24. Gianna
CHAPTER 24
I try not to look at Carlo as he drives me away from the winery. I’ve sat beside him so many times that it’s hard to fully convince myself I’m in danger, but his jaw sits much tenser than I’ve ever seen it, and his knuckles turn white as he squeezes the wheel. There’s a lot to Carlo I’ve not seen, and if he’s been working for my great-uncle for five years, there’s a lot my father didn’t know either.
I stare at the changing scenery, and at first, I’m not sure where we’re going, trying to guess where he might be taking me, but eventually, we straighten out and head in the general direction of the monastery. He was making sure we don’t have anyone tailing us, and we don’t. I didn’t make a scene, and no one noticed me slipping away. No one is coming for me or has any clue where I am, and I cringe when I think of Niko’s reaction when he comes home and finds me gone. The one plus side is I won’t be there to see it.
Carlo holds his phone to his ear. It’s been there for the last ten minutes. He must have called my uncle no less than thirty times already, and each time Marco doesn’t answer, he’s growing more frustrated.
“Marco, pick up. I have Gianna.” The messages he’s left are growing shorter and snappier.
“Are you taking me to my parents or my uncle?” I ask him once he hangs up but before he dials again, letting my curiosity get the best of me. I fell into Carlo’s trap either way, but will I at least have the ability to try to bury my parents later, or was it all a ruse?
“Both. No more questions.”
He presses the screen again, and it reads “Father DiMarco.”
“Don’t have him in your phone under his real name? How precious. Do you have a priest name too?”
“Stop it, Gianna. He’s a real priest.”
I roll my eyes so far back they nearly stick. No, the fuck, he is not.
“You know he has an ex-wife and kids too, don’t you? He’s a real full-of-shit priest.”
I’m buckled, and the seat belt has been locked for a while. What I wouldn’t give for an inch of space. The claustrophobia winds around my throat, and I'd do and say almost anything to get out of this car, but my parents’ bodies keep me from doing anything more serious than irritating him.
“Shut the fuck up, Gianna,” he grits. Is he more frustrated with me or Marco? How unusual is it for my uncle not to answer him? How close are they? I wish I knew.
“Marco, call me back. I’m taking her to the bodies. She won’t shut up otherwise. Let me know how your end went. Our window of opportunity is rapidly closing.”
“What was his end, Carlo?”
I can’t imagine it was something good. None of these men are good. None of them are anything like they wanted me to believe except for Niko, who is so hard on himself he’s actually far better than he believes, who is honest to a fault, who loves for years without more than a scrap to hold on to.
Carlo doesn’t answer me.
“What did the two of you do, Carlo?”
“I said shut up. We have a long drive, and I’m not going to listen to you run your mouth the whole way.”
“Fuck you.” I’ve never cursed at him, not once.
Slap. His hand collides with my face, and the sting vibrates through me and throbs behind my eye. It’s been a while since I was hit like this, and usually, it would be my papa, but it stings just the same and humiliates just as effectively. Tears well in my eyes, and saliva gathers in my mouth.
“I told you to be quiet. Now fucking be quiet.”
And I am all the way back to the monastery.
When we arrive, I’m surprised to find we take the same hidden entrance I used with Niko when we got married a month ago. I don’t know why I would be. Carlo can’t just walk through the door with me, especially now since this is Niko’s territory and the men here are loyal to him other than my uncle. I simply didn’t want to see how deeply Carlo’s connection to my uncle runs. Deep as this tunnel, if he knows to meet him here, if he comes here without getting permission first.
He pulls into the same spot Niko did, and I want to shout at him to move, that he doesn’t belong in any place Niko has stood, that he stains his shadows, but that’s melodramatic even for me. Carlo opens his door and steps out, but I don’t follow him.
“Let’s go, Gianna. Don’t be difficult. No one wants to hurt you, but obviously, I will if I have to,” he says through the door before he closes it.
I’m not afraid of another slap despite the fact I don’t want one. My father slapped me anytime I said something he didn’t like. I’m used to men who hit, and I’m used to men who think nothing of women. For the first time in my life, I truly pity my mother, and I wonder how her life fared these last five years. Considering how things went for me, I can’t imagine well for her.
I make the sign of the cross before stepping out of the car and following him through the same hallway I walked with Niko. The stone is damper than last time. The slight water leaching from the walls drips like blood.
“My parents’ bodies?” I ask because I’m worried now this was all a lie. He doesn’t know where they are, and he’s going to lock me away down here.
“They’re here too.”
“They’re here?” I ask in relief, my hand flying to my throat. “Oh, thank God.”
“Yes, Gianna. They weren’t left somewhere awful to rot.”
“Thank you.”
I hug him from behind, and maybe he doesn’t deserve it. Maybe offering them respect in their deaths had nothing to do with him, but it doesn’t change how grateful I am, or the fact that Carlo used to be someone I trusted implicitly. It’s hard to remember he’s not who I thought he was. He allows me to hug him a moment longer than he did when I first saw him in the woods, but he steps out of my embrace.
“Let’s go,” he says as he heads down the hall, checking only once to make sure I’m behind him. I look back toward the exit, considering what I know of the chapel above, and think now might be the time to make a break for it. He’s older than I am, bulkier. I used to run constantly before I was taken just to keep my body from deteriorating from disuse.
