The Twelve Vitali Ch. 32

The small space held seven chairs, four of which were already filled with passengers, leaving Ricco and Stefano little choice about where to sit. The two men and two women, including Fawn, said nothing as Ricco and Stefano moved to the vacant chairs. Frowning, Ricco changed his mind as he went to sit beside Fawn and moved further toward the back of the small plane to sit with a younger man about the same age as Lucca. There was something familiar about the man, despite Ricco knowing he hadn't met the man before today.

"Ricco," he introduced himself as he sat and held out his hand in greeting to the man.

"Sava," the man said in a soft tone, taking the offered hand firmly in his grasp.

"How is it you seem so familiar to me?" Ricco asked with a frown.

"I'd be surprised if I didn't," Sava chuckled, but said no more, making Ricco's frown deeper.

The engines came to life, shaking the small plane, and Ricco did up his belt, saying a silent prayer for a safe flight. He let the comment slip from his mind momentarily as he tried to work out what the flight time would be.

"We'll be there soon enough, and we will all get our answers," Sava said as if reading his mind, making Ricco raise an eyebrow. "Ask your question," he encouraged as the plane taxied to the end of the runway and turned in a surprisingly small space before beginning its take off.

"My question?" Ricco asked.

"Not the question I was expecting, so I will begin. I would like to tell you a story about my great Aunt," Sava began. "It will help you to take your mind off the journey and what we may meet on the other side."

"Sure, if you like," Ricco settled back in his seat and gripped the armrests as Sava began to speak.

"I think you will like," Sava chuckled enigmatically. "I believe that is why you sat with me rather than Fawn, who you already have a friendship with." The wheels of the plane left the ground, and the plane shook with the exertion of the lifting. Ricco swallowed hard and closed his eyes in prayer for a moment before being drawn back out by the calm voice of the man beside him.

"My Aunt had the misfortune of being born into a family where without fail the women held incredible powers of the forest witches, or what we call 'the Muma', I guess you could liken it to those who claim to be Wiccan. Mostly they have the power of premonition and fortune telling, but there are greater skills if they are inclined to study and learn from their elders. Much fewer men are born with any type of power, and it is invariably weaker. It is not so in your family, is it?" Sava asked.

"That is true, but then we do not look for the skills in our womenfolk, and often the skill of the man lays latent until it is called upon and he begins to harness it," Ricco tried to explain his family's views on premonition.

"Interesting," Sava nodded. "My Aunt would have been happier being born to your family, perhaps. As it was, she was born with no great gifts, not an interest in or aptitude for study. Our laws are very strict and chafing to the young, and were even more so when my great Aunt was a girl. On the day of her marriage, she ran away with the help of a young man who was visiting a neighbouring family. Having shamed her family and herself, she was cut-off and never allowed to return. She tried several times to contact my grandmother, her sister, but the law was such that they must treat her as a dead woman, a ghost. My grandmother couldn't help her, it was a regret she lamented on her deathbed."

"That is a sad story. In extreme cases, I guess our family does the same, but we house them and care for them ourselves, despite the wrong they have done to us personally," Ricco admitted.

"Ah, you speak of your mother," Sava nodded as if he knew the story of Maria and where she now lived. "My great Aunt's only sin was turning her back on her family and tradition by not wanting to marry the man her parents had chosen for her. She had no great gifts of magic, but she was truly beautiful, with hair so dark it was almost black, the brightest blue eyes and pale flawless skin. Many were the men who fell in love with her and offered their suit to her parents."

"That could be a description of the woman I love," Ricco said, thinking of Cat, then he raised an eyebrow.

"Could it?" Sava turned his piercing blue eyes on Ricco. "Would you like to ask your question now?"

"Can I show you a photograph instead?" Ricco asked, pulling the courier bag from under his seat and opening the flap.

"It is not necessary, but if you feel you must," Sava responded.

"Is this your great Aunt?" he asked. "Was her name Katinka?"

"Yes, it is. The man who wrote those letters, however, is not, and was never of the Tatar," Sava explained. "He is of the Suebi, we know it, but we have no proof for you but our word and our honour."

"Suebi?" Ricco questioned, knowing within himself that this young man spoke the truth.

