Heartbreak & Lies

“Hey, wake up or I’m leaving you here” someone whispered in my ear.

I pried my eyes open and stared into Jonathan's face.

“Where are we going? We just came here” I mumbled tiredly, rubbing my eyes.

“We are going out to eat with Giovanni and Antonio” he stated.
“Celebrating is never wrong, now is it?” he looked down at me.

I shook my head and heaved myself up from the cozy bed.
Deciding that my dark blue, boot cut jeans and my tight white/hot pink zip-up hoodie were good enough to wear, I went to put on my shoes.

They were already waiting in the car so I hurried up to get seated and buckled up.

“How do you like Italy this far?” Giovanni questioned with a smile.

“It’s hard to say” I started hesitantly.
“I haven’t really seen much yet but I do love the house. Thank you.” I said and gave him a shy smile.

Jonathan had told me that these guys would get us a place to stay, which is the reason I thanked them.

“Ah, so beautiful and shy. She will make an excellent wife someday” Giovanni stated and winked at me.

I blushed furiously and the rest of the way I just looked out the window, observing everything in this town.

When we parked outside a restaurant, I climbed out and grabbed Jonathan’s sleeve.
For some reason I felt very shy around these guys.
Jonathan just looked down and gave me a reassuring smile.

After we had sat down at a table, I looked around the place.
On the other side of restaurant there were these 3 guys in suits.
2 of them looked alike and I decided that they were brothers.
The 3rd guy though, he looked amazing.

He was the most handsome man I’ve ever seen. I studied him and before I knew it his eyes were boring into mine.
I got chills down my spine, and it wasn’t because of attraction, no.
His eyes were cold as ice, hard as steel and one sentence popped up in my head; this guy is deadly.
I quickly looked away and tried to forget his stare.

“Em, are you there?” Jonathan asked and snapped his fingers in front of my face.

“I’m sorry. I was just thinking about stuff” I said and cast a very quick glance towards this stranger.

“For your own best interest, you should stay as far away from him as possible” Giovanni said and clenched his jaw.
“He’s bad news, especially for beautiful little girls like you.”

My eyes widened at his words. This guy must be extremely observant. But I did not doubt what he said, not for one second.

“Since you seemed to be off to dreamland, I ordered for you” Jonathan smiled.
“I guessed that you wanted to try real Italian pasta Bolognese.”

I nodded with a grin on my face. I couldn’t wait to get my food.

Once our meals arrived, I tried to eat like a lady. I mean, I didn’t know these guys.
While eating, my eyes drifted back to those 3 guys. One of the brothers looked my way for a few seconds and then nudged the other.

When the second brother looked at me, his eyes widened and his mouth fell open. Shock was written all over his face.

I quickly looked away and tried to join the conversation.

“I don’t know. Wouldn’t it be better to stand here” Jonathan said very quietly and pointed at some street on a small map.

“Maybe” Antonio said and cast a glance at me.
“We’ll talk about this later.”

“I have a younger sister” Giovanni said and smiled at me.
“You could go out shopping together. Would you like that, Emma?”

“I would love to. Having a guide would be so much easier than trying to explore San Luca all by myself” I said happily.

“I’ll set it up then and have her call you” he said, pleased with my answer.

“Could you please point me towards the restrooms” I asked Giovanni, feeling a tiny bit embarrassed.

Obviously it showed because he chuckled and pointed towards the other end of the restaurant.

“The restrooms are on the right” he said.

I thanked him and went to do my business.
When I stepped outside into the small hallway, someone grabbed my arm. I turned around to face one of the brothers, the one who had been so shocked earlier.

“Alisha, è che realmente voi?” he said.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you are saying” I said and tried to walk away.

“You are Alisha, am I right?” he asked and grabbed my arm again.
“Where has he been keeping you? Where is he?”

“I have no idea who Alisha is but I’m not her. Please, leave me alone” I explained as politely as I could.

He stared after me when I walked back to my table.

From the corner of my eye I could see him talking animatedly with the others and occasionally pointing at me.

Finally all 3 stood up, looked at me then walked out.

“This means trouble” Antonio hissed and stared at the door.
“I knew that bringing her back, especially when she looks like that, would cause trouble” he snapped and turned to glare at me.

I stared at all of them, my head spinning. What on earth does he mean with ‘bringing her back’ and ‘looks like that’? And what trouble could I cause? What was going on?