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I told her to stay on the island no matter what.
She didn’t listen. She’s in the open. She’s in danger.
I could send the crew for Amato, go after her. Trust them to keep him alive and keep him from getting a message to whoever snatches her.
At least Sergio is with her. He might be able to keep her safe. He’s good at his job. Knows what he’s doing. I can trust him to do whatever it takes to keep her safe. To do what I tell him.
I look up at my crew. They’re waiting for me to tell them what’s coming next. Greg has his phone to his ear, dialing Amato at home.
I put my phone back in my pocket and make my decision. No time to ponder. Time to do this.
18
Anna
Montana. How long has it been since I was last here? No more than a few days yet it’s like I’m a different person. So much has happened in that time, a lifetime’s worth of change in such a short time.
It’s impossible to think of the person I was before Leo came to get me. That person has gone forever. That innocence is long gone too. I’ve been shot at. I’ve nearly drowned. I’ve been spanked, whipped with a crop, had a man come all over me, walked through a house with it marking my skin.
Somehow, the further I get from the island, the more that time seems like a dream. I didn’t let all that happen, did I? There’s no way I’m married, is there?
So much to talk to Fleur about but only if I can save her. I know she’s walking into a trap. I can sense that bad things are going to happen to her if I don’t reach her quickly.
The plane sets us down at the airstrip where I took off from not that long ago. I remember how I felt last time I was here, a sick sense of inevitability, like I was always going to be dragged back into the mafia life sooner or later, whether I wanted it to happen or not.
Sergio drives us in a blacked out Jeep to the point where her phone cut out. “There,” he says, bringing the car to a halt next to a whole lot of nothing.
We get out. I look around me. Tire marks in the dust, footprints, and then I see it, a couple of yards away from the dirt track. Fleur’s cellphone. The screen cracked. The battery dead. “Where is she?” I ask, looking around me. “What do we do now?”
Sergio is standing by the car, something in his hand. “Can you track her?” I ask.
“No need,” he replies. “I know exactly where she is.”
He points up into the sky and I squint into the sunlight. Something’s coming down. It’s a helicopter. “Is that Leo?” I ask. “Has he found Fleur?”
“Not Leo,” Sergio says. “Someone else you know.”
“Fleur? Have you found her? Is she here?”
“Not Fleur. Someone else. Someone who’s been waiting to see you for some time.”
“Who is it, Sergio?”
He’s got a strange smile on his face as he reaches into the car and pulls out a water bottle. He takes a swig and then holds it out toward me. “Who’s on the chopper, Sergio?”
“You’re see soon enough.”
The noise of the rotors gets louder as the helicopter comes in to land. It throws up dust from the scrubland as it sets down about fifty yards from the car.
“Something you should know about me,” Sergio says. “I’ve been working for Giorgio Amato for a long time. Been keeping tabs of Leo for him. Made sure you and him were in different states while we did this. Didn’t want to risk you getting damaged.”
The back door of the helicopter swings open and a figure steps down, dressed in a battered woolen cardigan I remember all too well, seeing it at the front of the lecture halls every weekday for four years. “George?” I say, squinting as he walks over. “What are you doing here?”
He smiles at me. “Anna, good to see you. How’ve you been keeping?”
“What the fuck, George? What are you doing here? Are you looking for the stolen skeleton too?”
He shakes his head. “I know where the skeleton is. It’s in the same place as Fleur. My house. My actual house. Not the one in the paperwork that Leo is heading toward right now.”
