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“This meeting was a mistake.”

Around us, cups touched saucers and the espresso machine released a hiss of steam. One of the old men laughed over his cards.

“Did someone pay you off to keep quiet?”

Lucia looked at Adriana with shame in her eyes. “They didn’t need to pay me.”

“Then they threatened you.”

“They showed me photographs,” Lucia admitted.

“Of what?”

“My daughter leaving university.” Lucia swallowed. “My grandson outside his school.”

Adriana sat back, looking defeated.

“I stopped asking questions to protect my family,” Lucia admitted.

“And the missing women?”

Lucia closed her eyes. “I couldn’t save them.”

A shadow crossed the café window. The man beneath the awning had moved. Another now stood near the entrance to the market, facing the café while pretending to light a cigarette. Neither belonged to us.

“Are those men with you?” I asked.

Lucia’s eyes widened.

She shook her head. “No.”

“You knew someone might follow you.”

“I thought I had lost them.”

I looked toward the counter. The waiter had disappeared into the kitchen.

One of the old men gathered the playing cards. The couple beside the window signalled for their bill.

The café was emptying too quickly and too suddenly. They were clearing the room.

I stood suddenly, sensing the danger.

“Adriana.”

She rose immediately.

Lucia caught my sleeve. “I didn’t tell them about you.”

“Is there another exit?”

She nodded. “Through the kitchen. There’s an alley behind⁠—”

The front window exploded. The first bullet struck Lucia high in the chest. Her body slammed against the back of the chair.

Adriana screamed.

I seized her around the waist and drove us both beneath the table as a second round of gunfire punched through the wall behind us. Cups shattered. Hot coffee and broken glass rained over us.