A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii Read Online Free PDF Page B

the brick wall, though no one was working on it. Pompeii was like a little child with blocks: it began projects in one corner, then got distracted and started something else streets away.
    The aedile who’d insulted Prima stepped out of the shadows. He gave me a brilliant smile. “How nice to see you again, Gaius Caecilius Secundus,” he said.
    Gods, the man knew my full name. What else did he know?
    “What do you want?”
    “Come, let us go into the shade and talk privately,” he urged, as if we were old friends. One look at his thugs and I knew I had no choice. I followed.
    “I wonder if your uncle knows what you’ve been doing in Pompeii,” he said mildly.
    “It’s no business of yours,” I said.
    “Oh, but it is. Everything that happens in Pompeii is my business.” He pointed to the bag I still gripped tightly under my arm. “Like what you have there. I think you should hand it over to me.”
    I blinked. “What? No!”
    Pansa smiled and shook his head as if he were dealing with a recalcitrant child. And like a child, I wanted to spit in his face.
    “Oh what a thrill it will be to inform the great Admiral Pliny that his nephew and likely heir is stealing from him,” he said with a smarmy smile. “The favors he will owe me! That is why you ran home in the night and came back with that package, yes?”
    I said nothing.
    He stared at me for a moment then laughed. “Ha! I had you followed but could only guess what you were doing. Your silence tells me I guessed right. Now give me what you took from your uncle’s villa and I won’t tell him that you tried to buy a common tavern whore from a seedy caupona in Pompeii.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    He sighed. “You have yet to master your expressions, my boy. There is no point in lying. Prima told me everything. The skinny little slut even laughed while betraying you.”
    My heart thundered in my ears.
    He held out his hand for the bag.
    Still, I did not move.
    Pansa cocked an eyebrow. “You can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
    That this backwoods politician thought that he was good enough to even approach my uncle, made me want to spit at him again. “You are a prick and an asshole and I hope Prima shits in your mouth the next time you go near her,” I blustered out. “And you aren’t taking anything of mine.”
    His lips quirked in amusement. “Well, I see you’ve made your choice.” He signaled to his men and sauntered away.
    “ Aedile! ” someone called when he stepped into the sunshine. “There you are! I have something to discuss with you …” Pansa smiled widely and directed the petitioner away from us and into the flow of people.
    Meanwhile, two of his men approached me while a third kept watch. “This is going to be too easy,” one joked.
    “Fuck you,” I growled.
    The burly man laughed. “The puppy barks,” he said. “Hand it over.”
    The first punch came before I could reply, quickly followed by a second and a third. When I hit the ground one of the men grabbed the bag but I clung to it desperately, even as the other kicked me in the ribs. I couldn’t let them have my uncle’s writings or his ring. I just couldn’t!
    Then a kick near my eye slammed my head against the stone floor. When I came to, the bag—and the men—were gone.
    I didn’t know how long I had lain there, but the sun hadn’t moved much, so not long. It took some time to sit up and even longer to stand. When I finally did, the ground swayed and bucked underneath me but I knew it wasn’t another tremor. It was my own weak and injured body failing me. I closed my eyes until the feeling passed. Checking under my tunic belt, I noticed that my coin bag was gone too. The thugs took everything.
    As I shuffled out of the shadows a woman squeaked at my sudden appearance. “Drunk idiot,” she murmured as she scuttled by.
    People gave me a wide berth. A small crowd had gathered in the Forum. I spotted Pansa’s blond head towering