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“Is that your name?” I glanced at my tattooed rescuer.
“Yeah.” He smiled.
“Well, thanks for all that.” I waved my hand at the flames. “I’m sure glad we are on this side of it.”
“This is the one time I’m glad I was on the outcast side of the family,” Ugo shook his head, “otherwise I’d have never known about the tunnels. Who would have guessed I’d really have to use them to escape after all these years?”
In silence, the three of us watched the Coppola house slowly burn to the ground. It was a sweet but sorrowful sight.
“I think we should go,” Berto suggested. “It might be better to be thought of as dead right now. If you know what I mean.” He gave me a quick smile, and I thanked him again, then he vanished into the chaos.
I was about to stand up when a silver BMW pulled to the curb just up from us. I put a hand on Ugo’s arm, and we both stayed down. I was glad I still had the old gray coat to cover my dress and tugged it closer around me. Two men got out of the car and took a few pictures with their phones. They surveyed the crowd as though looking for someone. One looked our way, and I put my hand over my eyes as I tried to get a good look at his face. I felt like I may have seen him before.
I bumped Ugo’s arm again. “Do you recognize them?”
“No, I don’t think so. Hard to tell from here.”
They got back into the car and drove off. Odd. Although I was sure word had already spread about what had happened here, and everyone in town would be wanting to get a glimpse. Still, the one man looked familiar. I was sure I knew him.
“Come on. Berto’s right. Let’s get out of here.” Ugo urged me along, and we slipped into the crowd.
We were soon sitting on a park bench a few streets away to catch our breath. I wished I had a cool drink to sip and was about to suggest we find something when Ugo spoke.
“Nonna Rosa never came back to the house.” He looked up, and I could see something was bothering him. He tilted his head and seemed to be trying to find the right words.
“What’s wrong?”
“The uncles are dead, aren’t they?” I nodded, wondering how he knew that. “I…I think I might have been the reason the uncles were killed.”
“What? Why would you think that?”
“Nonna told you in front of me that she wanted you to go to the church. She made sure I stayed home and knew the uncles would come and ask where you went. They didn’t like you being alone with her. I can’t blame them.” He side-eyed me. “The uncles are like clockwork. They always come home from cards at exactly seven p.m. When I told them where you were, they raced out. What the hell happened at the church?”
“I made a big play. I wanted Elio to know first, but…” I leaned forward and whispered in his ear.
“Oh, my God.” His eyes widened as my words sank in.
“Not a word, okay?”
“Okay.” His eyebrows pinched when he looked down at my ring finger, then back up at me. “I overheard Rosa talking to herconsigliere.She started to panic when he mentioned a phone call and they needed to get rid of the emails. Whatever it was must have been huge, because later I heard was a comment from one of the maids about how most of Nonna’s belongings were gone from her room. Now I really wonder what’s going.” He swallowed hard.
We stood there in silence for a moment as we absorbed the depth of what he’d said.
“I’m nervous about what this all means,” he huffed. “Nonna does nothing without a plan in full swing.” He rubbed his face, the events of the day weighing heavily on us both. “I still can’t believe they’re dead.”
“Well, then,” I smacked him on the shoulder and grinned, “three down and a few more to go.”
His eyes widened, and he let out a snort that turned into a laugh as he let go of his part in all of it. Really, wasn’t that why we were there? Nonna had just made a good play.
“We should really get out of here. I’m just not sure exactly where we should go. I can just imagine the wolves that will be circling. I’ll call Oscar.”
“No, wait.” I stopped his arm. I needed time to figure out how to play all this, and I really wasn’t sure I wanted anyone to know we were okay yet. “May I use your phone?” I took the phone and pressed the buttons, pleased I remembered his number. I spoke quietly into the phone and was happy to find he wasn’t far away from where we were.
“We are being picked up in a few minutes,” I assured him and was pleased he didn’t question my decision on who I called. “Ugo? Thank you for saving me back there.”
“You’re family, Sienna.”
I hugged him, pleased we had both made it out in one piece. I wanted to tell him about Noemi, but first I needed to decompress. “Did you know Anja was living at the house?”
