“So this is the American,” he jeered. “Little wife, the moment I turn my back you find another bed mate.”
“Go back to your sheep, you take better care of them from what I’ve heard,” Alex replied, standing taller.
Put her down,” the shepherd commanded in Sicilian.
Alex snorted and turned to walk away, when a fire shot in the air.
“She is my wife. You will leave her to me. Put her down or I will shoot you.”
“You abandoned her years ago. You left her in total poverty. And now you’ve hurt her. You’ve lost the right to even look at her,” Alex hissed, feeling his own eyes burning.
The answer was a shot through his flesh. Alex staggered and fell, the dust creating small puffs around his face. He coughed. It hurt. It hurt so much. The blood started to seep through his shirt, spreading to his chest. Then his eyes followed on the man’s feet as he reached for Rea.
Alex clutched at a juniper bush and hauled himself up as his sight began to give, and he heard his own strangled voice as he tried to call her name.
He could barely stand, but he managed to throw a rock at Calogero’s back. The man stopped on the threshold and turned, so amused he retraced his steps.
“I knew you were a brave soldier. But I didn’t know you were stupid.”
Alex’s hand shot out and slammed another rock into the Sicilians face. Calogero let out a muffled cry of agony and collapsed. Alex dragged him around behind the cabin and went to retrieve Rea who was ready to fall apart.
“Sweetheart,” he whispered, afraid to caress her swollen face.
“I’m so tired,” she whispered and her eyes fell shut. He caught her up in his arms and made his way down the steep hill and into the town. “Sleep, Sweetheart. When you wake up you’ll be in your bed.”
As Alex reached the piazza, his once white shirt now entirely seeped in his blood, the villagers congregated around him, as acolytes around their saint. Giuseppe stepped up to him, his eyes grave, his voice low,
“You can hardly stand, Give her to me, Alex.”
“No!” was the curt response. Nobody was touching her, not anymore!
He could barely make out the front of his palazzo. Only a few more feet and she would be safe. He registered the faces around him as a spinning blur. As sympathetic as they looked, he knew that none of these men would stand up to Calogero, none of them would risk their lives for her. For anyone else, yes, but for Rea, nobody’s wife, it wasn’t worth it. Because they wouldn’t have to answer to anyone if Rea died. As she had appeared from nowhere, she could quietly leave and never return. She was just the town whore. To Alex she meant the world.
A few steps separated them from the front door now. Rea was unconscious in his arms, her face a mask of blood. Her hair, caked with blood, no longer fanned about her once beautiful face, but stuck in clumps, falling rigidly down her shoulders.
On the first step of his home, Alex stumbled and Giuseppe caught them, the other men scurrying to help. The women, who in time had learned to respect the couple, circled them protectively, removing their head scarves to stem the lovers’ bleeding. Giuseppe and some other men helped to carry them upstairs into their home. It would only take a few days to heal the superficial wounds. The ones lying underneath were going to take much longer.
CHAPTER TEN
Rea sat by Alex’s bed and gently bathed his forehead with a cool, damp cloth. His temperature had risen again. She drew back the sheet and sponge-bathed his burning skin as tears trickled down her cheeks. She had almost lost him.
A week had passed, and she had recovered swiftly, driven by a burning desire to return to their life together. But because of Calogero, things would never be the same. Unless she did something about it, once and for all. She wanted her freedom back, but knew Calogero would have something to say about that.
At nightfall she left Alex with two of the women who had nursed her. Wrapping a dark shawl around her shoulders and over her head to protect herself from the autumn sea winds, Rea silently slipped out into the night.
* * * *
Calogero was in hiding, but she knew where to find him. She waded into the sea for a few yards, then turned left and back onto a sand bar. There was a crack at the bottom of the high wall of rock. Rea got to her hands and knees and slid into it.
A moment to catch her breath, and Calogero’s men were already on her, their hands like vices around her upper arms.
