Rosa gazes at the screen again and frowns. “She’s so skinny. She’s not going to last long if she starves.”
I sigh. “I’ll get her to eat later. But give her some time to calm down, first. She’s still a bit traumatized.”
“I’ll bet… I hope neither of you hurt her,” Rosa says.
“Of course not,” I tell her. “She wouldn’t be worth anything to us damaged.”
Rosa closes her eyes for a moment and shakes her head. “I hate it when you talk about people as if they’re objects.”
I glance at Luciano. “For the most part, they are. The only non-objects are family members.”
“He’s right,” Luciano says.
“What about your girlfriend?” Rosa asks him.
He shrugs. “She’s an object too. Her sole purpose is for my release, that’s it.”
Rosa tuts and gently slaps him on the shoulder.
“It’s true,” Luciano says. “I don’t even really consider her my girlfriend. She’s just someone I occasionally see.”
“I’m with Luciano,” I tell her. “Most women are objects. Except you.”
“Gee, thanks,” Rosa says. “I’m sure Angela will be pleased to hear that.”
“Don’t call her by her name,” Luciano says. “That humanizes her. We can’t be humanizing her.”
“I think we need to,” Rosa insists. “Otherwise, we’re going to forget that she’s a human being. You don’t want to return her to her father broken, do you?”
“Who says we’re returning her to her father?” I tell Rosa. She doesn’t know I’m planning to kill him. Nor that we’re selling Angela to the highest bidder. She probably naively thinks we’re going to ransom her back to her father and that everyone will live happily ever after.
“Maybe you should just let her go,” Rosa says.
Luciano chuckles. “I don’t think so. After all the trouble we went through to get her? We almost died today.”
Rosa crosses her arms. “The gunfight was on the news. Probably a bad idea to kidnap someone from a mafia don in broad daylight. For all the planning you guys have been doing, I would have expected something more subtle.”
“It wasn’t possible to be more ‘subtle,’” I tell her. “Besides, this way, it hurts her father more. Knowing that I tore her away from him, right out from under his own bodyguards. That’s partially the point. To show him how powerless he truly is. And to make him suffer with worry before he…”Dies.
“Before he what?” Rosa asks.
“Never mind,” I tell her. “It doesn’t matter.”
“You’re not planning on killing him are you?” she asks. “The don of one of the most powerful families in Palermo?”
I don’t answer.
“You are, aren’t you?” she says. “You’re going to put all of our lives at risk if you do.”
“Not if his family doesn’t know who killed him,” I explain.
“They’ll find out eventually,” she insists.
“We’ll see.” I glance at Luciano and his nod reassures me. “Besides, if they do, we’ll simply kill them all.”
“You’re impossible,” Rosa says and leaves.
Luciano gives me an amused look. “You know, I can’t tell if she thinks you’re joking or not.”
