A Threat
Catania was beautiful.
Standing on a balcony overlooking the sea, Zorah was inhaling the salty air and basking in the bright sunshine. She’d barely spoken a word in the nearly three-hour car ride from the farm to this villa in the city. At the moment she felt no desire to break her silence.
Her heart felt heavy, and her mind was cloudy. A phrase Father Tarantino spoke in the sermon the day before, about remembering to be patient because God’s work is never done, bounced around her brain. She knew she should be praying and dwelling on making peace with her heart but the anger and bitterness she was feeling at the injustice in her life was thwarting her plans.
Then there was Icaro. Despite the conversation in the bedroom where he told her The Walrus was keeping a file on her and knew her darkest secrets, he too was being noticeably quiet. He’d been sullen since his confessional visit the day before however after he’d interrupted the conversation with Avaline, he’d turned downright maudlin.
She wasn’t certain what it was which weighed on his heart since he’d spoken with the priest but between her and Icaro few words were being shared. Zorah felt a divide greater than the expanse of the sea she was currently drinking in, was growing.
“Zorah,” the voice of the man himself interrupted her thoughts.
She turned slowly to face him, “yes?”
“Sidonia and Vodingo requested we join them for dinner at the shared patio between our two villas. Have you rested enough after the drive or shall I decline, and you can have an early night?”
“I’m not hungry,” she gave a shake of her head and turned back towards the view. “It’s pretty here and I’m not ready to leave it.”
“Can I bring you a glass of wine or fruit juice?”
“No thank you.”
“Okay.” He turned on his heel with no other word and left her.
She frowned at his sudden departure. There was none of his usual kiss to the forehead or whispered amoré and it felt odd to her. Forcing the thought away, she turned her gaze back to the view and stared at the splendor in front of her.
A few minutes after Icaro left the room, she heard a buzz from her phone where it charged in the bedroom. She didn’t need to look at it to know it surmise it was likely Sidonia questioning her refusal to join them for dinner. Ignoring it she rested her elbows on the railing and leaned over slightly to look down at the gardens below.
There was a small garden and patio with a walkway between the house and the beach and she was watching a couple of lazy cats stretched out in the late afternoon sun. What it would be like to live a life with such little care in the world, to have nothing to worry about except whether the house owner remembered to fill your kibble bowl.
“You could have such a life,” a voice in her head mocked her. “You could be a kept wife with no cares and all you would need do is give up everything and be his.” Slapping her hand against the rail she cursed herself for the intrusive thought.
Tearing her eyes away from the felines she let her gaze move to the edge of the garden where a woman was standing on tiptoe at the gate which separated the space from the walk to the beach. A big hat on her head, wide sunglasses and pink shoes which really shouldn’t be worn on a beach caught Zorah’s eye.
The woman looked up at Zorah and then waved as she noted her standing there. When the woman motioned for to come down, Zorah frowned at her and shook her head. She didn’t know who this woman was, but she knew if she was outside the gate and not inside, there was a reason for it.
Zorah couldn’t look away though when the woman suddenly made a pistol shape with her fingers and then pointed them at Zorah as if pulling a trigger. Zorah backed away from the edge of the balcony and yelled for Icaro.
“Icaro!” She called his name, her eyes not leaving the woman who was now smirking broadly up at her from her spot. “Icaro!” She moved away from the balcony completely into the room.
He came running into the room, “what is it?”
“There’s a woman. At the end of the garden. She,” saying it now aloud sounded foolish, but Icaro was already moving to the balcony.
“Where?”
“She was there,” Zorah stayed behind the panes of glass of the sliding doors and pointed to the gate where there was no now trace of a person, “she was wearing a hat, sunglasses and she waved me to go down. I shook my head no and she,” she swallowed a collection of saliva from her mouth and mimicked the movement the other woman made at her, “I think she was threatening me.”
In seconds Icaro was on his phone barking orders to find the woman. He pushed Zorah into the room sliding the doors shut and latching the locks.
“The glass is bullet resistant. Stay inside until we get this sorted.”
“She could have simply been someone walking on the beach and being silly.”
“I own this section of the beach. Nobody is allowed there, Zorah. What did she look like?”
“Big hat and glasses and she wore white trousers and a bright pink shirt and bright pink shoes. The shoes were heels. I thought it was weird she was wearing heels at the beach.”
“It is weird,” he growled as he furiously sent texts to his security team. “You stay in this room until I come back for you.”
“You’re leaving?”
“It’s safest in here, Zorah. Be a good girl and wait here.”
“A good girl?” she almost shrieked the comment at him as he strode out of the bedroom without a backwards glance. She gave an impatient scream and flung herself onto the bed when she heard his feet clomping down the stairs at the end of the hall as if in a run.
Storming to her phone she picked it up to send Sidonia a message and then froze at the texts there.
It was from unknown number but more worrisome was the photo of her standing on the balcony. It was a close up of her face and her fingers shook as she realized someone probably needed to be remarkably close to take the photo unless they possessed a high-powered zoom lens.
The text message underneath it though was what stopped her from calling Icaro back to the room.
You look terribly sad, Zorah. Say the word and I can rescue you and set you free.
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