Once Burned (Morelli Family 3)

Mateo closes the barred door, turning the lock and letting his hand fall to his side. Looking at me through the bars, he says, “If this was the only way, I wish you wouldn’t have come back.”

Then he heads back the way he came, leaving me alone in the dark.

—

It feels like I’ve been down here a year, but I’m sure it’s only been a few days. Mateo brought me a few bottles of water the morning after he brought me down, but he hasn’t been back since and they’re long gone.

Sitting on the cold, hard floor in the corner, I wait. And I wait. And I wait.

But finally someone comes.

I expect Mateo, but I certainly don’t expect the little blonde maid to come down to this dank, dirty secret beneath Mateo’s home. I didn’t even expect she would know about it.

“Hi,” she says, offering me a tentative smile.

At first I remain where I am, on the floor in the corner, with my back against the wall. As she comes closer, I realize I should probably stand.

There’s a little basket on her arm, but she puts it down and fishes out the key, awkwardly shoving it in the lock. “Sorry about all this,” she says, as she turns the lock and opens the door.

Warily eyeing the key, I tell her, “He shouldn’t send you down here.”

“Oh, he didn’t. I mean, I asked if I could come.”

“Well, that’s not smart. You shouldn’t come down here alone,” I revise, watching as she goes back out to grab the basket. “I could be dangerous.”

“You won’t hurt me,” she says, rolling her eyes like it’s a ridiculous thing to even suggest.

Of course she’s right, but she shouldn’t be so sure of that. “You never know what people will do.”

Not accepting my advice, she peels back the little cloth over her basket and tells me, “I brought you some breakfast. Do you like muffins? I made some chocolate chip and banana. I didn’t know what kind you’d like best, so I brought both.”

I’m still a little uneasy as I take the first muffin she hands me, but my mouth waters at the sight of it.

She places a few bottles of water on the ground near the front of the cell. “I’ll try to bring some dinner later, after everyone upstairs eats.”

I’m not sure what to say, so I stick with silence.

Once the food has been dispersed, she gets a little more bashful. “I brought you something else. I thought… it probably drives you crazy how quiet it is down here,” she tells me, drawing out a small, silver, circular object. A walkman? “It plays music,” she tells me. “I just brought the one CD, but it’s a greatest hits, so it’s just the one case, but there are actually lots of songs to listen to.”

She offers it to me, and she looks so damn hopeful, I take it. I’ve never been a big music fan, preferring the quiet, but I don’t say so.

“It’s my favorite,” she tells me, bouncing forward on her toes, kind of excited to be sharing it with someone. “My dad loved Bowie. After I came here, I asked Mateo for these so I could listen, and… I don’t know, it got me through some rough nights. I thought you could borrow it, to get through yours.”

Smiling slightly, I finally say, “That’s nice, Elise. Thank you.”

She nods her head, glancing down at the empty basket. “I should probably get back upstairs before Maria has a cow, but… if you’re still here Sunday, it’s my day off. I could come down and keep you company, if you’d like.”

“You don’t want to spend your day off down here,” I tell her.

“You’re only down here because of me,” she states.

“That’s not true,” I tell her. Of course, I can’t tell her why I am down here, so I don’t have anything to back that up.

“Well, I’m coming back Sunday,” she states, adorably stubborn. “If you don’t like it, you can just put on the headphones and ignore me.”

I crack a smile, doubting I could ignore her if I tried.

“Okay,” I relent, since it’s not even a fight I want to win.

Nodding with satisfaction, she backs out of the cell and closes the door, securing the lock. “Make sure you listen to that whole thing. When I come back, I wanna hear your favorites.”

“I will,” I promise.

“Good.” With one last bright smile, Elise gives me a little wave, and then she leaves me alone in Mateo’s dungeon with only David Bowie for company.

Chapter One

Five years later

I didn’t expect my last day at the Morelli homestead to be a celebration, but the solemn non-event it turns out to be isn’t what I expected either.

Of course, I didn’t expect yet another of Mateo’s lovers to betray him.

I didn’t expect Mateo to be locked away in his surveillance room, too busy to even say goodbye, let alone attend my last Morelli family dinner.