Chapter Eight
As the Land Rover stopped, Simone scrambled out and marched to the edge of the lookout. She took a deep breath of clean air that held no hint of Carlo or of the carcasses, and stared at the Rufiji River snaking its way across the plains into the distance. On the other side a herd of buffalo grazed. She could not lose her focus, not with Sarah’s future in the balance. Carlo might be overstepping the line but she couldn’t allow it to affect her.
Behind her the ranger was busy setting up for coffee and tea with the squeaking of the fold-up table and the rattling of the cooler box.
“Here.” Natalia held out a silver thermal mug of steaming coffee.
“Thank you,” Simone said guiltily as she took the coffee. Natalia served her coffee all the time.
“That was awful. I felt sick myself.” Natalia turned her back on the men and stepped a few paces away.
Simone edged closer. “Yes. Thank you for the water.”
“We’re going to need to do much more than I expected to eradicate this.” Dino’s words fell heavy in the silent pause. She glanced toward the men where they stood with their steaming coffees in a half circle, staring out at the vista beyond.
“I didn’t realize this was happening so close to our lodge—it’s within walking distance.” Carlo’s voice sounded tired.
Simone looked at Natalia. “It’s never been like this. When I started with Carlevaro Air there was no poaching in this part of the Selous.”
Natalia tightened her lips in a grim line and nodded toward the men. “They’ll sort out the problem. They must.” She took a sip of her coffee. “How long have you been working for Carlevaro?”
“Three years.” She never included her probation period during which she’d had the stupidity to fall pregnant.
“I don’t think he meant to tell me,” Natalia said as she shot a glance at the men, “but Carlo let slip he knew you from when he worked here a few years ago.”
She glanced at Natalia, not sure how much she knew. Natalia was part of team Carlevaro, but it wouldn’t be fair to write her off on that basis. And yet a lot was at stake. “We hardly knew each other.” She took a sip of coffee to swallow down the lie. “I had to go home, health issues…that couldn’t be treated here, you know.”
Natalia sighed. “That covers most things, doesn’t it? For us Westerners, that is. We were so happy with Peppe’s treatment when he had the heart attack. Thank God the doctors at the clinic were on the ball.”
They sipped their coffee in silence.
“I hope everything is resolved? Health-wise, I mean,” Natalia asked.
She was probing, without asking directly.
Simone’s heart thudded in her throat as she considered her answer. “Yes, thank you, otherwise I wouldn’t be flying.” She had to stop this conversation from going any further. Natalia didn’t need to know anything more. “How long have you been with Carlevaro International?”
Natalia chuckled. “I’m going to give my age away when I tell you. It will be thirty years next year. Right now, I’m taking a few days’ leave.”
Simone shook her head in disbelief. “You can’t be older than forty.”
“Thank you, but I’m closer to sixty than I’d like to admit. I’ve known Carlo and Angelo since they were children. Dino is Peppe’s cousin, on his mother’s side.”
“This is really a family business.” She almost wanted to sigh her relief at not telling Natalia more about her past stint at Carlevaro Air. She wouldn’t be able to let her guard down with anybody. She’d resigned herself to the fact that she would have to deal with Carlo, but she wasn’t sure if she had it in her to keep up the pretense for three weeks with Natalia. Not when the older woman was so sincere and easy to talk to.
“It works for us Italians.”
“What do you do?” Inwardly she warned herself not to get too familiar with Natalia, but joining the men where they were tossing ideas around was even less appealing.
“I head the marketing department. I work with Julia, Carlo and Angelo’s sister. She’s supposed to take over from me in a year or two.”
Carlo had told her that he had a sister and a brother, but she never got anything else out of him. Now she understood why. If he’d started telling her about his family it would have led to revealing who he was. For the first time she asked herself if it would have made a difference. Would she have been with him if she’d known?
