Treasured Dreams (17 page)

The crowd gasped again, and another sheet-covered body was wheeled out. It was much smaller this time. ‘Oh Jesus.' Archer ploughed through the crowd, ducked under the tape, jumped the barrier and raced towards the stretcher. He was there before anyone could stop him.

A scream trapped in his throat as he ripped off the shroud.

It was a woman. Half her head had been smashed in. Her hair had a red tinge, her complexion was pale, and despite his tears, Archer could tell it wasn't Rosalina. Her body was bloated and her swollen tongue poked out. He was no expert, but it was obvious this woman had been dead for days.

Rough hands were on him now, dragging him away.

His legs threatened to crumble. As he doubled over, gasping for air, his mind was a landslide of rotten thoughts as he grappled over where Rosalina could be.

Chapter Nineteen

Nox woke with the early dawn and the thick duvet still tucked up under his chin. He lay awake, listening to the therapeutic sound of the waves crashing into the rocks below. When his stomach began to grumble, he flicked back the covers, sat up, and stretched his back. He felt marvellous, something he hadn't experienced in a very long time.

He made his way to the balcony to see what his guests were doing. Rosalina and Filippo were seated opposite each other on the two beds at the far end of the dormitory. Nox frowned at the upended mattresses at the windows, but when he realised it was to block the breeze, he grinned. He had no objections to them making themselves at home; they were likely to be here a long time.

‘We need food and water.' The defiance in Rosalina's voice was unmistakable.

Once again, he had no idea how she knew he was there. ‘I already gave you some.'

‘It's not enough.'

Nox laughed. ‘It was more than enough.'

‘What do you want?' Rosalina said.

‘I told you. The rest of the Calimala treasure.'

‘But we don't know where it is. Searching for it could take years.' Rosalina stood up now and moved with her crutches towards the balcony. Filippo sidled up beside her.

‘I don't care how long it takes. I've waited decades. I can wait so much more.'

‘What about if we give you the
Awa Maru
treasure instead?' Filippo said.

As soon as Filippo spoke, Rosalina turned to him and he stepped back. Nox watched with interest. Clearly this was not something she'd planned to mention.

‘I'm listening,' Nox said.

‘It's nothing,' Rosalina said. But her reaction confirmed it was something.

‘If you tell me about it, I will deliver more food and water.'

‘It's a Japanese warship.'

Rosalina shoved her brother and he stumbled backwards. ‘Shut up, Filippo. It's not helping.'

Filippo got up from the floor and stood, legs apart, hands on hips, glaring at Rosalina. Nox enjoyed the floor show. A dispute between these two could only work in his favour. Nox turned on his heel, deciding to leave them to battle it out.

He went downstairs and fed the fire more pages from the Bible and slabs of wood. When the flames blazed, he filled up a pot with water and placed it on the heat. He could almost taste the coffee before he'd poured it. He heated up last night's pasta and turned on Filippo's phone to search Safari for a Japanese warship named
Awa Maru
.

By the time he'd finished his meal and enjoyed two more cups of coffee, he had enough notes and sufficient ammunition to ring Archer again.

Archer's phone was answered on the first ring. ‘Filippo!'

‘Guess again.'

‘I'm going to kill you.'

‘You already tried that.'

‘I'll make sure of it this time, you bastard,' Archer yelled.

Nox picked at something wedged between his front teeth. ‘You'll have to find me first.'

‘Finding things is what I do.'

‘Exactly. That's why I'm calling.' Nox sipped at his coffee, making Archer wait a moment or two before he continued. ‘I have a proposition.'

‘Yeah! What?' Archer snapped.

‘You shall see your precious Rosalina again when you bring me the
Awa Maru
treasure.' He heard breathing on the other end of the line but it was a long moment before Archer spoke again.

‘I want to speak to her.'

‘Do we have a deal?'

‘Not until I speak to her.'

