above his eye, standing with his gun trained on Enzo, who was sprawled on the deck, looking up at Jacob with an expression of pure loathing.

“Damn it, Noni, I said stay downstairs!” said Jacob. His voice was shaking.

She shook her head. “No.” She made her voice soft and calm and continued to walk slowly toward them. “Jacob, this has to end now. Before someone really gets hurt. I know you're scared. I know you're panicking. But this will never, ever happen the way you think it will. I love Max, and I care about you, but we will never be happy together again. That is not going to happen.”

She had almost reached him. She was close enough to touch him.

He panted raggedly, his teeth bared. “Why?” he ripped out. “Why can't we be happy?”

She swallowed painfully. Her throat was dry. “Because,” she said softly, “because I am not in love with you. I am in love with Enzo. I can't stay with you. I won't. You'd have to keep me at gunpoint every moment of every day. That would never change. I would never willingly stay. I know you, Jake. I know you're not capable of that. I know you wouldn't do that to me. Or Max. Please, please, just put the gun down and let me help you.”