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“I don’t follow?” I say.
The veins on Luca’s head bulge and his teeth are grinding like bricks being scraped together. I reach out a final time and he steps off from the bed and turns away from me. His head hangs. “My father has been executed while we’ve been hiding away.” He’s shaking his head, his rage is building again. His fist is tensing and I’m waiting for the wrath I know is there. “I get a hit put on me just as I meet you. My father gets killed, just as I meet you. A lot of things seem to happen around you Sophie Russo.” His hands are bunching in and out of fists. His muscles are rippling. The body I lusted for has become a coiled weapon ready to destroy me as I await my fate.
“Luca, I swear to you. I don’t know anything about this.” I look about, hoping to find anything that can prove my innocence, but there’s nothing. My belongings aren’t here. “Look, I’ve been here with you the whole time. I don’t get any reception either—I’ve not spoken to my father since we left. I’m in the dark as you are.”
But Luca is having none of it, the death of his father has broken him. “Out of bed,” he says. “Come on, we’re getting to the bottom of this. And if not,” he pauses and looks at me. “I don’t want to begin to think of the fate of Tommy Russo’s daughter.”
My eyes bulge with terror. He’s completely lost it. “Luca, slow down. What has happened?” I push all the crap aside and grab onto him. He tries to push me away and I hold on, determined to not lose him. “We were just here? You were just asleep?” I cry into his shoulder. “I was just asleep—”
“And I’ve been awake for two hours, “ Luca screams, pushing himself away. He’s heaving like it’s been the most painful thing ever for him. He counts off the hours on his hand. “I've been lying here and trying to discern if this is all a ploy. If this is all some Russo trick? If I—” he pauses, the anger cracking and his vulnerability shining through slightly. “If what I felt for you was some trick of your’s to lull me into—”
“Luca, you’re getting paranoid,” I begin, putting my hands out to reach him.
“Who fed the information about the Manettis growing to my father? Who fed the information for these two-bit hitmen trying to kill me? Who—”
“You’re being completely insane!” I say. “My father didn’t give me away because he wanted to kill you or your father!”
“Then why?” Luca says, his eyes are large and white. He grabs at his hair with no way to go.
“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “We had the same lunch, remember? Our mothers were friends. And that was the first I heard of it. And—”
Luca shakes his head and begins pacing. “Look, how did you get this information? When did this call happen? When did—”
“When you rolled off the recliner into the pool.” Luca looks at me with dark eyes. His face is inclined and it’s even more sharp. “It would’ve been around the same time. A convenient time to trap me with your whore’s pussy.”
I slap him in the face as hard as I can. Doing it without even thinking. “How dare you!” I say, my hand shaking and eyes beginning to water.
His cheek reddens and his face is blank.
“How dare you say to me when I’m—when I’m—” but I can't say it. I can’t utter the two syllables I need to. Pregnant. “When I’m yourfiance,” I end up uttering.
This makes Luca grin and his cheek darkens even more, I can tell it’s at least burning. I don’t regret it after such a comment. “There’s only one way to know the truth. We’re going back.” He takes me by the hand and begins pulling me.
“No,” I say.
“Yes,” he says. “If there’s no issues, you’ll have no problem going back to our lives. No? Isn’t that what you wanted anyway? Or do you want me out here for a reason?”
I sigh and relent to his will. But I pull my hand away. “Fine, we’ll go. But I’ve done nothing here but—” I bite the last word off again. Done nothing but what? Love him? A flash of his words before haunts the moment as we leave. What had he felt for me that he was about to say?
Luca leads me out of the pool house and around the pool. We head to the glass doors I was reclining in front of and he opens the door, he takes a few towels and things off of the counter. My phone is among them. Then he comes back and we head around the house. We go to the garage and he keys in a code at the door. It unlocks and we enter.
Inside are a line of sedans.
“We could’ve left at any time?” I ask.
“Any time,” Luca says “But I was holding up my part of the deal of playing nice.”
Luca says nothing more and gets in the car, leaving a towel on top for me. I stand there watching the roller door go up, then finally wrap the towel around myself and hop in. It’s only just occurred to me then that I’d been completely naked this whole argument.
We accelerate out of the garage and fly down the driveway. The bald cypress trees are haunting the night, coming towards us like giant hands to pull us from the road. Luca slows at the gate and a guard comes out of his little hole, he sees who it is and presses the button to open. We are released and flee towards the city.
Luca drives like a maniac. It’s three in the morning and there’s no one on the road, especially these back roads, nevertheless he’s flying along the bitumen and only slowing at the last minute for each corner. Crossing the glades like this has a lot of long stretches. A lot of time for me to freak out and him to wallow in anger. His jaw continues to click. Then in what feels like no time at all, we get back towards some small sign of civilization and my phone goes crazy.
It begins pinging like mad. There’s a few from Mimi and my father. All the social media I’m on and emails.
I open the messages and go through my father’s messages. Nothing out of the ordinary. Same for Mimi. I give my phone to Luca and he scans everything while speeding along the highway. We see a few slow crawling rigs making their way to Miami.
“See, nothing,” I say.
