Chapter 75

When she’d first started studying history, Inez Rodriguez-Stone had liked to imagine that she might become a more civilized version of Indiana Jones. There weren’t a lot of ancient jungle temples in the Stone family history, but there were plenty of Nazis and a ton of secrets to be ferreted out in exotic locales around the world.

Most of her career so far had felt like the parts of Professor Jones’s life that happened in between movies as alluded to by the opening of Temple of Doom. She split most of her time between teaching European and American history and reading things that very few people wanted to read so that she could sum them up in ways that slightly more people would be interested in. That wasn’t to say she had no fun or adventure whatsoever, though. She’d traveled all around North and South America and Europe as well as to certain hot spots in Asia where Stones had made some impact on history. She had never run from an improbably frictionless spherical boulder, shot anyone, or carried a bullwhip, but she had gone places where she’d needed to carry a gun for her own protection, bluffed her way out of a number of potentially perilous situations, and seduced more than one source into revealing more than they planned to. She didn’t talk about the last part so much, but she was quietly proud of it. As portrayed by Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones was undoubtedly a very attractive man, but he’d never been able to use that to his professional advantage.

Of course, it had been years since Inez had seduced a secret out of anyone and those had all been relatively minor players in family politics that she’d found fairly attractive to begin with and who had clearly been into her. She did not consider Threnody one of her seductions. Inez had been as surprised as anyone to find herself not only having sex with the queen of Ferrari but becoming her regular bed companion, confidante, advisor, and possibly even a friend.

If she had ever considered setting out to deliberately seduce Threnody, Inez had no doubt she would have considered the prospect terrifying. Threnody was wealthy, powerful, brilliant, devious, and most significantly already had access to what seemed like a functionally endless supply of beautiful young women eager to share her bed on whatever terms she set. Before she set out to seduce Threnody, she would have to first think long and hard about what she was bringing to such a relationship that was uniquely hers to offer.

She was now doing the same calculus about Nick Coyle. When Inez woke up this morning, it had been to Fenfang delivering the news that Threnody’s uncle Gionvanni was on the way and requesting an audience in order to share important news about both Jesse and Nick. Inez had spent the night in bed with Threnody and got to watch first-hand as the queen did some quick mental calculations for how to address this request which implicitly included letting her uncle violate the exile Threnody had laid on him seven years earlier. She’d asked if there was any news about Jesse and Fenfang had said that the operation probably meant to rescue him was set to commence within the hour. Threnody had nodded and told Fenfang to prepare the west pavilion for a formal reception.

Inez had been eager to attend that historic reception and even gone back to her own rooms to prepare to be there when she got a call from Tanvi. Nick had rented an apartment in Geneva and wished to meet her there this afternoon. Would she attend? Even before she checked with Threnody, Inez said that yes, she would be there as soon as possible.

That hadn’t left time for her to wait for Giovanni to arrive. It had barely left her time to throw a few things into a suitcase and head out to the airport. If anything had gone wrong with the trip, she might have left Nick waiting and she was loath to do so. She knew Nick as a relaxed and easygoing young man and a personal friend, but she’d also seen a side of him that was neither relaxed nor easygoing. Watching him strategize and seeing him interact with Bunny Stone, Inez had recognized a keen mind at work in service of an iron will. Additionally, someone had convinced Giovanni Ferrari-Stone to break a decade-long policy of inoffensive non-involvement towards his niece and Nick was the most obvious candidate for having done so.

That these evolving characteristics were something Inez thought Nick desperately needed and had hoped to encourage in him from the start made them no less intimidating to deal with. Inez had undoubtedly damaged Nick’s trust of her by sleeping with Threnody and called the strength of their alliance into question. After she’d sent Nick the text with the picture of her in bed with Threnody and the words “We should talk soon. Need to sleep now,” he’d written back, “Yes we should.” That had been the last communication between them until this morning and, while it had only been a few days since he sent that message, those few days felt like a very long time to not know where you stood with one of your billionaire allies.

