Chapter 53 Liana
LIANA
I’m pacing in the living room while Gio and Gui sit on the couch and Massi sits in the chair. “It’s been way too long. Maybe I should just text her.”
“You could,” Massi says.
“But what if she’s not ready to talk to me again?
I kind of threw a lot at her at the spa.
” I stop to face the guys. “I mean, clearly she’s not ready to speak with me again if she’s not texting me.
” I run my hands through my hair. “Ugh, I just wish there was something I could do besides sit around and do nothing.”
We spent the last week keeping a low profile, and even ended up moving villas as a precaution, just in case Ignazio was hot on our trail.
The guys have been ignoring phone calls from their parents.
Their dad messaged saying he hopes we listened and went back to New York, but they’re all adamant about cutting off communication with him.
I’m not sure how I feel about that. I’m livid they knew all along about my mom, but Massi, Gio, and Gui have grown up in a loving family home. I know how it feels to lose that, and I don’t want to be the reason it happens to them.
“You have to stop being hard on yourself, mia moglie. I’m sure your mom will reach out soon.”
“What if something happened to her? What if Ignazio found out she met with me at the spa and now he has her locked in that fortress of his?”
My head is swimming with possibilities, and clearly not the good kind.
Massi walks over to me and takes my hands in his. “We’ve been listening in on our parents’ conversations. From what we heard, it sounds like everything is normal over there. Other than Ignazio still trying to find us … And I guess our mom being kept away from your mom.”
“She’s being kept away?”
“Yeah, apparently, Ignazio is worried she is going to cave and tell your mom everything, so Ignazio told our dad to keep her away.”
“I don’t know how he continues to keep up with this lie.”
“He’s a psychopath, that’s how,” Gio grumbles.
“I just wish I knew why she hasn’t tried to reach out to me yet,” I say.
“Like you said, you gave her a lot of information last week. I’m sure she’s still trying to process it. She’ll reach out soon,” Massi says.
Someone’s phone dings, so I rush to pull mine out of the back pocket of my jeans. The excitement fades when I realize it wasn’t from me.
I glance at Massi, who has his phone out and a furrow in his brow.
“It’s my dad,” he mumbles.
“What’s he want now?” Gio asks.
“He says he knows we’re still in Sicily.”
Gio scoffs. “Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.”
“And that he’s going to have to tell Ignazio.”
“He’s really picking that fucker over us? His family?” Gui asks.
Another ding goes off.
“He says he’s not helping him look for us, but we need to get out of here ASAP, and he’ll let us know if they get hot on our trail.”
Massi lets out a sigh and stuffs his phone back into the pocket of his slacks.
“I know we should leave, but I can’t, Massi,” I say, panic rising in my chest.
“And we won’t. Not without your mom. I already promised you that.”
Another ding goes off, and I assume it’s Massi’s phone again, but when he takes it out and shakes his head, I glance down at mine and my heart drops.
It’s my mom.
“It’s her,” I say, opening her message.
Mom: I had another dream … I’m quite certain it was another memory.
Me: Do you want to talk about it?
Mom: We will, but for now, I think it’s best we leave Sicily as soon as possible.
My heart beats erratically. We leave? Does this mean … Another message comes through from her.
Mom: I told Ignazio I need to get my hair done tomorrow. He’ll send me with my guard, but I’m sure I can escape out the back. He isn’t always the sharpest.
“She … She …”
“Is everything okay, Liana?” Massi asks, concern raising his voice.
My gaze darts to his, blurred with the onset of tears forming.
“She wants to … She wants to leave Sicily. With me.”
Another message comes through.
Mom: If I send you the address, do you think you’ll be able to pick me up?
Me: Of course.
“She said she’s going to a salon tomorrow and that she’ll be able to sneak out the back if we can pick her up.”
“We can do that, but if she’s planning on sneaking out, that means we’re going to have a very small window of time to get the hell out of Sicily.”
My phone dings, and it’s the address with a time from my mom. Clicking on it, the GPS tells me we’re not too far from her salon.
“We’re only thirty minutes away from the salon heading east,” I say.
“Which means we’re only about an hour and a half from the airport,” Massi says.
“I’ll text Jeff. He’ll be able to get here in time,” I say, typing out a message to my pilot.
“Theoretically speaking, this should be easy as cake, right?” Gui asks.
“Theoretically, yes,” Massi says.
“But?” I ask, raising a brow.
“I never prepare for the easy way out.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, we will be prepared for the worst to happen tomorrow.”
“The worst being?”
“That this is a setup,” Gui says.
“It’s not a setup. My mom would never,” I say.
“I don’t think it’s a setup, but it would be unwise of us to go into this thinking there won’t be any fucking hiccups,” Massi says.
“Then we’ll be ready for whatever there is that could come our way,” Gio says.
I let out a long breath and bring my attention to Massi. “You guys have me worried.”
“You have nothing to be worried about, mia moglie. We’re going to get your mom and go back home. You let me, Gio, and Gui worry about the what-ifs.”
While I’m happy my mom has made the decision to come home with us, I can’t help but feel like the guys wanting to prepare for the worst might be because the worst is about to come.