No Boundaries

I held my breath for a moment. I was lying to my father, and I didn’t like it. “It's a shame, really. She was like family.”

My father nodded knowingly. “To all of us. We would've done anything for the girl. But now? Good riddance!”

I squinted at him. A slight fear gripped my stomach. Did he figure out where Vienna was? “Why? What changed about the way you feel about Vienna?”

“No one told you?”

“Told me what?”

“She's with the Agnelli family now. They got her a job and everything, out-of-state somewhere. But you know them, they've got family in every major city on the East Coast. I'm sure she's lying on a beach somewhere.”

Agnelli family? How was that even possible? I knew exactly where she was, right here in Baltimore, at my apartment. Pops obviously had his communication wrong. He didn't have the facts.

“You sure about that, Pops? I mean, turning her back on us like that, going to the Agnellis? Why would she do that?”

“Money. Besides, she probably knows about what you did. I don't know how she couldn't.”

Blood rushed out of my face and a large knot formed inside my stomach. She couldn’t know, could she?

“We were just kids back then, and she didn't even know her father. There's no way she could know that I was the one who killed him.”

My father stood up, beginning to walk away, but he put his hand on my shoulder right before he did. “I wish I could tell you that you’re right, son, but people in this business talk. There's no way that Vienna doesn't know what you did. And whether you like it or not, one day she will come to you, for revenge.”

Fuck.

The woman who was lying in my bed right now could be a set up. And somehow all that I could think about was tasting her lips again.

I raced home for answers. I took every turn too fast, but I didn’t care. I had to know if what my father had said was true. If she was a traitor. And if she wasn’t, I would have my way with her again.

But when I pushed open my door, she was gone. The money I left for her was too. Shit. He had been right. She was after me. I sat down on the edge of my bed and ran my fingers through my hair. What the hell was I going to do?

I wanted her.

She wanted me dead.

I loved her and she left. Again I was here and she was gone, for the second time in my life Vienna had left me. And even though I shouldn’t care about some traitorous bitch, my chest hurt with the pain of her loss.

I wouldn’t look for her again. This time was it. We were done.

11

Vienna

Right before I left my apartment, I stood with my duffel bag in my hand and I dialed another number that I had memorized. It only took one ring before I heard his voice on the other end.

“Vienna? What's the matter?”

“He’s out.”

“Good. Anything else?”

I knew I had to lie about last night, I couldn’t tell Roberto I was running either. He would kill me if I failed him.

“No. I’m staying with a friend for a while, I’ll be touch when I know more.” Another lie.

“Good, good. We’ll talk soon.”

“Roberto,” I said with a tremble in my voice. “I don't think I can go through with this. I don't know what type of man my father was, but if Luka really did kill him, than it was for good reason. He's a good man.”