Chapter 16: Mafia Kings: Massimo: Chapter 16

This girl was seriously pissing me off.

She complained about EVERYTHING – even down to the car we were stealing.

Seriously?!

What the fuck did she think we were going to get – a Bentley?

And the attitude –

The sarcasm –

The constant eye-rolling –

I wanted to bend her over my knee and smack the shit out of her ass.

I put that out of my mind, though.

I couldn’t have her telling the Widow about that sort of thing.

And…

Well…

She had a fantastic ass, which made me think about it all the more.

I’d rather enjoyed spanking her back at the university – and not just putting her in her place, either.

The feel of my palm slapping her ass cheeks –

The jiggle of her flesh under my hand –

But that was over.

Done with.

From here on out, it was pure professionalism.

I had to get us both to safety, which meant I needed to ignore her bitchy little comments and princess-like behavior.

I reminded myself that as annoying as she was, she couldn’t touch Adriano for sheer assholery.

You’re a Zen fuckin’ master.

Remember that.

I propped my phone up in the ashtray so I could see Google Maps. Luckily, there was only change inside the tray and no cigarette butts.

Thank God for small favors.

I had to be vigilant about my phone battery, which was at about a 60% charge. I could get a charging cord somewhere along the way, maybe when we stopped for gas – but for now, it was more important to put some distance between us and Venice.

The car had half a tank of gas. Enough to get us 40 or 50 miles down the road, at the very least.

I took a bypass road away from the town.

“Aren’t you going to go back and get the gun?” Lucia asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t want to take a chance that the guy who owns this car is in town and might spot us. The last thing I need is for him to call a cop over, and then the cop asks me what’s in the tarp I’m carrying back from the boat.”

Lucia smiled smugly. “Pussy. Grow a pair.”

I clenched my jaw but let it pass.

Zen fuckin’ master… Zen fuckin’ master…

I hated leaving the assault rifle behind – it would come in handy if the mercenaries tracked us down – but the risk of retrieving it was too big.

Besides, I’d have other weapons at my disposal.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

After her ‘pussy’ crack, I thought about telling her to go fuck herself –

But that wouldn’t have been very ‘Zen master’ of me.

“The mountains north of here.”

“Really,” she said – and I noted the complete absence of sarcasm in her voice.

She almost sounded excited.

“You’ve seen mountains before, right?” I asked.

She shot me a look. “Old lady who doesn’t like the sun and thought we’d get killed if we left Venice – remember?”

“Oh, yeah.” I tried to be compassionate. “Sounds lonely.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” she muttered as she stared out the window.

I gritted my teeth.

Zen fuckin’ master –

You’re a Zen fuckin’ master –

My phone buzzed from its place in the ashtray.

I looked down to see who it was –

And my stomach sank.

“Who’s Aurelio?” Lucia asked as she read the name on the screen. She could tell by my face that I wasn’t happy.

“My cousin,” I said. “He and my uncle are behind everything that happened today.”

Her eyes widened. “Your uncle and cousin are trying to kill you?!”

“Yeah.”

“Wow, and I thought I had a rough family…” She paused as the phone continued to vibrate. “Are you going to answer it?”

I didn’t want to…

But I decided that wasn’t really an option.

I answered the call and put the phone to my ear.

“Aurelio,” I said neutrally.

“Massimo. What, are you in a fucking wind tunnel?”

I was driving pretty slowly – the posted speed limit was low since we were still inside the town’s boundaries – but the air coming through the broken window was getting picked up by the phone.

Which meant Aurelio could probably figure out I was in a car.

He might have initially thought I was in a boat, but there weren’t any water sounds.

I cursed myself for not thinking of it sooner and stopping the car to talk to him –

But there was nothing I could do about it now.

“Yeah, I am,” I said. “What’s up?”

“Did you have a nice morning?” he asked sardonically.

Was he quasi-admitting to what he’d done?

Or just being his normal dickish self?

“It’s had its ups and downs,” I said neutrally.

“I’m sure.”

Okay, he was trolling me. It was obvious at this point.

“Why don’t we drop the pretenses and skip the bullshit.”

I was halfway expecting him to say I have no idea what you’re talking about –

But he surprised me.

“Sounds good to me.”

“Excellent. By the way, I enjoyed shooting your mercenaries. Do you have to pay anything extra to Wagner when you get their men killed?”

If it surprised him that I knew where he’d gotten his hired guns, he didn’t let on.

“If you thought THAT was bad, just wait to see what’s coming.”

“I think you misheard me. It wasn’t bad – it was pathetic.”

“I thought we were skipping the bullshit.”

“I never said anything about skipping the gloating.”

“Have you got the girl?”

Ah.

So there it was.

I ignored him. “I want to speak to Fausto.”

“No. You’re going to LISTEN.”

I frowned.

Something seemed off.

If I couldn’t speak to Fausto – if it was physically impossible – then Aurelio would have said something like He’s not here.

If Aurelio just didn’t want to give in to my demands to speak to his father, he probably would have told me to go fuck myself.

But this…

It sounded like Aurelio didn’t want me to speak to Fausto.

“Did you do this?” I asked, stunned. “Does Fausto even know about it?”

“Shut up and listen – ”

“Did you go rogue, you fucking idiot?!”

“Give me the girl and I’ll drop everything. All the attacks against you and your brothers will go away.”

“And what if I don’t?” I sneered.

“Then I’ll rain down hell on all of you.”

“If a botched sniper attack and a bunch of inept Russians are supposed to scare me, you can go fuck yourself.”

“I’ll have the Widow within hours – and if you don’t hand the girl over, I’ll cut the old lady up piece by piece. Tell her granddaughter THAT.”

I figured it was a bluff.

Regardless, I couldn’t risk Lucia hearing it. It would fuck with her head –

So I just ended the call.

“Go fuck yourself, cousin,” I said and hung up.

Lucia stared at me. “What was that all about?”

“Oh, my cousin was just being a prick. As usual.”

“Assassination attempts are the usual?”

“They’re becoming surprisingly more and more common.”

Her expression darkened. “Did he want you to turn me over?”

“Of course.”

“And what did he offer in exchange?”

“A box of chocolates and a pony.”

She snorted in amusement. “And what did you say?”

“I don’t give a shit about ponies.”

“What if he doubled up on the chocolate?”

“He’d have to triple up at the very least.”

“Good to know.”

The phone rang. It was Aurelio again.

Before I could do anything, Lucia grabbed the phone.

I tried to control my panic.

If Aurelio told her his threats against the Widow –

“Hey, is this Aurelio?” she asked cheerfully.

He gave some sort of answer I couldn’t hear.

“And you’re behind all this shit?”

Another answer.

“Good, nice to meet you,” she replied. “Now suck my dick.”

And she hung up.

Relief washed through me – not to mention amusement.

It was nice hearing her potty mouth aimed at somebody besides me for once.

I particularly enjoyed imagining the confusion and rage on my cousin’s face right about now.

“We should probably download the GPS coordinates to wherever we’re going and put the phone on Airplane mode,” Lucia suggested. “Just in case he has some way of tracking us.”

I thought about calling Niccolo and letting him know about Aurelio’s threats –

But it wouldn’t really change anything.

Fausto possibly being out of the loop was interesting –

But it was an assumption on my part, nothing more. I could tell Niccolo about my theories later. He had enough to deal with at the moment.

“Sounds good,” I said. “Can you download it for me?”

“Okay,” she said.

She was quiet while she downloaded the information.

I enjoyed the silence while it lasted –

But it didn’t last long.