Vistaria Has Fallen (The Vistaria Affair/Vistaria Has Fallen #1)(54)

She laughed. “You flatter me. I am not the first woman you have brought here.”

He frowned. “There has never been a woman I wanted to see this, to bring here, to my place. Until now.”

“You’re not joking, are you?”

His hand, the one that did not prop up his head, had dropped to her waist. Now he idly stroked her skin, making the quiescent nerves twitch. “No joke,” he assured her. “You are the only one who has ever found her way this far into my life.”

This time she had no water and no time to disguise her reaction. The tears sprang without warning and rolled down the sides of her face. She did not dare say a word, for she knew she could not speak without sobbing. She did not wipe at her tears for she didn’t want to draw attention to them, either.

Nick wiped them for her. “Such courage,” he said. “You’ve dared much, haven’t you? Yet you’re overwhelmed by the mention of your own achievements. You think so little of yourself, Calli. I wish I could teach you to see better, to see how I see you.”

“I’m sorry,” she said at last when she thought she could speak and not betray herself further. “I didn’t mean to spoil the mood.”

“Nothing you could do could spoil the mood right now.” He brought his hand down to rest on her again. “This is the time I like best, when the physical needs are filled and raise their demands no more. In the moments after it is pure emotion. Feelings.”

“Happy ones, they should be,” Calli said, and gave a sniff.

“Happy, sad, regretful, it doesn’t matter what they are, for they are always truthful ones and that is when you learn the most, if you watch for them.”

She put her arms around his neck and drew him down to kiss him and did not answer. Above all else, she could not afford to let him see the truth.

*

They lingered by the pool until the sun was high.

Hunger drove them indoors in search of food. By the time the meal was prepared they were so ravenous, they did not bother with the dining room. They ate standing up in the kitchen.

After her last mouthful, Calli burped.

Nick laughed. “For such an uncivilized meal, only a very civilized espresso will finish it off properly.”

“God yes, coffee!” Calli agreed.

Right by her elbow, a phone rang. It was so unexpected she jumped sideways and turned to look at the counter, her heart hammering. Only Nick’s jacket lay there.

He reached past her to pick up the jacket and pull out a cell phone from the inside pocket. His eyes had narrowed, as if he was thinking hard, and his mind was miles away. In Lozano Colinas, she realized—that was where his mind had turned.

“Sì?” he answered. His frown deepened. Then he took a deep breath, the kind a person takes when they’ve received bad news. His eyes closed briefly.

Calli’s heart beat so hard it hurt. It wasn’t simply that this call marked the end of her time here. It was also the news that Nick was hearing, that made him look much older than his thirty-plus years.

“Gracias,” he murmured and ended the call. He dropped the phone onto the jacket and leaned against the counter, his head low.

Calli rested her hand on his shoulder, unsure whether he wanted comfort, yet unable to stand by and watch him suffer alone. She didn’t prompt him to tell her about the call. He would, or he would not. She had no right to insist on anything, anymore. She shared her empathy in silence, knowing it was one of the last things she could do for Nicolás Escobedo before he went back to his life and the country he loved.

He straightened and picked up her hand and held it in both of his. His sigh gusted out. “Fighting has broken out at the mine on Las Piedras. Two Vistarians have been killed.”

“Fighting? Who is fighting who?”

“Vistarians.” His expression was bleak. “It’s the rebels, Calli. They’ve come down from the mountains, much sooner than we thought they would, and not where we guessed they would strike first.” He pushed his hands through his still damp hair. “I have to go.”

“Of course you do.”

“You must return to the city, you and Minnie, and you must wait for your Uncle to return from the mine. The army has standing orders to evacuate foreign nationals, especially any Americans, as a first priority if violence breaks out. They will get him and his people back to the city. You must stay with him until we know if this is a sustained attack or if it is simply a skirmish.”

“Do you think it’s just a skirmish?”

“I don’t know. The timing, the location, goes against all good strategic thinking, so there’s hope this is a single moment we are dealing with. Until we know for certain I want you in the city and safe.”

“Is the city safe?”

“Safer than Pascuallita.” He picked up the cell phone again, paused to think, then punched in a number. The conversation, all in Spanish, seemed to be with two people, for after a short time he paused, then his manner became more abrupt and brusque. He closed the phone with a snap and thrust it into the jacket. He put the jacket on.

“Pack your things, Calli. Quickly. We must leave at once.”





Chapter Thirteen


Calli had learned that Pascuallita was four hours away from the city by road. Duardo managed the journey in three hours and fifteen minutes—a jolting, panic-inducing race that wiped any lingering emotions Calli may have held from leaving Nick.