5. Who Is He?

My heart raced faster as I waited for the initial knocking to stop.

'Arie!' The woman outside paused long enough to talk before she pounded on the door that I was wishing would disappear. 'Arie, are you home?' Nancy yelled still knocking.

'Are you okay?' Romeo released me a smidge. 'I can get rid of her if she's bothering you.' He said and fear shot through me again from my lack of knowledge of him. Running back and forth, too tired from helping him out, I hadn't taken enough time to think of what he might have been.

Still somewhat pressed against him, I knew he could feel my heartbeat. I shoved him lightly, checking his reaction. He stepped away willingly without a fuss. 'No.' I said, closing my eyes and taking in a deep breath. I opened them to find Romeo standing in the light trailing in from outside. His grey eyes glowed, his body cast a dark shadow across the room, his expression was patiently curious. Everything about him seemed foreign and unreal. This wasn't the same stranger that I'd taken in. He was now, to my acknowledgement, an actual man who was standing on his own two feet and seemingly capable of breaking me in half if he wanted to. Not literally...I think.

I'd seen every inch of him and not felt a thing, yet here I was stumped as he was revealed to me by light streaming in. I took in his sight as a person but my mind still called him a stray. I clung to that part not allowing my thoughts to wander over to what could happen if we were to stay alone in this place every minute of every day, without men searching for him high and low. I spaced out for a second before noticing that he was looking at me too. He stood as if waiting for a command.

'Arie! Arie, Paola's waiting for us by the café.' Nancy paused.

'What?' Romeo asked me as I took in another breath, trying to get my brain back.

'Nothing.' I tugged him and he followed. 'Lock the door and stay in here.' I swung the door with him standing inside the storage room. 'Hide and be quiet.' I whispered as the door clicked shut and he slipped the lock into place.

Him stored away, I opened the front door and rubbed my eyes, giving a fake yawn. 'Nancy? It's too early in the morning.' I mumbled and allowed her to drag me back inside. Nancy was the opposite of the character I'd read about. Her black hair, light brown eyes, full thick figure, pouty lips and bob nose looked more like her and less like she'd be solving mysteries unseen and soundless. Everyone looked her way when she passed. Everyone saw here whether she wanted to be seen or not.

'Too early?' She repeated questioningly as she dug through my drawers. 'Nope, nope. Not this. Do you even wear this?' She held up an ugly off-coloured gown that I'd only ever tried on as a kid. I nodded "yes" and she gave me a look before shrugging slightly and shoving the dress back into the drawer. 'Here, wear this.' She held out a regular pair of faded jeans that had been washed to the point that they were now baggy. They were old. 'The top you have on is good enough. Just throw this on and let's go meet Paola.' She stood arms folded and did not move.

Instead of asking Nancy to move, I changed quickly and allowed her to tow me around. 'Shoes on.' She stopped near the door to the storage room as I slipped on my only pair of sneakers, as old as my jeans. She knocked on the door and turned to me. 'Locked the stray in to save your dog?' She looked around and spotted Pete near the fridge. 'Looks like he'll be safe either way, Arie. I wanna see the cat.' I shook my head and slipped on my sweater.

'Paola's waiting right?' I asked her and she looked down at the door.

'Why lock doors in your house when every single door you have has a doggy door?' She made a clear point that I wasn't the least bit ready to get into. What if she stuck her head through the door and saw Romeo? 'What if your dog gets in and starts sneezing when the feline rubs up on him and he can't find that little doggy door and he gets locked in there?' She asked a valid enough question.

'I don't know but I think we should go.' I patted my pockets that were empty. 'Paola won't wait on us before sharing her new stories.' I started opening the front door when she actually bent down to stick her head through the doggy door. Hissing sounded from the other side, followed by a warning growl.

Nancy stood up straight surprised. 'He's a vicious one?' She pointed at the door and I nodded. 'Oh.' She looked over at Pete who had his feet in the air and his tongue out of his mouth. 'I'm guessing he won't go inside with that lion?' I shook my head and she nodded, relenting.