Reflecting back on her younger self she knew she would have been petrified, blunted by intimidation, too shy to talk. Not knowing who he was, she’d been herself with him, as she’d never dared to be with another man. He hadn’t been C.F.L. Carlevaro, and it struck her that he could’ve been different with her too. She’d seen glimpses of the old tease in him since he’d returned, but it was disguised, the nuances known only to them. They’d been so carefree during their time together, as if nothing could ever come between them.
She paused her thoughts, not wanting to delve deeper. “Is Julia older than Carlo?”
Natalia looked at her. “She’s six years younger than Carlo. She’s recently turned twenty-nine,” Natalia sighed. “I’m worried that Julia may be too young for the position, but I’ll be there for some time to guide her. We learned a hard lesson regarding succession planning when Tonio fell ill four years ago. If Peppe wasn’t such a stubborn man, Angelo would’ve been working here last year already.”
Simone shifted on her feet. Tonio Carlevaro must have been Peppe’s brother, and Carlo’s father. The intimate conversation was going places she didn’t want to, yet every inch of her needed to know more. She clung tighter to her cup.
Natalia chuckled. “Julia has a passion for the work, for the Carlevaro legacy. Honestly, I should be more worried about Angelo; he is two years younger than Julia and has to deal with this mess.”
“Aren’t they groomed to take over from a young age?”
“Not really—Angelo and Julia maybe more so than Carlo was when his father fell ill. We didn’t foresee that. Who wants to? In retrospect Carlo did an amazing job.”
Simone recalled what had happened at the office those weeks after Carlo had left. There had been a Carlevaro International email about Tonio Carlevaro, then the CEO, being ill. She hadn’t paid much attention; she’d had enough of her own problems having been pregnant. “I don’t remember much about Mr. Carlevaro’s illness.”
“Peppe ran East Africa, so Tonio was less involved on this side. He had his eye on Southeast Asia his whole life. It happened so fast. It took no longer than three months.” Natalia sighed and then took a sip of her coffee. “It was after the operation to remove the brain tumor that the gravity of the situation hit us. We all thought it was going to be benign, but it was advanced cancer.”
Simone faltered. She’d left Tanzania before she could learn what had happened to Tonio. That Natalia was indirectly talking about Carlo and what he’d gone through with his father’s illness made her ache. The feeling was unexpected, cramping around her heart. “I’m sorry.”
Natalia sighed. “There was a point, days before Tonio passed away, that I thought Carlo wasn’t going to make it. He was thrown into a very deep end. Then by some miracle he pulled himself together and got us all through.”
The nausea that had yet to settle surged again.
Natalia touched her arm. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t tell you these things.” She blinked with a sniff, and pulled a tissue from her pocket. “Sometimes it’s easier to talk to a stranger, an outsider. In a family business there’s no one to turn to. Everybody’s involved. Being here brings all these memories back, and now with Peppe…”
Simone looked down, embarrassed at the urge to pull Natalia into a tight hug that nearly made her overstep the boundaries. “Don’t worry, I understand.”
Natalia’s words were scratching at her conscience. She wasn’t the outsider Natalia believed her to be, not when Sarah linked them. Four years ago, she’d only been aware of her own misery. That Carlo had had a pile of his own problems at the time didn’t make everything right, but knowing more about that time in his life put a new perspective on things.
****
Carlo noticed that Simone kept her distance from him as they walked back to the Land Rover—she got in the front passenger seat, next to the ranger, from where he could only see her blonde curls.
He suppressed a sigh as Angelo sat down next to him, taking up the poaching issue again.
When the ranger slowed down for a leopard climbing into a tree, Carlo gave the group two minutes to admire the animal before he said, “We’ve got to get back to the lodge. Sitting here isn’t going to solve our poaching issues.”
They stopped at the lodge’s entrance half an hour later. Carlo got out of the vehicle, deflated. The group ambled through the reception area to the deck, with Simone hovering on the outskirts. He glanced at her. She would dash off to that confining tent given half a chance. But Natalia had caught her in conversation again, and she would find it hard to leave without being rude. Natalia had that effect on people.
