Page 35 of Theta

"Lobsters?" Killian guesses.

"Ah, yes. Lobsters." He butchers the word, pronouncing it LOBE-stehrs. “The girls are sick. They are pisciare everywhere." He shakes his head. "I make sick on the ground. I do not agree to this. When I drive the truck, it is drugs, I always think. Or maybe some guns. Is okay. Bad men want to kill each other with guns and sniff the cocaine, okay for me. But I am driving little ragazze to be selled for slaves? No. No!” He smacks the steering wheel with his cigarette hand. "No! It is evil. My Maria, she is my life. All I do, I do for her. She tell me so many times, Papa, you should not do this work no more. But I am doing this for vent'anni. What else am I gonna do, heh? Work at a bank? Go fishing? No, no." A deep breath, a shake of his head. "So I see these ragazze. And what does Enzo do?"

"Enzo doesn't talk in third person anymore," I mutter.

Killian stifles a laugh with a snort. "You let them go, didn't you?"

Enzo looks from Killian to my reflection in the mirror with widened eyes. "Sì, sì, I let them go. I am a foolish man with a so soft heart, you see. All these belle ragazze, I cannot send them to him. I have hear stories of Pugli. The other men I work with, they talk. It is how men do. They sit, and they smoke cigarettes, and they drink, and they talk. I know, these girls go to him, they are…" he shakes his head, trailing off, not finishing the statement. “I cannot allow it. So I let them go."

"That strikes me as unwise,” I say.

He nods vigorously. "Ohhh, sì, it was. Very very."

"Pugli didn't kill you?" Killian asks.

Enzo growls. "I think he is going to. I am bring to him by some men. They find me in bed and they put a bag over my head. I cannot see. They drive and they drive, and then I am in Francia. And I am in front of Pugli. I think, I am sorry, Maria. Now you have no mama and no papa. But he does not kill me. He says, ‘You are a loyal man. You work for vent'anni. Do a good job, always on time, no accident, nothing.’ So, he say to me, ‘I will let you live. But now…you work for me.’"

"Oh. Well, shit," Killian says. "That would do it."

"I have no choice. So then…what do I do?” He laughs. "I drive a truck!" Another bark of laughter. "No girls. Only boxes. And then due settimane fa, he call me direct. Enzo, he tell me. You go to Sardinia. You stay at this house. You wait. Some young people will be bring to you. You do not let them escape. They try, you shoot them. Okay, I say. No problem. But he say then, I know where is Maria. I know she is with her nonna, her mama's mama. You do this, or both Maria and Nonna will be killed."

"Enzo," I murmur. "I'm so sorry."

He shrugs. "There is time. We go to the mainland, and we rescue them. I help you, you help me, sì?"

Killian and I exchange looks; he nods. I answer. "We can do that."

He lets out a slow breath. "Okay, okay. This is good. She is all I have, my Maria. Her nonna?" he laughs. "She no like me, I no like her. Maria's mama, she loved me too much. I am no good, her mama say. Criminale. Bad man. But my Concetta, she love me anyway."

"We're not leaving your mother-in-law behind," I say, my tone hard.

Enzo just laughs all the harder. "Why not? Pugli takes that woman? He is not knowing what he is biting off to chew. I think if we want to get away, we leave her. Let her do the dealing with Pugli. He is not gonna know what is hit him."

"You are not very good at relating the important information," I say. "You said you only hurt someone one time and it led you here."

"Oh, sì sì. When I let the ragazze go free, I drive the truck to the place I am told to go. There is only one soldier to see me, okay? He is to meet me and to bring the truck to another place, so if I am catched by the Carabinieri, I cannot say where they are. This soldier, he look in the truck, he sees it is empty. He look at me so angry, sì? And I know he is going to shoot me. So I shoot him first. And then I go home. I think maybe Pugli will think it is an accident. Maybe he think someone else is doing this to him. But no. He find out it is me, I do not know how he knows. And here we are." He gives Killian a sharp, hard look, and then me in the mirror. "Pugli, I cannot protect you from him. You know this? We are together in the trouble, heh?"

Killian snorts a laugh. "Enzo, buddy, I've got a feeling it's gonna end up being the other way around."

"You gonna protect me?"

Killian shrugs. "You don't know anything about us, do you? Story and me? Why does Pugli want us?"

"The only thing I know is what I am telled. Go here, stop these young people from escape. With the camion pieno di ragazze, I think he want her." He tips his head backward, indicating me. "A bella giovane donna? He want the girl. You are…" another shrug. "A problem, only. To be…ahh…risolto. I do not know this word. Take care of. No more problem. Because you are killed, hmm?"

Killian snorts. "Yeah, I'm following you. But it's a bit more complicated than that, I'm afraid."

"Oh? Why complicated?"

I meet Killian's eyes and shake my head—we can only trust this guy so far. I have the sense that he's being truthful about everything and it's a hell of a stroke of luck that we now have an ally, but I'm not ready to trust him with everything just yet.

Killian gives me a subtle nod in return. "I think that's a story for another day, Enzo."

Enzo nods. Rolls the wheel of his cheap disposable lighter, producing a small flurry of sparks. "I understand. Trust is a very difficult thing, I think. No very easy to find."

"Facts, buddy, facts."

Silence follows this, as Enzo seems to sink into his own thoughts as we drive across the island. I'm honestly not sure how long the drive is—I drowse, dropping in and out of awareness. Killian is as well, and it occurs to me that Enzo could be tricking us, pretending to be sympathetic and letting us think we've escaped, when in reality he's taking us to a new safehouse or something. From then on, I let myself drowse, but keep half an eye on Enzo—mainly, I'm looking for evidence that he's in contact with someone. I have his burner, but we never searched him, so he could have a spare.