Page 114 of The Unraveling of Julia

“No!” Julia shouted, panicky. Bianco was wedging himself into the underbrush. She ran to him, grabbed him by his collar, and dragged him away.

“Courtney!” Julia screamed, running to the villa.

63

Julia wiped her forehead, and Courtney brushed off her hands. They stood side by side in Rossi’s bedroom, surveying the barricade they’d made against the door, which consisted of a dresser, an upholstered side chair, and a wooden chair. Bianco slept soundly on the bed, his white coat tangled with burrs. They were all spending the night together.

“That’s good enough,” Julia said, shaken. The stakes were getting higher. They were being followed and surveilled, and now somebody was in the vineyard.

“That’s the best we can do.” Courtney heaved a sigh.

“Sorry I lost the gun.” Julia hated that she’d left the pictures and the lock of hair at the well, too.

“Don’t worry.” Courtney wiggled her butt, and Julia spotted two steak knives in her back pocket, their handles sticking out.

“Whoa. Ouch.”

“Dinner is served.”

Julia smiled. “What are we having?”

“Bad guys, of course.”

After they turned out the light, Julia and Courtney pretended to sleep, close enough to talk. They’d hidden the knives under their pillows, and Bianco snored at the foot of the bed.

Courtney whispered, “I wish we could go to the Florence police.”

“I know, but we don’t have any more evidence than before. What do I say? Somebody was in my vineyard but I didn’t see him? He interrupted my do-it-yourself séance?”

“We could tell them about the underground cell and the pictures of Rossi’s abuse. We could task them with what Torti was supposed to be doing but isn’t.”

“I hear you, but that’s a risk, and it’s not worth it. They’ll see it as an old crime, if that, and we’ll have shown our hand to Torti. I want him to think we’re satisfied with whatever he’s doing.”

“Okay.”

“I think we need to stay the course with the schools.” Julia couldn’t believe that she could find her birth mother tomorrow, and somehow it was the second-most important thing after Gianluca. She knew there was a relationship between the two, but didn’t have the facts. She felt like she was playing a deadly game, but didn’t know the other players, or how to win. Right now, she was being played.

Courtney whispered, “I have bad news. I got an email while you were outside. Things are heating up on one of my accounts. I can stay tomorrow, then I have to go. I’m sorry.”

“No worries.” Julia felt relieved to have Courtney out of harm’s way.

“I don’t want to leave you here, especially after tonight.” Courtney frowned in the dark, anguished. “You sure you won’t go?”

“No. Not until he’s better.”

“Maybe tomorrow, we’ll get lucky?”

64

The morning was hazy, and Julia drove while Courtney worked, her laptop on her lap. Traffic was congested on the two-lane road to the first school, which wound through the Chianti region. Julia’s nervousness had intensified since last night, and neither of them had slept. They’d retrieved the Rossi photographs, the hair, and the flashlight from the well. They’d looked around for signs of an intruder but found none. The gun was gone for good, but they had the steak knives in their purses.

Gianluca weighed on Julia’s mind as she drove. She’d called the hospital and asked about his condition, but they wouldn’t tell her anything except that he was still in intensive care, in critical condition. The receptionist from the other night hadn’t texted her. It killed her that she had no information about him.

Julia kept her eye on the rearview mirror. So far, so good. She spotted the first school ahead, and her spirits lifted. This could be theone. She could be meeting her birth mother in the next fifteen minutes.

Three hours and three schools later, Julia hadn’t found her birth mother, and they set out for the fourth school. She braked at a red light on the way out of town, glancing in the rearview mirror by habit. Then she looked again.

A police cruiser was three cars behind them, the black-and-red of the Savernellacarabinieri. They weren’t near Savernella, so she didn’t know why one of its cruisers would be patrolling here. She couldn’t see if the driver was Marshal Torti because the cruiser was too far back, behind a VW Golf and a truck.

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