Page 39 of Inescapable Ties
I didn’t believe that at all. But I wanted to stick around to film this.
Short Dino and Alessio looked at each other and shrugged, but I noticed they kept themselves more alert than before.
Quickly, I rummaged through my bag and brought out my video camera. With a swift motion, I clicked it on and raised it upwards, my gaze focused on the digital screen. The symbols popped into clarity under the lens.
“Doesn’t it seem sort of…familiar to you?” Martina asked. “No, I must be confusing it with something else.”
A sharp twist in my stomach made me recoil, as if I had a physical reaction to her words. Had I always subconsciously known this symbol? It seemed to hold some kind of mysterious power over me, pulling me in with its familiar yet elusive aura. Was it tied to a memory, long forgotten? If not, what was it from?
I was going to press Martina for more information, but was interrupted.
“Luciana,” Alessio’s voice was hesitant, “Are you sure about this? These symbols…they don’t seem right.”
Alessio had been my security detail when I was younger, before I managed to convince my father I was useless and he shouldn’t waste his resources on me. He watched over me from when I was nine to fifteen.
“Superstitious, are we?” I asked, choosing to keep my knowledge of the symbols to myself.
He frowned. “It’s not about superstition. It’s about survival.”
“I’ll record it quickly, then.”
Spending the day with my sister was nice, but it was socially exhausting. I was grateful to be in the silence of my own home, enjoying time (mostly) alone. Short Dino was in the living room, but he didn’t make much noise.
I opened up my laptop and started to edit the footage from the day. The abandoned apartment we had been to was ok, not the most interesting I had ever seen, but certainly not the worst.
I started another deep dive on the symbol. Unsurprisingly, I wasn’t able to find anything about it.
But if there was nothing about it online, why did it look familiar to both me and Martina?
Grumbling, I shut my laptop to get ready for bed. Hopefully Emilio would be home soon. I hadn’t mentioned it to him, but I always woke up when he slid into bed at night and wrapped his arms around me.
It was one of the small things I could look forward to.
Chapter twenty
Luciana
“Areyouexcitedtocome back?” Emilio asked.
He grabbed my hand and led me into The Underground Vault. The secret gambling ring was something special, and I couldn’t deny there was excitement.
“Of course,” I responded.
The bouncer let us pass through the side entrance and down the stairs, and the hustle and bustle of people betting on the main floor soon greeted us.
“Here,” Emilio said, reaching into his coat pocket. He passed me an envelope that was full of something.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Cash.”
I gave him a devious smile, remembering what I had placed on the line the last time we were here.
“If you bet your wedding ring again, I’ll have to sew it to your finger,” he said.
“This should be enough,” I said jokingly.
It was certainly more than enough. When I placed it in my purse, I could feel the immediate weight difference.