Inez had gone to Threnody to tell the queen that she was leaving for Geneva to meet with Nick and didn’t know how soon she would get back. She couldn’t afford to phrase it as if she were seeking permission because she couldn’t let Threnody stop her. Inez had found Threnody in her private chapel kneeling at the altar with tears on her cheeks. When Threnody saw Inez standing in the doorway, she made no effort to hide that she’d been crying, but only said, “We’ve got him back. Jesse is alive and, as far as anyone can tell, no worse for wear.”

Inez had smiled. “I’m so glad. I ... guess that’s what Giovanni was coming to tell you. Will you still receive him?”

Threnody had risen to face her. “Of course. My uncle couldn’t have known whether Jesse was alive or dead before he requested this audience. The request was obviously an offer from Nick to share what he knew about Jesse as soon as he knew it, but it was also a test as to whether or not I would receive Giovanni. He had to know I’d probably have the news about Jesse before his emissary got here. I’ll hear what he has to say.”

Inez had come to the same conclusion, but was nonetheless impressed that Threnody had done the same with less knowledge of how Nick’s mind worked or what had been discussed at the dinner with Bunny. She said, “Nick has asked me to meet him in Geneva. I’m heading out now.”

Threnody had only smirked. “Do give our cousin my best regards.”

By some miracle, Italy had let up on its unstoppable march away from perfection to give her a nearly optimal trip and she’d arrived with more than an hour to spare. Inez used nearly every minute of the trip and the wait to think about how she would approach Nick. She tried to use as few of those precious minutes as possible regretting that she hadn’t seduced him sooner, but it was a very real and practical regret. There had been a number of opportunities in their brief association, but always reasonable excuses not to do so. Until she’d slept with Threnody, it might not even have been necessary to sleep with Nick in order to be as close to him as she needed to be. Their lack of a sexual relationship hadn’t kept him from naming her an ally in front of the Iron Rabbit.

But now things were different. Inez thought she was still a friend and ally in Nick’s eyes, but that over time it would be easier and easier for him to think of her as being in Threnody’s camp. There might be value in that role, but it wasn’t the one she would have chosen. She suspected that, if she still had a chance to cement her bond to Nick by having sex with him, this meeting might be the last chance.

As a result, she’d elected to go for a more direct approach. Once she’d arrived at the apartment in Geneva, she took a quick shower and dressed in a little brown party dress she’d never actually worn to a party. It was silky, worked with thread-of-gold, and had tiny spaghetti straps to hold it up. Somehow, in between the store where she’d bought it and her home, it had become two or three inches shorter and one or two shades closer to her own skin tone. That combination made it a little too daring for any event she’d attended since buying it. It looked more like lingerie. Wearing it with nothing underneath to answer the door would be tantamount to a declaration of hostilities.

It might also suggest she was taking a page from Threnody’s playbook in dealing with men. Threnody not only treated sex as a weapon, but as the most important weapon in her arsenal. She frequently used her youth and beauty to discomfit otherwise very intelligent people. There was something that short circuited in many powerful men’s minds when they tried to comprehend the object of their lust also being a powerful player in her own right. The world they lived in told them that wealth and power belonged to men and the occasional ugly old woman who might be holding onto her husband’s legacy on behalf of the eventual rightful heirs. It was like they only had enough blood in their brains to be clever or to maintain an erection and focusing on one precluded the other.

Inez decided it was an acceptable risk to remind Nick that she was more closely linked to Threnody now than she’d been the last time they’d seen each other. She’d iterated over the things she could uniquely offer Nick as a lover and they weren’t that different from what she offered as a friend and ally. He already had her promise to provide counsel and knowledge of the family past and present. She was beautiful, but certainly no more beautiful than Pilar, experienced, but not as adventurous or daring as Pilar. Inez might be the finest tactician alive when it came to family politics, but her promise to share her counsel with both Nick and Threnody called her availability and exclusivity in that role into question even in her own mind. If Nick saw the change in her relationship with Threnody only in negative terms, their own alliance could only suffer from it. If he saw the opportunities there as well, he could see sleeping with Inez as a way to balance the scales between himself and the queen.

The apartment Nick had provided for their meeting was fully stocked with food and other amenities like it was meant for someone to live there long-term. Inez wondered about that, but decided to take advantage of it. She had a chilled bottle of white wine in a bucket of ice and a plate of cheese, crackers, and fruit laid out for them to share while they talked.

