Mafia Kings: Adriano: Chapter 45

We sat in a booth in a hole-in-the-wall dive bar.

It was around 4PM, so we were the only ones in the place besides the bartender and a couple of barflies.

Still, though, I kept an eye on the door. The encounter with the two addicts had unnerved me a little.

It had apparently shaken Bianca to the core.

I’d made her accompany me to the restroom, where I’d washed the remaining blood off my hands.

Then I paid for two shot glasses of brandy and carried them back to the booth.

“Drink that,” I ordered.

She downed the first shot and coughed.

I slid the second one over to her in case she needed it.

The color gradually came back into her cheeks, but she still didn’t say anything.

I regretted she’d seen it…

But I sure as hell didn’t regret doing it.

“You’re safe now,” I said.

“Am I?” she asked in an accusatory voice.

“Well, there’s still whoever killed the Agrellas, but – ”

“That’s not what I meant,” she whispered as she dropped her eyes to the table.

“…are you talking about me?!”

She glanced up at me fearfully, then looked back at the empty shot glass.

“Babe – ” I said as I reached across the table for her hand –

But she jerked it away.

I sat there for a moment in silence, thinking about how best to approach the situation.

“What did I do to the guy with the gun?” I finally asked.

Her gaze rose to meet mine.

Before she could answer, I said, “I knocked him out. Broke his finger to get the gun away from him, yes – but other than that, all I did was knock him out. He’ll probably wake up with a concussion and he’ll have to get that finger splinted… but that’s it. You know why he got off so easy?”

She shook her head slowly.

“Because he told the other guy to stay away from you.”

What I didn’t tell her was that if we’d been out in the countryside where nobody would have heard or seen anything, the guy would’ve gotten a couple extra nostrils.

He was lucky he’d pulled this shit in the city on a day when I didn’t need any extra attention.

I didn’t want to muddy the waters, though, so I left all of that out.

“But the other guy – he put his hands on you,” I hissed. “That guy was going to hurt you. And that’s why I did what I did.”

She looked at me for a long moment.

Then she whispered, “You could have killed him.”

“Damn straight. NO ONE touches you. Not like that. NO ONE.”

She continued staring into my eyes.

Then she finally said what I figured was at the root of all this.

“…what if I make you mad?”

I shook my head. “No. Never. I would never raise a finger against you. I don’t give a shit how mad you made me – I would never, ever hit you. NEVER.

“Number one, because I don’t want to…

“And number two, because I don’t hurt women. Only weak-ass pieces of shit who aren’t real men hurt women. And I am not a weak-ass piece of shit.

“I would never, ever, not in a million years hurt you, Bianca. That is the God’s honest truth. I swear it on my mother’s grave.”

Bianca just kept looking at me…

And I could see that the fear was gone from her eyes.

I reached across the table for her hand.

This time she gave it to me.

I pulled her hand to my lips…

…and I kissed it. Hard.

“You are beyond important to me,” I said. “Never doubt that. I will always keep you safe… and I will KILL any motherfucker who tries to hurt you. That I swear on my father’s grave.”

“Let’s… maybe… just not talk about killing people for a while?” she asked softly.

I kissed her hand again. “You got it.”

She nodded… took a deep breath and blew it out… then downed the second shot. “Okay… I think I’m good now.”

“Okay.”

We got up out of the booth and she turned towards the door.

“Bianca,” I said.

She turned back towards me –

And I circled my arms around her waist and kissed her.

Softly… gently.

She stiffened at first –

But then she melted into me, returning my kiss with equal tenderness.

We broke off when one of the old men at the bar yelled, “Get a room, you two!”

He laughed after he said it, though.

Bianca looked at me apprehensively, like she was worried about my reaction –

But I said, “Nothin’ I’d like better, old man,” as I took her hand and led her out of the bar.

The old guy and the other barflies cheered as we walked out.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t time for what I really wanted.

Because we had a job to do.