Under the Sicilian Sky

by Alexia Adams

  She swallowed down the coffee like it was the elixir of life and forced a smile for Angela. “I need to be alone for a while to think. I’m going to take a walk down to the cliff.” Stare across the sea and imagine Matteo in bed in his Tunisian palace.

  “Okay. I’ll have some supper ready in about an hour. If you see Tony, can you let him know the special feed for the animals has arrived, but I didn’t want to carry it into the barn?” Angela rubbed her belly, tellingly.

  “Are you pregnant?”

  “Yup, only two months, but we’re really excited.”

  “Congratulations.” Bella’s period had arrived on schedule yesterday morning, so she knew she wasn’t expecting. She just hadn’t decided yet if she was relieved or disappointed.

  Five minutes later, Bella had changed into jeans and a T-shirt, slipped off her black stilettos, and pulled on her boots. Back to being a sheep farmer.

  Tony was in the east paddock when she passed, inspecting the progress on the new stone fence. She congratulated him on his soon-to-be fatherhood and passed on Angela’s message about the feed. He hurried off to move it, and Bella wandered over to the cliff’s edge. From here, she could see the beach and far out into the changing blue of the Mediterranean.

  The couple staying at the guesthouse was lying on the beach; both looked like they were asleep. Bella scanned the sand for the little girl. Her heart plummeted off the cliff when she saw her in a small inflatable boat drifting out of the bay. Seconds from now, the girl would be in the open sea. Bella screamed down to the parents, but they didn’t move.

  She raced down the path, yelling as she went. A helicopter flew low overhead, but she didn’t take the time to see who it was. Maybe it was the coast guard and they had spotted the child in distress as well. By the time she hit the sand, the mother at least was sitting up, looking around, confused.

  “Your daughter . . . ” Bella sucked in air all the while pulling off her boots. She gestured toward the water. The mother stood and wobbled, nearly falling onto the dad, who still snored away. A bottle of wine and one of scotch lay on the sand, both empty. Neither parent would be any help rescuing the little girl.

  “Go up to the cottage and tell Angela to call emergency services.”

  Yanking off her jeans, Bella rushed to the water, praying she’d be in time. Anger added to the adrenaline; she didn’t even notice the cold. But one hundred feet from shore, her lungs and muscles burned. Despite all her activities, swimming had never been her forte. When she was about ten feet from the little girl, a strong gust of wind blew the inflatable boat farther away and the child began to cry.

  “Hang on, Holly. I’m coming for you. Stay as low as possible in the boat,” Bella yelled. A wave hit her face and she swallowed a mouthful of water. Every muscle protested as she swam toward the boat, now at least twenty feet from her and drifting farther out every second. Would she even have the strength to get them both back to land?

  “Bella!” She heard her name shouted from shore but didn’t have the energy to look back. It sounded too much like Matteo. Another large wave smashed into her and she gasped for air. Was she drowning? She’d heard people had hallucinations before they died.

  At least her last thought would be of Matteo.

  • • •

  Matteo stripped off his clothes as fast as he could before plunging into the sea. He’d met the frantic mother on her way up to the cottage. All she’d said was her daughter was in trouble and a strange woman had gone into the water after her. He knew it was Bella. As he dove under the cresting wave, his heart rate spiked and the blackness at the back of his mind threatened to take over. It was the first time he’d been fully submerged in water since he’d awakened in a Tunis hospital with no idea who he was.

  He broke the surface and tried to see Bella and the little inflatable boat with the child. His panic attack would have to wait. The wind had picked up, increasing the wave activity. The quickest way was under the water, but then he couldn’t keep his destination in sight. Soon the waves were too high to see beyond the next one. He prayed he was headed in the right direction. Screaming Bella’s name, he kicked his legs upward, hoping to catch sight of her.

  “Matteo!” Her answering call was to the left. He adjusted his angle and soon spotted her frantically bobbing in the water. He reached her just as her head disappeared below the surface. Diving down, he grabbed her by the arm and dragged her above the water again.

