One.

(Lily’s POV)

I sighed in relief as I felt the wind hit my face as I stepped out of Home Depot with my necessary purchases.

A smile crossed my face as I saw a mother struggling to keep her child still, reminding me of just how stubborn I was as a child but also wondering why she had her child out late. I started my walk towards the motel that Chris and I had booked for the night.

It was our last night in the city before we moved to a different city to begin a whole new other job, a con job.

I had been able to create for myself a good record up to now.

No arrests.

No attention from the cops.

I always made sure to choose marks that wouldn’t afford to go to the police because they also had something to hide. That was my leverage—if I go down you are coming with me.

The streets were empty, as expected for this time of night, I could hear my footsteps on the cobblestone. I hadn’t gotten far when I heard a familiar voice come up from behind me.

“I hope you remembered to get me a pack of cigarettes.” Chris said as he walked beside me, startling me but with my line of work I had learned how to mask my emotions and come up with new ones at the snap of my fingers.

I didn’t slow down as I asked him, “why are you here? You shouldn’t have left the motel room.”

“I got impatient waiting for you and you were taking years to come back.” He replied but his demeanour seemed a little off, another skill I picked up—being able to study someone and how they behave and their micro expressions.

I fished out of my bag as I gave him the pack of cigarettes, “are you okay? You seem a little jumpy.”

He sighed, “I don’t think this should be our last job.” He stated.

I sighed, this again, I thought.

“Chris, we need to get out of the game while we are still ahead, or at least lay low for a while.” I replied, feeling annoyed that he didn’t understand just how risky our line of work was, and would constantly bring this up.

Just as abruptly as he appeared beside me he stopped.

I looked at him as I slowly continued to walk, wondering why he stopped. But thinking he was just throwing one of his tantrums—wondering what I ever saw in the guy to begin with—and he would eventually come around I kept walking as I heard him yell, “you are making me do this!”

I round up the corner and I felt something hit me across the head making me fall to the ground, my head hitting the cobblestone.

I could taste the metallic taste of blood in my mouth, my vision blurry and my ears ringing but I could make out a few things here and there of what was going on around me.

“You weren’t supposed to hurt her.” I heard Chris’ voice say.

“I wasn’t going to risk having her see my face.” I heard a woman’s voice say, her voice sounded familiar but I couldn’t place it.

As I started to sink deeper into the darkness of my mind, I saw a car pull up beside me as I sunk into the darkness.

I woke up gasping for air as someone had spilled a bucket of water on me.

I looked around the dark room, with the only source of light being the one above me. “Who are you and what do you want?” I asked.

A blonde haired man, stepped into my line of sight.

“We are the police and we have been following you for a while now. We know what you have been up to.” He said in a deep groggy voice.

I started laughing.

Chris had betrayed me and fed me to the wolves, I wonder if the money we got from our last job was what made him do this.

The man punched me across the face and I would have sworn he almost knocked my tooth out.

“You still think this is funny?” He asked in a serious tone.

I spat the blood that was in my mouth as I turned to look at him. I dealt with dangerous people all the time and I made sure I could defend myself, I guess that’s why Chris wanted to get a drop on me.

I sighed as I looked at the man, “this is why I work alone, good help is so hard to find.” I stated, “and you aren’t the police, at least on the good kind. Who sent you after me?” I asked, curious to know how I ended up in a dark room with my hands tied behind my back and a two hundred and fifty-pound man smacking me around.

“You happen to look like the wife of a man who is dangerous and you need to go back to him as his wife.” He replied.

I chuckled, “because this man doesn’t know his wife?” I asked sarcastically.

The man shrugged. “His wife has been missing for a while now and he has been desperately trying to find her, we need someone to play her until we are ready to release her.” He replied.

“What is stopping me from just telling him the truth?” I asked.

He glared at me, as he walked behind me, then came back holding pictures of me and passports of all my fake identities. Chris that bastard, I thought angrily.

“If you do then we will send all this to the FBI, I’m sure they’ll be interested in that considering the last person you conned and stole almost ten million dollars from was once contracted to work for them.” He explained, “they will not only charge you for multiple charges of identity theft but they will consider you the enemy of the state, considering the states you have been to, and with that,” he whistled, “good luck ever stepping out of jail again.”

I took a deep breath, not letting them know just how shaken up I was. “Whose wife do you want me to pretend to be?” I asked.

The man smirked, “that’s a good girl.” He said as he patted me on the head like a pet dog.

I was making a mental note of his features and his face because once I was free and I got my footing, I was going to find him and make sure that he experienced ten times as much pain as he put me through.

He went and picked up something from the corner and dropped two boxes in front of me.

“These are everything you need to know for you to be able to play his wife.” He said pointing to the box, he walked behind me as I felt him cut off what he used to tie my hands behind my back. “If anything happens to me and my partner doesn’t hear from me every thirty minutes, your information will be sent to the FBI so don’t try anything stupid.” He warned as he walked out of the door, and I heard him shut it behind him.

I massaged my wrists as I bent down and opened the box, it was filled with files. I opened the first file and what fell out was a picture. I picked it up and I was shocked, the lady on the picture didn’t just look like me, if it wasn’t for the jet black hair—which was different to my brown hair—I would have sworn it was me.

The face structure was the same, the brown eyes, even the mole that was an inch below my right eye. How was this possible? I wondered.

I started reading the files, her name was Lily just like me but she had her husband’s last name, Gambino.

Lily Gambino got married to Alfonso Gambino over five years ago and they had a three-year-old boy. I didn’t like the idea of children considering my line of work and now I needed to raise one? I rolled my eyes.

Alfonso was a gangster; mafia would have suited him best but whatever. He was mostly involved in gambling and drug trafficking. He was known to be cold and ruthless. He had gained himself the name, ‘Iceman’, as he would show no emotion while torturing people who wronged him.

I couldn’t believe they wanted me to lie to this man.

He, however, got out of the mafia when his girlfriend, now wife, was shot when she was pregnant with their son. He started his own company that took off almost immediately in a period of a year, it was rumoured however that his company was just a front and in reality it was a means for the mafia to clean out their drug money, despite the IRS not finding any evidence to prove its claims.

I don’t know how long I had spent in that room trying to understand this dangerous and complex man. But I knew I had a better chance of getting out of this alive through him than when I went to prison.

“I don’t think this is going to be so hard for you to pull off.” The blonde haired guy said as another guy dyed my hair black. “Just think of it as one of those con jobs you do. You must be pretty good at it if you have never been caught, but only this time if you mess up, you might end up dead or maybe in prison.”

The blonde guy made sure to think of everything, including the scar of where Alfonso’s wife was shot when she was pregnant.

“What should I say when I’m asked where I have been all this time?” I asked.

He smirked, “you just need to tell him that we wanted to know where the money came from and you didn’t know what we were talking about.” He stated, “you could also come up with a few things on your own just make sure you make it believable.”

I was ready, the hair was dyed and they made sure to make me look like I had been through a lot. The scar had healed well. My hands were tied behind my back; I was blindfolded as I was led outside and into a car. I thought they were going to drop me off somewhere but instead, they drugged me just enough for me to be loopy as they removed the blindfold off, I was in the back of a van.

“What are you doing?” I asked as I struggled to see clearly, but he didn’t answer.

I heard the doors open and he threw me out of the moving van, my body slamming to the windshield of the car that was behind us.

I didn’t even have time to gather my thoughts as the car hit the brakes and I fell to the ground. Before I succumbed to the dark void of my mind, I saw Alfonso’s face as he looked down at me and back at the van that sped away.

What a way to find your missing wife, I thought as everything went black.