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Kneeling down as silently as I could, I nudged Drake awake. He sat up immediately, but I clamped a hand onto his mouth before he could say anything. His eyes darted around, finding mine, surprise and confusion written all over his face. I nodded my head toward the door, and his gaze slid to the window. His eyes widened further at the sight of the shadowy form outside.
Before either of us could move, the owner of the shadow turned and slid out of sight, moving fast. Drake pushed my hand away, clambering to his feet. The only thing close to a weapon we had was a small set of silverware in the cabin. The knife was only a dull butter knife, but Drake grabbed it anyway and moved toward the door. In a few quick movements he had the chair out of the way, and the knob unlocked. With a flick of his wrist, he yanked the door wide and lunged into the hallway, looking first one way then the other.
“Nothing,” he said. “They’re gone.”
“Could it have been a housekeeper or something?”
“Maybe,” he said, closing and locking the door.
Drake pulled his phone out and began swiping and typing.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“When we get to port, I want to go ahead and get tickets somewhere else.”
“I thought we were staying in this Brindisi place.”
He looked up and gave me a meaningful look. “We were but,” he glanced at the door, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
His true meaning was unspoken. He thought we were being followed. Whether by police or Sam, or someone Sam hired, we didn’t know. Too much had happened for it to all be a coincidence.
“I’ll purchase tickets on an additional ferry ride with my card. Then I think we’ll take a train but pay for that in cash. It might throw off whoever might be following us if our accounts are being tracked somehow,” Drake went on then under his breath added, “though I don’t know how.”
We gathered our items and headed for a more public area of the ship. He decided to hang out at the small bar. There were a couple of people there enjoying cocktails and wine, along with the bartender. If Sam or one of his people were on the ship with us, the extra eyes would prevent them from acting. If it was the authorities…well…we were fucked. They’d simply wait until we were disembarking and slap cuffs on us as we stepped off the boat.
When it finally came time to depart, my heart was in my throat. I kept looking around, ready to hear a policeman scream at us to put our hands up, or worse, a gunshot to ring out. Would they shoot us first and ask questions later? Or would Sam appear out of the shadows at the last second, slipping a blade between Drake’s ribs before drawing it across my throat?
“Do you see anything?” Drake whispered as we walked down the boarding ramp.
Ahead of us, I saw the same figure wearing a hoodie. They strolled away from the ship and never looked back. They walked in a carefree gait, wholly unconcerned with whatever we were doing. That fact alone made me feel like an idiot for freaking out like I had. Maybe we were just overthinking all of this.
Regardless, Drake was still set on trying to lose whatever tail we may or may not have had. We immediately went to the ticket kiosk and purchased a new set of tickets for a second ferry. Afterward, Drake checked into the ride electronically, and then led me to the curb where we hailed a cab and departed. We waited until we were well away from the dock before he even told the driver where we were going.
“Train station please,” Drake said. “The nearest one.”
Ten minutes later, Drake and I were on a boarding platform buying tickets to Naples with cash. Forty minutes after that, we were seated in the first-class section of the train as it made its slow departure from Brindisi.
“How do you feel?” Drake asked, still craning his neck around, searching for anyone who looked suspicious.
“Fine. I guess. Do you think we’re safe now? Do you really think someone is following us?”
Drake, finding nothing of note, finally settled back in his seat, relaxing somewhat. “Not sure. Though we can’t be too careful.”
The train cruised through the countryside somewhat parallelling the coast before proceeding deep into the country and angling west toward Naples. At any other moment, I’d have been having the time of my life. All the years of living in a fucking trash apartment and thinking I’d never get out seemed so far away. I was in god damned Italy. Still, that was only secondary to staying alive. One plus was that it appeared as though the police weren’t around to do anything. At least not yet. We hadn’t been tackled coming off the ship, so we probably were in the clear at the moment.
Drake had his laptop out, typing away, going through all the software he used to search for Sam. He’d been checking accounts, IDs, addresses, and even car registrations for vehicles. All the things he and Sam had used when operating their playhouse. So far, Sam hadn’t been dumb enough to use any of these. That was actually even more scary. I could tell Drake was confused by it. It meant Sam had hidden some things from him.
The train slowed, pulling me from my thoughts. Drake glanced up and cursed. “It’s a stop. This wasn’t a direct route. They didn’t have any. They’ll be picking up and dropping off the whole way to Naples. Damn.”
“So can anyone get on at these stations?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Drake leaned over, looking down the aisle toward the opening doors. “There’s no telling who might be here. For all we know, Owen could have hired anyone.”
“Owen? Who’s Owen?” I said, brows furrowed in confusion.
Drake sighed and looked at me, tearing his eyes from the doors. “That’s his real name. Owen Torance. I never told you. It didn’t really matter. For all intents and purposes, he is Sam now.”
“Owen?” I worked the word around my head as I spoke it. As banal a name as ‘Sam’ was, Owen was even more nondescript and boring.