Nox ended the call; he couldn't risk Archer tracing the phone. As he walked up the stairs, the phone rung again. He waited until he was halfway along the corridor before he pressed the
answer
button. At the edge of the balcony, he looked down. One of the mattresses had been pulled down from the window, letting in more light. He found Rosalina and Filippo on the same two beds they were on earlier.

‘Archer wants to talk to you.' Nox pressed the speakerphone button.

‘Archer!' Rosalina yelled.

‘Rosa!'

‘I'm here, babe.' Rosalina stumbled to the centre of the room.

‘Has he hurt you?' Archer's voice of concern was almost laughable.

‘No. Filippo is here with me.'

‘Make sure you protect her, Filippo. I'm coming to get you.'

‘No, you're not,' Nox said. ‘Filippo, tell Archer what the deal is.'

Filippo looked at Rosalina before he spoke. ‘He wants to exchange us for the treasure.'

‘Tell him which treasure,' Nox said. Nox was certain the
Awa Maru
treasure would be easier to find than the seven-hundred-year-old one. He could pursue the Calimala treasure next.

‘He wants the Awa Ma—'

Rosalina cut Filippo off. ‘We're in a big old building near Livorno.'

Nox jabbed the
end
button, certain he'd done it before she'd said Livorno. He glared down at her with all the loathing he could muster and wondered how the hell she'd worked that out.

Chapter Twenty

As the morning glow peeked over the top of the stood-up mattresses and crept up the wall behind her, Rosalina's emotions spun like a roulette wheel. She started at hope that Archer had heard her call out Livorno, then moved to doubt as to whether or not that was even correct, then shifted to excitement that Archer was looking for them. That progressed to anger at Filippo for revealing the
Awa Maru
treasure to Nox, which led to disbelief that Nox had survived being speared, and finally, she became furious that she'd been captured again. Then the emotional roulette started again.

In addition to this, she was hungry, tired and sore. In the last twenty-four hours, all she'd had to eat were a couple of chunks of bread.

‘Jesus, I'm hungry.' Filippo's first comment of the day was, as expected, a complaint centred on his feelings.

‘Hopefully we'll get something to eat this morning.'

‘We better.'

Or what?
She thought. Nox had complete control. Nothing they could do would influence him. They'd already lost their one bargaining chip, thanks to Filippo.

‘Did you sleep okay?' she asked.

‘What do you think?' He glared at her with anger-filled eyes.

She refrained from pointing out that she'd lain awake most of the night listening to a combination of the howling wind, crashing waves, and Filippo's constant snoring. In her opinion, he'd had a decent night's sleep … compared to her.

Rosalina flipped back her covers, and without her crutches, made her way to the makeshift bathroom to relieve herself. Trying to squat was difficult with her plaster cast. It suddenly occurred to her that she'd missed her appointment at the hospital. The cast would've been removed yesterday. Going to the toilet was the only thing that stopped her from screaming at the top of her lungs.

She came out from behind the curtain, shuffled to the first window and willed the beautiful scene of the golden sun glistening across the ocean to relax her simmering fury.

‘So how much do you think the
Awa Maru
treasure is worth?'

She spun to him. ‘Shut up, Filippo.'

His eyes bulged. ‘What? Why?'

‘You're a fool. That was our only bargaining chip. We could've traded information on the treasure for food and water. And other things. But now …' she clenched her fists at her side, ‘because of you, we have nothing.'

‘How was I to know?'

‘You don't think. Everything is always about you. You never stop to think about anyone else.'

‘Piss off. You don't even know me. You take off overseas for years then come back and try to take over.'

‘How did I try to take over? I was protecting Nonna.'

‘She doesn't need protecting. She started all this by trying to protect the fucking Calucci name.'

If he was within reach, Rosalina would've slapped him across the face. ‘Shut up. I don't want to hear another selfish word from you.' She moved to the window farther away from him and inhaled deeply, smelling the fresh sea air. With each breath she yearned to be back on
Evangeline
. To be folded up in Archer's arms. Without Archer at her side, the breeze seemed to blow straight through her, chilling her to the bone. He would come for her, of that she was certain. But if he didn't come soon, she feared her resolve would crumble to dust like the building surrounding her.