  “She’s too far out, I can’t reach her,” Bella shouted. Another wave broke over them and she spluttered. Three sleepless nights were taking their toll on him; his strength was waning.

  Save his wife or save a child he’d never met? No man should have to make that decision.

  “How are you even in here?” Bella asked.

  “More scared of losing you than the water,” he managed. He focused on her face, forcing the terror to the back of his mind. He had to do this. He couldn’t fail. To lose Bella again would kill him.

  “Can you save her? One more wave and I’m sure she’ll tip.” Bella kicked upward and pointed at the small boat where a little hand could be seen clinging to the side. The child’s terrified screaming filled his ears. The screams, together with the water, threatened to take him under.

  Focus, Matteo!

  “I can make it back to shore,” Bella said.

  “Are you sure?” He could see the exhaustion in her face and her kicks were barely enough to keep her above the water.

  “Yes. For our love. For you. I promise.”

  It was the hardest thing he’d ever done to let her go and kick his legs in the opposite direction. He spotted the small boat as it crested a wave and put all his remaining energy into reaching it. He was less than a meter away when it capsized, flinging the little girl into the water.

  His heartbeat pounded in his ears, deafening him to all other sounds as he dove, searching for the tiny body. His lungs burned as he went deeper; the pressure to breathe became intense. His eyesight began to blur as his oxygen-deprived brain began shutting down nonessential functions. Just as he couldn’t take the pain any longer, he spotted something pink to his left. He reached out a hand, praying it was the child and not a jellyfish.

  When he broke the surface again, he thrust the object up above him. He gulped in air and tried to clear his eyes of the salt water. It was the girl, but she was as lifeless as a doll. He held her as high as possible, but still she didn’t breathe. He was not going to risk his wife’s life and his own to fail now. Hauling in a lungful of air, he covered the child’s mouth and nose with his own and gently blew the air into her body. If her lungs were already full of water, it might not make a difference.

  Where had the boat gone? Maybe if he could put her back inside she’d recover. His thigh muscles protested every movement and it was increasingly difficult to keep both their heads above the surface of the water. Another gust of wind flipped the inflatable into the air. Minus the girl’s weight, it became airborne. When it next touched down it was too far away to be of any use.

  Holding the little body as high as he could, he had only his legs to power them toward the shore. Was this how it was going to end? The sea had taken six years of his marriage, would it now take his life as well?

  No! Bella had promised to make it to shore. He would, too.

  An image of his wife’s smiling face as she won a hand of strip poker flashed through his mind and he focused on that and not the agony of exhausted muscles or the too-still child in his arms. Another wave crashed over them and they both went underwater for a second. As he struggled to surface, the little girl twitched. They both gulped in air as they broke through. Grazie a Dio, she lived. Now he had to keep it that way. He flipped over on his back and put the child on his chest and kicked for all he was worth.

  Wave after wave splashed over his face. His brain filled with images of clinging to the rubber dock bumper on the side of a boat, his ears still reverberating with the staccato gunfire. Boat? Gunfire? He was back six yea
rs ago, to the fishing expedition that had netted him amnesia.

  Suddenly, hands pulled the little girl from him and a pair of arms dragged his weary body up onto the land. He collapsed on the beach without even the energy to lift his head from the sand.

  A gentle hand that could only be Bella’s wiped a strand of hair off his face. Through the pounding of his heartbeat in his ears came the sound of women crying, a man shouting, and distant sirens. He should move. The sirens were danger. He wasn’t supposed to be here. But even that knowledge couldn’t force his muscles into action.

  Someone rolled him over, and then Bella pulled his head and shoulders up so she could cradle him in her arms. She wiped the sand from his cheeks and pressed kisses on his forehead as she murmured over and over how much she loved him. Warmth filled him. His muscles spasmed. Didn’t you feel warm just before you died?

  “It’s okay, mi amore. You’re safe. And you saved her. Holly is going to live.”

  The voices got louder as his heart rate calmed, and he opened one eye, then the other. At first all he could see was Bella’s beautiful face. Tears coursed down her cheeks and the smile she attempted failed miserably. But she was alive. He was alive. What more could they want?

