29. Adriano
Chapter twenty-nine
Adriano
I should feel victory. Vindication. The usual feeling that always comes after satisfying my bloodlust. After all, I’d just served justice to the last man directly responsible for my family’s spilled blood.
Instead, all I feel is relief. Relief that my greatest fear didn’t happen. Elena’s safe.
She’s standing a few feet away, hands clasped nervously in front of her.
Her face is pale under the strobing light of the federal vehicles, bruises and streaks of blood dusting her forehead and limbs… but I find myself thanking God that it’s nothing serious.
She breaks into a smile and runs to hug me, her torn gown whipping in the wind. I wince slightly when she wraps her arms around my torso, and she quickly readjusts, wrapping them around my neck.
I don’t hesitate to shut my eyes, painfully settling my hands on her waist and reeling in the feeling of her warmth—the feeling I feared I’d never experience again.
After a moment, she pulls back, hovering over the stab wound on my stomach and the bleeding in my shoulder, but I slowly stop her, lifting her chin to meet mine. The shoulder wound is just a graze.
Anger surges in my chest when I see her bruises up close.
“The bastard hurt you,” I grit out.
She drags my hand up to her cheek and leans into it. “I’m fine, Adriano,” she whispers.
I’m not satisfied with that answer. Fuck, everything in me wants to find the mayor and kill him with my own hands, and since I cannot, I do the next rational thing to calm my thoughts: I kiss her.
The kiss is deep, holding her close until her weight finally relaxes against mine. She sighs into the kiss before gently pulling back.
“God, I fucking missed you,” I whisper against her lips, not being able to hold myself back anymore.
“I missed you too, Adriano.”
Tears cloud her eyes, and I hold my breath when I see the look in them.
For years, I’d built walls. Discipline. Control. Emotion was a liability. I saw her as leverage… a tool. A delicious, forbidden pawn.
I used that to justify everything I did to her. But now… fuck… now, the way she isn’t looking at me with the hatred I deserve, but with something else—something I can’t yet name—strikes a sharp ache in my chest.
“Capo,” a voice calls out. I look over her head to see Francesco standing quietly at a distance. That’s when I remember the instruction I’d given Elena.
“I told you to meet Francesco. You didn’t.”
She shakes her head, her voice a trembling whisper. “I-I couldn’t leave you.”
I clench my fingers, the mere thought of how close I came to losing her invading my mind.
“Don’t ever put yourself in harm’s way for me, Elena. I can handle myself.”
There’s silence, then she says, “But you did. You risked your life—everything—for me, Adriano.”
Something shifts in my core. “I thought you’d hate me.”
She pauses, her shoulders sagging. “I’m still mad at you for some of the things you did… but I’m… I don’t want to hold anything over your head.”
“Boss, we have to leave now. The feds are swarming the area. If they see you in this state, it may be hard for Conrad to cover our tracks.”
I nod and follow Francesco until we reach the car, sliding in after Elena. The ride back to the mansion is silent until Elena gasps. “Enzo! H-He was outside the mayor’s place and—”
“He’s fine. Some of my men rescued him just before the mayor’s men started shooting at him.”
Her eyes widen momentarily before she inhales deeply. “Thank you.”
Thankfully, Francesco had been keeping an eye on the mayor’s residence, so he spotted Thompson's guards abducting Enzo. They were driving the old man to some isolated stretch of road, waiting on orders to execute him, but our guys intercepted the vehicle just in time.
I release a heavy sigh, the movement sending a dull ache through my stomach.
While that bastard, Caughn, was gloating in Nevada, I was recording.
He thought it was over when he stabbed me, but Liza had sent Jeremiah after me.
As it turns out, right after I left, she’d sent him to the shack to see what her husband had left there.
When Jeremiah saw Caughn’s Polaroid and the coordinates, he told Liza, and she was convinced that the mayor—and Caughn—had something to do with her husband's death. She’d only seen Caughn once and recognized him as a relative of the mayor, but even then, she knew—wife’s instincts—that the evil duo would be her husband’s undoing.
She deemed it necessary to make sure that justice was served and that I had actually killed Caughn.
If I hadn’t, she’d convinced Jeremiah to put a bullet through Caughn’s chest instead.
That was why Jeremiah flew to the location.
I had a feeling there was something going on between Jeremiah and Liza.
