Page 4 of Single Malt Drama

Nicolina

Elliptical machines were great cardio,but let’s be honest, working out in a gym doesn’t prepare a girl for the real world. Not when said girl is running for her life from the very people who should protect her.

I reached the edge of the manicured lawn and took one last glance back at my ancestral home. Portions of the rough stone walls had been built in the 12th century as part of a military fortress. Fitting, considering the mansion had been my prison since I had the misfortune of being born into the Lazio family.

“Nico! Stop!” My brother, Giancarlo, charged across the grass.

I half-ran and half-slid down the stony cliff leading to the Mediterranean Sea. As a child, I’d played on these rocks. I knew the terrain, where to step, where to avoid, and how to win a race to the water’s edge.

More voices called after me, but I couldn’t stop moving. Gravity, and my force of will, saw to that. My father’s guards had joined my brother’s efforts to bring me back inside. While they had guns and knew how to use them, I doubted they’d shoot me. Then again, the hideous wedding gown my father had ordered would hide most gunshot wounds.

I reached the small, private cove and picked up my pace. Thigh muscles screaming, I sprinted across the shore toward freedom.

Though I had no earthly idea what my life would be like in a month, a year, a decade, I much preferred to look at the situation as running toward something new as opposed to running away from home.

Someone fired a warning shot over my head, but I didn’t slow. I had one chance at escape, and I intended to take it. The alternative was more than I could bare—a lifetime married to a man I didn’t love.

Alessio stood ramrod straight at the water’s edge. He wore his hat pulled down with the brim obscuring his face, and his clothes were a few sizes too big as if he’d stuffed his shirt to disguise his slight frame.

“Nico?” His bulging eyes and sagging jowls reminded me of a pug—a very frightened pug.

“Sbrigati!” I pleaded with him to hurry.

He stared at the armed men descending the cliff behind me.

“Andiamo!” Without slowing, I grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the waiting boat.

Once he snapped out of his shock, the weathered old groundskeeper had me in the rickety vessel and speeding away from the shoreline before I could catch my breath.

“Grazie mille.” I couldn’t bring myself to look back. There was nothing for me in that house or with my family. Nothing but expectations, duty, and a business relationship disguised as a marriage.

Alessio nodded once. Like me, he hadn’t glanced back at the shore. Some people were like that—they preferred to look forward rather than watching what was coming for them.

Peeking her head out from beneath a tarp, Maria spoke in the only language she knew, Sicilian, “Is it safe?”

“Stay down, please. Just a little longer.” Crouching over her, I used my body to protect hers. I owed them so much. My mother had died while giving birth to me, and Maria had cared for me. With my brothers away at boarding school, and my father consumed with work, if it wasn’t for Maria and Alessio, I would have been forgotten and unloved.

It killed me to think of the trouble I’d brought upon them. No one in Trapani, or Sicily for that matter, would dare risk running afoul of my father. Pietro Lazio, the head of one of the five ruling families of the Cosa Nostra, was the most ruthless of the remaining mafia bosses. Maria and Alessio helped me because they loved me—a fact that both warmed and chilled my bones.

Maria tugged my sleeve. “We found a bag in the rocks. Is that all you are bringing?”

“It is for you.” I’d stolen from my father, but I’d had no choice. I’d given Alessio and Maria part of my allowance and modeling money since my father had fired them for being too old to do their jobs. Once I disappeared, they would have no one to help keep food on their table or a roof over their heads.

Maria opened the zipper, gasped, and shook her head. “It is too much. You must keep some for yourself.”

“I will take a little.” I knew better than to argue. She’d stuff my pockets with Euros when I wasn’t looking if I didn’t keep some money for myself.

Alessio shouted over the roar of the engine and the waves, “Will you live with us in Ohio?”

Not trusting my voice, I shook my head.

“Where will you go?” Maria grasped my hand, and I helped her to a bench seat.

“A safe place far from here.” I had a loose plan, but everything depended on getting them to safety. After that, I wasn’t sure where I’d end up. “Thank you for helping me.”

She patted my hand. “There is no need to thank us. You are like a daughter to us. We would lay down our lives for you.”

I prayed it wouldn’t come to that.

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