The in-house guests had returned from their safari and were enjoying their breakfast.
“You should eat something,” he said to Simone as she approached the group’s table with Natalia. She’d regained some of her color, if not her calm. She was nervous, her gaze jumping, avoiding his.
“I think I would rather not join your family breakfast.” Simone stepped away from the buffet, ready to rush off.
“This is a business trip,” Angelo said. “As far as I’m aware you’re part of our investigation team.”
Simone’s stomach growled on cue and she looked like she wished she could evaporate.
“I think that’s a sign.” Natalia gave her a little smile.
Simone raised her hands, her face flushed, but Angelo was already pulling a chair out. “You’ve missed the staff breakfast, we all know that.” Angelo smiled at her. “And Noel will be joining us too.”
Carlo turned his back on the little scene unfolding between Simone and Angelo. It was a battle between Angelo’s steel-strong charm and Simone’s sheer will to resist him luring her in. A will, he suspected, that hadn’t been fed a decent meal in twenty-four hours.
He was relieved when she sat down, the scraping of chairs and Angelo’s chuckle giving the win away. As he helped himself to some fruit from the buffet, Angelo whispered something unintelligible to Simone and she laughed at what he’d said. It was the first time he’d heard her laugh since seeing her again, and he wanted to turn and look at her. Instead he murmured a string of Italian swear words, because annoyance at Angelo and relief for Simone grated on him in equal measures.
The waiter took their orders for a hot breakfast, and the group settled down with freshly made watermelon juice, spiced with ginger. Carlo sat down at the opposite end of the table with Noel and Dino. They were talking bird sightings, their voices droning on. He focused on the banter between Angelo and Natalia, trying not to stare at Simone, who sat like a stone pillar across from him.
“So, how did you become a pilot, Simone?” Angelo asked.
His question drew the attention of the rest of the table, for it was intriguing. Carlo glanced at Simone. Her body tensed more and she lowered her lashes.
“After school I wasn’t sure which direction to take, but I enjoyed flying, so I ended up going to an aviation college in South Africa.”
“That’s an interesting option for someone so young,” Dino said.
“I started to fly when I was sixteen,” Simone said. “By the time I enrolled for college I had enough hours clocked to enter the commercial pilot program. It was natural to continue, given the work opportunities in Africa.”
Her hands were trembling as she spread butter on a slice of toast.
“Why did you start so young?” Natalia asked. “And taking it so seriously?”
Simone glanced away, toward the buffet, avoiding the gazes the rest were giving her. “The flying lessons were a belated sixteenth birthday gift from my dad. He asked me what I wanted for my birthday.” She paused, then said with a wry smile, “He took me literally when I told him I wanted to fly away, all by myself.”
The others around the table laughed, but as he met her gaze the hurt was as raw in her eyes as when he’d asked her the same question years ago. The belated had been the issue. Simone’s dad had been more absent than present in her life. She dropped her gaze to her plate, busying herself with the toast.
Noel laughed. “Sounds like your typical teenager. I’ve survived my two kids’ teenage years, but barely. My pocket, not so much.”
Carlo looked at Dino and Natalia and with the slightest nod he indicated for them to stop the interrogation. He couldn’t catch Angelo’s eye.
“You’re lucky to do what you love,” Angelo said, staring at her. “Not everybody is that fortunate.”
“Yes,” Simone said. “I love flying, the sense of freedom it gives me.” She blushed as everybody looked from their plates to her. “I’d be terrible at a desk job.” Her last words were fumbled, as if she needed to explain more under their scrutiny.
Carlo locked eyes with her across the table. Was she unhappy as a pilot?
“Yet you are applying for one?” he asked, wanting to add that he didn’t see her sitting behind a desk all day because she’d find it dull, but her knife clattered onto her plate as it slipped from her hand.
