It Takes Two (Italian Summer Book 1) (22 page)

“We have the same problem in the restaurant. There are some key people you can never afford to lose. I feel your pain. Excuse me while I check on Tori.” He left a visibly annoyed Nico and ventured into the gardens.

He’d been thinking things over as he sat drinking his coffee and watching the world pass by. He had decided that enough was enough. Things between him and Rona had to change. He had to make that change, since he’d been the one who had steadfastly refused to discuss the matter, despite Rona’s many attempts to put things right.

It wasn’t fair, either, to have this atmosphere around the time of the wedding. He’d listened to Nico talk excitedly about the day and his hopes and plans, and Carlos did not want his own problems to taint their special day.

He’d decided what he was going to do to set things right again and asking Lizzi to babysit tonight was the first thing. He would take Rona out again, only this time they would talk. Really talk, and resolve their problems.

With a head full of ideas he walked into the pergola and didn’t think anything of the pink plastic tumbler that he almost trampled on. Nor did he think too much of Tori’s baby bag that had fallen to the floor. But the sight of the baby stroller turned on its side, as if someone had knocked it over and run, that stopped him dead in his tracks.

There was no sign of Tori or Lizzi and even as he quickly glanced around the gardens, he didn’t see them. The hairs on his neck prickled his skin like briars. His brain froze as he looked around and saw what looked like Lizzi’s bag lying on one of the wicker chairs. There, underneath the chair lay one of Tori’s soft pink and orange toddler sandals.

Thump. It was the sound of his insides as they dropped onto the ground. A silent primal scream broke out in his head and he bolted straight back into the hotel.

“She’s gone!” he shouted, rushing in as a pain in his chest and throat took hold simultaneously. Everything around him suddenly took on a movie form. Nico broke away from his conversation with a staff member. “Who’s gone?”

“Tori,” Carlos murmured in a pained voice. His lungs were starting to squeeze together, and he couldn’t breathe easily. “The pergola…it’s a mess, her stroller, her shoe…” He blinked, seeing spots in front of his eyes. Nico looked at him in concern.

“Slow down, Carlos. What’s happened?”

“Tori’s missing. She’s gone. Gone!” He took out his cell phone and then put it back into his jacket pocket again. Agitation made it impossible to stay still, to do nothing. His nerves were a tangled mess of chaos.

“Call someone. The police. Call them. She’s only a baby.” He looked around the reception, his eyes darting everywhere, a feeling of restlessness pinching every inch of his skin.

“Calm down,” said Nico, softly. “Did you see Lizzi or Tori leave the hotel?” he asked the woman behind the desk. She shook her head.

“This is why we never leave the hotel desk unmanned,” said Nico in a tight voice.

“I’m sorry Mr. Cazale. One of the guests was having problems with the—”

“You are not to
ever
leave the desk unmanned. Do you understand?” Nico’s voice was deathly quiet. He turned to Carlos. “There has to be a reasonable explanation. Come, let’s check the gardens once more.” Carlos didn’t need to be told twice. They ran back out and examined the pergola again before rushing around the gardens calling out their names.

“Tori! Tori, baby! Tori! Lizzi!” Carlos shouted, his head turning in all directions, his gaze darting at lightning speed on the alert for flashes of the bright green dress she’d been wearing.

His shoulders were tight, his whole body was tight as he raced around looking for her desperately. He was terrified by the idea that he had no idea where his baby was or whether she was safe or not.

Nico rushed back from the opposite direction, he shook his head. “She’s not here.”

“She’s been taken,” Carlos heard his voice say the words but it didn’t sound as though they came from his mouth. He felt as though he was observing these events from a distance. His whole body was in limbo and his mind fractured, leaving him helpless so that he could not think, or breathe, or be.

“Let’s go back inside. I’ll call the police. I’ll get the staff to look around the grounds. It’s not what you think. There’s a perfectly good explanation for this.” They walked back towards the pergola and stared at the baby bag strewn across the floor. Nico tried to make him feel better but he didn’t believe any of it.

