Sophia forced herself to take a deep breath, then to release it slowly and silently through her nose. She peeked around the corner again, more hesitantly. The men were gone from sight but their anger-sharpened voices reverberated back. She followed the sound through the small room, hiding once more just beyond the next doorframe.
The subsequent chamber was not much larger. She had seen its far wall a few paces beyond the egress and she skidded to its aperture. The men were somewhere beyond the range of vision afforded by the room’s portal and Sophia had to sneak a quick look around the wooden edging to find them.
At first, she thought she imagined it, that fear and stress had shaped an unbelievable sight in her mind. She looked again. The ruggedly built, black-haired man with Pasquale ha