What Inez still hadn’t figured out even as the doorbell rang was how she would seduce Nick if he wasn’t of a mind to be seduced. Every successful seduction she’d ever executed had largely involved making it clear she was interested in sex and letting the other person make the first move. She could theoretically play the aggressor, but that seemed like it risked doing more harm than good if she forced Nick to reject her.

She knew what she was going to say when she opened the door. It was, “Nick, thank you for coming all this way to see me. Please come in.”

She got as far as “Nick” and then he hugged her. It wasn’t a polite hug. It was the kind of hug you gave to a friend you hadn’t seen in a long time or to one who you’d been afraid of losing. It was a good and powerful hug that promised Inez hadn’t lost Nick as much as it was meant to reassure him that she was still his. Inez returned it wholeheartedly.

It was the kind of hug that should precede a kiss. Inez had barely finished the thought before Nick was kissing her. Like the hug, it was not a polite or hesitant kiss. His mouth descended on hers and demanded she either accept or reject him. She opened her mouth to him and returned his kiss with fervor. It was their first kiss, but it didn’t feel like a first kiss. It felt like the kind of kiss a man gave a woman he knew he was about to have sex with.

Inez realized that thought might have been helped along by the fact that, during the kiss, Nick had slowly turned the two of them around and pinned her to the wall next to the apartment’s front door. She ran a leg up the outside of his thigh to indicate her readiness and, when he didn’t respond in kind, Inez pulled on his shirt so that it became untucked from his pants and began to unbutton it.

He broke the kiss and looked down. “Inez...”

Inez heard the hesitation in his voice and knew he was trying to pull back from the momentary madness that had inspired that kiss. She couldn’t afford to let him pull back and trust that they would later rekindle the flame rising between them right now. She ran a hand under his clothes to rest on the flat of his stomach. “Nick, please.”

Nick groaned and kissed her again. She stripped off his shirts and clawed at his shoulders, letting him feel the desire building up in her. The kiss went on and on and was so good, but when she glanced down, Nick’s hands were still at his sides, balled into fists.

Knowing she had to act, Inez broke the kiss, ran her teeth over his lower lip, and looked him in the eyes. “Nick, please. I need this. I came to you right from her bed. You can probably still smell her on me.” It was a complete fabrication, but it served a higher truth.

Nick caught her by the shoulder and pinned her harder to the wall like he was afraid she might escape. Then he leaned in and drew the scent of her hair deeply into his lungs.

Before he could say anything, Inez said, “You won’t smell her on my hair.” At the same time, she took his free wrist in both her hands, guided his hand under her dress and up between her legs. He pushed his fingers inside of her and she opened to him.

It didn’t take long for Inez to get Nick’s belt open and his pants down. Once she had, she lifted both feet off the floor and wrapped her legs around his waist trusting he wouldn’t drop her. He didn’t. Instead, he thrust inside of her as soon as she’d guided him to the entrance of her flesh. Inez cried out and clung to him, arms and legs locked around his body to keep them joined. Nick thrust hard into her and she cried out with each thrust as her body rushed to accommodate being invaded before it had time to greet Nick as a liberator. It didn’t take long for her body to adapt and soon her cries were of a different sort, all pleasure and need and desire finally fulfilled. Inez let those feelings wash over her and overwhelm her. They drove towards a climax, but before she could reach that lofty height, Nick’s seed was exploding hot inside of her. He kept her pinned and continued to thrust as he pumped every last bit into her. Only when he stopped thrusting did Inez risk lowering her now-shaky legs to the floor, but she still hung onto his neck, uncertain of whether she would fall without support. Nick held her firmly against the wall, keeping her upright as he struggled to catch his breath.

When she finally felt like she could stand on her own two feet and her breathing had slowed enough to let her talk, Inez rested her head against Nick’s chest for a moment longer, drawing a bit more strength from his closeness before she looked up at him and smiled. Wanting to keep things as light as possible, she said, “Well, now that that’s settled, would you like some wine?”

Nick supported her chin with one hand and kissed her. “It doesn’t really feel settled yet. Can we do that again, but this time somewhere that I don’t spend the whole time worrying I might drop you?”

