Stealing from the mob

Annie thinks about this long and hard, probably weighing the pros and cons in her head. “Ok, let’s do it,” she accepts. We cross the office and sneak into the pier proper. It’s dark now. The moon is slowly climbing upward to take its place in the skies.

The floor creaks as I step on the wood. The old fishing pier is empty this evening, but we still stay close to the ground as we make our way towards the end of it… just in case someone on the beach decides to look up.

Four small fishing yachts wait for us at the end of the pier. One belongs to the mob, the others don’t. We don’t have time to search them all. “Look, records of entry,” Annie says, pointing at a book inside a little stall.“ Let’s look for the boat from that Ugal place that the mobster mentioned. Sounds kind of Eastern European.”

We do a bit of sleuthing and find where the ships came from. “Lisbon in Portugal, Nice in France, Genoa, Astakos… none came from Ugal!” I hear steps coming from down the pier, someone shining a flashlight on their path. The mob was coming!

“Hide!” We rush into the Portuguese boat, going inside the cabin and opening a cabinet near the wheel. It’s barely big enough for us both to get in.

It’s a tight and uncomfortable space, we both bend our knees and twist our necks to fit in, sitting in front of each other, our legs touching. I can feel our skins sticking together thanks to all our combined sweat. I groan as I try to adjust my position, there are like five bottles of tequila prodding into my soft backside.

“H-hey, Laura. I think I realized something.”

“Ugh, can’t it wait?”

“No. Ugal… the port of Ugal…” Crap, I realized what Annie was saying as well. “It’s not Ugal at all, the ship came from Portugal!” Just my luck! I pick the one boat that the mob used to move the contraband! We had a 75% chance to not screw it up and we somehow failed!

Sure enough, I’ve hear footsteps come in from outside. Too late to try and escape. Soon after, the engine turns on and the boat begins to move.

I share a look of worry with Annie as we ride in silence. I don’t know where we are going, but it can’t be good to share a ride with a smuggler. I perk up my ears to hear what’s going on outside, and yep, still can’t understand Italian. One word, however, I do recognize, “tequila”. Oh crap.

Someone opens the cupboard and five men stare down at us. They yell in Italian, we reply in English and everyone is confused. I think they believe we are lovers that tried to get busy on their boat.

Luckily, they themselves are too busy to deal with us the proper way. The mobsters soon drag us out of our hiding hole and push us to the side of the moving boat. I splash into the sea like a rock, the coldness of the water envelops my body, and I get goosebumps on my whole skin. But, I have to admit that it’s somewhat refreshing to take a dip after all that’s happened. If only it had been a gentler one.

I surface with ease, the current is quite mild this night. I see Annie’s head floating in the water next to me, and together we swim to the shore. “Well, that was one way to get out of town…” I say as we take heavy steps on the sand, rubbing my arms for warmth. “At least no one else saw us.”

“Yeah, only the mob and half the beach,” Annie dryly replies.