Don de Santos

29. Rescuing Victoria Santos

Rafael - Past tense chapter

It took us a whole day to reach Italy by sea, and another day to find Amalia Ferrari, who turned out to be very hard to find and an impossible person to talk to. Her guards had to be put down (not dead) in order for us to enter her house. We didn't have her phone number and trust me, we tried to find it illegally but this woman was untraceable.

We were standing in front of her huge villa in Sicily, admiring the house and writing down notes to redecorate our house.

We knocked on the huge double doors and waited for someone to open them, hoping someone was inside. As much as I was willing to barge inside, I didn't want to disrespect her further, especially when I don't know how she is.

After two minutes, the door opened and a young girl stood behind it. She looked to be ten years old and had blonde hair brighter than the sun.

"MAMA!" she yelled once she didn't recognize us, running back inside and leaving the door open.

An older woman appeared from inside with the young girl trailing behind her. The woman looked at me first then at my father. Cash stood behind us but she didn't spare him a look.

"Took you too long," she said, looking at my father.

"You knew we were coming?" I asked in confusion, making her look at me.

"Of course, I knew. Once I heard your mother was missing, I knew your father would come," she explained, ushering us in, but not before looking back at the entrance where the unconscious bodies of the guards laid.

But she didn't say anything as if she knew that would happen.

She took us to the living room and there, we saw a man who looked like the young girl, sitting on the sofa reading a newspaper.

"Welcome," he simply said, earning a nod from us.

"So? Tell me, what do you want?" Amalia asked my father.

"We need your help in finding Victoria," my father replied.

"I know, but what do you need? Weapons? Men?"

"Both...and hopefully, your husband," my father said, glancing at the man sitting.

"Me? Why?" the man asked in confusion.

"You were in the military and used to be Amalia's bodyguard."

"I am still is," the man replied, smiling at his wife.

"Anyways, we know that Ricardo took her to Sicily, so they must be here somewhere. Could you ask around people you trust?" I asked her.

"I don't trust anyone," she replied with a firm look on her face. "If we are going to find her, we will have to do it ourselves."

"How?" My father asked.

"We'll break down every door if we have to."

***

Amalia insisted we stay at her house. She told us that her husband, Alessandro, was going to get us more men to come with us on the mission. He also said that there are three places Ricardo could be at. One, the ports, two, the old and abandoned sewing factory, and third, an underground facility, one that could only be in the heart of the city.

So the next day, we all got ready. Amalia's daughter, Lily, was sent to her grandmother in France, while we left the villa and started our search.

We split into two groups so we don't draw attention to ourselves. For all we knew, Ricardo already knew that we were in Sicily, but I had hoped that he didn't.