“There is a bedroom with an excellent view of the lake,” said Inez.

“Lead the way.” Nick stepped back from her and gestured, then added. “Bring the wine, please.”

In the bedroom, lying on the bed, they kissed some more and finished undressing each other and drank wine. And then they made love. It was as different from the frenzied coupling they’d just experienced as two acts based on the fundamental mechanics could be. They spent a lot of time touching and learning each other’s bodies even as Nick moved slowly and purposefully inside of her. The way Nick touched Inez seemed both worshipful and possessive. She felt loved and claimed. With careful kisses and caresses, Nick declared his personal investment in Inez as not just a lover, but as an ally. The pleasure rose more gradually this time, but when it crested, it shook Inez to her core until it seemed to be rewriting who she was to include her bond with Nick as crucial and unbreakable.

Afterwards, they lay together naked for a very long time and watched the sunset reflected on Lake Geneva. Inez said quietly, “I hope I haven’t spoiled any plans you had for the rest of the day.”

Nick kissed her. “I told Verity I’d come to meet her either today or tomorrow. She’s staying at a house I rented for her near here through the weekend. I also told her you might visit before you headed back to Ferrari.”

Inez nuzzled up against him. She spoke softly, but didn’t mince words, “Are you asking me to visit her or demanding it?”

“I’m giving you the opportunity. Verity is staying there with only her roommate from school and a few security guards I’ve hand-picked myself. Before she came, the place was swept from top to bottom for bugs. It may be the best chance you two ever get to talk without the risk of being overheard.”

Inez lay where she was, warm and comfortable in Nick’s arms. “I’ll consider it. I risked a lot with Threnody coming here to see you. Also visiting with her sister might be a bridge too far.”

“We could probably arrange for you to visit without being detected. This building has a parking garage,” said Nick.

“Unnecessary. If I went to see Verity, Threnody would know because I would tell her I’d done so. Whatever Threnody and I have, it’s new and fragile and discovering that I am keeping any meaningful secrets from her would destroy it,” said Inez.

Nick looked down at Inez. “You haven’t told her about what was discussed at Bunny’s apartment, have you?”

Inez shook her head. “No, but I told her I wouldn’t share that information with her. I’ll keep secrets from Threnody if I promise to. Threnody will undoubtedly keep secrets from me as will you.”

“And you’ll keep secrets from me on her behalf, I assume?” Nick asked.

“I already am, but they’re about very specific events that happened when you were a child and unaware of family politics. If I promise to keep anything I know about more recent events from you, I’ll tell you what I can’t talk about. What you and I have wouldn’t survive any sort of duplicity either. I can’t repeat things she tells me in confidence, but she knows I’ll repeat anything I don’t explicitly promise to keep to myself. She has been remarkably frank with me in spite of this. I can only assume it’s because she wants you to know what I know.”

Nick chuckled. “Does she know you sent me a dirty picture of the two of you?”

Inez gave a derisive snort. “I sent you a dirty picture of myself with a very tasteful nude of Threnody’s back in the background. And my part was only dirty if you have a problem with women’s breasts. Do you have a problem with women’s breasts, Nick?”

It was a callback to a question Simon had asked him much earlier in a conversation on their way to Nick’s vineyard and Nick clearly recognized it because he smiled at the memory before swooping down and taking the tip of one of Inez’s breasts into his mouth before licking the nipple aggressively enough to make her moan. He raised his head to look down at her. “What do you think?”

“I think you like experiencing them up close, but maybe think there’s something dirty about showing them off,” Inez teased him.

Nick gave a short, sharp laugh. “For your information, while you were having your way with our terrifying cousin, I was arranging for Miss Emily King to show off her magnificent breasts to hundreds of horny men in a New Orleans strip club. And I couldn’t be prouder.”

Inez laughed. “You have been busy. Weren’t you still in New York on Monday morning?”

“I was. Did you tell Threnody that you texted me that picture?” Nick asked.

“I told her you knew we were lovers. I didn’t explain how I let you know, but I made it clear that the knowledge came from me. She took that in stride,” said Inez.

“So, she wants me to know. That doesn’t reassure me on the question of whether she’s just using you to get to me,” said Nick.