She didn't speak to her brother for the rest of the day, and he didn't seem to miss it either.

It wasn't until late in the afternoon that Rosalina remembered an idea she'd thought of yesterday. She got up and stripped yet another bed of its linen. Then she tugged a couple of beds apart so she could lay a sheet out flat.

Filippo watched with disinterested eyes.

Now she just had to find something to write with. The sheets were a dirty shade of white so all she needed was something dark. Even dirt would do. She ran her finger over the floor and thick black dirt caked her fingertip.

She went to the makeshift toilet cubical and carried the bucket back to the laid out sheet. Filippo watched her with more interest now. Then she went to the cupboard and snatched one of the shirts off its hanger. Rosalina knelt on the floor beside the sheet, and with the kid's shirt wrapped around two of her fingers, she dipped it in the urine in the bucket and then dragged it along the floor. Using it like a paintbrush, she began to write enormous letters across the sheet.

‘What're you doing?'

‘You'll see.' By the time she'd finished, the word
HELP
dominated the sheet.

‘Where are you putting that?'

‘Outside the window.'

He looked out the window, then glanced down at the sheet. ‘I don't think the ships out there on the horizon will see it.'

‘Thank you for that observation, Mr Pessimist.' Afraid of what she might see, she refrained from looking at him. She picked the sheet up by the corners, led it to the window, threaded it through the bars and tied each end to the cold metal. Rosalina was happy with the result; she just hoped that if somebody did see it, they were curious enough to investigate.

‘You're wasting your time.'

‘When did you get so bloody negative?' She rolled her eyes at him.

He cocked his head. ‘When my father called me a murderous bastard.'

Rosalina clenched her jaw and slammed her fists on the window bars. The bars moved. It was only slight, but they did move. She banged on them again, and sure enough, the base of the bars, where they penetrated the concrete, moved a fraction. The one-inch bars may have been rock solid, but the bricks and mortar holding them in place were not. She turned, hopped to the floor near her bed and snatched up the wire coat hanger she'd played with yesterday and returned to the window.

‘What're you doing now?'

‘Getting out of here.'

She manipulated the wire so the hook became as straight as she could get it. Then she folded back the hanging parts of the wire, giving her something to hold onto. Climbing up onto the wire bedframe so she had a bit of weight behind her, she then poked the point of the hanger into the small divot she'd created around the base of the metal bar and flicked it. A small piece of grey concrete bounced out and plummeted towards the rocks below.

She did it again and again, focusing her attention on the outside of the bar. Over and over the concrete crumbled under her attack and tumbled down to the cliff face. When a decent chunk of concrete released, she put the wire down and banged on the bar again. It moved about an inch this time. Getting excited now, she moved onto the next bar and Filippo sidled up beside her with his own coat hanger tool. They worked silently together, piece by piece, fashioning their escape. The sky outside began to morph into reds and oranges as the sun began to set. Soon they'd be in complete darkness.

‘Filippo, let's give it a good bang and see what happens.' They dropped their hangers to the floor. ‘Ready. One, two, three.'

Together they slammed their fists onto the bars, and it moved a good ten centimetres. The bar Rosalina was concentrating on released from its foundation, along with a large chunk of concrete. It now stuck out beyond the windowsill.

‘It's working.' Filippo sounded surprised.

‘Keep going.' They worked more furiously now and it seemed the more they dug, the larger the chunks became. ‘Let's bang on them again.' It was Filippo's turn to make a decision.

They banged again, and this time two of the bars released. ‘Again!' he said.

One more popped out. Rosalina grabbed one of the released bars and pushed with the hope of making it extend farther than the windowsill. ‘We need to push them farther.'

Filippo helped her and soon a significant gap opened up.

‘I think I can fit through that,' she said.

His eyes shot to her. ‘What about me?'

‘We're going together, Filippo, so keep digging.'

‘No!' Nox's voice boomed from above.

Rosalina's heart leapt to her throat.