As they rushed back into the hotel Nico raced to the phone and Carlos paced around, his thoughts scrambling into a thousand different directions. He got out his cell phone to make the dreaded call to Rona. But the sound of heels on marble made him turn his head and his fear turned to relief when he saw Rona walk in. He ran to her, and watched as her expression, unsure and hesitant when she first laid eyes on him, turned to abject terror when he said the two words no parent ever wanted to hear.

“Tori’s missing,” he told her.

Her mouth opened, even as her face crumpled. She’d heard him. But she didn’t believe him.

“She’s gone. Her stroller and baby bag and Lizzi’s things are still in there. I found this.” He’d been clutching her missing shoe and when he showed it to Rona, she burst into tears, grabbing it from him and holding it to her chest.

Behind her, Ava clasped her hand over her stomach as Nico put his arm around her, his other hand on his cell phone. Within seconds a handful of staff members stood before him.

“Show me,” Rona urged and he took her into the gardens. She cried again, inconsolable tears this time, as she picked up the stroller and set it upright again, and picked up the items that had been so carelessly thrown to the ground.

A cell phone rang from one of the bags and she rushed to it.

“It’s only me,” said Ava quietly. “I was checking to see if Lizzi might have taken her phone.”

Rona’s eyes were dark with worry. “Where is she?” She looked at Carlos, her eyes filled with tears again as she refused to let go of Tori’s shoe. “Why would anyone want to take my baby?” Carlos stopped scratching his head, his heart ready to explode, his nerves already like mulch. Terror seized his vocal chords, leaving him mute. The answer to that question filled them with a fear worse than death.

“She can’t be far,” he said, forcing a brave voice, then echoing Nico’s words, “There’s probably a good enough explanation for it. Lizzi’s with her. Lizzi won’t let her come to harm.” He wanted to run in a million different directions, with a million different super powers. He wanted to breath, but his breath was stuck behind the ball of tightness that clamped his lungs together, and he wanted to grip something so hard, just so that he could feel this was real, even though he didn’t want it to be.

“Why did I come here?” he heard Rona whisper to herself, half crying, and half whimpering. She scampered around like a mad woman and he followed her, and saw the half a dozen staff members rushing in different directions in the gardens.

“Do you think?” she closed her eyes and looked at him, as if she couldn’t bring herself to say the words.

“What?” he asked, too scared to find out.

“Ruben, he wouldn’t, would he?”

He felt the veins on his temples throb at the suggestion.

“No,” said Ava. “Of course not. Lizzi has gone too. It’s nothing like that. He wouldn’t be that stupid.”

But Carlos wasn’t so sure. He’d wanted to knock the man to pieces when he’d seen him. Luckily he’d only punched his face but he knew he’d wanted to hurt him more. He wondered if the guy was so into Rona that he had taken some sort of evil revenge for what Rona had done to him; for what Carlos had done to him. What better way than to take the one thing they both loved more than life itself?

“Tori! Lizzi!” Rona cried, her voice shrill. They looked at one another and saw fear reflected. He took a step towards her. “It’s going to be alright. I promise you,” he said and put his arms around her, holding her tightly as she fell into his chest. The feel of her desperate need gave him strength and comfort and they held one another as though their life depended on it.

Chapter 34

“I told you I was fine,” said Elsa stubbornly. Salvatore narrowed his eyes at her.

“It is better you know for sure.” He told her firmly, ignoring her set lip and the frown on her face.

Elsa shook her head and watched as Tori lay asleep in Lizzi’s arms. It had been absurd. She’d only had a minor fall. Nothing much to it. She’d been walking in the gardens quietly, minding her own business but he’d ended up making
her
business
his
business and she hadn’t been happy about the intrusion.

“Is he always so stubborn?” Elsa asked Lizzi as Salvatore drove them back to the Casa Adriana. The girl gave her a smile and a shrug.

She had gone out into the gardens after all, after seeing Ava and her heart had surged with joy when she’d heard Tori’s bubbling laugh coming from the pergola. She didn’t have time to dwell on sad memories, not with her granddaughter filling the air with her happy shrieks.

After playing with Tori for a while Elsa had walked around the gardens reliving the past once more. But as she walked that same feeling of dizziness that she had recently begun to experience had started up again. She’d ignored it, carrying on as best as she could, eager not to let anything ruin her day. But the dizziness had worsened, causing her to misjudge her next step and she had come tumbling to the ground. She remembered letting out a shriek as she had fallen. Luckily she’d landed on soft grass and, dazed and shaken, she’d remained there, unable to get up again.