“That’s what I thought she was doing when I first realized she was planning to seduce me. Of course, I went to Ferrari always knowing that I was probably being used as a pawn in her games with you,” said Inez. “That may well have been her intent, but I think what we’re building together is more genuine than that.”

Nick frowned at her. “Why?”

Inez pursed her lips. “I’d rather not say. Everything with Threnody requires a gut check as to whether she’s being genuine and I trust my gut on some things, but you would only have my words to go by. If she is being genuine, I’d like to respect her privacy. If it’s all some elaborate act meant to convince us that she’s a different person from who she really is, I’d rather not give her mummery my seal of authenticity.”

“It doesn’t sound like you trust her much more than you ever did,” Nick pointed out.

“I trust her to be who she is. I just think I might be getting a finer appreciation of what that means. It’s a moving target.” Inez hugged him. “The past is static. Living people are dynamic and messy.”

Nick held her close. “I showed that picture to Gianna so she’d know I wasn’t making things up. She said you were too old for Threnody.”

“I told Threnody the same thing. Apparently, I’m only too old to be one of her girls. What I am to her, it’s something different.” Inez stretched out in Nick’s arms. “I assume you’re not showing that picture to everyone you meet. Is Gianna working with you in some way?”

“Yes, she is,” said Nick.

Inez smiled. “Do you want to swear me to secrecy on that - so I don’t tell Threnody?”

Nick kissed the top of Inez’s head. “No, I want her to know.”

Inez shifted to look down at him. “Gianni, Giovanni, and Verity. You’re surrounding her. That’s bold.”

“She came after me through Simon and you. I can do the same to her,” said Nick.

“Indeed. The way she treats possible rivals for the crown makes them into an attack vector. I think she’ll be surprised by how thoroughly you exploited it,” said Inez.

“How do you think she’ll respond?” Nick asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think my deeper understanding of Threnody really helps me predict what she’ll do next yet - particularly when it comes to you. In some ways, she treats you like she does her other rivals, but she’s got some overarching plan I can’t see. She sent Maria to spy on you, but when I asked her to give me something useful to offer you in return for the distrust I knew she would create between us, she told me she’d done so. I don’t understand why she would burn her own spy like that,” said Inez.

“Maria from the vineyard?” Nick asked. When Inez nodded, he sighed. “She’s already at the Loft. When I met her, I wasn’t thinking in those terms. She might have slipped through the cracks.”

“Or she might not be a spy at all. Threnody telling me that she is might be her attempt to scuttle any kind of bond you might make with Maria as revenge for you having thwarted her in recruiting Maria in the first place,” said Inez. “I don’t think it is because it would mean that I couldn’t trust her not to use me to deceive you, but I’m aware of the possibility.”

“Why else would she do that, though?” Nick asked.

Inez shrugged. “Maybe she knew she needed to give me something of real value in return for the promise she was asking me to make. Or maybe she meant it as a gift to you. If you’d caught Maria spying, what would you have done?”

Nick frowned. “Probably used her to feed Threnody disinformation at some point.”

“Threnody may have assumed Maria would give herself away eventually and decided it was better to offer you a channel to communicate what you wanted to communicate to her. Maybe she wants to see how kindly you treat her spies. You gave Malcolm’s spy an apartment and a pair of front row tickets to Hamilton. That’s not exactly a disincentive to spy on you,” Inez pointed out.

“I didn’t want to punish Shiloh. I wanted to punish Malcolm for trying to make me look weak. I’m happy with how I handled that so far,” said Nick.

“And will you punish Maria if it turns out she is a spy for Threnody?” Inez asked.

“I don’t know yet. What do you think I should do?” Nick asked.

“I think it’s a bad idea to look a gift horse in the mouth, but an excellent one to fill its belly with smoke until you’re sure it’s not full of Greeks. You invited Maria to come stay with you. Maybe let her stay, but also let her learn that Threnody gave her name away as a bargaining chip. Her reaction could be instructive,” said Inez.

Nick sighed. “I might do that, but I hate feeling like no matter what I do, Threnody may have already expected it and that I’m just playing into her hands. I particularly hate that I can’t ask your advice and not have it get back to her what I asked you or what you told me. Even if she didn’t do any of this to mess with me, she still took you from me when it feels like I’m going to need you the most.”

