Mafia Kings: Massimo: Dark Mafia Romance Series #3

For all her fearsome behavior towards her underlings and the other families of the Cosa Nostra, the Widow must have been a pushover with her granddaughter – because she had raised a little brat.

The old woman definitely should have spanked Lucia a lot more while she was growing up.

I doubted she’d ever been told ‘no,’ because I had never encountered such an irritating woman in my LIFE.

It was like arguing with a toddler –

So I treated her like a toddler.

I swept her up, threw her over my left shoulder, and started walking.

She didn’t like that.

“PUT ME DOWN!” she screeched.

“No,” I said.

Her perfume was amazing – light, feminine, and floral – and it filled my nostrils with a delicate scent.

Luckily, her screaming and writhing made ignoring her smell a lot easier.

The other students stared at us like we were some sort of carnival freak show.

I didn’t like it – I had to get her out of here and away from all these witnesses as soon as possible.

That’s when I felt her hitting my back in a pique of fury.

It felt like somebody throwing dinner rolls at me.

“PUT ME DOWN, YOU MOTHERFUCKER!”

This girl had a mouth like a sewer.

“I’m taking you back to your grandmother,” I said calmly.

“You’re KIDNAPPING me is what you’re DOING!”

I clenched my jaw.

Talking about kidnapping in front of civilians was not good.

She knew better than that.

But I remained calm. “No, I’m saving you – ”

“HELP! HELP ME!” she started screaming, appealing to the other students.

I was getting very tired of this, very quickly.

Then the thing I was anticipating actually happened: a college boy walked over, trying to be a cowboy.

“Hey – ”

I shot him my best Do NOT fuck with me right now stare. “DON’T.”

I don’t like hurting civilians, but I had a mission: get Lucia back to her grandmother safely.

And if I had to break this kid’s jaw to complete my mission – and dissuade any other would-be heroes from interfering – I’d do it.

I wouldn’t feel good about it… but I’d do it.

Luckily, he immediately backed off.

Which meant he was smart.

Lucia, unfortunately, was not.

“GO GET THE POLICE!” she screamed at him.

I was shocked.

She had just committed the unpardonable sin.

Any kid who grew up in a mafia family – as Lucia most definitely had – knew that you never invited the police into Cosa Nostra business. You didn’t even joke about that shit.

And she most definitely was not joking.

My blood boiled.

Once again, I thought, Her grandmother should have spanked her growing up –

And then I decided that was exactly what she needed.

I reached up and smacked her ass.

Not enough to really hurt her –

Just a warning to SHUT THE FUCK UP.

I heard an audible gasp from her.

At the same time, a lot of students covered their mouths as they tried to stifle a laugh.

I hoped Lucia would see their reaction and that the humiliation would quiet her down.

No such luck.

“Did you just SPANK me?!” she demanded, sounding more angry than abashed.

“You know better than to say things like that,” I said coldly.

And then she went and fucked with me again.

She shouted, “I don’t care if you DID whack the Agrellas – ”

OH MY GOD, THIS GIRL.

When she’d mentioned the Agrellas earlier – before I’d thrown her over my shoulder – I had wanted to strangle her.

I settled for just spanking her a second time.

SMACK!

There was another shocked pause –

And then she started hitting me with her little baby fists again. “I’m going to pop a fucking CAP in your ass for that, you – ”

But I barely heard her.

Because at that moment, my worst fears came true.

A man walked out of a doorway at the far end of the hall.

He stood out from all the college students. He was in his 30s, shaved head, Slavic features, black shirt and pants.

No helmet or body armor, so he wouldn’t immediately give himself away –

But he did have a long black trench coat draped over his right shoulder and arm like some sort of opera cape.

A trench coat on a sunny day in the middle of June?

He was hiding something under there –

And it didn’t take him long to reveal it.

The Russian shrugged off the trench coat. As it fell, I saw his assault rifle pointing at the floor.