In the next moment she’d heard a voice behind her. Her heart jumped as she heard the same Italian accent in a man’s voice, thick and deep.

“Are you alright?” For one foolish, crazy second, she thought of Edmondo.

“Edmondo?” she’d even asked. But the man who walked up to her from behind was nothing like Edmondo. She felt silly.
Of course, it wasn’t Edmondo.

“Have you hurt yourself?” The stranger had asked, bending down to her level. She’d stared back at him, disappointed and then looked around her. She knew she was in Edmondo’s garden, but suddenly she didn’t know why she was on the ground. And who was this stranger?

“Does your head hurt? Do you have pain anywhere?” he asked her, putting his gardening hoe on the grass. Thick, unruly eyebrows framed a lined and wrinkly face. He must have been handsome once, in his youth, she guessed.

“Lizzi!” He’d bellowed and then shouted something in Italian.

“I’m perfectly fine,” she’d told him and tried to get up but she’d felt weak, as though her muscles had stopped working completely.

“You’re not fine,” he told her.

“I am,” she insisted, with an irritation she reserved only for her girls. Lizzi rushed out with Tori in her arms and her face reddened when she saw Elsa on the ground. The girl looked at her in alarm, putting a hand to her face. She was just about to voice her concerns when Elsa shushed her.

“I’m perfectly fine,” Elsa insisted but again, when she tried to get up, she couldn’t.

“Don’t move,” the man insisted, wagging a thick finger at her. He looked at the girl. “Where is the manager?” he asked.

“There is nobody at reception, Nonno.” She told him and the man expressed a face full of disapproval.

“Gandma,” Tori giggled, probably finding it funny to find Grandma sprawled out on the ground.

“I’m getting up, Honey,” Elsa said, and made another attempt.

“What did I tell you?” the man asked, annoyed. “You will hurt yourself more.”

“Look, Nonno. I am—”

“I am not
your
Nonno,” he said, looking at the way her legs had buckled underneath her. “I am
her
Nonno—it is the word we use for grandfather.”

Lizzi giggled. “He’s concerned about you, Elsa.”

“I can see that. But I am perfectly fine. I’m a little shaken if anything. I got confused just now. But I think I am fine.”

“Can you move your foot?” The man asked.

“I’ll move more than a foot,” Elsa replied, stubbornly. She refused to be treated like an invalid by him. She adjusted herself slowly so that her legs were now in front of her but bent at the knees. Carefully she straightened them out then wriggled her feet and legs too. But when she tried to get back up to standing, she couldn’t, until she reluctantly accepted the man’s outstretched hand. He grasped her easily, and with another arm around the small of her back, gently helped her to standing.

She didn’t like that he had touched the small of her back the way he had. And she certainly didn’t like his familiarity.

“Please tell your Grandfather that I am perfectly fine.”

“I can hear you perfectly,” he said. “My hearing is good.”

But when she took a step forward, her head spun and she would have fallen again had the old man not reached out for her, holding onto her and keeping her upright.

“You need to go to the hospital and get checked out. I will take you.” He told her. “Come,” he walked her carefully to the bench nearby and helped her to sit down. Too shocked to refuse, Elsa did as she was told. Her dizzy spells had never lasted this long before.

“One moment,” he told her and then walked away to put his gardening tools back into the toolbox. Lizzi watched her grandfather and then looked at Elsa helplessly as she shook the grass off her clothes.

“I think you should get checked out,” Lizzi advised her. “You still seem a little shaky.”

Elsa knew the girl was right, and her grandfather too. She’d almost been about to fall again. It wouldn’t do to be in this state at the wedding. Reluctantly, she agreed.

“Here,” he said, returning and taking her arm, “let me he help you. I’m Salvatore.” She’d been too stunned to reply.

Chapter 35

She felt the weight of Carlos’ arm firmly around her waist and was thankful for having him to lean on. She’d been rooted to the ground and now listened to the commotion around her as people looked for her daughter. Ava stared at her, looking more worried than a woman in her condition ought to. Nico rambled into his cell phone, his voice loud, his expression grave.