Inez took Nick’s face in both hands and kissed him. “I won’t tell Threnody what advice you asked me for or how I answered - not about Maria or anything else. If you can bring yourself to trust me, I won’t betray you. I’m still yours, Nick. I’m more yours than I was before. I’m just hers, too. I will respect your requests for secrecy and hers. I will give both of you my counsel. I will share what I’ve learned about the rest of the family with both of you. For the family to succeed, I want you both strong.”

Nick smiled at her. “You’re not the first woman to point out to me this week that the family would be stronger with Threnody more stable on her throne.”

Inez considered who else might hold that opinion. “Did Gianna tell you that?”

Nick shook his head. “Who it was that told me that is one of the things I’m not going to tell you - at least not right away.” He looked out at the lake. “Do you think Threnody would like this apartment?”

“To ... stay in?” Inez asked.

“Short-term, yes. I know it’s not a palace, but it’s comfortable,” said Nick.

“I think she generally prefers her accommodations be a bit more elegant,” said Inez honestly.

Nick smiled. “Good. I’m hoping she’ll be at least a little bit tempted by the house I’ve put Verity in. I need to talk to Threnody and I’d like her to come to Geneva as my guest next Sunday. She can come earlier or stay later if she likes, but I’ll only be here Sunday. She’s welcome to stay here or in the house I’ve rented for Verity with the understanding that Verity is invited to stay there for the weekend as well. Or she can arrange for her own accommodations entirely. I’ll meet her pretty much anywhere outside of Italy. You know what I need to discuss with her, but I trust you not to share that knowledge with her before we meet to talk about it. Will you deliver that invitation to her for me?”

Inez nodded. “I will and I won’t tell her what you want from her. I’m still your ally, Nick.”

Nick held Inez close and rolled so that she was on her back with him looming over her. “I trust that to be the case, Inez. And I can’t say I’m entirely sorry that Threnody put me in a position where I felt the need to assert my claim on you in such an enjoyable way.”

When Ainsley Davenport arrived home from her trip to Sarah Llewellyn College, her sister Cricket was waiting in the apartment where Ainsley lived and Cricket was staying until she left for Yale in a few days. Cricket was dressed in her work clothes - a sensible gray suit that made her look more like a first-year associate than the eighteen year-old recent high school graduate she was. She rose from her place at the dining room table and came over to help Ainsley with her luggage. “Have you had lunch yet? I was just going to order.”

“I could definitely eat. We drove a straight shot down from the Finger Lakes without stopping,” admitted Ainsley. “What are you thinking about ordering?”

“Japanese maybe?” Cricket suggested.

Ainsley paused only a moment before agreeing to order Japanese. It wasn’t that she disliked Japanese food. To the contrary, she loved sushi and her current neighborhood had some great little sushi places. The reason she’d paused was because Cricket had suggested it. Most of the times when they ordered food together, Cricket wanted Chinese and Ainsley wanted Japanese so they ordered from one of the many pan-Asian restaurants that delivered to the apartment. That Cricket was voluntarily ordering Japanese and had helped Ainsley carry in her luggage made Ainsley realize that her sister was probably about to ask her for something.

Whatever it was, Ainsley knew she would probably say yes even though it was almost certain to be a big-ticket item. She was making good money as Nick’s in-house counsel and spending very little of it. Ainsley suspected Cricket was going to ask her for a car. Nick had generously covered most of Cricket’s back-to-school expenses including a high-end computer, school supplies, and a new wardrobe. That he hadn’t bought Cricket a car Ainsley took as a good sign. It suggested that Nick might not be thinking about sleeping with Ainsley’s little sister - a possibility that Ainsley was deeply uncomfortable with and might even try to head off at the pass if she saw it coming. It was an indicator of how far culture around the Loft was shifted out of sync with the rest of the world that Ainsley felt a bit prudish for not wanting to share a lover with her sister, but it was how she felt nonetheless. She’d come to terms with the idea that Cricket being at the Loft meant she was probably getting up to all sorts of things Ainsley didn’t want to know about, but there were still a few things she just didn’t want to happen whether she knew about them or not.