Chapter 2
The drive to Florence took an hour. On the way, Adriano talked about all the stuff we had to do in the coming weeks.
It was a lot.
He eventually got around to the specifics of what I was supposed to do today.
“First drop me off at Bianca’s shop,” Adriano said.
Bianca had recently signed a lease for a space she was turning into a fashion boutique. The grand opening was in two months.
“After you’re done with puttana duty,” Adriano continued, “swing by the apartment at 6:30. I need you to drive us to her parents’ house for dinner.”
“Uh-oh,” I joked.
“Why ‘uh-oh’?” Adriano asked, suddenly pissed.
I glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “A lot of guys don’t exactly get along with their in-laws, that’s all.”
“Oh,” he said, then went back to having a sense of humor. “Naw, they’re good people. Besides, they think I walk on water after I saved Bianca’s dad.”
“Buying ‘em a new house probably didn’t hurt, either.”
He grinned. “Very true.”
I liked having Adriano as a boss. A lot of the other foot soldiers were scared of him, but not me.
Yeah, he had a temper – and yeah, he could get mad as a hornet at the drop of a hat – but he was fair. Adriano never did anything to anybody that they didn’t deserve.
He was also a brave motherfucker. I’d seen it myself a half-dozen times. He was always the first to rush through the door – the first to storm the castle. He would never ask you to do anything he wasn’t willing to do himself.
In my opinion, Don Rosolini was way scarier. You never knew what he was thinking, and he was really serious all the time.
Niccolo, on the other hand, was hilarious – when he wasn’t busting your balls.
For instance, the ‘Gorgeous George’ nickname came about because of Niccolo.
There was a cardinal who hung out with the old German pope – the guy who came before Pope Francis.
Some people thought the German pope and the cardinal were secretly shacking up.
Anyway, the cardinal’s nickname was ‘Gorgeous George.’
Niccolo called me that once, and then everybody fuckin’ started calling me that. The family, the foot soldiers… everybody.
I wasn’t real fond of Niccolo for a while.
Massimo and Lars were both really laid-back, which I liked, but they were hard to read. Though they were friendly with the foot soldiers, they didn’t hang out with us. There was a very clear line between us and them. Sort of like between officers and regular soldiers in the military.
Roberto was quiet and kept to himself. I didn’t know him very well.
Valentino was Valentino. Kind of spoiled. Always trying to prove himself, always taking stupid risks. He shot his mouth off when he shouldn’t, especially to Niccolo.
But, I had to admit, Val was always cool to me – and he’d mellowed out a lot since he got married.
To the kitchen girl!
Madonn, talk about marrying into money…
But I liked working for Adriano most of all, because you knew exactly where you stood with him.
He always spoke his mind. He never held back. And even if you pissed him off, if you worked hard and did your best not to screw up again, he recognized it. He never held your mistakes against you.
He was unpredictable in how angry he got – but he was predictable in that he always got angry. As long as you accepted it was gonna happen, you could just let it roll off your back.
A lot of guys didn’t handle that real well.
I did, so Adriano and me got along just fine.