The men glanced at each other questioningly for a second before giving another quick nod.
“Good. Take me there.”
Chapter 17
The little boy sat on the cold, hard floor across from Adriana. He’d cried for at least thirty minutes when the guards first brought him to the damp cellar. Now he sat quietly, staring at the wall.
She’d tried to comfort him when he’d been dropped off, but the child would not respond to any of her questions. Eventually, Adriana decided the best course of action was to let his emotions run their course. She hadn’t had much experience with children. The few friends she kept in contact with from her time at the university had already gotten married and had kids of their own. Adriana had decided to take a different path for her life. She had no time for children, and no desire to make that time. Things were hectic in her world. Exhibit A was the cellar in which she lay at the present moment. Having a family of any kind would be nearly impossible. It would imprison her like a wild animal that desperately wants to roam free.
Still, she did like young people. She admired their lack of understanding about the world and their surroundings. Rules didn’t apply to them in many ways. Children were dreamers and still believed that anything was possible. They were innocent, for the most part. That innocence was what pulled her to continue reaching out to the young boy with her in the cellar.
“What is your name?” she asked in a kind voice, pressing him gently to open up.
He hesitated, uncertain if he could trust the strange woman across the room. He eyed the bonds around her hands and feet suspiciously.
“It’s okay, she insisted. My name is Adriana. They’ve kept me in this place for two days now. I was just hoping to make a new friend.” She smiled cutely at him as she finished the sentence.
Her grin broke through the ice of his gloom, and his lips parted ever so slightly. “My name is Niki,” he said, timidly. He didn’t move, though, keeping the distance between them.
Adriana forced herself to continue smiling, even though she was extremely uncomfortable. “And what is your last name, Niki?”
The child hesitated again for a moment before answering. “Teridis.” He looked down at the floor once more after saying the name.
The boy’s answer stunned Adriana for a second. She immediately recognized the last name. The Teridis family was extremely wealthy, second only to the man who held her prisoner. Adriana also knew about the stories of shady dealings involving the Teridises’ businesses. Niko had a reputation for killing first and acquiring second. If this was Niko’s boy, that could mean only one thing, Gikas was making a power play for the Teridises’ holdings. Acquiring businesses of that magnitude would represent a significant increase to the Gikas empire.
“Niki?” She said after thinking for a few seconds. “I need your help with something. Would you like to help me?” She spoke like she’d heard other people talk to children in the past.
“I want my mama,” the boy said in a whiny voice. He was on the verge of tears again, something Adriana desperately wanted to avoid.
She hoped a little sympathy would help move past the issue. “I’m sure you do, Niki, but right now your mama isn’t here.”
“She was near me in the bushes,” Niki said, choking back the sobs. “Then she wasn’t there anymore. She told me everything would be okay. Where is she?”
The parents were here? “In the bushes? What bushes?” Adriana was curious about what the boy had seen.
“The men who took my mama and me made us stand in the bushes near the sea. I could hear the waves. They told me to be quiet because we were hiding from someone.”
They’d been near the cliffs on the edge of the property. Not a good sign. Gikas must have taken Niki’s parents there to get rid of them. Adriana had seen the cliffs before. They were a perfect place to dispose of a body, or in this case, two. The rocks would cut up the flesh, and the tide would pull the corpses out to seas. They would disappear within hours, consumed by carnivorous sea life. The fact that the boy was still alive proved Gikas wasn’t a total monster, but he wasn’t exactly a saint either. She pondered what unscrupulous future the Greek man had in mind for the young heir to the Teridis fortune. What was Gikas’s motivation for keeping the boy around? She assumed the man would pawn him off to some orphanage sooner or later, unwilling to kill a young innocent.
Then again, if the boy had seen her face and was kept alive, Gikas might be inclined to kill him too. The thought was disturbing, but one she needed to face as a real possibility. Adriana needed to escape, but more than that she needed to get the child to safety. The problem was that the Gikas property was several miles away from town, and even if the kid reached the city, it wouldn’t necessarily be the safest place for him. Gikas owned the local authorities, and purportedly had eyes everywhere. The only chance young Niki had to survive was to stick close to her, at least for as long as they let her live.
“Are you cold?” she asked with genuine concern.
Niki didn’t say anything for a minute, and then nodded slowly. He pulled his knees up under his chin and folded his arms across them, burying his face in his forearms.
“You should go sit in the sunlight that’s coming through that little window over there. It isn’t much, but it will keep you warm during the day.” Adriana nodded to the narrow beam of light pouring into the room. She’d found a little solace in the dank room by wiggling her way over to the light, just to keep her sanity for the last few days. The sun didn’t shine through the window but for a few hours, so she wanted the young boy to take advantage of it while he could.
He didn’t respond at first, but after a minute or two, began slowly inching his way toward the light playing across the floor. After a long couple of minutes, he finally arrived in the warm afternoon glow and stretched out a little. He lifted his face and let the warmth of the sun soak into his skin.
“Does that feel a little better?” Adriana asked.
The boy nodded.
“Good. Go lie down and get some rest while it’s still warm. Tonight, you may find it hard to sleep. It can get chilly down here in this cellar after the sun goes down.”
Niki obeyed and stretched out on the floor, resting his head on his left bicep. He closed his eyes and after a few minutes began breathing in a regular rhythm.
Adriana sighed. She needed to find a way out of this place.
Chapter 18
Sean knew that the Stazione Termini, the main train station in Rome, was one of the busiest places in the city. Fortunately, he and Tommy arrived at a moment when there seemed to be a lull between arrivals and departures. A lull, however, was a relative term in the crowded city. There were still thousands of people hustling to and from different train platforms, but the two friends had both seen worse. The room had been well designed to hold throngs of travelers, with wide and long expanses allowing for freedom of movement. The undulating ceiling soared overhead, giving the main entrance an even more open feel.
Sean scanned a few of the information signs before finding the one that directed the way to the locker area. Out of habit, he took a quick look around, making sure they hadn’t been followed. As before, he had requested that the driver hang around outside in case they needed to leave in a hurry. He pointed at the sign and started in the direction the arrows suggested. Tommy stayed close behind him, cautiously holding his back pocket with one hand.