Luisa, I gasp.
The plan I made wasn't one I thought through properly. I have to call Luisa.
I take Rosalia’s phone as I slip into one of the many alleyways of the city I am in and dial Luisa’s number. It’s the only one I know by heart aside from my mother’s.
It rings. Please answer, I beg. I know she has had her phone on silent for years now, and she hates calls.
“Hello?” she says, and endless relief spreads through me.
“It’s me,” I say as I slip into the next alley.
“FIFI!” Luisa shouts. “Where the fuck are you?”
“Somewhere in Sicily,” I say. “I don’t have much time. A woman abducted me; her name is Rosalia Vittare. My father betrayed her or something. You need to hide; they’re coming for you. Tell your father to hide you all on a base or something. Now. Not in an hour. Now!” I say, emphasising the last word.
“What?” asks Luisa. “Are you on drugs?”
“No, I am not!” I shout. “I was tortured by that woman, and she threatened to kill you if I didn’t cooperate, so do what I say. I need to go. I stole her phone. Promise me you’ll do what I told you?—“
“Yes,” she says, totally perplexed.
“Do it, now! I’ll call you again,” I say and hang up.
I turned off location services the moment I unlocked the phone with Rosalia’s face, but I don’t know if that is enough. Since Kat located me in Rome, she will surely find Rosalia’s phone.
I slip into the next small alley.
I have no clue where exactly I am. It’s definitely a bigger city, probably Palermo. Night falls slowly over the old buildings. I stride through the streets, and I feel hunted. Watched. I spin round. But no one is there.
“Mi scusi,” I ask a man I walk past. “È Palermo?”
“Sì, sì,” he says and looks at me as if I am an alien. And I might be. Who in their right mind asks if they are in a city they somehow came to?
“Stai bene?” he asks me, but I don’t understand. Bene is good. Or something like that, but stai? Never heard the word before. There’s only so much Italian I understand. It might even be Sicilian.
I try to tell him I don’t understand.
“Not from here,” I say. “Grazie,” I add and hurry away. I draw enough attention to myself through my dress and the way I look, with my heart-shaped face and long blonde hair; many men have called me attractive and lusted after me. One of the many reasons I took the martial arts classes with Luisa.
I wrap my mind around how I get to that Guiseppe guy. Suddenly, Rosalia’s phone vibrates.
I look at the display.
Kat is calling.
I will not answer. If she calls, she knows, and she’ll come after me.
But I suddenly have an idea.
I skim through the contacts on Rosalia’s phone, and there are several Giuseppes in it.Shit.
I need to think. Make a plan. But where can I go where they won’t find me?
I have to turn off that phone. I don’t want to give it away, because it proves what I did, where I escaped from.
“Think,” I tell myself.
Bells chime nearby, and somehow they draw my attention. Somehow, the sound feels so familiar. I have heard them before, or haven’t I?
