Page 21 of She Who Was Once the Sea

I raised one foot slowly, ready to follow Lucas and leave this brief interruption in my past.

But wasn’t "normal" what I’d come here to escape? If I traded one status quo for another, was I not just wandering back into the complacency from which I’d worked so hard to break free?

In the distance, she turned in the policemen’s grasp, hands gesticulating wildly, clearly trying to convey something to them. Their blank expressions told me that they had no interest in listening to her. Beside them, the two other women glared at her with their arms crossed over their chests.

And then, I was walking towards her before I even realized I’d made the decision. I didn’t check to see if Lucas followed.

"C’è un problema—is there a problem?" I asked once I was close enough, holding my gaze intentionally on her face. When she saw me, her eyes grew even wider, and she glanced wildly between me and the officers.

The police looked me up and down. One of them bit his lower lip, and I forced myself to keep my back straight and my stare steady. There were few authorities in Rossaia higher than the Fratelli, and the municipal police were not among them.

"She stole from this shop," one of the men answered me in English. "It’s not a Fratelli matter."

I tore my eyes away from hers and focused them on him. "Isn’t that up to me to decide?"

He swallowed, and I almost felt bad. He was just doing his job after all.

But so was I. Technically.

"With all due respect," the other cop chimed in, "I do not know why the Fratelli would be interested in a common thief. Surely there are more important things."

"You don’t have to understand our reasoning." Lucas suddenly appeared by my side, shoulder brushing mine, arms crossed over his chest. "If my partner is interested, he’s interested."

I cleared my throat and nodded. "Exactly."

Once again, I let my gaze travel back towards hers. Her bright green eyes pierced through mine like knives, but she kept her mouth clamped shut in a firm line.

"What is she supposed to have done?" I asked again.

The police exchanged another glance, the women from the shop looking on, exasperated.

"She stole a dress," the first officer repeated, leveling me with a bewildered expression.

"And do you have any proof?"

"She’s wearing it," one of the women snapped, gesturing at the green-eyed woman’s torso. Sure enough, there was an obvious line of red fabric visible above the top of her black tank top, and an obvious lump where it bunched around her waist.

I raised my eyes to hers. She nodded her head, almost imperceptibly, and I sighed in exasperation.

"As it happens," I began speaking, unsure of the excuse I’d come up with until it rolled off my tongue, "she is currently a ward of the Fratelli."

I felt Lucas stiffen beside me, but he didn’t speak up to contradict my claim.

"I’m sure that whatever transpired here was an honest mistake. I’ll pay for the dress, and we can all move on."

"But—" the second cop began to interrupt, but one of the women from the shop cut him off.

"Fine," she snapped. "Just pay us and never let her set foot in my shop again."

I nodded. "How much is it?"

"Three hundred euros."

Fuck. I blanched. I didn’t have that much cash on me.

But before I could panic too much, Lucas was holding out a handful of bills. As the shop owner snatched them, he turned to look at me with raised eyebrows. All I could do was shrug.

Finally, the officers released their hold on the woman’s arms. She pulled away from them fiercely, rubbing the places where they’d held her as if bruised.