'C'mon. Let's go before the gossip queen leaves without filling us in. 'I stepped outside and waited for her. 'I'd rather not hear the story back from Felix.' That was all it took for her to speed out past me and start down the pavement without me. I locked up quickly and followed her down to the café, struggling and failing to walk beside her at her pace.

'And then the Grazianos took Sebastian straight out of market. They didn't even ask anything. They just took him, just like that. No one has seen Sebastian since Thursday.' We both walked in and settled around the table as she was finishing up her story. 'Last thing he told me Monday was that a month ago, he saw something out on the streets that he'd kept a secret, his poor soul. He said he couldn't keep it in any longer and then poof! They shut him up!' Paola ended her story and sat back down as five servings of pancakes arrived.

Paola said nothing more and Felix wouldn't share a word either. Shaken up by Sebastian's disappearance, everyone was silent as they ate, only making eye contact and nodding.

A month ago?

Had Sebastian seen me drag Romeo into my flat? He did live just down the street. His car had been the one driving down the stretch as I had closed my door after dragging Romeo's heavy self into my place. Had Sebastian seen everything?

I chewed on the single pancake I'd accepted, my mouth forcing the motion as I tried not to panic.

Would they make Sebastian talk?

Would he tell them everything?

I couldn't race out of there to get Romeo safely out of my place and I was happy I hadn't tried when I saw a familiar face enter the diner not even two minutes later.

Oso Graziano walked casually past the entrance and made his way to the counter holding an image. A side glance at both him and the image made my jaw hang slack for a second before I caught myself, my nerves still running wild.

A fully healed and untortured image of my stray.

Smiling mischievously in the photo, Romeo looked everything like the stray he wasn't but looked no where close to what mafia men looked like, except for the smirk that sat on his lips. He looked good yet he wouldn't fit in with these men.

'Have you seen this man?' Oso asked the cashier, the youngest son of the owner. 'Have you seen my brother?' Oso asked and the young man shook his head.

'Haven't seen him.' The young man said. 'Want to buy anything? The samples are free.' The young man offered but Oso didn't take him up on his offer.

Instead, he hung his head for a minute before shaking his head, lifting his gaze back up to the young man and pulled out a gun. He spun around, directing the gun to anyone in front of him, simply looking everyone of us in the eyes for a few seconds before he turned back to the cashier then us again.

'How is it that in a town where everyone knows everything about everyone else...' He shook his head again, catching his beanie before it could fall, his choppy hair flowing out and around his face making him look like a completely sinister bad guy as his hair enhanced his dark eyes. 'How is it that no one, not a single one of you, has seen my brother? Not one of you?' His hand with his beanie held the photo of Romeo. 'How?' He pointed the gun at our table. 'Have any of you seen him?' He asked and we all denied.

He asked everyone at the other occupied tables, his eyes growing wilder with each table. When he reached the last, the man crumpled. He got to his knees crying. Oso seemed pleased. 'So you have Vito? You have my brother?' Oso asked and the man simply shook in fear. Oso looked down at him mercilessly, his eyes filled with a similar darkness to the look I'd seen in Romeo's but ten times worse.

Fear rippled through me, leaving empty pits everywhere. I was shaking but so was everyone else in here.

'Get up! You will take me to him.' Oso ordered the man up but I could tell from looking that the man wouldn't move. He was truly terrified. 'Get up and take me to Vito, now!' The man wobbled over to the door after getting to his feet. Oso followed him out of the place along with three other people who'd been in the café all along.

Oso gone, I realized that I needed air. I breathed in deeply, also taking note that I had my hands up. Everyone at my table looked ready to shit themselves and I couldn't say less for myself. My brain couldn't process everything well enough but we finally noticed something there.

Felix, the mad gossiping old man who'd been at our table long before I'd been accepted by this group, that same Felix had been one of the men that had followed Oso outside. Felix had been a part of the mafia all along.