“Bring her here,” came his familiar voice, and she was thrust upon the ground before him. In the corner burned a small oil lamp, giving off a feeble orange light.
“Calogero, have mercy!” she cried.
The bandit moved closer to her. “Did anyone follow you here?”
She shook her head. “You are safe here. I will never tell anyone of your hiding place. On one condition.”
The man threw back his head and they all laughed.
“And what’s that, my little prickly pear?”
“That you let the American live.”
More laughter.
“Why did you come back after all these years?” she cried suddenly, unable to retain her frustration and pain.
“For you, of course. You are my woman.”
Rea squared her shoulders, and Calogero’s eyes registered the movement of her breasts beneath her thin dress. When she spoke, her voice was low and husky.
“Yes, I am, Calogero. And I’ve learned many tricks during these past years…”
Calogero eyes swung to his men briefly, then over her body. “Sì…?”
“Sì,” she whispered, shivering as he swallowed.
* * * *
“Rea. Where is she?” Alex demanded of Giuseppe that was sitting at his bedside.
“I don’t know. Donna Maria said she left at nightfall.”
With great effort, Alex swung his legs over the side of the bed, the sheets around him once again drenched in perspiration. As his head pounded and spun, he reached into the wardrobe for a clean shirt and threw it on his back, not bothering to button it.
“Where are you going to look?” Giuseppe asked.
“Everywhere,” Alex muttered as he yanked on the rope connected to the front door at the bottom of the stairs. It swung open with a soft creak, revealing the darkness of the night. Somewhere Rea was walking, a sitting duck for Calogero and his men.
* * * *
“Alfio, Luigi, go take a walk. A long walk.”
“But Calogero-”
“I’ll be fine. My little lady here wants to show me some new tricks.”
Filthy smiles spread across the dirt-smeared faces of the two delinquents and Rea shuddered. In a way she was glad that Calogero was there. He would never let them touch her. It was a matter of power, and he was the leader of the pack.
“Come here,” he commanded, his voice husky, his eyes already hooded. It would be simpler than she thought.
Rea stood before him and, shivering with revulsion, wrapped her arms around his neck as all the lurid memories came back, threatening to choke her. With a sudden movement, his fist clenched around her wrists, blocking her arms as his other hand groped her body slowly, lasciviously.
“Just like I thought, no weapon,” he grinned, yanking her to him. Rea suppressed the urge to run as his hands cupped her behind, pulling her up against his erection.
* * * *
Alex raced through the empty town. Everyone was now safe in bed. Except for Rea. Alex ran up and down the dusty, powdery paths that scarred the island, but there was no sign of her presence nor passage. His head threatened to explode, and he had to stop and catch his breath. Then he became aware of footsteps behind him. He stooped and picked up a few rocks, ready to use them when he heard a familiar voice.
“Alex, it’s me, Giuseppe.”
Alex breathed a sigh of relief as the man reached out a supporting hand. “You look like shit, my friend. Go home. I promise I’ll find her.”
“I’m not abandoning her like you all did.”
Giuseppe held out his hands. “Understand Alex, Don Raffaele forbade us to talk to her.”
Alex was baffled by the power the little man had on his flock. “Why?”
“Because he said she would contaminate our souls.”
Alex rolled his eyes skyward. “Giuseppe, you need to get out more, see the world a bit. You all do. Sex is another expression of love, in most cases. It’s not a sin to actually enjoy it, you know? And when you find the right girl, you’ll understand.”
“Mamma Mia, are you saying the women in America…sleep with men before marrying them?”
Alex chuckled despite himself. “Giuseppe, you must be blind. They do it on the island here as well. Only they have to be more careful.”
His friends chest puffed in defiance as Alex added, “Haven’t you noticed Pietro, the way he sniffs around Carmela’s front door?”
“Pietro? No! He is the brother of Carmela’s dead husband!”
“How long has she been a widow?”
