Niccolo, Lars, and Valentino were waiting for us as Dario’s Bugatti drove into the garage.
“I spoke to Adriano on the phone,” Niccolo said as soon as we got out of the sports car. “What the hell happened?!”
“Valentino, take her to the study,” Dario ordered. He, Lars, and Niccolo stayed behind in the garage to talk.
The youngest Rosolini brother walked with me back to the house. He shook his head sympathetically. “I wouldn’t want to be you for all the gold in the Vatican.”
I spent ten long, agonizing minutes in the study, awaiting my fate –
But if I’d thought Dario was angry at me, it was nothing compared with Niccolo.
“What’s WRONG with you?!” he roared as soon as he walked in.
“I didn’t mean for anything to happen!” I cried out. “I only wanted to see a priest – ”
“And you nearly got yourself killed! Do you understand now that we have enemies everywhere?! That these rules we give you are intended to keep you safe?!”
“I’m sorry!” I said as I held back my tears.
Niccolo spent the next several minutes asking questions about what had happened from the time I arrived in the church to when Dario had saved me.
I answered him truthfully every single time – until he asked, “What did you tell the priest?”
“Nothing!”
“Don’t give me that!” he yelled. “The safety of everyone in this house depends on what you told him! What was it?!”
I tried to remember what I’d said to the blind man. “I told him I’d come from your house – that I was being held prisoner – that was it, I swear!”
“Did he ask how you escaped?”
“He did, but I didn’t tell him any details.”
“Speaking of which, how DID you get out?”
My mind raced through my options.
If I admitted to knowing about the secret exit, I would get Filomena in terrible trouble.
I remembered what she’d said:
They’d KILL me if they knew I brought you here.
I couldn’t put her in that kind of danger… not when she’d only tried to help me.
Niccolo could see I was stalling.
“I want the TRUTH, not the best LIE you can come up with!” he bellowed.
I revealed as little as I could while I attempted to come up with a plausible explanation.
“…there’s a crack in the wall surrounding your property,” I said.
“We know that – it’s been there forever. My grandfather escaped through it 50 years ago with my grandmother, father, and uncle when a rival family attacked the estate. My grandfather believed it was good luck and refused to patch it up, and my father followed his example. But how did you find it?”
He didn’t mention anything about the secret exit from the mansion…
So I kept quiet, hoping he didn’t know that was how I’d escaped.
“I… I just did,” I said lamely.
“That’s not good enough!”
“I’ve been trying to escape since the moment I got here! You didn’t think I would eventually find it?” I snapped. I sounded much braver than I felt.
Niccolo looked at me suspiciously. “But how did you know about the church? How did you know where the town was?”
I was afraid that I might have to tell him the truth –
And then I remembered what had happened before I’d met Filomena in the hallway.
I’d been in the kitchen…
Where I’d seen Cat and Valentino having sex in the pantry…
But before that, I had done something else.
Something I’d forgotten until now.
“There was a cell phone I looked at,” I said. “I searched for the nearest church on Google Maps and it told me which way to go.”
“Who gave you their phone?!” Niccolo raged, and I realized I might have doomed Caterina by trying to save my own skin.
“No one! It was just lying there when I snuck into the kitchen,” I said, trying to conceal Cat’s identity.
“What, a cell phone was just conveniently sitting on the counter, unlocked and ready for you to use?”
“I think whoever it belonged to just stepped away for a moment. I saw the map, then I put it back where I found it. I swear it’s the truth.”
Niccolo glared at me. “I’ll be checking your story.”
I prayed that even if he questioned Caterina, Valentino would come to her aid.
“But in the meantime,” Niccolo continued, “you had better make amends with someone else.”
“…Dario,” I said guiltily.
Just then, someone knocked lightly on the door.
“Come in,” Niccolo barked.
A male servant came into the room. He carried a silver tray stacked with towels, bandages, tubes of ointment, and a bucket of ice.
“Give it to her and leave us,” Niccolo commanded.
The servant handed me the tray, which I took in confusion. “What am I supposed to do with this?”
“Go to Dario and tend to his hand… which he injured saving YOU,” Niccolo snapped.
My eyes grew wide. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea…”
“Oh, you don’t, do you? Then perhaps you should reconsider disobeying him and fleeing the property – oh, wait! Too late for that!” Niccolo said mockingly. “Go to his private study on the third floor. Turn right at the top of the staircase, then it’s two doors on your left. Make peace with him, whatever the price. Understood?”
I nodded… and wondered fearfully what that price might be.
As I was walking out, I stopped and turned back to Niccolo.
“Yes?” he asked testily.
“How did Dario know where I was?”
Niccolo looked at me like I was an idiot. “Are you forgetting your little temper tantrum last night? As soon as we discovered you were missing, we guessed you were headed for the nearest church. Thank god we were right.”
“But… why did Adriano and Massimo show up, too?”
“As backup, of course!” Niccolo yelled. “What, you think we let the head of the family run around without protecting him?”
I frowned. Dario had shown up first, by almost a minute. If someone had been lying in wait to hurt him, Adriano and Massimo would have arrived too late.
“But – ”
“GO!” Niccolo shouted, and I quickly scurried out of the room.
But as I left, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he hadn’t been entirely truthful.
