There wasn’t a single murmur of disagreement at that, but uneasy gazes travelled inwards, shoes now shuffling against the grass and frowns rippling through the crowd of Falcones.
Paulie’s expression was serene. ‘You and I both know that what happens to Sara is not Felice’s decision. Valentino measures his decisions. Felice exaggerates.’
‘Has he exaggerated her injuries too?’
‘They’re superficial.’ There was something soothing about Paulie’s manner, too. It was in the way he talked. I found myself wanting to believe him. ‘She won’t come to any harm.’
‘She’s already been harmed,’ said Millie. She was still clutching her phone, and the Falcones were all staring at it like it was a bomb.
I looked into the garden. Valentino’s face had settled into that veil of careful impassivity. ‘I give you my word,’ he said. ‘If you leave now and promise not to alert the authorities, we’ll release Sara. A life for a life.’
‘How do we know that?’ asked Millie.
‘You’ll just have to trust me.’
‘We have nothing to base that trust on.’
A mirthless smile lifted his mouth from its hard line. ‘Millie, you and I are having this conversation in front of a fleet of assassins who would end your life right now if I asked them to. There would be no witnesses and your bodies would never be found.’ He snapped his fingers. ‘Base your trust on that.’
‘Send her home with us, then,’ said Millie.
‘We can’t send her with you. She has to be escorted to Donata’s people with a Falcone emissary. We are entering into strict negotiations.’
‘Of the warehouse variety?’ I asked.
Valentino pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘No, not of the warehouse variety. Of the Sicilian negotiation variety.’
A part of me knew what those negotiations might be. They had someone the Marinos wanted, and the Marinos had someone the Falcones wanted. Jack. But I couldn’t think about my uncle now – he knew the stakes, he had made his bed. My immediate concern was Sara, making sure she was safe, making sure she had a chance to live the life she dreamt of, to find the hint of freedom she had envied in me.
Millie and I glanced at each other. How could we know for sure, if they weren’t prepared to guarantee her release to us? What did it even matter? We didn’t have a bargaining position. We had a phone with six per cent battery, the flighty affections of Nic and the passing gratitude of Luca for saving his life once. The others could kill us if they wanted to. We were already pushing our luck.
‘Don’t get involved in this, girls,’ said Paulie. He had the largest eyes I had ever seen. ‘It’s not your fight. This is not your world.’
Luca was on the grass now. He picked Sara up, sliding his arms underneath her elbows. She got to her feet, wobbling. He brushed the matted hair from her face and started speaking to her. She was crying. He held her against his side and brought her away from the others.
I turned to Nic. ‘Are they telling the truth, Nic? Will they let her go?’
He closed the distance between us and took my hand, right there in front of his entire family and his horrible mother, and squeezed it. I was so stunned I let him. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Valentino will let her go.’
I could see only him then – the golden flecks inside his eyes, the quiet sureness in the quirk of his mouth, all that warmth he exuded. ‘Let me get you out of here,’ he said. ‘Let me take you home.’
Millie lowered her phone. It dangled by her side, a weapon re-holstered. She shrugged, even her smallest movements showing her exhaustion. ‘I think I believe them, Soph. I believe Nic.’
Outside, Luca had started to untie Sara’s hands. Luca would take care of her. Luca would set her free just as he had done for me when I’d been kidnapped.
‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘So do I.’
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THE BODY
BODY OF MARINO TEENAGER PULLED
FROM LAKE MICHIGAN
A BODY FOUND IN LAKE MICHIGAN has been identified as Sara Marino, the nineteen-year-old daughter of rumoured Mafia boss and tabloid regular Donata Marino (formerly of the now-defunct Genovese crime family).
Authorities arrived on the scene yesterday morning, after being alerted by a local fisherman who came across the body at the edge of the lake just after 8 a.m.
According to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, the cause of death is currently under investigation. It is not believed to have been accidental.
A family spokesman confirmed the loss to reporters yesterday evening, saying, ‘We are deeply saddened to lose our beloved Sara. She was a creative and compassionate individual with a bright future ahead of her. We will stop at nothing to determine the events leading up to her death.’