"Yes, and we will confront him for the fate experienced by Katinka and her daughter, as well as the fate of her granddaughter, if they have their way, which we will not allow. When we land, you must trust us. I am quite looking forward to meeting my cousin and would not like your altruism to interfere with our plans," Sava said.

"Is my father being told the same story?" Ricco asked, indicating Stefano, where he sat with Fawn.

"No, you chose to sit with me instead, and it is not Fawn's place to tell the story," Sava chuckled. "He is being encouraged to trust us, however, and being told we mean no harm to the Vitali for alerting us to the deception being perpetrated. Fortunately, our laws have changed enough that the sins of the ancestors are not revisited on their descendants, and should Catriona wish to know us she may in some way."

"She will be overjoyed to hear that," Ricco said, smiling at the young man. "Can I ask what you know about what is happening concerning my family in Melbourne at present?"

*****

Lucca had been leaving the hospital and, still unable to drive, knew Knox waited patiently for him at the curb when the alert sounded. He moved into the car and asked Knox to wait, expecting at any minute for Zachary to emerge from the doors. His phone buzzed, and he looked at it. New watchman passwords had been issued. Lucca frowned and looked into the rear vision mirror where Knox also checked his phone and looked back. A man in a black suit and red tie rapped on his window and, rolling it only a few centimetres, Lucca listened for the new password to distinguish the man from a possible fraud.

"I'm looking for eighteen red coats. I don't suppose you have one handy?" The man said.

"Just the one, but I was hoping to pick up another one before I left," Lucca said. The man nodded his head once and stood beside the car, leaning casually, his arms folded as his eyes darted around the surrounding area. He turned suddenly and slid into the passenger's seat beside Knox.

"There's a red tie matching that red coat. They'll look sharp together," he pointed to where a car moved from the emergency department, and Knox pulled out into the traffic to follow the car to the safe house. "You need to be at the warehouse, not where he is going," the watchman said, still quite obviously being fed instructions on his earpiece.

Lucca sat back knowing that everyone had a place to be and they had all been separated into smaller groups and taken to several locations around the city. He had hardly had the time to work with Cosimo to take on his new role as leader of the watchmen. He needed to get to the watchman base. From there he would be able to assist his uncle in tracking every member of the family.

He wanted to call Cat and know she was safe, but he had to trust in all of the procedures that had been put in place by Cosimo and his team. Zion would be safely on his way to a safe house, and his older brothers and fathers weren't in the city and would be protected by their own security.

"Have you heard from the others? Are they all safe?" Lucca asked the man. "Do you know where Cat is being taken?"

"No, my responsibility is to get you to the warehouse," the man said gruffly and leaned back in the seat, silently alert watching the traffic around them as Knox veered off from the car they had been following and headed out toward the airport.

*****

"Shit! Of all fucking days!" Zion cursed and snatched up his beeping phone. His first thought was for Cat. The scene this morning and the phone call to Matteo had unsettled him more than he would ever let on. There was something wrong with her, something Matt knew and hadn't told them and she didn't want to tell them. The thought of her sad, pale face as he had left for work had stayed with him, and he cursed again, wondering where she was and who was making sure she got to a safe house without either him or Lucca escorting her.

He called Aria to make sure she was with a watchman and that his manager had things under control in the auction house, which would be evacuated. By the time he had made it to the ground floor of the HQ building, several watchmen waited for him and went through the process of identifying themselves to him. He travelled to the closest safe house, being in the huge home of his Uncle Sal, and gathered with the others in the library that served as a safe room after being fitted with reinforced security on all the doors and windows.

Taking a deep breath, he looked around the room. He wasn't supposed to be in this position, he had four older brothers, and while he may be the second son of the younger Vitali children he had never even thought about the possibility of being the one holding the chair at the moment his family were attacked. Not letting his feelings show, he walked into the room with a purposeful stride and then to the computers that had been set up by the watchmen and where the other men all sat around on end of a long table.

"What do we know?" he asked abruptly, and listened as Sebastian filled him in on what had come through so far.

