28. Elena
Chapter twenty-eight
Elena
Day Two of the Deadline—Evening
For the thousandth time today, I say the Lord’s Prayer. It’s the second day of the deadline, and there’s been no call from Adriano. I know that since my escape attempt, the mayor has moved me from the blue room to the formal dining room where we met the night I arrived here.
He’s seated beside me, watching the telephone, like it’ll somehow disappear.
He’s trying to mask it, but I can sense the nervousness…
the fear. It’s almost 10 p.m. and there’s been nothing to show that Adriano has taken the bait.
Only calls from Enzo, pleading to speak with the mayor.
He’s been outside the gate since yesterday.
The mayor hasn’t stopped taunting me with the live footage of Enzo’s broken figure on the monitor, begging to exchange his life for mine.
I’ve been trying to stay positive, but the constant pang in my heart is a brutal reminder of my doom.
If Adriano doesn’t show up, I’m dead. I exhale heavily as images of my loved ones flash in my mind.
Mom, Bella, Enzo, Annora... and Adriano.
Somehow, he’s also managed to take over a permanent space in my head.
It’s supposed to be comforting, the last images I see before I die, but it’s not. I shake my head, training my eyes on the half-eaten plate of spaghetti they fed me, when the telephone rings. The mayor rises quickly to answer it.
“Oh, thank fucking God, Victor.” He releases a breath of relief, pinching the bridge of his nose as he picks up. “What happened?”
Victor? As in Victor Caughn?
The atmosphere is tense as the mayor listens for a while, then suddenly he bursts into anger.
“A dead man’s of no fucking use to me, Victor. What is wrong with you?!”
I feel the blood entirely draining from my face. Somehow, I know they’re talking about Adriano. The mayor goes silent for a while as Victor speaks on the other end, then hurls his chair across the room angrily.
“Explain what the fuck you mean by you can’t find him?! So you had him for more than four hours, Victor. More than four fucking hours!” He pinches his nose again, his breathing growing heavier by the second. “And you didn’t think to call?”
“Bullshit! You didn’t really think leaving a man like Bellandini alone in the cabin was a good idea, did you? Where the fuck did you go? Are you incapable of a simple task now, or are you now operating on your own volition?”
“…You know what? I have contacts in Nevada, they’ll search the area for him. We’ll save the rest of the fucking drama for when you get here,” he hisses, ends the call, then picks up his cellphone, barking orders into it, but I completely tune him out.
Has something happened to Adriano?
Tears of fury and helplessness blur my vision. Thinking of his death only worsens the ache in my head.
***
Hours pass, and I’m left alone in the room, dread twisting my stomach. No one comes in, no one answers, just the slow, suffocating tick of time pressing in as questions continue to swarm my head. Until suddenly the mayor returns, fuming, with four guards flanking him.
He’s on the phone, but his posture is tense. After dropping the call, he types rapidly on his phone and barks out orders to the guards. Before I know it, I’m hauled up, the ropes yanked from my body only to be bound tightly around my wrists.
“W-What’s happening?” I ask, staggering as they push me toward the door. Instead of a response, I’m met with more harsh shoves.
My heart races with fear as I’m handled roughly down the stairs and into a car with the mayor seated in the front and four heavy bodyguards behind me.
No one speaks as the car tears through the night with great speed. Nervousness wracks my spine as thoughts storm my mind. Are they taking me somewhere to kill me now?
The mayor isn’t a man who bluffs. Since they’re carting me out and Adriano is presumably still missing, it means he wants to kill me.
Sweat breaks out on my forehead, dripping down my neck, even in the fully air-conditioned vehicle.
“Mr. Mayor, y-you don’t have to do this,” I try, but my throat clenches.
“Shut up before I make you,” he responds without glancing at me, then turns to the man driving. “The plan remains the same. Once all this is over, there’s one last thing I need Victor for. After that, you get rid of him. He’s becoming a liability I can’t handle.”
They share a knowing look before silence fills the car again.
I shut my eyes, tears streaming down my face as I whisper my last prayers. Then I open them when we bump down an uneven access road and stop in front of a vast, decaying warehouse.
“Out,” the mayor snaps, and I’m dragged from the car, the cold river wind whipping through my torn dress. One of the guards forces me to my knees, before the rest form a tight circle around me, guns drawn. The others from a different vehicle scan the empty dock.
“He better not be playing games,” the mayor mutters, checking his watch.
