62. Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Two
Mialina
Itighten the blanket around my shoulders and tuck my feet beneath me on the window seat.
Mamma sent us upstairs after dinner, assuring us we could see Luca tomorrow after she and Aldo talked to him.
I know Luca’s message didn’t mention Isa, but a part of me refuses to believe they could already be separated again. Not after they finally found their way back to each other after five years apart.
Unless something has happened to Isa, which is not an idea I want to entertain.
I want them both to come home. Well, not home exactly, because Chicago isn’t home to me, but here. To us.
Every few minutes, I glance through the window at the empty driveway. We haven’t heard from Luca since he sent the message, despite Mamma trying to reach him.
I draw my knees closer to my chest.
So much has changed since this morning. It feels like an entirely different day from the one where I woke up in Maximo’s arms and let him…
Well, I don’t want to go there again. In fact, I want to forget anything and everything to do with Don Maximo Marco.
A humorless laugh escapes me. That won’t be easy when he insists on being in my face at every opportunity, and now that Luca needs his help with God knows what, Maximo might be here at Aldo’s even more often than before.
I need to organize another outing with Rory. I need some fun in my life. We’ve been texting, and she still wants to do another photoshoot, especially since Maximo refuses to return my album.
We had so much fun during the last shoot. How was that only five days ago?
We haven’t even been in Chicago for a full week. Last week at this time, I was in my bedroom in Sicily, dreading this trip and wondering what might happen with Maximo.
Since then, I’ve made my first real friend, tasted more freedom than I’ve ever had, butted heads with Maximo at every opportunity, and somehow let him get far too close.
Now Mamma is engaged, the future I thought was waiting for us in Sicily has been rewritten, and Luca is alive and married to Isa.
God, I hope my second week in Chicago is less eventful.
I need my sister here so I can digest and dissect everything that’s happened, although judging by what little we know, her week may have been every bit as memorable as mine.
Headlights finally sweep across the front gardens, and I sit upright as a black sedan rolls slowly up the driveway before stopping beneath the covered entrance.
The rear door opens, and a man climbs out.
My hand flies to my mouth. He really is alive after all these years.
He looks taller somehow, broader through the shoulders. His dark coat emphasizes how much he has filled out since I last saw him. There’s a quiet confidence in the way he carries himself that wasn’t there five years ago.
But it’s still Luca.
My gaze darts back to the car, desperately willing the second rear door to open.
Come on.
But nobody else gets out, and the only people with Luca are the guards Aldo sent to collect him.
He really did come alone.
Luca exchanges a few quiet words with the men before disappearing inside the house. A cold unease settles in my stomach.
Where’s Isa?
Throwing the blanket aside, I hurry into the hallway and make my way downstairs as quietly as I can. I’m grateful for every childhood adventure that taught me how to move with the stealth of a ninja. I’ve already worked out which floorboards creak and carefully avoid them.
Halfway down the staircase, I stop.
Two guards stand outside Aldo’s office, one on either side of the closed door.
Dammit.
Usually, the men disperse through the house or return to their posts outside, but these two look as though they’ve been ordered to make sure nobody gets near whatever is happening in that room.
Or perhaps they’re there to make sure Luca doesn’t leave it. Not until Aldo decides otherwise.
Does he really think Luca might be dangerous?
That seems ridiculous.
But then again, none of us knows what Luca has been doing these past few years, where he’s been, or whether he truly is the man every government agency seems determined to find.
I retreat upstairs before the guards spot me, but there’s no chance I’m going back to my room. Luca has to leave Aldo’s office eventually, and if I can catch him alone, I might finally get some answers.
I settle near the top of the staircase, hidden behind the banister with a clear view of the hallway below. Voices drift from Aldo’s office, but they’re too muffled for me to make out the words. So I wait.
Long minutes pass before the door finally opens. Luca steps out, and even from here, I can see the exhaustion weighing on him.