She paled, then swallowed, shaking her head. “Managing the fleet would be different. It’s still about flying.” She picked at a random curl before tucking it behind her ear. Her eyes darted around the table. “It’s not bookkeeping…I mean. You know?”
Natalia chuckled. “I completely understand.”
He met her gaze steadily, wanting to kick himself. He steered the conversation away from Angelo and everybody else’s insensitive remarks, as oblivious as they were to them. But putting her in the spotlight about the fleet management position was equally unforgivable.
Simone’s eyes widened, the tips of her teeth peeking out as she bit her lip. Had she just realized the breakfast was an interview in front of the board of directors? And she’d just put her foot in it?
Carlo glanced at Dino, who hadn’t raised an eyebrow. They still had to make the final decision about the promotion, but he couldn’t imagine Simone ever giving up flying.
The previous evening her excuse had been that she wanted a change, to settle down. She was only, what, twenty-six? Twenty-seven? Way too young to start feathering some unknown man’s nest. He bit down on his jaw; he didn’t know which one riled him up the most—Simone’s nesting instincts or the idea that they were for another man.
During those weeks he’d mentored her at Carlevaro Air her enthusiasm for life had been as addictive as heroin, and it had given him a high that he couldn’t get enough of. She’d been a little bird who’d escaped the cage, tasting freedom for the first time. It had been all or nothing, and she had been going for all of it.
He met her flustered gaze. Now the sparkle in her eyes was gone, and she had none of the sweet tease she’d had about her four years ago. Simone had changed, and the gorgeous virgin he’d taken to bed in an uncontrollable moment of lust was gone forever. That his Simone was gone was hard to accept, now that he’d stumbled across her again. Something had stolen her inner radiance, and it hadn’t been the dull routine of a desk job. He shifted in his chair as she looked away.
Angelo put down his coffee cup with a clang that broke the silence. “Don’t worry, Simone, you’re not alone when it comes to office jobs.” He grinned. “Now Carlo, he’s a man made for the Carlevaro International office in Rome.” Angelo waved his hand toward him. “You should see him behind his desk, or even better, during directors’ meetings, reigning over his domain.”
Carlo wished Angelo would cut it out. Simone knew his passion was flying; he’d been at it since he could legally learn how to get a plane in the air. He’d given up his dreams to keep those of his father and Peppe soaring. There were things bigger than his dreams, and he’d known early on that he’d be the first in line to lead the company one day. He’d never anticipated that it would happen so soon. Inwardly he sighed. He hoped Simone wouldn’t let any of this slip out to his ignorant family.
He glanced at her. How had it been that he’d shared so many things with her in the time they’d spent together, things he’d never shared with anyone else?
Simone had closed her mouth and was shredding the toast with her fingers. She didn’t eat much, and he resented himself and the others around the table who’d continuously put her on the spot. She was nervous in their company, and he couldn’t blame her with the questions they’d asked. Simone’s flying had been an escape from an unhappy childhood.
This was only the beginning of a long trip. She was going to starve if this carried on, and he decided he’d rather not watch her fade away over the next few weeks. He would no longer subject her to his family’s interrogations by inviting her to meals with them.
To take the focus away from her, he changed the subject. “We’ll sit after breakfast to see if we can make out any pattern for trafficking. The auditors might’ve come up with some information by now.”
“How do you plan to find a pattern?” Simone asked as she looked up, her hands quieting over her plate.
Carlo met her gaze. She was intrigued. For a split second he hesitated. Should he explain how they planned to catch the traffickers? He exhaled and relaxed. Simone might have changed, but his fundamental trust in her still stood firm. He needed her in his camp during this investigation, her brainpower and her intimate knowledge of how things worked at Carlevaro Air. He took the plunge. “Take the rotation schedules of the lodge staff, pilots and rangers, see what movements there are and enter the data into a spreadsheet. Do some graphs. Something will come up.” He drew his fingers through his hair, huffing out a breath. Something must come up. “The rangers have been logging the poaching in the Rufiji since we opened our lodge here in the eighties. If we can match a poaching pattern with someone from the outside’s movements we could have a link to the head of the syndicate.”
