“I knew it!” Kat said, throwing up her hands and starting toward Hale. “I told my brother that the Bernard brothers would already have—”
“Oh no, miss,” Lucia said. “We no sell them to brothers.”
“Really?” Kat turned. “Are you certain?”
“Oh yes. The first went to a business. They do the studies underwater. It’s really quite—”
“And the other?” Kat asked, stepping closer.
“Well, he was someone who might run in the same . . . circles as your family,” Lucia admitted carefully, but Kat thought, You have no idea.
She watched the young woman shift as if debating what to say or, more precisely, how to say it. Finally, she whispered, “This man . . . you see, he was quite . . . wealthy.”
“Well then, I’m afraid . . .” Kat said, turning to walk away, counting on Lucia’s eventual . . .
“But he didn’t live in Italy!”
Kat turned slowly. “Oh, really?”
“Oh, yes. Mr. Romani.”
“Romani?” Kat asked.
“Yes,” the young woman said. “Visily Romani. He was very specific—he wanted his Sirena delivered to Austria.”
“Austria?”
“Yes, directly to one of his estates. Near Vienna.”
Although she would never have admitted it out loud, there were many things Katarina Bishop had begun to like about the Colgan School.
There was, after all, something to be said for sleeping in the same bed every night and always knowing the way to and from the bathroom in the dark. She’d absolutely adored the library—an entire building where anyone could take things they didn’t own and feel no remorse about it. But the thing Kat had loved most about Colgan—the thing she missed most as she sat beside Hale and Gabrielle on a train bound for Vienna—was that one of the most strenuous prep schools in the world was the only place Kat had ever been where it was okay not to think.
After all, on her very first day at Colgan she’d been given a piece of paper that told her what classes she would attend and at what times. There was a board in the main hall that announced what meals she would eat and what sporting events she could witness. Each week her teachers dutifully told her which chapters she should read and from which books, which projects she should perform and in what order.
It was exactly as she’d suspected ever since the night Uncle Vinnie (who wasn’t really her uncle) had pulled her out of Uncle Eddie’s kitchen and informed her that boarding school would be a lot like prison (which, ironically, was exactly where Vinnie had been before showing up on Uncle Eddie’s front stoop that very night).
Kat had listened to him with a clarity that suited Uncle Eddie’s great-niece. She didn’t let it scare her. She just analyzed all the angles and came to the conclusion that Uncle Vinnie was exactly right, and she essentially had two options: Colgan now or jail later.
Colgan had cuter uniforms.
But now autumn was over and Colgan was gone; Kat was left to stare out the train window at the snowy caps of the Alps. In her coat pocket she had three passports and one of Hale’s credit cards. She was very good with four languages and decent at two more. She could go anywhere. She could do anything. Maybe it was the altitude, but suddenly Kat felt herself growing dizzy—short on air and smothered by the infinite possibilities that lay before her, and the questions her mind couldn’t help but ask.
Like, how was it possible for Gabrielle to be even prettier when she slept, when Kat herself could rarely wake up without encountering at least a little bit of drool?
And why did Gabrielle insist on sleeping with her head on Hale’s shoulder, when Kat—who had hit him there on a number of occasions—knew for a fact that it was quite hard and the compartment above the seats contained an assortment of very soft pillows?
Kat tried not to think about the other things—the hard questions that were locked outside, racing the train. She wished she could outrun them, lose them like a tail. But Kat knew better. They’d be waiting for her in Austria.
Kat’s ears popped as the train went faster, climbed higher, and the thoughts that had been swirling in her mind narrowed to one person, one place.
Visily Romani.
Vienna, Austria.
And with that, Kat closed her eyes. She didn’t see the first flakes of snow fall outside her window. She didn’t feel Hale cover her with a blanket. She was already fast asleep.
9 Days Until Deadline