AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He hasn’t told you?”
“Never talks about his sculpting.”
“And you say he’s afraid of fire?”
“Wouldn’t you be after what happened?”
“I suppose so.” A wind hits me and I stagger, feeling weak all of a sudden.
“You should go back up to the house, Anna. You’re not safe to be out and about yet.”
“Maybe you’re right.”
“I’ll take you up, make sure you’re all right.”
I manage a smile as we head up the path from the beach. “How come you’re so nice?”
“You were always nice enough to me when you came to visit.”
“You remember me?”
“Sure I do. You and Bea were thick as thieves. I remember that summer you decided you wanted to be fairies, hiding in the rosebushes and getting ripped to shreds by the thorns. Came out scratched to shit and crying but giggling at the same time. You still talk to Bea?”
“Not since…” The end of the sentence falls away. We both know what I was going to say. Not since the crash.
An iron curtain came down between our two families after the crash. I was banned from talking to Bea. Our friendship ended in an instant. I haven’t spoken to her since.
“You’re frowning,” Sergio says. “You feeling all right.”
“Just thinking.”
“About?”
“He’s scared of fire? I never knew that about him. I never thought he was scared of anything. He certainly doesn’t act like it.”
“Lot going on with Leo that you don’t know about.”
As if to add emphasis to his words, I hear screaming coming from the house. I look that way. He’s got a window open and the noise is drifting out toward us. I rush over to the window but there’s only Leo sitting behind his desk, staring at his computer screen. The screaming is still going on.
“What are you looking at?” I call through. “Are you watching someone being tortured?”
He glances my way, looking furious. He crosses to the window and glares out at me. “Don’t go places you have no right to be.” Then he slams the window shut, pulling the curtains across an instant later.
I turn and look for Sergio but he’s nowhere to be seen. I’m alone again. My head is spinning. I make it inside and collapse onto the first couch I find, my eyes closing. Within seconds, I’m out cold.
8
Leonardo
I sit behind the computer, staring at the screen. I don’t know how many times I’ve watched this footage. Over the years, it’s haunted me, gnawed at me, dug into my psyche and told me to do better. To be stronger. To never beg.
The camera was fixed on the wall behind us while it happened. With the benefit of hindsight, I know what the plan was. Over the years, I’ve worked it all out. Some no name was going to ransom the two of us. But my father refused to pay. Told them he wouldn’t submit to blackmail. Sent a crew to get us out.
Giuseppe died and I lived. I begged them to let him go. I tried to fight them. I wasn’t strong enough. Caruso was behind it, I’m sure. My father had suspicions too but the Commission told him suspicions aren’t enough to permit execution of a Don. So it was one more thing he got away with.
My father would tell me you have to learn to work with your enemies, make the most of a bad situation for the sake of business.
I always remembered that. Work with your enemies. Is that what I’m doing now?