  “I thought I’d lost you so many times. You kept going under . . . ” she sobbed.

  He tried to speak but coughed up water instead. And once he started coughing, he couldn’t stop. Bella twisted him to his side and he vomited out a stomach-full of sea.

  When he opened his eyes again, the beach was crowded with people. A man and woman hovered near the paramedic who tended to the little girl. Tony stood comforting his wife, who cried as if it were her child who’d nearly drowned. Two police officers arrived on the scene and started asking questions.

  “Bella, I have to get out of here.” His throat was so raw it hurt to talk.

  “I know,” she whispered against his temple. “Can you walk?”

  Could he? Doubtful, but he had to try. Being arrested had not been on his to-do list today. Getting his wife back had.

  He sat up and tried to pull his legs under him only to have the muscles cramp. Biting his tongue to stop himself from screaming in pain, he shook his head at Bella.

  One of the police officers detached from interviewing the girl’s parents and came to stand over him. “Matteo Vanni? You are under arrest for the murders of Stefano Pirlo, Ciro De Rossi, and Leonardo Insigne.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  No way in hell were they taking her husband after he’d just saved a child from drowning. After she’d realized she couldn’t live without him.

  “You’ve got it all wrong, officer,” she said, her arms tightening around Matteo. “This is Mario Barilla. There’s no Matteo Vanni here.”

  The officer looked confused and checked his notepad. “That woman over there,” he pointed at Angela, “said his name was Matteo Vanni. We just received the arrest warrant for him yesterday.”

  “Angela is mistaken. She’s new to the area. Matteo Vanni was my first husband. I’m filing for divorce so I can marry this man, Mario Barilla. I have the paperwork at the farm if you’d like to see it.”

  He turned back to Matteo. “Signore, where are your documents?”

  Matteo coughed up more of the sea but managed to point at his clothes farther up the beach. The police officer moved to retrieve them, and Bella motioned Angela forward.

  “Angela, can you get Mario something to drink?” she asked. Bella did her best to convey with her eyes the change in name.

  “Of course.” Angela hurried off to get a bottle of water from the cooler they kept stocked in a tiny alcove of the cliff. She whispered something to Tony on the way.

  The policeman had Matteo’s passport in hand and was checking the photo and details. He then flipped through the pages. “When did you arrive in Italy, Signor Barilla?”

  “This afternoon,” Matteo managed. Angela handed him the water and he drank half of it before lowering the bottle.

  “There is no entry stamp in your passport.” The officer flipped through the pages again.

  Before Matteo could respond, the policeman turned to Angela. “Signora, who is this man?”

  “Signora Vanni’s friend, Mario. I can’t remember his last name,” Angela answered. She now spoke Italian with a really bad American accent.

  “A minute ago you said his name was Matteo Vanni,” the policeman argued.

  Angela lifted her shoulders. “I meant to say he is the man friend of Signora Vanni. I get the pronouns and order mixed up sometimes. I was upset at seeing the little girl almost die.”

  The policeman shook his head, and Bella couldn’t tell whether he believed Angela or not. He stared at her for a moment longer, but Angela never looked away. Bella so wanted to hug her friend right now. Tony was called over and asked the same question. He responded as Angela had.

  Matteo had recovered enough to stand, and Bella wrapped her arms around his waist to support him.

  The policeman held up Matteo’s passport. “You have not answered why there is no new immigration stamp in your passport. As a Tunisian citizen, you are required to go through customs and immigration on entering Italy.”

  “Signora Vanni and I had an argument and she returned to Sicily. In my haste to apologize to her, I hired a helicopter to fly me straight to her farm. I have a valid visitor’s visa.”

  “I can charge you with entering the country illegally,” the policeman said.

  Bella put herself in between Matteo and the policeman. “Are you really going to arrest a man who just saved a little girl from drowning? Especially as the little girl is a tourist? He should get a medal for his bravery. Imagine what the international media will say when they read this headline: Man trying to reconcile with girlfriend saves little girl only to be arrested by heartless police.”

