Mafia Kings: Adriano: Chapter 15

In the blink of an eye, my life had turned into a horror movie crossed with an action film.

My heart was beating three times as fast as possible, and I trembled from head to toe as the car sped down the narrow streets of old Florence.

“What the FUCK?!” Adriano roared.

“Is anyone shot?” Lars asked.

I’d heard Adriano call out his name during the firefight. His calmness was a stark contrast with Adriano’s rage.

There was a chorus of no’s from the other men.

Lars glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “Signorina – are you hurt?”

I shook my head mutely. I’m not sure I could have spoken even if I’d wanted to.

“What the fuck was THAT?!” Adriano bellowed.

“I think it’s pretty obvious, don’t you?” Massimo said.

I’d heard Adriano use his name several times, too.

His huge body was squeezed up against me on my left side, nearly crushing me against Adriano.

Suddenly Adriano turned towards me. “You KNEW about this, didn’t you?!”

I shook my head frantically, my eyes on the gun in his hand.

“This was a set-up – and you were the fucking bait!” Adriano snarled in my face.

I was terrified beyond belief.

These men were mafiosos – I just knew they were going to kill me and dump my body in the woods.

“I swear to God, I didn’t know – I just wanted to save my f-father!” I babbled as I burst into tears.

And just like that, Adriano calmed down.

He still looked like he wanted to kill someone – but at least he stopped shouting.

“Are you going to k-kill me?” I sobbed.

“No,” he said in a gruff voice. “Not if you didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“I d-didn’t, I promise!”

“Then you’re safe. Massimo, call Dario – we’ve got to let him know that the Agrellas might be coming for them.”

As Massimo pulled out his cell phone, Lars addressed Adriano in the rearview mirror. “You knew something was going down in the hotel suite – but how?”

“It was something she said,” Adriano replied, gesturing to me. “Her father owes money to the Agrellas, and they agreed to knock off three grand if she came here tonight. Nobody in their right mind would pay that – which meant she was expendable. So were the other girls.”

She was expendable.

My blood ran cold as soon as Adriano said it.

That meant that everyone…

Sergio –

Those people at the agency –

They’d all known they were sending me to my death.

I wanted to throw up.

“Niccolo?” Massimo suddenly said into his cell. “Hold on – let me put you on speaker.”

He held the phone out so everyone could hear.

“I’m assuming this isn’t good news,” a man’s voice spoke.

“No, it’s not,” Adriano snapped. “Is Dario there?”

“Yes,” a deeper voice said.

“It was a set-up. The Agrellas tried to kill us.”

There was a pause… then the deep voice asked, “Are you alright?”

“We lost Rolando and Gasparo. A couple of others might have been shot, but they all made it into the cars.”

“Lars and Massimo?”

“We’re fine,” Massimo said.

“You should be ready in case they move on you,” Adriano said to the phone.

“Already working on it,” Niccolo said.

“Tell me exactly what happened,” Dario ordered.

Adriano summarized everything in 20 seconds. I was surprised to hear some of the details – like Adriano moving the table into position to use as a shield.

When Adriano finished, Dario said, “Quick thinking.”

Niccolo added, “Now get back here as soon as possible.”

“No,” Adriano said.

There was a pause.

I could almost see the surprised faces of the two men on the other end of the line.

“EXCUSE me?” Niccolo said in both irritation and surprise.

“We pulled someone out with us,” Adriano said. “A girl the Agrellas hired for the evening. I think she can shed some more light on this.”

“Yes, well, we can question her just as effectively HERE. Now g– ”

“The Agrellas are expecting us to retreat,” Adriano argued. “We have a chance to hit them when their guard is down! If we run back to the estate – ”

“Then no one else DIES.”

“And the Agrellas get away with their bullshit!” Adriano shouted.

“If Rolando and Gasparo are dead, you have ten men at your immediate disposal. Fewer, if any others got wounded. You’re going to take on the whole fucking Agrella family with ten men?”

“I have eight more at the safe house.”