I might be faster than him. But it was dangerous enough for me when I was the Gemelli princess, and now I’m Niko’s wife also. The price on my head is absurdly high, plus Carlo might shoot me. Probably in the leg, but the fact is I don’t trust him not to.
“Go ahead of me,” he says, officially taking care of the issue of my decision. “Straight forward.”
He nudges me between the shoulder blades with his gun to get me to move faster, and I speed up immediately. Fuck, what if he just kills me and leaves me here? These stone walls are filled with bodies. Crypts line the property. I could so easily become one of them. Maybe that’s his plan: show me my parents’ bodies and leave me beside them where I always belonged.
Instead of going up into the cathedral, we avoid those stairs entirely, pushing past into a deeper hallway I never noticed, with Niko’s broad shoulders blocking the way. We follow the path a bit longer. The claustrophobia that threatened when Niko was in front of me holding my hand now crushes me.
We find an even longer set of stairs than the ones to the cathedral and follow them up and up. Eventually, we reach a door, and he pushes me aside to open it, stepping through first. When he sees there’s no one, he waves me through. A staleness hangs in the air like there’s not enough fresh air or windows. It smells like my elementary school in the strangest way. Carlo pushes me back as one of the sisters passes on the far end of the hall, and I realize we’re inside the convent. Niko told me the tunnels came up here.
The smell that reminded me of school is the nuns' laundry room, which is right down the hall if the noises are anything to go by. Growing up in Catholic school, I spent a lot of time surrounded by that smell and the crush of starched fabric.
Carlo pushes me along as soon as the coast is clear, and before I can form any theories about why we’re here, he pushes me out of a side door and into the failing daylight. Fuck, more time has passed than I realized. Niko will know I’m gone soon. I say a quick prayer that something bad doesn’t happen to either of us because if it does, it will be my fault. He never would have let me leave the house the way I did.
A rose garden and maze sit between the convent and the rectory. This seems to be where we’re headed, but instead of picking our way through, we walk behind it. There’s no one to be seen, and even if people are on the other side, they won’t notice us. The walls must be at least ten feet high and serve as excellent cover.
He forces me to run for the small stretch of open path, but no one would recognize me from this distance anyway. He knocks on the door to the rectory, which makes me wonder if he’s not as close with the other priests or if they simply don’t know who my uncle Marco really is.
A young man who is most certainly not a priest opens the door, looking slightly mussed. He blushes hard when he makes eye contact with me, but it’s his own embarrassment on his face, no hints of recognition for me.
“Theo, where is Father DiMarco?”
His brows furrow, and I wonder if he’s even a man or a late teen. He’s too ambiguously aged for me to feel better about this situation.
“Father DiMarco and Fathers O’Rourke, Shawnessy, and Clifton have all been missing since they left yesterday morning. I’m growing very concerned about them, but they’re not here. Can I find another one of the fathers to help? Maybe Father Benedict? I know he’s in.”
Is that the priest he was with before we knocked?
“No, don’t tell them I was here. I’d rather not add extra stress if they are worried about the other fathers.”
“They’ll ask who knocked, and I’ll tell them,” he answers with a smile, making it clear in the politest way possible that he won’t keep Carlo’s secrets.
Carlo hears what he’s saying, and it ticks his frustration up another notch. I’ve never seen Carlo so out of control in a situation, never seen him panic, but I assumed he might have internally the few times he needed to protect my life from attempts on it. He yanks me by my arm back across the property, but this time, he doesn’t bother being so careful. I see a few people in the distance, but no one notices him yanking me along against my will.
We don’t bother sneaking as we go back through the convent, and I’m truly afraid as we pass a group of nuns, and I hear them gasp my name.
“Gianna, are you okay?” Mother Superior asks from the other side of the hall. “What’s happening? Unhand her!” she demands of Carlo, but he continues shoving me along. We’re out the door and he drops a wooden beam that serves as a lock over the door, preventing the sisters themselves from using the secret passage that provides unfettered access to them.
I thought Niko was kidding when he talked about the untoward reasons to need to sneak into a convent, but it’s clear now he wasn’t. Is there a woman on earth who’s safe from men? I’m starting to believe the answer is no.
He shoves me as we get back to the car, but he still hasn’t said a word.
“Where are you taking me, Carlo? What’s your plan now?”
Another smack before he pushes me into the back seat of the car and shuts the door behind me. He hops in himself, starting the car and pulling out as fast as he can. He rips through the narrow tunnel, scraping his car against the sides as he goes, not bothering to be careful.
“Who can help you now, Carlo?”
“Shut the fuck up, Gianna!”
“Just take me back, and we’ll pretend it never happened.”
We’re approaching the end of the tunnel, blinding sunlight floods the entryway, but there’s a black spot interrupting it. Carlo slows to see what’s blocking the way. Who is blocking his way. My heart is in my throat because I know who it is. He came for me.
A gunshot blasts through the windshield, the treated glass staying together but shattering in a massive spiderweb. Carlo’s head smacks against the rest, and the car comes to a complete stop, before his head drops forward, chin resting to his chest. He’s dead.
I scream for half a second and then collapse against the seat in relief because Niko found me. He’s here. He came for me. I’m safe now. He’s going to open the door and pull me out of this car that stinks like gunpowder and death.
But then my eyes adjust, and the smoke clears. Fyodor Domalachego stands on the other side of that gun. Not Niko.