It was past ten o’clock when Meta and I set out. It was a dark, cloudy night, and the streets were nearly deserted.
Leaving the house, I glanced toward the small park. “Is that really Stefan?” I said. “Can Massimo do that?”
“He can do much worse than that,” Meta replied. “He is fond of you. And it’s clear you’re more worldly than the last time you visited. But never let down your guard with him.”
Before we turned off the Ramo Regina, I reached into my pocket. “I brought you something. From your sister.”
She took the box and searched out my face in the gloomy light. “From Lila?”
“She gave it to me just before I left Vienna. She asked me to tell you that you and she would soon be reunited.”
“She said that?”
“Those were her exact words.”
“Excuse me a moment, Nicolò,” Meta said, turning her back on me and walking a few steps away.
I heard her unwrap the box, and gasp when she opened it. Then she stood still for a long moment, slipped something inside her cloak, and returned to me. “Let’s go,” she said, and it was clear she wasn’t going to reveal the contents of the box.
We proceeded toward Signora Gramani’s house, but had gone only about twenty paces when a cluster of shadows against a wall came to life and several cloaked figures rushed toward us.
“It’s her!” one of them called out.
“Get him first,” another ordered.
They were all over us in a matter of seconds. Six boys—the tallest of them remaining in the shadows, spitting out orders.
“Bring her here,” the tall one said.
I recognized that voice.
“Let go of me!” Meta cried.
“You’re sure it’s her?” Aldo asked.
“It’s her, I tell you.”
“It is,” another boy called out.
Meanwhile, one of the others put me in a vise hold from behind, pinning my arms back, while his partner pummeled me.
“Leave me alone!” Meta screamed.
Three of them were dragging her to the wall where they had been hiding, waiting to jump us. Two of them pinned her arms while the third put his hands around her neck and began choking her.
“Help me!” she screamed before her breathing was cut off.
“Now you can watch your Adriana die slowly,” Aldo laughed, “and still be able to say goodbye.”
“Adriana?” I gasped, tasting blood in my mouth.
“Don’t try to bluff me. All of these boys saw her before, and now they recognized her at once. After tonight, no one will ever see her again.”
“You’re making a mistake, Aldo.”
“No, you’re the one who made a mistake,” he said, limping toward me, supporting himself with a cane. “I have to use this because of what you did to me.” He raised the cane and brought it down on my head.
He’s going to kill me, too, I thought, and when they’re done, they’ll drop us both into the Lagoon.
Then I heard Meta scream again, just as Aldo was raising his cane a second time. And through the blood pouring down my forehead I saw that she had somehow broken free of one of the boys. Her dress was torn off at the shoulder, and she was scratching the face of the other boy. He pushed her against the wall and began hitting her, and the other two boys joined him, raining down punches.
I closed my eyes, awaiting another blow myself, when suddenly I heard a terrible shriek from one of the boys attacking Meta. Then the other boy screamed, and as they both fell away from her, I saw the flash of a knife in her hand as she plunged it into the boy who had tried to choke her, who cursed loudly and grabbed his chest.
It all happened so fast that the two boys holding me were stunned into releasing their grip. And Aldo was shouting over the groans and shrieks of the wounded boys, bewildered again as to what was happening. By then there had been enough noise to rouse even the most reluctant samaritans, and we heard shouts and footfalls as they hurried toward us from down the street.
The boy who had punched me took Aldo’s arm. “We have to leave,” he said. “The girl had a knife.”
“A knife?”
“Jerome and Claudio are bleeding badly and Marco looks dead.”
“Hurry, people are coming. I hear a constable.”
Aldo cursed me, and cursed them, and the three of them disappeared around the corner. I wiped the blood from my face and staggered over to Meta. I felt a huge bump rising on my skull. I thought I was going to pass out.
She was slumped against the wall, her lip and cheek cut, blood matting her hair, and a welt rising over her eye. I took off my jacket and draped it around her before the constable and several other men arrived. She held up the bloody knife.
“This is what Lila sent me.”
“What?”
“This was in the box you brought. Don’t you understand? It’s so I would have it now, when I was attacked.”
“How—”
“Don’t ask how. Believe me, that’s what just happened.” She wiped the blood from her lip. “You were right: they made a mistake.”