Thankfully, Jeremiah reached me just in time to get me out of the room Caughn had locked me in, and provided first aid. After that, I returned to Manhattan and handed Francesco the evidence.
We filtered out the parts that could implicate me and sent the recording to Shane, who expressed massive interest in the story.
Then we found someone reliable in the FBI.
Mark Conrad. He was a loyalist of my father and immediately sprang to help when he saw I needed it.
The meeting was supposed to happen at the initial waterfront location, but the mayor rerouted us to a decommissioned container yard a couple of miles away.
The motherfucker didn’t trust the initial location.
Probably paranoid that a man like me would have cased the place, or at least had men staking it out.
I still wish I had killed him with my own hands, but death is an easy way out for a man like him. Caughn’s final words echo in my mind, snapping the last puzzle piece into place. The mayor had planned on eliminating him, too.
After bragging to me some more in the cell, he’d received a call which made him leave. But I guess luck was on my side when, hours later, Jeremiah showed up at the cabin.
Perhaps the caller had invited Caughn to… check out some evidence? Or maybe he left to clear his head since the truth would be too much for someone like him. Jeremiah had mentioned it during the rescue—he said Liza had learned from her husband that there was strife between the two.
Caughn wanted to be seen as the mayor’s son, not some illegitimate killing machine that had to be hidden.
And so all the dirty things he did, he did them because the mayor had promised to publicly acknowledge him as his son.
When Caughn realized the mayor would never see him as anything other than his lethal attack dog, he started acting up, so the mayor secretly planned his elimination.
I shut my eyes, exhaling deeply. Where one man is willing to lay down his life to avenge and save the ones he loves, another is offering his son as the ultimate sacrifice for power. Images of my mother’s lifeless eyes flash in my mind.
“My mother…” I start, though I don’t know why. “She used to be the reason I still held on to my last shred of morality. But when she died, I-I didn’t know what to do with myself. For years, I had nightmares of her lifeless face. All I wanted was revenge.”
“And that led me to do things… I used you.” Guilt eats me up at the thought. “Lied. Manipulated. Took your family’s money. I nearly killed Enzo.”
I hold my breath when I see the tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Elena.” My voice is raw. “I don’t think any kind of apology would undo the damage I’ve done.”
For the longest time, she goes silent, and I notice the slight clench of her fist.
“I know,” she finally sighs, swallowing thickly. There’s no forgiveness in her words yet, just acknowledgment.
“And I hated you for it. I still might, some days,” she scoffs.
“But beyond that, I also see the man who went completely crazy over a guard helping me up, tracking down the exact sneakers I liked and buying them in every single color just so I wouldn’t have a reason to think about anyone else.
I see the same man who risked his life… who took a bullet for me. ”
She shifts in her seat, angling her whole body toward me as a tear rolls down her cheek. “I-I said a lot of hurtful things to you, too. I’m sorry. I’m sorry about your mother. No one deserves to watch their family get slaughtered, and live with the guilt for so long.”
“I judged you without trying to under—”
“It’s okay.” For some reason, my heart aches at the tears in her eyes. I ruined her family.
“Let’s just… go home,” she mutters.
***
Once the doctor finishes patching me up and securing the stitches, I head back to the room. Despite all that happened, for the first time in my life, my head is quiet. No thoughts, no noise… just me.
When I open the door, I’m met with the beautiful sight of Elena’s naked body.
The doctor had said to stay away from intense physical activity, but fuck that. My dick throbs as I trail my gaze down her luscious curves. Damn!
I don’t know how long I stare, but she suddenly turns, aware of my presence. Her face reddens as she scampers to get something to cover up. I quickly stop her.
“Leave it,” I rasp, licking my lips when I notice her nipples hardening.
Her hands, which have flown up to cover herself, freeze. Her eyes widen as a fresh wave of heat paints her skin a redder shade. I let out a low groan, walking slowly toward her while savoring the full swell of her breasts and her pink, wet pussy.
As I trail my eyes down her curves, I see the bruises, stirring a low growl in my chest. It takes a lot to remind myself that it’s all over now.
“Adriano,” she whispers, her voice trembling, and that’s all it takes.
I pull her closer to me, one hand curving around her waist as the other grabs her breast. She gasps, and I slam my lips against hers with a growing hunger.
My cock twitches as she locks her arms around my neck, pushing her perky nipples against the thin fabric of my singlet.