“Oh, MY mistake! Eighteen men – that’s a whole fucking ARMY!” Niccolo said facetiously. Then he growled, “Get back here NOW.”

“I’m the capo of Florence. I can’t go hiding behind big brother every time something goes wrong.”

“This isn’t a playground fight, you fool!”

“Retreating makes me look weak.”

“Better than making you look like a corpse!”

Adriano got a resolute look on his face. “If my don orders me back, I’ll come – but otherwise, it should be my call.”

There was a long pause before Dario finally spoke. “Talk to the girl and see what you can find out. But don’t go attacking the main compound – that’s suicide.”

“What about one of the Agrellas’ safe houses?” Adriano suggested. “Didn’t their consigliere give us an address after the Turk’s men tried to kill Massimo and Valentino in Florence?”

“That’s true…”

“We could grab a couple of their men and squeeze them for information.”

I was pretty sure ‘squeeze them for information’ was a euphemism for torture, and I felt nauseated all over again.

“Do it,” Dario said.

When Niccolo spoke again, he sounded testy. “I’ll text you the address.”

“We need to do something about Rolando and Gasparo’s bodies,” Adriano said. “If the Agrellas don’t make them ‘disappear,’ that is.”

“I’ll call our contacts in the police.”

“Try De Luca and Conti in Homicide,” Adriano suggested.

“I see somebody did his homework,” Niccolo sneered.

“I take my job as capo seriously.”

“Well, do us a favor and take it seriously enough that you don’t get yourself – or anyone else – killed.”

Adriano looked pissed. “Your faith in me is overwhelming, Nic.”

“Yeah, yeah. Call us when you decide what you’re going to do… CAPO.”

“Alright. Thanks, Dario.”

“Be safe, brother. That goes for all of you.”

“We will.”

From the repeated use of ‘brother,’ I wondered if they were all related or if it was just the way they addressed each other.

Massimo ended the call and pocketed his phone.

“We can’t go to the Agrella’s safe house like this,” Lars said. “The car looks like Swiss cheese.”

“Get back to the safehouse so we can switch it out,” Adriano ordered. Then he looked at me. “In the meantime, I want to hear what Bianca knows.”

Oh shit…

I started trembling all over again. “I don’t know anything, I swear!”

“You may not know what you know. Start with your father – what’s his role in all of this?”

As soon as he said your father, I immediately remembered the voicemail.

“Wait – hold on,” I said as I reached into my leather dominatrix top.

“What the fuck’re you – oh,” Adriano said as I retrieved my phone.

“Nice hiding place,” Massimo said humorously.

Adriano shot Massimo an irritated look – like he didn’t want the giant looking at my boobs – then turned back to me. “Well?”

“I was listening to this right before the shooting started,” I said, then played them the voicemail.

After the recording ended, Adriano frowned. “What does he mean, ‘it’s a lot bigger than me owning them money’?”

“I don’t know!”

“Call him back.”

“He’s not answering any of my – ”

“Call him back NOW.”

I hit redial on the phone, but the call immediately went to voicemail.

“See?” I snapped.

Then I thought of something else.

“My mother,” I said in panic. “Please – we have to go get her – ”

“We’ll deal with her in a minute,” Adriano said. “Now tell me what you – ”

“Please, I’m begging you!”

“IN A MINUTE!”

I burst out crying.

He softened a little bit. “Fine, Jesus Christ, we’ll get your mother – just tell me what happened before you got to the hotel!”

I sniffled. “I went to the modeling agency… there was a woman… and a gay guy named Luca did my hair and makeup…”

“What woman?”

“She ran the place, I think. Luca said her name was Martina.”

“Was there anyone else?”

“Um – yes. There was a guy behind a door who told the woman to get me ready. I didn’t see him, but he sounded fat.”

“What do you mean, he ‘sounded fat’?”

“He wheezed when he spoke.”

Adriano exchanged looks with Massimo. “Bautiste.”

“Who?” I asked.

“One of the Agrella brothers. He’s in charge of their brothels, so the modeling agency is probably how they recruit girls.”

