Chapter 6

"YOU BASTARD!"

Another gunshot.

A body fell on the floor and everyone petrified.

Tommaso and Beatrice had to come back sharply to reality. One of the robbers had just shot his accomplice in the forehead, and now he was laying lifeless at the other four's feet. Just like Samuele.

The one holding the smoking gun turned it against the other three.

"Does someone else have any objection?"

Beatrice knew that the situation was turning against them. The man who'd just shot was the one that seemed to suggest to kill them all; his accomplice on the floor was the one who wanted to give up to the police. Their only chance to appeal to a shred of humanity.

And also their chance to take advantage of their argument to do something, had just faded away.

"Tommy..." Beatrice's trembling voice hissed in his ear.

Tommaso looked towards Stefano, who gazed back at him. Damiano joined them in that glancing game: Tommaso was coordinating them just moving his eyes.

He'd suggested Stefano to take the shortest one and to Damiano to take the one next to him. He would have taken the one who'd shot his accomplice.

The one who'd killed Samuele, on the other hand, seemed already hesitant enough and Tommaso was almost sure that he would have never shot anyone any more.

But it wasn't time yet. The tension was too high, and any sharp movement would have made them react, not to mention that one of them was already holding a gun.

They had to wait, but not for too long.

"Well!" the murdered sentenced. "Now let's just end this. Go and find some ropes." he ordered to the most scared of the three.

The situation had just turned in their advantage: they were in a tie now.

"Tommy..." Beatrice kept calling him

If he'd turned to look at her, his courage would have disappeared. He would have started to fear too much for her life and he would have stepped back, but he couldn't. They had to save as many people as they could: if they hadn't done anything, there would have been a massacre.

To tie them was just a precaution: once he would have start shooting, nobody couldn't run anywhere if they were tied. That guy wanted to leave no witness behind and he wanted to be sure that his accomplice wouldn't back out.

"What do you want to do, Tommy?" Bea insisted. "Please, stop… It's too dangerous, the children… Look at me!"

She forced him to look at her. Tommaso's determined glance immediately hesitated when he saw her. Actually, he was insecure. But he'd never been so brave as in that moment, it was almost as if he wasn't himself any more. Like if that soldier – D'Artagnan, Bea had called him – had taken the place of the young boyscout of good principle but with no initiative.

He knew what he was about to do, but when he looked at her, he started to feel insecure. Tommaso and his doubts, his insecurity were about to come back and he looked away from Beatrice. She remained astonished, staring at his nape.

It wasn't him.

D'Artagnan…

The man with the gun lowered it for an instant and Tommaso took a deep breath. Beatrice knew that it could have been the last time she heard his voice.

"NOW!" he shouted.

But another voice covered his scream.

Constance dug a small hole at the foot of the big tree.

She kissed the crucifix and put it in a little chest, then she buried it.

Athos stared at the secular tree with some kind of respect. He rubbed his hand on the rough bark, looking up to the canopy, hearing the sound of the shovel that dug into the ground and let the earth fall in the hole.

When the noise stopped, he went back to Constance, who smiled at him tenderly and gratefully.

"I'll come back to Paris." she announced, glad.

Athos returned her smile and went back looking at the elm.

They both stayed there for a while, staring at the wind shaking the leaves and the birds going back to their nest, unaware of their silent presence.

"POLICE!"

Everyone winced, the armed man tried to raise his gun, but he found himself with ten pointing towards him. The children screamed frightened, but then they all cried in relief.

"Down your weapons and get on the ground! Get on the ground!"

Tommaso was astonished. How did they find them?

Was it really over? That nightmare… Ended in that way? Something inside him was still burning with rage for not having revenged Samuele's death, but he knew that Beatrice was right.

It would have ended very badly if just two more seconds had passed before the policemen broke in.

Some of the officers came closer to them and to the children. One of them went to touch Samuele's wrist. Beatrice and Tommaso didn't looked.

They started asking questions to which Beatrice replied confused. Tommaso couldn't speak. The cooks said to the officers that three children were missing and they started asking more questions. While they were arresting the four man, putting the handcuffs on their wrists, they could hear the thuds of the doors being kicked to slam open on both floors: they were searching the house to check it was safe.

"Tommy, where are the children? Tommy!" it was only after Beatrice's insistence that the boy came round from the shock.

"Under the roof. They are fine." he finally replied. Beatrice looked at him shocked for a while, then she wrapped her arms around his neck until it hurt.

"You saved them, oh God… You saved them..." she moaned in a crackly voice.

Tommaso understood her surprise to the fact that he'd reacted so lucidly to be able to hide three kids when he'd realised that something was wrong.

"Samu..." he murmured. It would have been the greatest regret of his life.

Beatrice was crying but she went back to reason again pretty soon: they had to think about all of those children and, oh, God, Francesco was wounded. They ran towards him, but in that very moment the officers gave to the Red Cross' operators the permission to bring him away.

Tommaso and Beatrice realised that the policemen and the Red Cross' volunteers were already assisting the children, even if some of them still hanged to their clothes, terrified.

"… long-south thieves. They did a lot of robbery, and today a big shot at the Bank." one of the officers was saying to Stefano. "Mr. Felice Moretti had been blackmailed for years, he let them use this place as a shelter after every job, so that they could disappear for a while, leaving no suspects. We wouldn't never found them if it wasn't for those two tourists."

Beatrice opened her ears, while Tommaso still hadn't realised. She went to the officer with an inquiring air.

"Which tourists?" she asked, joining the conversation. She had a feeling. She turned to Tommaso to draw his attention and he came closer, grabbing her hand.

"Two Spanish. We have no idea of what they were doing here, in the middle of nowhere, but they say they heard some shots… You'd like to thank them, I guess. We secured them into a police car outside. Just wait here." and he went away.

Tommaso and Beatrice looked at each other, puzzled.

"What is it?" he asked, clearly confused for a different reason of the girl's.

"You don't remember, then?" she asked. And smiled. That strange smile he'd seen on her face in the moment she'd said that name – D'Artagnan – that still sounded so weird and familiar at the same time.

The policeman came back, with two people.

She had fair skin and eyes, blond hair and she was slightly shaken. He had his hand on her shoulder, just as worried. He had long wavy hair and unshaven face.

As soon as Tommaso saw them, everything was clearer. They went to the two strangers and stared at each other, looking up and down.

Then Beatrice smiled, moved, and threw her arms around the girl's neck, hugging her like a friend she hadn't seen for a long time. A long, long time.

In their hug, a familiar item stung her chest. She lowered her eyes and saw a crucifix – the crucifix.

The guy smiled friendly to Tommaso, then he stretched his hand out, for him to shake it. When he did it, he put the other hand on his shoulder, in a brotherly gesture that awakened in Tommaso a hundred memories.

In a slightly insecure Italian, he introduced himself.

"My name is Manuel. She's Iris. We found you, in the end."

Hi guys! This is the author :)

I hope you enjoyed this part of the saga, but don't move! There's another whole new story coming just for you. I recommend to read "Crossed lives" before the next one, it'll be much clearer for you, but even if you don't, I hope you could enjoy it the same (spoiler alert: it's about Athos! And many many mysteries will be finally solved).

So, stay tuned and review please, I'd really appreciate that, I know I have to improve a lot (especially my English has to...), but I'm trying my best and it's always nice when I get some feedbacks!

See you soon!