Page 47 of Caught in the Middle

'Does that name ring a bell?' he asked, smiling sadly, for there was no doubt he knew the answer.

Lucy nodded.

'I'm sure he told you all about me. How I'm a horrific man, and want to use you as a sacrifice to show the other gangs who's boss.' He said the last part in a mocking tone, using his fingers to quote it.

'And you don't?'

'Lucy,' he said, setting down his wine glass, 'I have never killed anybody in my life. Not least a woman.'

Lucy was taken aback. How could he so blatantly lie to her?

'I'm a man of morals, and that's why Oliver doesn't like me. I came over from Italy when I was so young, to escape the family tradition.' His face recoiled in disgust. 'My family, God knows that I love them, but they have built up their empire on blood. But why should a man have to die for you to gain wealth?'

He waited for a moment, until Lucy realised she was expected to answer.

'Um... he shouldn't?'

'Of course he shouldn't. So I came to London to start a new business, to escape that old Italian way. Of course, to make money, but not at the expense of my morals. But not everybody was happy with the way I was running business back then.'

The waiter came through the door with two plates, and placed them in front of Lucy and Joey respectively. Lucy peered down at it to see a soup of some kind.

'If you don't like pea and ham soup, of course they will make you something else.'

Lucy shook her head and lifted her spoon. She was starving, but she most certainly didn't have the stomach to eat anything in the presence of Joey Leonardo.

'And perhaps you could guess who wasn't very happy with my way of doing business?' he said slurping from his spoon.

'Who?'

'Why, Oliver O'Brien of course.'

Again, Lucy felt a tingle down her spine at the mention of his name.

'Oliver O'Brien, the Irish Mafia boss himself.'

Lucy looked up from her plate in shock. Oliver, a Mafia boss?

'Oh,' Joey said, a smile tugging at his lips, 'he didn't mention that? Now why am I not surprised? He never does.'

'Oliver isn't a mafia boss,' Lucy managed to stammer.

Joey thumped the table, a roar of a laugh escaping from his lips. 'Oliver isn't a Mafia boss? He's the most feared man in Britain. Don't be fooled by his charm, Lucy, he's incredibly dangerous.'

Lucy's head raced a million miles an hour. She thought back to the time he held a gun to her head, the time he threw her uneaten food against the wall in a fit of rage. How could she have been so stupid, of course he was in the fucking Mafia.

Now that she thought about it, it was so goddamn obvious. How could she ever think he wasn't? He was so shady straight from the get go, let alone even mentioning the fact that he wouldn't tell her what he did for a living. He was a 'business man', of course he was, in the business of killing people.

It made her feel sick that she had come to trust him, and truly believe that he was a vigilante, some sort of charity worker, who was simply trying to save her life.

But still, even though now she realised how blindingly obvious it was that he was a criminal, she knew he wasn't...evil, if that made any sense at all. Well, she couldn't even make it make sense to herself.

But she just knew, she wasn't as bad as Joey Leonardo.

'He killed my sister, you know.' Joey's quiet voice snapped her back into the room, and his words made her dizzy.

'He...?'

'Yes. Oliver O'Brien. He killed my sister.'

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