Page 14 of Caught in the Middle

'Joey Leonardo? You've never heard of him?' Lucy shook her head. 'Oh, Jesus.'

He stood up, and instinctively glanced out of the window, to the littered street below.

'Joey Leonardo is the most powerful mafia boss in Britain.' He whispered this, as if this Joey character was just next door. 'He's put a hit on your head, and his henchmen were going to take you out in your own home, like they did to Bethan, after your exam.'

Lucy couldn't take this information in. She searched his eyes, they were furrowed in concern. A mafia boss? No. The mafia don't exist anymore, surely? And if they did, it would be in Italy or New York, not Britain?!

'I...I don't believe you. It doesn't make sense.'

'Why doesn't it make sense?'

'Because what would a Mafia boss want with me? I've never even stolen a sweet from the corner shop, let alone get involved in any sort of activity that would send the Mafia after me!'

Oliver froze. He searched Lucy's expression carefully, trying to assess if she was lying or not. She stared back at him, her wide brown eyes laden with fear.

After the longest time, he composed himself.

'You don't know why Joey Leonardo would be after you?'

'Erm, obviously not, no.'

He exhaled hard.

'Oh, I don't know either. He likes to choose random girls I suppose, part of his hobby.' His eyes darted away from her as he looked out of the window again. 'Anyway, we've been in this flat far too long, we need to get moving -'

‘- no, wait!' Lucy spluttered, 'you don't know why this criminal wants a random 22 year old student dead?'

'Nope, I'm sure there's no reason -'

'Then how do you know he wants me dead?'

Lucy couldn't believe how shifty he was being. He had been so composed and sure of himself until now. But he was squirming in the corner of the bedroom like a school boy being told off.

'Jesus, you sure do ask a lot of questions,' he leaned over to untie her wrists, 'we need to get up and going, immediately.'

'Wait,' Lucy said firmly, 'I'm not going anywhere until you tell me everything, you've only given me half of a story!'

He sighed and dropped his hands. 'Oh for god's sake, we don't have time for this -'

Lucy kept calm, and tried to come across as level-headed but serious. 'Oliver,' she said, 'listen to me, sit down.'

He obviously wanted to protest this, and after opening his mouth to say something, and closing it again, he reluctantly perched on the end of the bed.

'Oliver, you have just told me that some Mafia boss that I have never heard of wants me dead,' she said calmly, 'and now you want me to go on the run with you.'

Oliver nods, taking it in. Maybe, Lucy realised, talking to him in this calm, mature manner might actually get through to him.

'Now, you have to understand,' she continued, 'I have no idea what is going on. Put yourself in my shoes - if you found a note in your exam paper, would you just go along with it? Of course you wouldn't, you would want to know everything.'

'But I'm trying to save your life -'

‘- And I understand that, Oliver, I really do. But I can't go along with this with actually no information.'

Oliver sat there for a moment, biting his bottom lip. Lucy couldn't figure out why he didn't want to tell her anything. It didn't help his murderer status.

'Okay,' he said finally. 'Even though you don't know of Joey Leonardo, you know him, if you know what I mean.'

Lucy didn't know what he meant.

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