* * *
What had they discovered in Italy? What was keeping them away?
* * *
On a blustery London evening when nothing seemed to be keeping Eve’s spirits up, Martina encouraged her to bring her young son upstairs for some time together. Martina needed the time alone herself. Despite her strong appearance, she still yearned for Edoardo, the love of her life. She was accustomed to remaining by his side, even for the most difficult circumstances.
* * *
Martina had never been one for the sidelines and disguising her own worries to Eve was getting quite difficult. With Eve safely in her bedroom, Martina took a long hot shower and then got dressed. She wore a black jumpsuit that cinched tightly at Martina’s slim waist. She brushed on a hint of rouge and clipped gold hoops into her ear lobes.
* * *
Dressing up had been a ritual of comfort for Martina ever since her modeling days. And even if those days were long behind her, she couldn’t beat the confidence a great outfit and a red lip provided her.
* * *
As Martina washed up the dishes in the apartment kitchen, she cast her gaze at the street below.
* * *
Nico. He was on the street alone, walking towards their apartment. He moved calmly and this time, Edoardo wasn’t by his side. Martina did a double take, making sure the man she was looking at wasn’t Luca. But it couldn’t be. Nico had his signature golden crucifix hanging around his neck.
* * *
She watched Nico knock on the door below. Martina set her dishes down, rinsed her hands and approached the door.
* * *
“Nico? Is that you?” She called through the door.
* * *
“Yes. Please let me in. I need to see Eve.”
* * *
Martina still hesitated at the door. She was sure it was Nico. She looked through the peephole and saw the kind look in his eyes. It had to be him…
* * *
“Where’s Edoardo?” Her hand hovered over the handle.
* * *
“Edoardo?” Nico paused for a moment, “He’s twenty minutes out. Business.”
* * *
Martina opened the door and Nico pushed past her. Such an unceremonious greeting was rare for him. Martina closed the door behind him and eyed him warily.
* * *
“Going to tell me what’s going on?”
* * *
“The apartment is nice…” He muttered.
* * *
“Yes,” Martina replied, folding her hands.
* * *
Nico’s eyes roved all over the apartment and Martina felt a chill run down her spine. Something was wrong here. This man looked like Nico in every way, had Nico’s crucifix around his neck and he’d known exactly where to find them. But something was off. Now that they were in the same space, she was starting to notice that he didn’t behave like Nico.
* * *
Martina’s heart raced and she began to pray that Eve would stay upstairs and that Matteo would stay silent. She needed to find a way out of here without letting on that she suspected something was up. The excuse for Edoardo not being with him was too weak and Martina feared that she’d made a grave irreversible mistake.
* * *
“Where’s my wife?”
* * *
Martina’s eyes darted to his ring finger, and of course she saw a wedding band that matched Eve’s right ‘round his finger. Despite this evidence, she couldn’t bring herself to relax around Nico. That was what Martina found so unusual.
* * *
“She’s with Matteo.”
* * *
“And…. Where is she with Matteo.”
* * *
He got close to her — too close. Martina felt her heart sink to her stomach. Despite everything her eyes were telling her, her sixth sense now knew that the man standing in their kitchen wasn’t Nico, it was his twin brother Luca. She wanted to scream out, tell Eve to run, or just do anything.
* * *
But she stood frozen with Luca only a few inches away from her. She tried to move her mouth to respond to him but no words came out and she was certain that she’d betrayed her recognition already.
* * *
“Why don’t we head out? We can meet Eve and Matteo in Central London,” Martina said, trying not to stutter.
* * *
She turned around.
* * *
“I don’t think so Martina.”
* * *
Martina froze in place as she heard a gun click and felt cool metal pressing up against her head.
* * *
“Luca,” She whispered.
* * *
Luca let out a loud chuckle.
* * *
“Now, I want you to call Eve downstairs so we can have a little chat.”
* * *
“I’m not going to do that.”
* * *
Luca growled, “Oh I think you will Martina. If you don’t let me talk to her, I’ll blow your brains out and then I’ll head upstairs and do what I want with her anyways.”
