Sergio opens his mouth then clamps it shut as if he doesn’t know how to respond. I get it, I just dropped a few truth bombs on him.
A knock sounds at the door.
“Not now!” Romeo shouts.
“It’s important.” A woman’s voice. My heart does a quick flip then settles. It isn’t her. It couldn’t be.
Romeo looks to Orlando and Sergio. Sergio nods. “Go on,” he says. “Maybe it’s the Easter Bunny. Wouldn’t be surprised about anything at this point.”
“Fine.” Romeo sighs. “Come in.”
Marialena enters the room holding three guns in her hands.
“Jesus, woman, put ‘em down,” Romeo growls.
“Those are mine!” Sergio takes a step toward her.
“Lena,” Orlando growls. “This is not a good time.”
“They were just sitting in the hall like a mob guy lost and found,” she says with a shrug. “What’s a girl to do?”
She makes like she’s going to throw them to Sergio and all of the guys duck for cover. Her musical giggle fills the room. “Gotcha!”
“Oh my God,” Orlando tells Romeo. “Thought you were sending her to Tuscany?”
“She talked me out of it but now I’m thinking…”
Marialena looks at me and clears her throat. “I’m sorry, I had to see Dario! I heard he was seriously fucked up.”
Romeo growls at her. He hates when she swears. She hates when he tells her what to do.
“I was fucked up but I’m better.”
“Good! Mama sent a message. She said all of you leave Dario to rest and go downstairs, Nonna’s just pulled dinner out of the oven.”
My stomach growls. I would eat literally anything Nonna made right now.
Orlando stretches. “Let’s go. Sergio, you can interrogate the shit out of him later or whatever the fuck you wanna do.”
“Bring me some food, brother?”
“You got it.”
They leave. Marialena smiles and waits until the door shuts before she comes to my side of the bed and sits down in the chair Romeo just vacated. She talks in a low voice as she points out the window.
“Just look out the window,” she whispers. “It’s high tide, would you look at that.”
I flick my gaze to the window, then back to her. She doesn’t want anyone to overhear us. Fair enough.
She reaches into her bra and tugs out a little square of paper, stands and stretches. The paper flutters from her hand onto the bed beside me.
“I brought your clothes to be cleaned and found that,” she says. “You’re welcome.” She turns to leave. “Oh, I was eavesdropping at the door, and I think you’re brave and I hope we find Vivia because she deserves someone like you. I never thought she would actually try to kill me. She didn’t even like taking my game pieces when we played checkers. Bye!”
She nearly runs out of the room and shuts the door behind her. She’s a hot fucking ticket. I reach for the little square of paper.
It’s a hasty note written on paper we used to keep score at the cabin. A lump forms in my throat. I spoke up to Sergio right now on the off chance that we find her, but more importantly to protect her if he does and I’m not there.
A part of me knows that loving her… if I really, truly love her… means letting her go. She doesn’t deserve a life of misery and incarceration. She deserves her freedom.