Page 49 of Caught in the Middle

She couldn't imagine it.

'Your soup will get cold.'

Lucy looked up at Joey. 'He didn't write this.'

He rubbed the stubble along his jawline and closed his eyes. 'I wish he didn't, Lucy. And more so, I wish I believe him. I wish I believed that he was capable of doing such a dishonest deed. When my sister turned up on my doorstep, that is when I realised that the Irish Mafia, well, they have no honour. They don't work in the same way as I do.'

Lucy tried to absorb all this information but she couldn't. She couldn't get her head around it, especially because these actions do not match up to the man she knew.

The man she knew for four days.

'I'm sorry,' Joey said.

'No - no. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that your sister was killed,' she replied, hoarsely.

'Well, that was almost ten years ago now, if you'd believe it. Time is a great healer, although, you can never forget your sister.'

'Why did he do it?' Lucy was thinking out loud.

'Because he's evil. It's as simple as that.'

'You didn't retaliate?'

'And do what? I already had the majority of his men on my side, no matter what his small army could throw at me, I was climbing the ladder so fast, that he couldn't touch me. Besides, why would I kill an innocent member of his family - when would it stop? That's the trap my family are in in Italy, which is exactly why I left.'

Lucy pondered this for a moment. So, Oliver killed Joey's sister, because he was stealing his men, and taking over his turf. And if it's not true that Oliver was saving her from Joey killing her... then what the fuck does she have to do with this?

'So what do I have to do with this?' she blurted out. Although she felt like she should be gaining some clarity, it was just leaving her so much more confused.

'Well, Lucy. I've had my eye on you for quite some time.' He smiled, as the waiter reappeared to take away their appetisers, and fill up their glasses. 'You're incredibly beautiful, you know?'

Lucy absolutely did not know. Of course she was tonight, she had been tweezed, yanked and squashed into perfection. But she was hardly a goddamn super model.

Joey didn't wait for her to acknowledge his question. 'I may be a good man, whether you like to believe that or not, but I'm still a red blooded Italian. I like to stick to tradition.'

He pulled the letter towards him, folded it back into the envelope, and slid it into the inside of his tuxedo. 'Beautiful women like yourself intrigue me. I need them around me, always.'

Lucy frowned at him. Did he know that she wasn't a prostitute?

He laughed, as he clearly realised what she was thinking. 'No, not like that at all. Lucy,' he leaned on his elbows to get closer to her, 'I promise, I'm only going to be honest with you, so trust me, okay?'

Trust me. The exact words that Oliver had drummed into her.

'What are your ambitions, your dreams?'

Oh god, not this again. This time, she couldn't see the point in lying to him. 'I don't have any.'

'Exactly.'

Huh?

'You don't have any. You don't plan on becoming a doctor, you don't have the desire to travel the world, teaching under-privileged children, or anything like that. But you're beautiful, and that's what God has given you as a talent.'

'So…you're saying I'm not good for anything else?'

'No! Lucy, I'm sure you have many things that you are good at, but you haven't realised them yet. You've failed university - and that's okay, school isn't for everyone. But what are you going to do with your life right now?'

He had her there. 'I don't know,' she muttered.

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