Page 75 of No Escape

“Stay,” he said. “You’re family now. Our laundry is your laundry.”

Stefan nodded, too. “You’re one of us now.”

It was a small gesture, but their inclusion of Lexi meant a lot to me. At least that was settled. “So, where do we start?” I asked.

Stefan leaned against the railing, looking out at the moon hanging low over the water. “How about at the beginning? For Lexi.”

“For Lexi,” Gio murmured.

She looked up at me with a look that always seem able to melt my heart no matter what was happening. “Go ahead, Stefan,” I said. “You’re the oldest. You tell the story.”

Stefan leaned back against the veranda. “Many years ago, long before Mama and Oscar decided to move to London, I came home to Sperlonga for a visit from the university. I believe I was nineteen at the time, which would have made Romeo seventeen and Gio ten, correct?”

Gio and I nodded, so Stefan continued. “Something you should know, Lexi, is that our family had been members of the local church in Sperlonga for many years. Nonno and Nonna were married there, as were their parents and grandparents. Mama and my father were also married there, and when he passed, he was buried in the church cemetery. Mama and Oscar, Gio’s father, were married there several years later. So, in other words, our family has long been devoted parishioners of the church.”

“Okay,” Lexi said.

“By extension, Romeo and I were quite involved in the church as well,” he said. “We were both altar boys in excellent standing for many years with the head priest, Father Mario Rainaldi.”

“That’s why Nonna sometimes calls youchierichetto,” Lexi said to me. “Right?”

“Right.” I remembered how shocked Lexi had been to hear I’d been an altar boy. “It’s also a nickname she bestows on Gio and Stefan when she sees them.”

“Anyway, Gio had somehow managed to avoid becoming an altar boy until his tenth birthday,” Stefan said. “Unfortunately, unlike Romeo and I, Gio wasn’t quite as diligent or conscientious regarding his duties.”

“Gio was a bit of a wild child,” I added.

“That’s not fair,” Gio protested. “I was diligent. I showed up every Sunday, didn’t I?”

“Only because Mama made you,” Stefan countered, cuffing our brother on the head with one hand. “Anyway, one day Gio had a brilliant idea. He decided to steal a small antique statue of the Virgin Mary that normally resided on the altar.”

“I didn’t justdecideto steal the statue,” Gio protested. “It was a dare from some of my school buddies. My manhood was being challenged, so, of course, I accepted the dare. I was just going to keep the statue for a few days and return it secretly. I doubted old, doddering Father Rainaldi would even miss it.”

“Oh, great.” Stefan threw up his hands. “Let’s add speaking ill of the dead to your long list of transgressions.”

“I’ll take it from here,” I said, stepping between the two of them. “Anyway, Gio used some tape to keep the latch from closing on a door at the side of the church after he finished up with his altar boy duties one Sunday. Later that night, he snuck back into the church and absconded with the Virgin Mary. I caught him as he was climbing back into our bedroom window. I insisted he return it immediately, but Gio refused.”

“I didn’t refuse,” Gio broke in. “Not exactly. It was just that I’d already removed the tape from the door after Iborrowedthe statue, and I didn’t have any way of returning it…yet. Then, you had to go and tell Stefan.”

“He did,” Stefan agreed. “As the older brother, I decided we would return it early in the morning and figure out how to get into the church before Father Rainaldi arrived and noticed it was missing. So, the next morning, we arrived very early at the church to find that all the doors were locked, including the one Gio had previously taped open. At that point, we decided to break in. Romeo, from his time as the family’sextraordinaryaltar boy, was the most familiar with the building. He told us there was a window on the second floor in the choir loft that had become warped and needed repair for a long time. He suspected we could open it and get in that way.”

“I wasnotan extraordinary altar boy,” I murmured.

“Yes, you were,” Stefan and Gio responded in unison. I rolled my eyes at them, then glanced at Lexi. She seemed amused by the revelation and my denial, but not surprised.

“Anyway, Romeo proposed that since Gio was the smallest and lightest of the three of us, he should climb the tree on the outside of the church, go in through the warped window, and come down to the back door and open it for us from the inside,” Stefan said. “But Gio didn’t want to do that. He was too scared to climb the tree.”

“I was only ten,” Gio protested. “A mere child. Don’t forget that part.”

“Good thing you were protecting your manhood,” Stefan countered.

I stepped in, trying to keep them on track. “Anyway, I climbed the tree for Gio. We left Stefan with the statue by the church’s side door. I made it up the tree safely, managed to open the window, and got inside.” I paused, waiting for Stefan to pick it up.

“While they were doing that, I huddled by the back door waiting for them to open it,” Stefan said. “I heard the rustling of Romeo climbing, but after a bit, I couldn’t hear him anymore. I wasn’t sure if it was due to the breeze carrying the sound away from me or whether he was no longer climbing and was already inside. After a few minutes, I suddenly heard a noise on the inside of the door, like the lock and latch was being turned. I held up the statue, ready to pass it off, and the door swung open. Except…surprise! It wasn’t Romeo.

“It was none other than Father Rainaldi.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

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