It took a little longer than I would have liked, but soon we were back on the road in fresh cars that hadn’t been shot all to hell.
A foot soldier named Giorgio was driving. Lars rode shotgun, and Massimo sat with me in the back.
I was beginning to regret not sticking him in another car.
“This is insane,” he grumbled for the tenth time. “We should be headed back to the house like Niccolo said.”
He meant our family estate in Tuscany, the mansion where Niccolo and Dario were.
I scowled. “The Agrellas tried to slaughter us tonight, and you wanna pussy out?”
“No, what I want is to be smart about it.”
“This is smart. The Agrellas aren’t expecting us to hit back.”
“You hope.”
“What the fuck are we supposed to do, man? Sit around with our dicks in our hands and wait for the perfect moment to get back at them?”
“No – ”
“Then what’s the fuckin’ problem?”
Massimo glared at me. “You went against Niccolo.”
“What, because I didn’t want to run away like a little bitch? Dario backed me up.”
“Dario only said ‘yes’ because he knew you were gonna go off half-cocked if he didn’t. He knows it’s better to keep you on a leash, even if he has to play it out a little.”
“No – ”
“YES,” Massimo said angrily. “We all know you, Adriano. Don’t act like you’re a different guy than I grew up with. We all know you’re gonna do whatever the hell you want to do, and fuck everybody else.”
“I told Dario that if he ordered me back, I’d go. And he didn’t. So why don’t you tell me what this is really about, fratellino?”
‘Fratellino’ is Italian for ‘little brother.’
Massimo had five inches and 70 pounds on me, but he was three years younger… and he hated it when I called him fratellino.
Which is why I did it.
The bastard was working my last nerve.
“I’ll tell you what this is about,” Massimo said. “This is about you not wanting to look weak… because you’re terrified of looking weak.”
His words hit me like a gut punch.
Partly because, deep down –
In a place I didn’t even want to admit existed –
I knew he was right.
But like I said… I wasn’t about to admit that shit.
“Fuck you,” I snarled.
“No, FUCK YOU. You’re endangering all our lives so you can look like the big man and finally step out of Dario’s shadow – ”
I was about to punch Massimo in the face when Lars cleared his throat.
“Ahem,” he said as he looked at Giorgio in the driver’s seat.
His meaning was clear:
Handle this shit in private.
NOT in front of your men.
Massimo didn’t like being corrected.
“Somebody needs to say it,” he grumbled.
“Not now, they don’t,” Lars said quietly.
Giorgio knew exactly what was going on.
“I won’t say nothin’, boss,” he swore as he looked at me in the rearview mirror. “What gets said in the car, stays in the car. On my mother’s grave.”
“Thank you, Giorgio,” I said, then glared at Massimo. “Nice to have some actual fuckin’ loyalty for once.”
“‘Loyalty’? You wanna talk about loyalty?” Massimo snapped. “How about some loyalty to your family and your men? You’re four soldiers down and you wanna go hit the Agrellas’ safe house, but you send Vincenzo to go pick up an old lady. What the fuck is that all about?”
I tensed up.
He had me on that one.
It was a bad decision, and I knew it.
To do a gigantic favor for some girl I didn’t even know –
Who’d been a monumental bitch to me, by the way –
It was beyond fucking stupid.
But…
I had to.
Why?
Fuck if I knew.
All I know is if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s seeing a woman cry.
Before Dario and Alessandra got married, they’d had their first big fight. He’d basically cut her loose and told her to get out.
An hour later, she came down the stairs and said goodbye to me and everybody else before Lars took her home.
The entire time, she was fighting back tears. Trying to be brave.
I was furious with Dario –
Because I could see how much she was suffering.
I could see how much Alessandra loved him… how much Dario meant to her.
She was a good woman…
And it tore me apart to see her in so much pain.
I was the last in line.
When she got to me, I told her, “You deserve better than this.”
She broke down into sobs, and it was like a knife in my heart.
It was the same thing with Bianca.
I’d been furious with her when we first jumped in the car.
I was sure she’d set us up –
Then she started crying and talking about her father.
That was what really got me.
I could tell that she loved him.
That she was terrified for him.
So when she started asking me to get her mother to safety…
I couldn’t say ‘no.’
I just couldn’t.
It was stupid.
I know that.
But… I couldn’t.
While all of those thoughts and memories were going through my head, I didn’t say anything.
Massimo took the opportunity to twist the knife.
“You wouldn’t be falling down on the job on account of her being a smokin’ hot piece of ass, would you?” he asked with a smirk.
I could’ve killed him right then and there.
The implication that I’d betray my family and my men for a piece of tail –
I saw red.
And I backhanded the son of a bitch.
It wasn’t a punch. I mean, I was sitting next to Massimo. All I could basically do was smack him with the back of my left hand.
But it stunned him –
And sent him into a fury.
“YOU LITTLE – ” he roared as he pulled back his right hand –
“GUYS!” Lars shouted from the front seat.
It was like our father yelling at us when we were kids. Exact same reaction.
Massimo and I both froze.
“Jesus fuckin’ Christ,” Lars hissed under his breath. “Idiots.”
Massimo glared at me but didn’t say anything. Then he looked away.
I didn’t say anything, either.
He’d stepped out of line, yeah –
But I’d been out of line, too.
I was the capo – the family’s man in Florence – and I had every right to discipline a subordinate who stepped out of line.
Slap the shit out of him, if I wanted to.
Hell, some capos shot people in the head just to make a fuckin’ point.
But Massimo was my brother…
And we were acting like we were snotnose kids again.
Lars was right to call us out on it –
But it still rankled me.
Nobody said anything for the next two minutes until Giorgio slowed the car down.
“We’re here,” he said quietly.
