No Boundaries

I shoved the rest of the cola down, trying to appear more interested in my drink than I was. I had to get out of here. It wasn’t safe, I could tell.

“I have to get going. My boyfriend is waiting for me.”

The man grabbed my wrist. “Sit. Have another drink. It's on the house.”

He signaled the bartender and the old man filled up my glass. I saw him quickly make eye contact with the man sitting next to me. Clearly, the bartender wasn't the one in charge here.

“No really, I have to get going.”

“I insist.” He held up his stein and I lifted my glass slowly. They clinked together in an awkward way. He took a swig from his beer but I didn't drink anymore out of my glass. I no longer trusted that what was in my glass was only cola.

“Haven't seen you in here before. You don’t come in here often, do you?”

I shook my head. “No. I just took a wrong turn.”

“I'm lucky you did. That's an interesting necklace.”

“My necklace? Oh. It was a gift.” Suddenly, my lies were back running through my veins. He didn’t need to know about my mother. He was already fishing for information in an uncomfortable way.

“From who?”

“Boyfriend. He just gave it to me.” More lies. I prayed that he bought it.

“Boyfriend?” I noticed the two security guards get closer to him. I'd made the wrong choice of words.

“Yeah.” I had to convince them now. Hopefully, they wouldn’t mess with me if I was the girlfriend of a mob son. Or maybe that was the wrong move to make. I wasn’t sure. But right now, I had to hold on to the fact that I was in love with Luka. It no longer mattered what he had done to my family. I was his. I only hoped now that it didn't end my life.

“I know that’s a lie. I also know that necklace was your mother’s. Why are you here? Where’s Roberto?”

Shit.

“Roberto?”

“Yes your uncle. I know he’s in town. Not our arrangement, he was expected to stay in Jersey and I was supposed to keep an eye on things here. I don’t

need him nosing around in my business.”

“Wait, what? You’re an Agnelli?”

The men around us laughed. “A friend. Tell me what’s going on.”

“Nothing, I haven’t seen him. I just had a fight with my boyfriend and I came for a drink. This is a coincidence, I promise.”

“Ah yes, Luka.” He smiled at me crookedly. “Well, isn’t that advantageous? I’m meeting with his family tomorrow night. Perhaps you should stay with us until then.”

I put my hands up. “I don't want any trouble. If you have a message, I can make sure that it is delivered to them. But I’m not involved in his business. I don't know anything.”

“See, the last time that he sent us a message, he shot one of my security, and he carved up one of my best sellers. So if I send you back with a message, I don’t want to hurt you. That pretty little face of yours looks good the way it is.”

I felt sick to my stomach. What would he do to me? What had I gotten myself into?

“Now, I think I'll just keep you. I like leverage at these meetings. Maybe we can even get Roberto there and solve all of our problems. Get rid of the Gioti’s for good.”

I tried not to panic.

“You,” he said, pointing to one of his guards. “Call Roberto and tell him we have his niece. I want him at this meeting for back up. And you,” he said, turning toward me. “You stay here until we get further instructions. This just made the meet with your boyfriend a lot more interesting.”

I reached for my cell phone, but he snatched it out of my back pocket. “Do you have anything else on you? A weapon, maybe?”