The silence that follows is deafening, broken only by the lapping of water against the pilings. Then, something snaps in the distance. From the tiny space between bodies, I see a figure emerging from the darkness.
A soft gasp escapes my lips as he walks slowly into the dim glow of a lone security light. He’s tall, broad-shouldered, and walks with a predatory grace that I’ve come to know all too well. Adriano.
Relief floods me so intensely that I release a strangled cry. Suddenly, a guard yanks me upright. And my relief turns into fear. He came, but at what cost?
Giving himself up for me?
Did he really do that?
For me?
Adriano stops about fifty yards away, his coat swaying as the breeze whips past him. His hands are visibly clenched by his sides.
“Bellandini!” the mayor calls out, his voice echoing through the night. “You’re a hard man to pin down, but not immune to sentiment, it seems.”
Adriano doesn’t respond, and the guards give way, revealing me. Even from yards away, I feel his gaze on me… like a silent question. As if asking if I’m okay.
I give a weak nod.
“Let her go,” Adriano demands, his voice curling something in my belly. Fuck. So much for drawing the line. I’m just so glad he’s here.
“You have me,” he snarls.
“First, we ensure you’re compliant,” the mayor shoots back.
Instantly, two guards approach Adriano, their guns drawn, and one begins to pat him down. The first guard pulls a Glock from a shoulder holster, tosses it aside, and then pulls a small knife from his boot.
“Satisfied?” Adriano grits out.
“For now,” the mayor says. “The trade. She walks to you. Once she’s past you, my men will take you into custody. Try anything and the snipers on the containers kill her instantly.”
Adriano nods. A guard shoves me forward, causing me to stumble before I quickly catch myself. My legs feel stiff as I take nervous steps across the uneven ground. Adriano does the same, mirroring my movements until we converge in the center.
My heart wrenches when I get a close-up look at him. His face is pale, cheeks hollow and lips cracked like he’s been through hell and back.
Without thinking, I latch onto him, wrapping my arms tightly around his neck.
He hugs me back with the same intensity.
And in that moment, I feel it all at once.
I finally stop fighting it. He can deny it all he wants, and I can pretend he’s just my enemy, but a man doesn’t walk straight into an execution squad for a piece of leverage.
His low voice suddenly breaks through my racing thoughts, snapping me right back to the danger of the moment. “Black sedan. Two blocks away. Meet Francesco and leave this place,” he whispers briefly.
Tears blur my vision when the guard yanks me away from him and points his gun at Adriano, a reminder for him to keep walking.
My heart grows heavier the farther I walk away from him, nausea twisting my insides at the same time. I can’t live knowing someone sacrificed his life for mine.
And maybe that’s why I don’t do as he says. Maybe that’s why I stop and hide behind a container, a few feet from the center of the dock.
I don’t know if I can save him, but I can’t leave him like this. I crouch down, peering out to watch the scene unfold before me.
“Sentiment,” the mayor sneers. “It really is the ultimate weakness.”
“So all of this was for a political endgame,” Adriano comments, too casually for someone whose life is about to be ruined.
If the mayor notices this, he doesn’t say. Instead, his smirk widens as the guard forces Adriano to his knees.
“A prosecutor is dead, the city is in an uproar, and the people need a monster to blame. You, my friend, are the perfect scapegoat.”
“Wiping out my entire family and killing a chain of other people, just to cover up your dirty little secret and rise to power.” Adriano shakes his head, lifting his hands in surrender. “You’d think the mayor would have more dignity than that.”
“Politics is a dirty game. Play it or be played. That’s the rule,” the mayor sneers. “It’s over for you, Adriano. I’ll be the hero who caught you. Clean up the city. And the secret dies with you… and Enzo.”
I gasp but quickly cover my mouth before I attract attention to myself. Lord knows what he’s done to Enzo.
“You should know I had a little chit chat with your bastard, Caughn.” Something in Adriano’s voice shifts. Something that tells me he has a plan.
The mayor pauses, then clenches his jaw.
“When Caughn had me in Nevada,” Adriano says, his voice low and confident, “he was… let’s say a little too chatty. So sure I’d lose. Wanted me to know how clever you both were.”
Silence. Then dread settles over the dock.
“You should check your mail. I dropped a little gift for you.”
The mayor goes still, all the arrogance completely wiped from his demeanor. Immediately, he barks a string of orders at his guards and, in no time, there’s a laptop in front of him.
The audio isn’t as loud as their voices, but I pick up a few words that someone, I assume Caughn, is saying. It’s basically gloat and ego.