* * *
“Okay! Okay!” Martina said, “I’ll call her.”
* * *
“No funny business,” Luca whispered into her ear.
* * *
He let his tongue trail over the skin on her neck, sending her full body into panic mode. But she had no choice. With a gun to her head, all she could do was obey him and pray that somehow, he wouldn’t spray bullets into the lot of them.
* * *
Martina tried to yell, “Eve!”
* * *
The words came out reluctant and hoarse.
* * *
“Louder,” Luca whispered in her ear.
* * *
There was something uneasy about him. He was a chameleon, a trickster and she’d let him wander right into their apartment. It wasn’t just Eve in danger, it was Matteo.
* * *
“Eve! Please come downstairs right now I’ve got some cupcakes in the oven I need help with!”
* * *
Eve froze. Martina had used the code phrase they’d devised upon moving into the apartment. Martina never baked and had no clue how to make cupcakes. They figured it would be an efficient way to let each other know if something was wrong.
* * *
But what could it be…
* * *
Eve took Matteo and put him into her closet, laying him on a blanket and then shutting the door and turning the key. He could still see (and more importantly, breathe) through the slats on the closet door. Eve tossed the key into her jewelry tray underneath some necklace and then started to walk downstairs.
* * *
She took each step slowly, trying to garner clues about what could be going on with Martina.
* * *
Martina stood there with Luca’s gun to her head as she heard Eve coming down the stairs. However, Martina didn’t hear Matteo’s usual gurgling or babbling. That meant Eve had known something was wrong and she’d had the good sense to tuck Matteo away from the danger.
* * *
Even by doing that, Martina couldn’t be sure that Matteo would survive. Luca was insane. She’d seen his insanity with her own two eyes. And his ability to disguise behind Nico’s sensitive face was uncanny.
* * *
Eve descended the final stairs. She turned and saw Martina with a man who looked just her husband pointing a gun to her head. Luca. Martina’s uncharacteristically frantic tone suddenly made a lot of sense.
* * *
Eve stood across from the two of them and looked at the cruelty in Luca’s eyes. Despite his resemblance to Nico, they were nothing alike. Still, Eve could immediately see why Martina had been fooled. Luca had come in disguise and it was a disguise that wasn’t hard to pull off.
* * *
“What is it that you want here Luca?” Eve asked.
* * *
She tried to keep her v
oice steady. Eve tried to remember everything that Nico had taught her and how they’d managed every crisis they’d encountered in the past. She remembered to stand tall and never look away, no matter how terrified she felt. She imagined that she was in control of the situation, even if Luca held a gun to Martina’s head.
* * *
“I want you to send a message to my brother.”
* * *
“So what? So you can lure him here and kill him too?”
* * *
Luca grinned.
* * *
“I am not going to kill you… if you cooperate.”
* * *
“And how am I supposed to believe that. You have a gun to Martina’s head and I know you won’t hesitate for a second to turn that on me.”
* * *
Luca looked at Eve with a mixture of anger and respect. He hadn’t expected her to stand up to him like this. In fact, he’d expected this entire thing to be far easier than it had been. These two women might have been unarmed and useless around weapons, but they weren’t fools. Luca knew he’d have to proceed carefully. Intelligent people could be unpredictable.
* * *
“Fine. I’ll put the gun away and then we’ll talk.”
* * *
Eve chuckled, “I don’t think you went through the trouble of breaking in here to just talk.”
* * *
Luca replied to her by putting the gun away. He pushed Martina away from him and towards Eve.
* * *
“One move and I’ll fire at both of you,” Luca said.
* * *
They both held still, taking Luca’s demonstration of good faith for what it was. Neither of them cared to put his integrity to the test.
* * *
“Tell me why you’re here,” Eve commanded, faking confidence to herself at least.
* * *
“I need you to tell my brother that I’m coming for him. I want him to know that I own him and I can do whatever I want… I can enter his home… I can sleep with his wife… I can murder his child…”
* * *
Luca said all of this with precise calm that sent chills running down both Eve and Martina’s spines.
