Chapter 9 - Garrett
Apparently, not even being beaten half to death was enough to convince Lucas to allow me to have the day off, and by mid-afternoon, he had me fully dressed in my Fratelli robes wandering with him through the streets surrounding the piazza.
"Exercise is good for healing," he’d insisted as he ushered me out the door. I kept having to ask him to slow down as we moved through the crowds, feeling the ache of the men’s kicks all over my body.
But I knew as well as he that we wouldn’t run into the creatures in broad daylight.
"Why am I here?" I asked again as we turned down a side street lined with shops and tourists. "Surely you can handle the day shift on your own."
"You know who we’re looking for now," he answered without looking at me. "You have the best inkling we’ve ever possessed of where to search for them during the day."
"I told you, I don’t think—"
"And I think you’re wrong." He shot me a sidelong glance that suggested he actually thought I was lying but didn’t say as much. "I think the woman you saw was one of them. And I think you’ll remember her when we find her."
I shook my head, feeling my mouth go dry.
Thankfully, I was saved from having to respond by the sound of shouts. Down a street to our right, there were two policemen standing outside a shop with three women. Two of them were shouting at the third, who was trapped between the cops, their hands tightly gripping her upper arms.
"God, you’re bad luck," Lucas muttered under his breath. "I never run into anything when I’m working alone. But with you, it’s constant."
"Maybe you should have let me stay home," I snapped back. "It looks like shoplifting. Should we even get involved?"
Lucas shook his head and turned to continue down our original path, and I almost followed him.
Unfortunately, I glanced towards the commotion again, staring for just a second too long at the woman in the middle of the chaos.
She had short, dark hair and bright green eyes that I could make out even from this distance.
It was her.
I stopped walking. For half a moment, I weighed the decision to intervene or continue on the path behind Lucas.
Something niggling in the back of my mind whispered that my life would never be the same if I were to walk towards the woman.
That, despite the unique nature of my job with the Fratelli, I could continue on a relatively predictable, if not quite normal, trajectory.
I raised one foot slowly, ready to follow Lucas and leave this brief interruption in my past.
But wasn’t "normal" what I’d come here to escape? If I traded one status quo for another, was I not just wandering back into the complacency from which I’d worked so hard to break free?
In the distance, she turned in the policemen’s grasp, hands gesticulating wildly, clearly trying to convey something to them. Their blank expressions told me that they had no interest in listening to her. Beside them, the two other women glared at her with their arms crossed over their chests.
And then, I was walking towards her before I even realized I’d made the decision. I didn’t check to see if Lucas followed.
"C’è un problema—is there a problem?" I asked once I was close enough, holding my gaze intentionally on her face. When she saw me, her eyes grew even wider, and she glanced wildly between me and the officers.
The police looked me up and down. One of them bit his lower lip, and I forced myself to keep my back straight and my stare steady. There were few authorities in Rossaia higher than the Fratelli, and the municipal police were not among them.
"She stole from this shop," one of the men answered me in English. "It’s not a Fratelli matter."
I tore my eyes away from hers and focused them on him. "Isn’t that up to me to decide?"
He swallowed, and I almost felt bad. He was just doing his job after all.
But so was I. Technically.
"With all due respect," the other cop chimed in, "I do not know why the Fratelli would be interested in a common thief. Surely there are more important things."
"You don’t have to understand our reasoning." Lucas suddenly appeared by my side, shoulder brushing mine, arms crossed over his chest. "If my partner is interested, he’s interested."
I cleared my throat and nodded. "Exactly."
Once again, I let my gaze travel back towards hers. Her bright green eyes pierced through mine like knives, but she kept her mouth clamped shut in a firm line.
"What is she supposed to have done?" I asked again.
The police exchanged another glance, the women from the shop looking on, exasperated.
"She stole a dress," the first officer repeated, leveling me with a bewildered expression.
"And do you have any proof?"
"She’s wearing it," one of the women snapped, gesturing at the green-eyed woman’s torso. Sure enough, there was an obvious line of red fabric visible above the top of her black tank top, and an obvious lump where it bunched around her waist.
I raised my eyes to hers. She nodded her head, almost imperceptibly, and I sighed in exasperation.
"As it happens," I began speaking, unsure of the excuse I’d come up with until it rolled off my tongue, "she is currently a ward of the Fratelli."
I felt Lucas stiffen beside me, but he didn’t speak up to contradict my claim.
"I’m sure that whatever transpired here was an honest mistake. I’ll pay for the dress, and we can all move on."
"But—" the second cop began to interrupt, but one of the women from the shop cut him off.
"Fine," she snapped. "Just pay us and never let her set foot in my shop again."
I nodded. "How much is it?"
"Three hundred euros."
Fuck. I blanched. I didn’t have that much cash on me.
But before I could panic too much, Lucas was holding out a handful of bills. As the shop owner snatched them, he turned to look at me with raised eyebrows. All I could do was shrug.
Finally, the officers released their hold on the woman’s arms. She pulled away from them fiercely, rubbing the places where they’d held her as if bruised.
"Thank you for understanding," I said to the shop owners, but they were uninterested, already having turned to walk away.
The police stood still, arms hanging loosely at their sides, as if unsure what to do with their limbs now that they were no longer holding a prisoner.
I didn’t bother thanking them, just nodded in their direction and began steering the green-eyed woman away, my hand pressed gently into her lower back.
Again, I felt the weight of her gaze on me as we moved through the crowd, but she didn’t say anything.
As we walked away, I could almost feel Lucas’s frustration. It radiated from him like mist, but I knew he wouldn’t ask anything in front of her.
"Lucas," I finally said once we were far enough away from the police to not be overheard. "Why don’t you let me escort our friend home?"
His mouth fell open as if to argue, but I shook my head. "I’ll meet you back at the monastery," I whispered. "Please, trust me."
Lucas’s eyes flashed between me and the woman, but, thankfully, he didn’t push. "Fine." He took a step back from us, raising his eyebrows in my direction. "I’ll see you at home." And finally, turning on his heels, he walked away from us, and I was left alone with her for the first time.
I felt her presence beside me like a weight. Never had I been more hyperaware of another person in my vicinity. The too-small space between us buzzed with so much electricity that I was sure she’d be able to feel it too.
But when I turned to look at her once more, I was met with a look that could only be described as pure hatred. When she spoke, her gleaming teeth sparkled in the sunlight, venom dripping from her voice.
"Ciao, Fratello."