"Everyone is accounted for except Theresa and Vanessa, who were last seen outside the charity event they attended today with Cat. Bradbury grabbed Cat when it looked like Vanessa was trying to get her to go with her in an unfamiliar car. In the confusion following the alarm, it seems Theresa did go with Vanessa, and we can't locate them," Sebastian frowned again at the screen in front of him, his fingers flying over the keys.

Shocked by what he heard, he looked around as he took a moment to process the words and saw Isaiah whispering urgently to Chase. There was nothing he could do that wasn't being done by Sebastion at this point to set up the links to the other safe houses. Cosimo and the watchmen would be working to locate Theresa, so he approached Isaiah and Chase, frowning, deciding to at least settle the one thing troubling him that he could.

"Problem?" he asked. "If you know something that we should know, now is the time to speak."

"I need to go," Isaiah said as if it was obvious. "I need to get to Frankie's."

"Why Frankie's, of all places?" Zion asked.

"Matt called me this morning, and I promised to check on Cat!" he said, agitation clear in his voice.

"Chase, can you give us a minute?" Zion asked, and, nodding, his cousin moved away.

"Cat's not at Frankie's, and I won't tell you where she is, not unless you can give me a really good reason why I should," Zion said seriously. He knew there was something wrong, and as he looked at Isaiah's pained face, it suddenly dawned on him what it was. "She's pregnant?" he gasped.

"It's early days, and she's had some trouble coping with the early symptoms. Morning sickness and mood swings..." Isaiah said. "I don't know how she would be coping with the drama today without Matt and Ricco here to talk her through it."

"First we make sure everyone is safe and accounted for. You can't go where Cat is if it's not safe to travel. If someone is watching you will lead them straight to the heart of the family. Matt has a plan for her, and we have to trust that," Zion said and turned back to the table. "Is the link up yet?" he asked Sebastian.

"Just about," he pointed to a television screen mounted on the wall, and he cast the screen of his laptop to it. The faces of Henry and Raphael sat side by side, other people could be seen moving behind and around them as they linked together all of the safe houses. "Just give me one more minute," Sebastian brought up the third picture of Hugh, who appeared to still be driving, and Zion assumed Cat was in the rear of the car. There was no noise from the picture, just the visual, and Zion moved toward Sebastian.

"Can we confirm Cat is with Hugh?" he asked quietly.

"Hugh has an earpiece, he seems to be able to hear us, but sound doesn't seem to carry our way yet," Sebastian frowned. "We're just waiting on Lucca and Cosimo, they are dealing with other things right now, but I'll bring up the screen and try again."

"Give me an earpiece so I can talk to everyone, and get Lucca up on the screen, tell him it's urgent," Zion held out his hand, aware that for the time being he was in charge and he needed to step up, despite being one of the youngest in the room. Kalum rushed in and went immediately to stand behind Zion. He knew he should be at Matteo's side, but in his absence he had come to Zion, trusting that Mia would be safe with her watchmen.

"Roberto and Matteo are in the air, they should land in an hour or so," Kalum murmured to Zion, who let out a breath he hadn't realised he held.

"Any word on Ricco and Stefano?" he asked, thinking that he could do this for an hour, and relaxed a little knowing it wouldn't be forever.

"I don't have those sorts of contacts. That would be Cosimo's domain. I guess," Kalum admitted.

"Okay, let's do a head count and make sure no one is missing. Has anyone heard from either Vanessa or Theresa?" Zion said into the room and his earpiece, as Lucca's face finally flickered to life on the screen. The information between three of the four groups began to flow as they tried to work out what happened and why the alert was sounded.

*****

"It's linked, but they can't hear us," Hugh said over his shoulder into the silence of the car.

Cat was silent and wary. She had switched off her phone at Bradbury's insistence and concentrated instead on the fact that Matteo was safe and on his way back, and Ricco was too far away to be in any danger. Everything would be okay as long as the people she loved were alive and unharmed. She watched with a little curiosity as Bradbury switched on the small screen in the back of the driver's chair and brought it to life. It flickered a few times, and she saw the faces of Sebastian, Lucca, Henry and Raphael. She could hear Zion talking, even though she couldn't see him, and she leaned forward in her seat as if drawn toward the calm voice.