* * *
“I’ll tell Nico. But you need to leave.”
* * *
Luca grinned, “I have no problem leaving, dear. When I want you, I’ll always know exactly where to find you.”
* * *
He flashed them both a wink that churned Eve’s stomach.
* * *
“Fine. I’ll call Nico.”
* * *
“Hurry up. I am not a patient man like my brother.”
* * *
Eve pulled out her phone and dialed Nico’s number. She didn’t want there to be any funny business and she knew that Luca was capable of killing all three of them if she dared dial the police and tell them there was a deranged psychopath in her apartment.
* * *
The phone rang as Eve’s breath pulsed slowly out of her lungs.
* * *
“H-hello,” Eve stuttered when she heard her husband pick up on the other end of the line.
* * *
“Eve?” Nico replied, “Is everything alright? You sound terrified.”
* * *
Eve could feel her arm shaking and she used her other hand to steady the arm that was holding her cell phone.
* * *
“Yes, I’m alright,” She said, “But um… I have a message for you.”
* * *
Thumbs up from Luca.
* * *
“What is it?”
* * *
Eve mumbled, “Your brother… Your brother wants me to let you know that he’s here now and he intends to drop by any time.”
* * *
“Sonuvabitch!” Nico yelled.
* * *
“Eve… Eve listen to me right now.”
* * *
Luca gestured for her to hang up.
* * *
She cut Nico off, “Sorry Nico, I have to go. I love you.”
* * *
Eve hung up and Luca took the phone from her hand. He flung it to the tiled floor and crushed the bits of the phone that hadn’t shattered beneath his heel.
* * *
“I won’t be gone for too long, ladies.”
* * *
He walked out the way he came, leaving Martina and Eve standing in the kitchen, stunned at what had just happened. Luca’s energy was still in the room, leaving them in subdued silence until Eve broke the silence by running upstairs to check on Matteo.
* * *
Matteo was awake, but quiet.
* * *
Eve picked her son up, changed his nappy and fed him. When she and Martina met up in the kitchen they were both unusually somber. Even Matteo had detected the shift in the two of their personalities, and mirrored their unusual silence.
* * *
“We need to leave,” Martina said.
* * *
Eve tried to ignore her and brought up the weather.
* * *
“I’m serious Eve,” Martina repeated, “We need to get out of here. Luca is a dangerous man and he’ll come here again.”
* * *
“If he found us here, what makes you think he won’t find us anywhere else we go?” Eve retorted.
* * *
It wasn't that she was unafraid, she was just quickly losing confidence that there could be a place where they’d be truly free from Luca. He’d violated her wedding and now the space that was supposed to be safest for them. Martina couldn’t predict whether or not Luca would follow them halfway across the globe just to get revenge.
* * *
And she could only hope that Nico was on his way to find her, but she couldn’t be sure of that either. Out here, Eve knew she was on her own. And she preferred to face a demon like Luca on her own turf instead of uprooting her life and her young son’s all over again.
* * *
“We could at least get a headstart. We could meet my husband in a different country.”
* * *
“And how many countries must we run to?” Eve snapped, “When will we get a chance to stop running.”
* * *
Martina took a step back and raised her eyebrows in surprise. She had never seen this side of Eve before.
* * *
“I—,” She started.
* * *
“Martina, stop,” Eve interrupted her, “I’m sorry for snapping at you. It’s not right. And it’s not you I’m really mad at.”
* * *
“Luca is the cause of all of this,” Martina agreed.
* * *
Eve tilted her head to the side, “Yes. It’s Luca. But a part of me can’t help but blame Nico. He’s promised me protection so many times and I’m tired of this. I wanted adventure in my life but I didn’t want to be on the run like this.”
* * *
“Come here darling,” Martina outstretched her arms widely.
* * *
Eve allowed Martina to hug her and hold her close. Matteo eyed them and waddled over to them where he wrapped his arms around their legs.
* * *
“Stay strong Eve. Do it for your son… And your marriage.”
* * *
“I just want to be free of this,” Eve muttered.
Out of Bondage Page 7