Leah swallows; obviously surprised I had that much cash on me. That much unrecoverable cash, that is.
“That sucks. As does your credit card. The good news is my credit card is still in the safe, so we can use that for expenses until we get home.” She pats her knees and offers a cheery smile.
I lift my head and offer her the grimmest expression anyone can make.
Leah reads it right.
“Oh no. Oh no no no no no!” She exclaims.
I offer her a shrug.
Her blonde bob, now slicked back on her head, frays out when she stands up. “Are you kidding? Do you mean to tell me we have no passports, and no money whatsoever? Not even a friggin’ credit card to our names?”
All I can do is nod. Slowly.
“Oh, my God, Emma! Because some lowlife in Mexico stole your suitcase eight years ago, you lost every penny we have. We’re in a foreign country! We have no phones, no money, no way to get home!”
“I am so sorry.” My voice is low and, most certainly, apologetic.
Leah sits down and rocks herself back and forth. I want to do the same.
Raphael says something in Italian that I have a hard time understanding until the giant American pulls a wallet from the cargo pocket of his gray shorts and hands over a soggy hundred-euro note. The American says something back to Raphael in Italian and then thanks him in English.
When Raphael turns the motor on to his boat, Leah and I both come to attention and get our minds back on the problem at hand.
“Did you just send him away?”
“Did you just pay him?”
We say both sentences in unison.
The American nods. “From the sound of it, you two weren’t going to be able to pay him.”
Neither of us can argue with that logic.
“We have to get back to our rooms. He was our way back,” I say.
“He may not have spoken English well but he understood it and there was no way he was going to take you back without payment. I only gave him a tip for his services.”
“So he just left us here?” Leah rubs the sides of her arms with her hands.
“I told him to.” He looks back from Leah sitting next to him, to me sitting across from him. “I can help you ladies.”
“Thank you but you’ve already done so much,” I say, but am cut off.
“I have a friend at the US consulate in Rome. He can rush you a pair of passports to Naples. While I make that call, you can use my satellite phone to call your credit card companies and see if they can get you a replacement card. Maybe someone back home can wire you some money as well.”
His logic is on point. Having a contact at the consulate would be incredible. I don’t even know where the nearest one is. That said, this guy is a complete stranger and could hold both Leah and myself down with his pinky if he needed to. The offer is nice but we can handle the situation on our own.
“That would be great,” Leah says before I can decline.
“I’m going to take you to my boat. You can dry off there while we make the arrangements.” He stands up and starts the engine.
I raise my hand to tell him to take us back to shore but Leah stops me. “No, Emma. You lost our money and you lost our way home. I am not spending the next seven days standing in an embassy, God knows where, getting a new passport issued.” Her tone is deep, bossy, and in full lecture mode. “The man saved your life. If he wanted you dead, he would have watched you drown. We are following him back to his boat and that is final.”
Her brows are closed in and her button nose is pointed down.
“We don’t even know where he’s taking us,” I whisper entirely too loudly. Obviously he can hear our conversation, but if he is a madman I don’t need him knowing I think he’s a madman.