"Do they know where Ricco is?" she whispered to Bradbury without even thinking.

"Do you have an earpiece for your phone?" Bradbury asked gruffly. "You might be able to sync it in better than ours which are jumbled with security measures."

"Lucca?" Cat asked softly into the earpiece after rummaging around in her bag and finding it. She had passed it to Bradbury, who had leaned forward close to High's phone, trying to sync it before passing it back to her.

"Cat!" Both Lucca and Zion said in unison.

"Yes," she said with a wide smile, despite knowing they couldn't see her. "Has anyone heard from Ricco?" she asked.

"There was an anonymous message from an unknown number saying that Ricco and Stefano were safe and travelling, but that's all we know. We haven't had another response to answer our questions about how and when they would be returning," Lucca spoke with clipped efficiency before softening his voice. "Matteo is on his way back and should be here in less than an hour."

"I know," she spoke in a soft voice. "Sorry to interrupt you, I just had to ask. Hugh and Bradbury can answer your questions better about Vanessa and Theresa. I wasn't in a position to see much," she apologised and handed the blue tooth ear piece to Bradbury, scowling at him for the way he had manhandled her into the car. Matteo may trust him, but she still didn't.

She listened as he spoke, giving a detailed description of the man who spoke to Theresa and tried to get both Theresa and Catriona to leave with him. He admitted to being the one to sound the alarm as he had tried to talk some sense into Theresa, and of Vanessa's appearance from one of the dark cars lining the curb outside the venue. He was unapologetic about his interference in Vanessa's attempts to get Cat to go with her and the way he had physically forced Cat into her own car before they took off. He was unsure if Theresa had gone with Vanessa and the fake watchman, or if the men the family relied on to protect their own had intervened with her in time, just as he had with Cat.

Cat looked at him with wide eyes, trying to understand what he was saying. Vanessa wouldn't hurt her step-mother, surely. Still, it was hard to reconcile what she had been doing there at all when she hadn't attended the event inside the restaurant. Waves of emotion swept through her from relief to guilt to worry and sadness. She felt her eyes well with tears and she rummaged in her purse, again looking for a tissue. Her view was disrupted by a large hand holding out a soft laundered men's handkerchief to her, and she took it, gratefully looking up at Bradbury and seeing compassion in his eyes.

"Where are we going?" she asked quietly as they turned into a large parking garage near the airport.

"Somewhere safe," Bradbury said in a whisper, turning away from the phone to answer her.

*****

Matteo had sat in the cockpit with the pilot, talking to his cousin, Tim, on the radio. He was surprisingly calm. Despite attempts to abduct both Theresa and Cat, Bradbury had managed to get Cat out of harm's way. He was worried for Theresa, but he didn't believe anyone would hurt her or be able to use her as leverage. Vanessa, though, was a different matter. The CCTV footage put her at the scene and working with the would-be abductors. He couldn't bring himself to believe she would do so willingly. The evidence seemed pretty startling, however, and he tried to work out why she would do such a thing if she had.

The plane touched down, and before it had even finished taxiing to a stop he was out of his seat and pacing near the door, cursing as he dialled Cat's number, and finding it turned off he called Bradbury. He needed to be doing something, anything. The rest of his family was locked down for the remainder of the day, and the odd message from an anonymous source regarding Ricco and Stefano was not altogether comforting. He needed to speak to his brother and Cat.

His phone rang with a video call, and believing it might be the anonymous person who had left messages about Ricco he answered it, putting it on speaker so his father could hear any news, and almost lost his shit when the picture came up of Giovani holding a gun at David's head.

"Do I have your attention?" Giovanni snarled.

"You do!" Matteo said through gritted teeth. If anything ever happened to David because of him, Cat would never forgive herself or him. He knew it without a doubt in his mind, and so did Giovanni, obviously.

"Good, now listen carefully, because I will only give these instructions once," he said. "You will collect your wife while your men refuel your plane and then you will reboard with a co-pilot who will give your pilot the details of the flight plan that has already been lodged for your travel. You have one hour to be off the ground again, failure to comply will mean that I will kill one of your family members." He turned the camera, and Matteo could see Vanessa, Theresa and Mick all sitting and bound as David was.