“Three years now.”
Alex nodded. “And you think that there’s nothing there?”
Giuseppe drew in a deep breath, his eyes wide, and Alex put a hand on his shoulder. “If you were waiting for her, I think you’re a little late, my friend. Now help me find Rea.”
* * * *
As Calogero licked her ear, she took in the contents of the cave behind them until she spotted something gleaming in the dark corner beside a heap of logs. An ax. She stepped forward, pushing him on the floor and straddled him, just a few inches away from the implement. His eyes lit up with excitement as she leaned forward to lift his sweater up his chest. He groaned and Rea closed her eyes, biting her lip to stop from crying. She reached up his chest, her hands traveling past his shoulders toward the ax.
With one determined swing, she closed her eyes and sliced it downward.
At the sound of his scream she opened her eyes and recoiled. His face was in two, and initially there was no blood. He tottered for an agonizingly long moment as she watched, and then fell over into a heap at her feet.
Alex crawled into the cave, stopped in shock, and instinctively yanked her away, his breath sawing in and out of him, his eyes wide in horror as Giuseppe joined them.
“Dear God, Rea- what have you done?” Alex whispered in awe as Giuseppe turned pale.
“We have to go!” Giuseppe cried. “Before the Carabinieri get here!”
“It was self-defense,” Alex cried. “I’ll say I did it.”
“No!” Rea stood her ground, the ax still tight in her hands, her eyes unreadable, her face impassive. “I did it. Gladly!” She was free. The monster was dead. Now if only she could slay her interior demons.
“Giuseppe, you go back into town and pretend nothing has happened. If anybody asks you, just say that I found Rea and you left us.”
“But what are you going to do?”
“No one knows of this cave!” Rea whispered, almost afraid of being overheard. “Calogero will never be found!”
“Go, Giuseppe, hurry!”
Their friend gave them one last glance, and crawled through the slit in the wall.
“We can’t leave him here to rot, Rea,” Alex explained.
Alex drew Rea into his arms and she let go, sobs shaking her slim frame. He took her face in his hands.
“I’m not letting anyone arrest you.”
“You can’t protect me, Alex.”
“Of course I can. There’s no way I’m letting you go. We’ll run away.”
“What? And leave the shop, your house? You paid so much money!”
“We’ll run to the mainland. Messina. Catania. Ragusa. Anywhere you want to go, sweetheart, and we’ll start a new life together.”
Rea reached up to touch his unshaven cheek. “You really do love me, don’t you?”
A loud explosion shook the cave. Alex caught his footing, steadying Rea whose eyes widened in shock. There was only one explanation.
“The volcano!” Alex exclaimed as he grabbed her hand. That lopsided crater had kept its promise of spilling out the entrails of the entire island after all. No one had ever thought it would erupt in their time. And now the only chance of survival was to go to the other side, or take to sea.
“Let’s go!” he shouted, pushing her through the exit, and they were no longer up to their waist in seawater. The sea had swollen, and Rea spluttered, drinking in water, unprepared. A panic seized her, and she knew she was going to die. She had hardly any air in her lungs, and only God knew how far up the surface was.
But Alex grabbed her wrist and she felt her body rise, surrounded by air bubbles as she fought to hold her breath. Suddenly bubbles enveloped her head, and she knew that after all the air had left her lungs, water would take its place.
And then her lungs seemed to explode as they filled with air. She was barely aware of Alex holding her as air sawed in and out of their lungs once again.
“To the shore! Hurry! We must get out of the water now!”
They swam north and before they gained dry land Alex was already pulling her. “Up here, run!” He yanked her up the side of the island as the water chased them, like a sea titan, up the hill to as far as it could reach.
Once safe from the roaring sea, they were enveloped in the smoke and ash that were already obscuring the sun.
Rea was blinded by the elements and by fear. All she was conscious of was an intense heat threatening to burn her body, and the darkness that was slowly covering the island.