“If there’s a poaching pattern, why don’t you stop them?” Simone asked.
“It’s not that easy, and their rhythm changes frequently,” Noel said. “We might have an idea when they will poach, but where is the problem. James and the rangers here have been going out some nights, in an attempt to stop the poaching, but—” He broke off for a second, then sighed deeply. “We don’t have the feet to track the ten-kilometer radius around the lodge or keep an eye on every elephant roaming our concession. And some of the poaching happens on neighboring properties.”
Simone shook her head. “I still don’t get how these poachers would get tusks on a plane. That means they need to get it to the airstrip—”
“Which is a much shorter walk or drive than to the Tanzania-Zambia highway,” Noel interrupted her. “Plus, they avoid potential discovery at roadblocks, never mind scanning at the airport. From our aircraft the goods don’t even enter a terminal building or any form of customs. It’s been going into an export container without a trace.”
“It’s the perfect solution,” Carlo said, pushing his plate away. That such a scheme could develop under their noses had given him sleepless nights. “Simone, I was hoping you could give us some insight into how they could get the tusks loaded and unloaded, given that pilots are supposed to lock the aircraft when they park overnight.”
She hitched her shoulders. “I’ve no idea. I lock up. It’s part of our procedures and must be done for insurance purposes. But I can’t vouch for any of the other pilots. Nobody checks up on us at the lodges. Even at the airport, no one checks these small things.”
It was the small things that triggered the landslide. “Whoever is involved either opened up for the poachers, or the poachers themselves have a key to whichever aircraft they’ve been using.”
Simone frowned, then shook her head. “Peppe had Medeco locks fitted on all the older aircraft. Medeco locks are a standard feature on the new aircraft,” Simone said. “It’s not so simple to get copies, they must be ordered from the States.”
Carlo raised his eyebrows. He hadn’t been aware that Peppe had had high security locks fitted to the Carlevaro fleet. Peppe had run his own show at Carlevaro Air. When he’d taken over the position as CEO, Peppe had made it clear that he wouldn’t tolerate unwarranted involvement from Carlevaro International. So, Carlo had kept his distance, continuing his father’s tradition of quarterly meetings in Rome, which Peppe attended. If he’d been more involved it would’ve been easier to get on top of things now. He shook his head. They would have to work with what they had.
“I think if we can catch the Carlevaro Air staff involved in the trafficking, we’ll be able to expose the poaching ring. I’ve all the flight schedules for the past eight months on my laptop.” He checked his watch and sighed. It was ten-thirty and he still needed to shower.
“Please sit with me and Noel at eleven, Simone,” Carlo said. He looked at Angelo and Dino. “Can you check up on the auditors? They are with James in the office.”
The others nodded. He stood up and stretched. As he dropped his hands to his hair to comb his fingers through it, he glanced at Simone. She averted her eyes, and he realized she’d been peeking at his happy trail as he’d stretched. Her slight blush and the way she toyed with her table napkin confirmed it. Desire pulsed through him. You may stare all you want, cara. He closed his eyes for a fraction of a second as he put his chair back in place. Such a pity his shower had to be solo. The idea of soaping her down, massaging those hitched shoulders until she relaxed against him, his hands sliding over her breasts…Dio. He opened his eyes to the bright sunlight and harsh reality.
Did she feel the same intense pull to him as he felt toward her? She was an employee and she’d already asked him to keep his distance. He had no right to jeopardize her career by even looking at her in a way that might suggest something to onlookers. Angelo had already noticed, and Natalia was as sharp as wit. But to have touched her earlier was like breathing fresh air coming out of a confined, claustrophobic space.
He was so fucked. If nothing else he should respect her wishes, but feeling like this could make things go very wrong, very quickly.