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striving with every inch of his being to remain stone-faced and cold. She could almost see the sorrow and hardship that he’d endured, foaming like the waves of a tempest tide just below the surface of that cold, determined expression. Surely it could not be long before it washed him all away, everything that he was, lost to pain and suffering.
    “No,” she said, “that’s not true. Piero, you do have somebody who needs you—you have me.”
    He winced with genuine pain, his eyes determined to keep their gaze anywhere but from the power of her own. “Please,” he murmured, “don’t say this to me now.”
    “But I have to,” she said, “I know we’ve only just met and I know that you’ve lost so much, but this is the truth. I do need you now. Yes, I need you to stop this crazy mission of yours, but more than that, I need you in my life. I need you to be with me.”
    He did not speak, his gaze still burning into the near-distance beyond her, but neither did he take his hand from the comfort of her own and she strove now to put all of her soul, all of her goodness into that touch, to imbue him with the honesty of her words.
    “You’ve lost so much,” she said, “but now you’ve gained something once again. You’ve got me and if you want me then I’m yours. That is the universe Piero, that’s destiny. This is how it works.”
    Still he would not look at her, still he struggled to hide the pain from his expression, and yet still he allowed her to pour her love and acceptance into him through her touch.
    “Tell me you don’t want me,” she said, “tell me you don’t want to be with me, to get to know me and spend days and weeks and maybe even months and years together after this. Tell me that and I’ll go right now. Because truthfully, I have no desire to sit here and watch you doom yourself forever.”
    Over their shoulder, Libano and his men burst forth into guffaws of hateful laughter and Piero’s mouth twitched with anger in response. Rebecca squeezed his hand tighter and now at last he squeezed back.
    “My mother,” he said, his voice barely audible in the darkness of the night, “my father… everything is gone.”
    “I know,” Rebecca whispered, “and I know that I can’t imagine how hard that must be but I promise you that if you want me I will be here for you. I’ll let you return to goodness again and leave all that rage and pain here where it belongs. Come with me, come with me back to Palermo and we can figure it out from there.”
    His gaze drifted to her face and his deep brown eyes widened with such sorrow and pain and internal conflict. With all these forces raging inside of him it was no wonder that he couldn’t speak. But now they did not have the time to wait any longer. She would have to do something drastic.
    “We have five minutes before the bus arrives,” Rebecca said, “I’m going to go wait for it and you can do whatever you believe is right. But remember what I said before, if you go to those men then I will never forgive you. I will never forget the joy, the brightness and the hope that might have been before you destroyed it all.”
    She stood to her feet and tried to take her hand from his but he would not release her, he stared up at her with such anguish that she wished to embrace him with a fierceness that was almost violent, to crush the darkness that had impelled him here with such force and power that only love could remain. Above all, she wanted to kiss him, to taste his lips again and have them wipe out all thought of the outside world as they had done before. But she knew that she could not. Not now, at least, in this moment.
    “ Rebecca… ” he whispered as she took his hand away.
    Tears brimmed to the sides of her eyes but she fought them back. “No,” she said, “don’t even say goodbye to me. If you kill that man then you have no right to leave me now on any kind of good will. You will have destroyed me along with yourself.”
    His hand lay