Within moments they reached one of the highest spots, where they stopped to breathe, but there was no air left, just a gray fog that was quickly turning black. Rea buried her face into Alex’ shoulder, but then he tugged and up they went again among bramble, rocks and loose earth, as high as they could go.
And suddenly they stopped, horrified as another loud explosion riveted them to their spot. From where they stood they watched as the main crater, followed by a large portion of the peak, disintegrated and tumbled into the sea, slowly, inexorably, like a giant loaf of bread being torn open.
The air was now mostly ash, thick and heavy, causing them to gag.
“I can’t see you, Alex!”
“Hang onto my hand!”
And suddenly they couldn’t breathe, nor swallow, not even to hurl the ash particles out of their system.
Alex tore at Rea’s hand and he dragged her up the last few yards to her hut and yanked the door behind him, but even there dust swirled in heaps. He took off his shirt and dunked it into the barrels she kept as water reserves and put it against their faces, then guided Rea to lie under her makeshift bed, throwing himself upon her onto the cold dirt floor.
The hut shook. Beneath him, Rea shook, instinctively. Several times he had to block her, push her right into the ground, for her instinct was to flee.
“It’ll be over soon,” Alex promised, fearing that the end of the world, or their world at least, was near. For a brief moment he thought that indeed they might die, and that he would never be able to look into her beautiful face, nor hold her ever again. His grasp on her tightened as he quietly said a prayer. He had never done that before in his life, not even during the war. But now he was afraid to lose her, the only part of his life that had ever mattered. More than Beverley, more than his writing career, more than anything or anyone he had ever known.
He kept his eyes closed as the deafening sound of the churning earth filled their tiny hut, and his lips searched for hers in the darkness, found them and reveled in the eagerness of her response, and the way her hands soon began to clutch him…
Then the earth became silent, but hours passed before they dared move. “Listen,” she hissed after a while. “What’s that sound?”
Alex lifted his head.
“Fire!” she cried, moving to get up. “The juniper bushes are on fire!”
But Alex pushed her back. “There is nothing you can do. All hell is unleashed out there. Let nature take its course. We’re safe here.”
And as h
e spoke, thunder cracked the skies, unable to permeate it with its bolts of lightning, and rain began to pelt the tin roof, the sound so deafening it exceeded the roaring of the earth.
Alex went to the tiny window and opened it a crack, but coughed as the ash and debris filled his nose and mouth. He slammed the window shut.
“We need to see if the others are alright!” Rea said, rising to her knees.
“It’s too soon. The minute we open the door the ash will invade the room and our lungs. Let’s wait it out a bit longer until the ash stops falling.”
“Margherita… I hope she and her family are okay!” Rea whimpered, and suddenly it was useless to try to keep her calm. She wept and wept. Alex held her in his arms, rocking her back and forth.
“I’m sure everyone made it to safety. Most people were already inside their homes at that hour anyway.”
“The sea! What about the fishermen?”
Alex searched her face in the dark room. No one had been kind to her for years and now she was worried about their safety. Rea cared about these people that would have let her starve and humiliate herself for survival. But he knew that in Rea’s eyes all that was in the past, and that she considered the townspeople her family.
“Tomorrow morning we’ll go down and take a look. We can’t do anything yet. Now close your eyes and try to sleep, my love.”
Rea opened her mouth to protest, but he found her lips in the dark and kissed her, sleep being the furthest thing on their minds.
“Wait,” she whispered, scrambling up to her feet and over, by what he could tell, to the table. She lit a candle and joined him. A soft orange glow threw shadows against the mud walls behind him, magnifying the intensity of their solitude. Outside was the end of the world, yet here, for them, it was only the beginning of their passion, something greater than the two of them.
Rea pushed him back, towards the makeshift bed, and crouched over him, straddling his body, her skin the color of fire in the dim light.
The Obsession and the Fury Page 5