  The policeman narrowed his eyes, and for a second her heart stalled, sure she was about to be handcuffed alongside Matteo for insubordination.

  “Sì, Signora. In light of Signor Barilla’s heroism, we will overlook his transgression if he leaves the country immediately.” The policeman handed Matteo his passport and then strode over to Holly’s parents. The paramedics had loaded her on a stretcher and were preparing to carry her up the hill to where Bella assumed an ambulance waited.

  “Thank you,” Matteo said, wrapping both arms around her and snuggling her against his chest. God, she’d come so close to losing him again.

  She’d find something to do, some way to stay sane in order to keep this man in her life. “You’d better leave before Roberto Della Vedova finds out you’re here,” she said as everyone else left the beach.

  “He’s the killer. I remembered everything in the water.”

  “Then you definitely need to leave.”

  “I’m not going without you,” Matteo said, tightening his hold on her.

  “Amore . . . ” She was afraid to use his real name now.

  “Bella, I lost you once. I refuse to do it again. I’ll fight to clear my name, even if it’s from a jail cell, if you want to stay on the farm.”

  He’d give up his freedom for her. She’d never accept that sacrifice. “I can’t ask that of you.”

  He released her enough to stare into her eyes. “Come with me. Please. You are not an accessory to my accomplishments. You are my world. I’m nothing without you. I was terrified that if I told you I might never be able to return to Sicily, it would be the straw that tipped the scales in favor of the camel. I wanted my full two weeks to show you how much I love you. I never meant to shut you out or treat you as anything less than you are, which is amazing. My instinct is to cherish and protect, but if I take it too far and you think I’m princessing you, just kick me in the shin.”

  The tears started again with no hope of stopping them this time. Pietro, the man who had given her a ride from the airport, came running onto the beach. “There are more police arriving, this time from the regional force. You have to leave now!” he shouted.

>   Her heart stalled and it was hard to breathe. Think, Bella. “You said you arrived by helicopter. Where is it?”

  “In the east pasture.”

  “Can you run?”

  “I don’t even think I can walk,” he admitted.

  It was true; in the last couple of minutes he’d leaned more heavily on her. Bella’s heart pounded again. Fear, like she’d experienced every time Matteo’s head had disappeared under the water, swamped her system with adrenaline. Could they hide? Could she outwit or head off Roberto Della Vedova before he found Matteo?

  There was a loud commotion at the top of the beach trail. Bella stepped in front of Matteo, although he was so much larger than her it was a futile attempt to hide him. She squinted, and her knees nearly buckled when she saw Tony arrive with Akbar at full trot, Estella the lovesick chicken running alongside. The camel ran right up to them, and again the dromedary didn’t complain when ordered to kneel.

  Tony jumped off, handed Bella her passport, and then he helped Matteo mount the animal, with Bella behind. Miraculously, the camel seemed to sense the urgency and took off at a gallop once they were atop. They made it to the waiting helicopter just as the regional police crested the hill.

  Della Vedova’s shouts were drowned out by the blades of the chopper whirling to life. Bella helped Matteo in and then slapped Akbar’s rump and sent him cantering toward the police who scattered at the sight of the large animal bearing down on them, flanked by a crazy chicken.

  Bella buckled her seatbelt and gripped Matteo’s hand tightly as the helicopter lifted off. Circumstances might have hastened her decision but her heart was fully on board.

  As the helicopter flew low over the sea, Matteo wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

  The farm disappeared behind them. This time, she didn’t look back. Her home, her life was with the man next to her.

  This girl knew what to do.

  • • •

  Matteo lay back against the pillows. It was a bit embarrassing to have a meeting with law enforcement and his lawyer while lying in bed. But the only way he’d managed to avoid a hospital stay was by promising to rest for at least twenty-four hours. And Bella was adamant that he follow the doctor’s orders. When he’d arrived back in the country wearing only his boxers, he’d been taken directly to the hospital to be checked out.