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“Lunch.”
12
BEXLI
Ifroze as I looked into the eyes of the woman who’d been responsible for both my terror and, inadvertently, my freedom. I couldn’t catch my breath, and every inch of my body tingled in fear.
Was I wrong in thinking the terror I saw in her eyes mirrored my own? Her skin paled, she gasped, and she put her hand to her heart. The words coming out of her mouth started off slow and soft but quickly turned fast and loud—panicked.
Nonna looked from her to me, then back again. Her forehead scrunched, and she responded in a calmer tone than the woman who I assumed was her daughter had. While she’d stopped stroking my feet, she hadn’t pulled her hands from them. When she took up where she’d left off, the other woman stalked over to us.
The look on her face turned from angry to enraged when Nonna ignored her. She clenched her fists at her sides and seethed more words I didn’t understand. When Nonna shrugged one shoulder but, otherwise, didn’t respond, the woman let out a scream that set my teeth on edge.
Xavier raced in the bedroom door, shouting at the woman. Nonna smiled when I groaned as she dug her fingers into the arch of my foot, massaging away the pain, and I’m sure, intending to distract me from the fear that the woman would alert Moretti of my whereabouts and, soon, I’d be dragged back into hell.
Xavier sighed, put his hands on his hips, and turned to me, shaking his head. The woman folded her arms and cried. I wished I could understand what they were saying.
“What is your name?” Xavier asked, startling me. While his accent was heavy, his words were clear.
“You speak English?” I gasped.
He nodded and looked down at the floor.
“Why do you want to know my name?”
Perhaps the woman understood and spoke English as well since she shouted something at him after I’d responded.
He shook his head, then turned to me again. “We don’t have to know it.”
“What is she going to do?” I asked, my eyes filling with tears.
“She’s afraid that once her boss finds out you’re here, he’ll kill us all.”
“Must she tell him?” I asked, hardly above a whisper. I could feel the woman’s eyes on me, but I refused to look at her.
Xavier shook his head. “She thinks he’ll find out anyway.”
So many questions flew through my mind. Why hadn’t the man told me he spoke English before now? If the woman feared for her life, and that of her mother and Xavier, what would she do? Cast me out into the alley?
“There’s someone I need to call,” I blurted. “He’ll come and get me.”
Xavier shook his head.
My eyes scrunched. “Why not?”
He didn’t respond, as if he hadn’t heard me.
My eyes met Nonna’s. “Do you speak English too?”
“She doesn’t,” Xavier answered for her, then said something to her and the other woman. Nonna stood, and both abruptly left the room. “We have to wait,” he said once they were gone.
“So Moretti’s guards can come get me instead?”
He sat beside me on the bed. “We won’t let that happen.”
“Then, why won’t you let me call someone?”
“We have to make sure the phone is secure.”
