On the Run

Hands cuffed behind his back, Niall shuffled his feet across the concrete floor. It wasn’t that he was feeling lazy or too tired to completely lift them; it was the chains wrapped around them that kept him from walking normally.

As if the six burly men weren’t enough, the boys were chained to one another, with metal surrounding their waist, hands, and ankles with links that connected them. There was no way the boys were going to escape and even if they did, there was nowhere to go.

Niall wasn’t ready for this. He hadn’t been to prison. He wasn’t like the other men. He was part of the gang, yes, but not in the way that they were. Niall was simply a pawn used by Enzo Mazetti to help keep crooks out of his casino, while the other boys were part of the dark, underground side of things, the side Niall was supposed to keep his nose out of.

When Niall first met Enzo Mazetti, he was at a card table, playing a game of blackjack against the dealer and two other men. Niall felt more at home at those card tables than anywhere else in the world, so he didn’t even think to find anything fishy about the situation.

Niall had been in that casino for weeks, taking all of the money from Enzo’s pockets. He hadn’t stolen it – not really – but Enzo didn’t care. Niall was good, too good, and Enzo wasn’t about to let him get away with it.

After Niall had won the first 100 grand, Enzo knew that it wasn’t luck; it was skill, something he deemed illegal, at least in his world. Enzo knew that Niall was counting cards and he wasn’t going to let it go on any longer.

That day, when Enzo took a seat next to Niall at the table, the poor blonde boy’s whole world changed.
Enzo said that he would let Niall go, let Niall live, but only if he worked for him. Niall wouldn’t have to do the dirty work, not like the other men who worked for The Viche. Niall was going to sit behind a monitor and take frequent trips to the card tables, all in an effort to catch card counters like him.

Since Niall had started working for The Viche, just three months before, he’d caught a couple dozen men trying to scam Enzo Mazetti, so when Enzo insisted that Niall take on the bank job, he was shocked, to say the least. It wasn’t what he had signed up for, but you didn’t argue with Enzo Mazetti and live.

Niall kept his head hung low; he didn’t want to make eye contact with anyone in the court house. Even though they were taking the back exit to go back to the prison’s locked-down bus, there were still a few stray bailiffs walking around.

The moment the door opened and Niall’s eyes fell on the sun, he took a deep breath. He wasn’t sure if he would ever see the sun again, not for many years at least. He wanted to enjoy it while he could.

His eyes shifted around the fenced in parking lot. The large fence, topped with barbed wire, was only a glimpse of the various different enclosures to come. For the next few decades, every precaution would be taken to see to it that none of the boys ever got to see freedom again. They would be taken from that chained up parking lot, to an even more secure prison, and that would be the end of it for them.

The guards shoved the boys onto the bus, chaining each of them to the corresponding seats. They were spread out, with a guard between each of them. Niall wondered if this was how things always were, or if they were a special case. Had they given the boys extra guards to be sure nothing out of the ordinary happened?

Pressing his head against the window, Niall kept his eyes on the sun, only occasionally shifting down to the concrete of the parking lot.

When the bus revved up its engine, Niall’s eyes moved forward, as he watched the fence open in front of them. They passed through it, and it shut just as quickly behind them.

Niall’s breath caught in his throat, as his stomach threatened to empty its contents all over the floor. He wasn’t ready for prison. He wasn’t ready.

His eyes moved to the side window, focusing on the street in an effort to calm himself. The moment they did, they were met with soft blue ones that he’d only seen once before. They were far more beautiful than any he deserved to see on that day, but he was thankful that he did. Those blue eyes were better than the last glimpse of the sun that he would get.

The eyes of that beautiful girl, whom he’d only shared a few words with, quickly flicked away from his, as she jumped into the back of a van. He didn’t have to question why she was at the court house on that day because he knew. She was the daughter of Enzo Mazetti, the man who had successfully ruined his life, and even though he knew there was no hope, he wished he could see her again.