Page 57 of No Escape

On the other end of the spectrum, despite being seven months pregnant, Vittoria looked as glamorous as a movie star in a sleek white two-piece, her thick black hair falling in stylish ringlets around her back and shoulders, proudly showing off her pregnant belly. Stefan and Tito could have passed for Greek gods with their ridiculous arm muscles and abs of steel. Even my mother-in-law looked lovely in a sea-green bathing suit.

Nope, I wasn’t feeling insecure whatsoever. Ugh.

I gulped air and tried to look confident as we followed the gamemaster toward the left wing of the castle and down a flight of stairs. We stopped at a long glass wall, through which we could see a large indoor pool.

“Welcome to the water challenge,” Brando said. He pointed to his left, where two dozen red swim caps hung on the wall. “Please choose a cap that fits and put it on. Then take a dry towel from the opposite wall.”

So, weweregoing to swim. My anxiety hiked up another notch as I found a cap that fit. I pulled it onto my head, feeling a strange lump embedded in the back. It felt awkward but not uncomfortable, though the cap came lower down on the nape of my neck than I expected.

“Hey, there’s something in my cap,” Tito said, running his fingers along the lump. Guess we all had the mystery lump.

“Please do not touch it,” Brando said. “I will explain in a minute.”

Shrugging, I tucked my ponytail inside the cap and helped Vittoria into hers after she asked for assistance. She had so much hair, it took me a few minutes.

When I finished, she looked down at her protruding belly and winced. “The baby is kicking hard. Hey, Lexi, want to feel it?”

I totally, absolutely did not want to put my hands on her stomach. I didn’t like strangers touching me, and I didn’t like touching strangers. But Vittoria wasn’t a stranger—she was soon to be my sister-in-law. The spreadsheet guidelines reminded me I needed to go out of my comfort zone for family, so I nodded.

“Sure,” I said somewhat hesitantly. “What do I do?”

She took my hand and pressed it against a part of her belly. “Hold it there and wait.”

I held my hand there. Sure enough, a minute later I felt a strong kick. My mouth dropped open. “I felt it! The baby kicked my hand.”

“Si.He or she is quite the active one. Gio and I are going to have our hands full.”

“That was really cool. I didn’t expect that to be so cool.”

She smiled. “You’re going to be an aunt. Aunt Lexi.”

“Yes, I am.” Weirdly, I felt proud. “Neither of my brothers has kids, so this little one will make me an aunt for the first time.” I leaned over close to Vittoria’s stomach and lowered my voice to a whisper. “Hey, you in there. If anyone ever tries to make you take ballet lessons or play on the football team and you don’t like it, your uncle Slash and aunt Lexi will be on your side. And, by the way, math is cool.”

I straightened and smiled at Vittoria. Now I was going to have to look for coding books for babies when Slash and I got back to the States.

* * *

When we were finally ready, Brando had us line up. He walked behind us and pushed the lump at the back of our caps. I heard a click and wondered what the heck was going on. Brando, however, did not explain.

Instead, he opened the door to the pool and ushered us in. The strong scent of chlorine assailed me, but the room was warm, certainly heated. Brando instructed us to drop our towels on a couple of lawn chairs just inside the door before leading us to the edge of the pool.

I swallowed, my blindingly white limbs now completely exposed in my boring, navy-blue one-piece suit. Thankfully, no one even glanced my way.

The pool had five swim lanes and appeared to be about thirty feet long. Sunken stairs led into the water at both ends. The bottom of the pool sloped quickly toward the center, and the marking on the side of the pool indicated the deepest part was three and a half meters, or just over eleven feet of water. Identical stylized drawings of a fish had been drawn on the long walls of the pool.

A hot tub that looked like it could seat eight or ten people sat to the left of the pool. The tub was sunken several feet below the pool deck with steps leading down to it. Apparently, it wasn’t working, as it held no water and had a maintenance sign in the middle of it.

Along the deck, a long-handled aluminum pool skimmer with a mesh scoop hung on the wall. Next to it was a coiled pool hose that could be presumably attached to a vacuum, although I didn’t see one. Along the far wall, two dozen metal cans had been placed side by side on the floor. They looked like the old-fashioned gas cans with removable lids I’d seen strapped to the back of jeeps in some World War II movies.

Odd.

“Now, if I may have your attention, I will present the challenge to you,” the gamemaster said. “If you look at the bottom of the pool, right in the center, you’ll see something floating.”

We all leaned over, peering into the water. I saw a large light-blue square.

“That blue square is a float attached by a one-meter chain to a heavy weight that lies on the bottom of the pool,” Brando explained. “Underneath that weight, beneath more than eleven feet of water, is the golden disc you seek. Before you try to dive in and grab it, let me warn you that the swim caps you are wearing cannot get wet. They’ve been alarmed and will sound if they touch water, other than a light spray, or if you try to remove your cap. If anyone’s alarm goes off, the challenge will immediately end, and you’ll have forfeited the game.”

Okay, that was weird. “Our heads can’t get wet?” I repeated to make sure I understood him correctly. “The challenge is to retrieve the disc without activating an alarm. That’s it?”

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