“Was to be kept open at all times. I locked it. The priest warned them that it does get stuck at times. Spataro saw this.”
I kept still, and even though I had been speaking to Marco, my eyes were on her. She had risen from the seat. The look on her face caught me off guard. Afraid. She was almost terrified.
“Scarlett,” I whispered.
“Forgive me Father, for I have sinned, it has been nine months since my last confession…” Her voice sounded so damn raw. It was painful to watch and listen to her talk.
What are you doing here?she asked me in sign language.
Tell me where they are keeping you,I said in the same language.
“I have lied…”
I don’t know. Someplace hidden. They blindfolded me on the way in and out.
“I have thought immoral thoughts—” Her voice broke off, and a cough shook her body, causing her to double over. Marco handed her a tissue, and she coughed into it. A bright spot of blood stained the thin fabric after she had pulled it from her mouth. She wheezed, gasping for breath.
I took her in my arms, attempting to keep her from breaking in two. After she had timed her breaths to match mine, she sunk into me, almost collapsing.
“Jesus,” I whispered. She burned with fever. Her head felt as hot as an iron poker right out of the fire.
“The blood is from my throat,” she croaked. “Do you have any water, Father?”
How could I let her go like this? How could I let her go at all? Marco handed me the cup and I helped her sip it. Every time she did, she winced.
She pointed to the blood on her side and signed,Glass is hidden under my bra. Protection. It stuck me.
I nodded once, not realizing that I had been staring at the blood on me from her side.
A knock came at the door, loud enough that it made her skin twitch with fear.
“Five minutes!” Enzo called.
“Five minutes,” Marco called back.
Her hand, all bone and taught skin, wrapped around mine, tight. “You have to go.” Her voice was so hoarse that it was barely understandable. “Please, Brando. Please.”
I knew my wife. In the face of those monsters, she was standing tall, not showing an ounce of fear. But they were defeating her, keeping her sick and helpless. Attempting to break her spirit and her will. Judging by the glazed look in her eyes, almost a void, Spataro had been successful.
My knees failed me and I collapsed to the floor, keeping her tight to me, tight enough that I heard the wheezing coming from her chest.
Marco kneeled next to us, holding up three fingers. Three minutes.
“Go,” she croaked, attempting to rise, attempting to push me away. “If they kill you now, I will make them kill me too.”
“Scarlett,” I said, taking her chin in my hands, forcing her to look at me. I almost didn’t want to. Her skin was unnaturally hot, and I couldn’t make her better. “Look at me, baby. Look at me.”
“I—I can’t,” she barely got out, keeping her eyes closed. “If I do, I won’t be able to survive when you go.”
“Remember something, Scarlett. Anything about the place.”
“Giovi Spataro’s mother. She’s there. It’s her place, I think. When we first arrived, further up the drive, they took the sack off. Three olive trees. Just three.”
The door handle jiggled, then a loud pounding came from a berserk fist. Marco attempted to haul me up, Scarlett pushed me away, but I couldn’t move.
I took her face in my hands and kissed her, then squeezed her hand, her wedding band almost sliding off her thin finger, and promised her I’d come for her soon.
The pounding became louder. A gun slid back.