One of the guards gestures toward the guest wing. “This way, Mr. Caruso.”
Luca disappears with him down the corridor. Crap. There’s no way I can get to him now.
The office door remains open, and Aldo steps into the hallway.
“I’ll call Maximo,” he says over his shoulder before walking away with the other guard.
Their footsteps recede until silence settles over the house. Then a soft, broken sound reaches me. A sob.
Mamma.
I’ve never heard her cry like that, and the pain in it sends my heart lurching against my ribs.
What has happened?
I hurry down the stairs and rush through the open door. Mamma sits curled in one of Aldo’s armchairs, her face hidden behind trembling hands.
“Mamma…” My voice comes out barely above a whisper. She doesn’t look up.
I cross the room and kneel beside her chair, slipping my arms around her as carefully as though she’s made of glass. She turns to me and clutches me so tightly it almost hurts.
I hold her without trying to speak. Instead, I stroke her back the way she’s always done for me and let her cry until the worst of it passes.
Gradually, her sobs quiet, and her breathing starts to even out. I reach across Aldo’s desk, pull a tissue from the box, and press it into Mamma’s hand.
“Mamma…” I take both her hands in mine. “Tell me what’s wrong. Where’s Isa?”
For a long moment she just looks at me. Then she draws a shaky breath.
“She’s been taken.”
Everything around me seems to go still. I blink at her.
“Taken?”
Her lips tremble. “K-Kidnapped.”
“What?” The word leaves me in little more than a whisper. “Who took her?”
“A man called Carter Hale.”
The name means nothing.
“Who is he?”
“Luca’s enemy. He said Hale is out to destroy him.”
A chill creeps through me despite the warmth of the room.
“But what does he want with Isa?” My voice cracks.
“To get to Luca. Hit him where it hurts him most.”
I swallow against the sudden tightness in my throat, but it does nothing to stop my mind from racing.
Hale is using Isa as leverage to force Luca’s hand. God knows what he’ll do to her.
My stomach churns.
Is Isa locked in a room somewhere? A dungeon? Is Hale giving her enough food and water?
What if he hurts her?
Neither of us speaks, both lost in our thoughts.
“Luca tracked Hale and Isa to Chicago,” Mamma says suddenly.
My head jerks up. “Isa is in Chicago?”
Mamma nods.
“But… if Luca knows where she is…” I struggle to make sense of it. “Why didn’t he just go and get her?”
“Because he can’t.” The resignation in her voice frightens me more than if she’d broken down again. “Apparently, Hale’s estate is like a fortress. He can’t get Isa out alone.”
I stare at Mamma, trying to reconcile those words with the Luca I remember. Asking for help has never been easy for him. If he is now, he must truly have no other choice.
My chest is too tight to draw a full breath.
“So…” I manage at last. “That’s why he needs Maximo.”
“Yes.”
My gaze drifts toward the open doorway through which Aldo disappeared only minutes ago to call his boss.
What if Maximo refuses to help?
Why would he risk his men for someone he doesn’t know? After all, this is another man’s war.
But I don’t voice the questions. Judging by the fresh tears gathering in Mamma’s eyes, she’s already asked herself every one of them.
Surely, Luca will have a plan, something to offer Maximo in exchange.
I squeeze her hand. “We’ll get Isa back.”
The words leave my mouth before I can think better of them. I don’t know how we’ll do it, or what it will take, but I can’t sit here and let Mamma believe we’ve already lost her.
She searches my face, her eyes shining with tears.
“I hope so, Mia.”
My heart twists.
I want to believe hope will be enough, but deep down I know it won’t. If Isa is going to come home, someone has to get her out.
My thoughts drift to Maximo, to the quiet authority that seems to follow him wherever he goes and the way people obey him without question.
He has to help my sister.
The man I’d spent all afternoon trying to push out of my head and my life has suddenly become the one person I need most. The irony.
But Isa’s life may depend on him.