I felt sick to my stomach.

“Was there anyone else?” Adriano asked. “Did you hear the name Dominic or Savino?”

“No… but there was another man in the office who didn’t speak.”

“You saw him?”

“Yes. Just a glimpse before Martina closed the door.”

“Did he see you?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Was he older? Gray hair and a mustache?”

“No – he was young, tall, and thin. Clean-shaven and short hair.” I shuddered as I remembered his face. “He had cruel eyes.”

“Cruel eyes?”

I nodded. “He looked like he would have enjoyed hurting people.”

“That’s half the Cosa Nostra,” Lars said sardonically.

Adriano shot him a look, then turned back to me. “Anything else you can remember?”

“No, I swear.”

“We’re here,” Lars said as he turned into an alleyway.

We were in a seedy part of Florence – the warehouse district.

The car drove alongside a building until it reached a loading dock.

Lars flashed his lights. One of the sliding metal doors rolled up, and our car pulled in.

On the inside of the loading bay door stood a couple of guys. One had a pistol and the other held the chain that raised the door.

The loading bay was huge, at least a hundred feet long. Off to the right was a small fleet of black vehicles, all lined up in a row.

As we got out of our car, the other two Mercedes drove in behind us. The passenger sides were riddled with bullet holes, and the windows were white from all the cracks in them.

“Jesus, what happened?” the guy pulling the chain asked as he lowered the loading bay door.

“The Agrellas happened,” Adriano said as he hurried to the other cars. “How bad is it?”

“Cosimo and Elio got hit,” a man said. “Probably not fatal, but not good.”

“Get the gunshot doctor over here,” Adriano ordered. He pointed at the guy by the door. “You – go tell everybody upstairs that we roll out in five minutes.”

“Where to?”

“We’re gonna hit the Agrellas’ safe house and get some fuckin’ payback.”

The guy ran up some concrete stairs and went through a metal door.

“Adriano,” I said in a forlorn voice.

He looked over at me. “What?”

“…my mother…?”

Adriano scowled like he’d been hit with a migraine. “Shit… okay, call her and have her go someplace with a bunch of people around – a bar, a restaurant, anyplace like that. Have her wait for us there. Tell her NOT to bring anything with her, like clothes or a suitcase – if she’s being watched, we don’t want to tip anybody off. Vincenzo, get the address and go pick her up.”

Vincenzo didn’t look too happy. “I should go with you guys, boss.”

Adriano glared at him. “YOU should do what I TELL you to do.”

“Like how you did what Niccolo said to do?” Massimo muttered – not quite under his breath.

Adriano glared at him. “Don’t even start with me right now.”

Massimo held up his hands like Fine, whatever.

Adriano glanced over at his wheelman. “Vincenzo – ”

“I’ll go, I’ll go,” Vincenzo said sullenly.

Adrian slapped him on the shoulder. “Good man.”

“Should I go with him?” I asked Adriano.

“No, you stay here. Vincenzo’s gonna go get your mother, and then you’ll all lay low until we get back. Understood?”

“Yes.”

“And keep calling your father. I wanna know what he knows about the Agrellas.”

“I will,” I said, then added quietly, “Thank you.”

Adriano looked at me for a long second… then nodded. “You’re welcome. Vin, take her upstairs and get her situated while she calls her mom.”

“Are you going to leave somebody to watch her?” Massimo asked.

“She’s not going to run,” Adriano said, then looked at me. “Because she knows that if she does, the Agrellas are gonna find her and kill her. Not to mention her parents. We’re the only chance she’s got at saving her family.”

A shudder ran down my spine.

It was a reminder that as kind as Adriano could occasionally seem…

…he was still a mafioso.

And a killer.

Anything he did for me, he was really only doing for himself.

Vincenzo led me up the concrete stairs.

I glanced back as I followed him –

And saw Adriano watching me as I walked through the door.

When I caught him looking, he turned back to his men. “Chop chop, assholes! We’re out the door in three minutes!”