Ordinarily, I would have gone for my Glock – in fact, I’d thrown Lucia over my left shoulder to keep my gun hand free –

But I could draw or I could move.Exclusive © content by N(ô)ve/l/Drama.Org.

The stairwell was just five feet away.

And while I didn’t think the mercenary would fire on me while carrying the Widow’s granddaughter, I had no guarantees.

So I moved.

I darted for the staircase as the Russian started to lift his rifle.

I was already through the doorway when I heard screams behind me in the hall.

The students must have seen the gun –

But their screams were drowned out by a burst of gunfire.

BRATTATATAT!

The gunfire stopped –

Followed by more screams and the THUD of a body on the marble floor.

Roderigo, most likely, though I didn’t take time to look back and confirm.

I was already clattering down the stairway as fast as I could go.

I simultaneously reached under my jacket for my gun holster.

Lucia was screaming, “OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD – ”

But her voice vibrated louder and quieter, WAH wah WAH wah, as her body jolted every time my feet hit the steps.

I had my Glock out by the time I reached the third landing.

Students had been looking up towards the fourth floor in frightened curiosity –

But as soon as they saw my gun, they screamed and scattered.

I glanced down the central open space of the stairwell.

I only saw people fleeing down and not up –

Which was good. Only a mercenary or a policeman would be fighting his way against the crowd.

So I kept going down, and Lucia kept screaming as she bounced on my shoulder.

Two men raced into the stairwell from the second-floor doorway, pistols drawn.

I almost shot them –

Until I realized they were Terancio and Nino, the Widow’s men who had gone to search for Lucia.

“What’s going on?!” Nino shouted.

“Shooter on the fourth!” I yelled. “Go take him out!”

Both Nino and Terancio stared at me like I was insane.

Hell NO, we’re not going up there!

They were younger than me, which meant they probably hadn’t worked as foot soldiers for long. And the Widow hadn’t had any real competition in Venice for more than a decade, so they’d probably never faced a situation like this.

Too fucking bad.

It was their job to protect their boss’s family. It’s what they’d signed up for.

“GO!” I screamed as I blew past them down the stairs.

A burst of gunfire chattered above us –

BRATTATATAT!

And Terancio’s white shirt exploded with red.

Nino panicked, raised his gun, and started firing blindly up the central stairwell.

“FUCK!” I shouted as I kept going down.

When I reached the ground floor, it was pandemonium.

People were running and screaming in every direction.

Manfredo and Arnoldo came racing up, battling through the panicked crowd.

“What’s going on?!” Manfredo shouted.

“Shooter right behind us!” I yelled. “You wait at the edge of the stairwell and shoot him when he comes down! Arnoldo, clear my path to the boat!”

I knew that if there was one mercenary on the fourth floor, there were bound to be more – which is why I needed Arnoldo to go ahead of me.

If not to take them out, then at least draw their fire and make them betray their positions.

Callous, I know – but my only goal was to keep Lucia safe.

And I didn’t give a shit who had to die for me to do it.

Unlike their dumbass colleagues, Manfredo and Arnoldo raced into action.

Manfredo positioned himself at the edge of the staircase and waited.

Arnoldo ran for the front of the building and the boat dock, his gun drawn.

I followed about 20 feet behind him.

Arnoldo made it just beyond the front door onto the pier before he got cut down.

BRATTATATAT!

Arnoldo’s left side exploded with red and he went down.

I raced up to the doorway and peeked out.

A single mercenary dressed like the shooter on the fourth floor stood up out of a sleek speed boat. He was checking to make sure he’d killed Arnoldo.

I shot him in the head.

BLAM!

The mercenary jerked backwards and collapsed inside the cockpit of the boat.

One down…

I checked to my right –

No other shooters. Visible ones, anyway.

I raced for the speedboat, Lucia bobbing over my shoulder.

The motorboat I’d come in on was basically a nicer version of the civilian boats plowing through the canals.

If I used the motorboat and the mercenaries came after me in the speedboat, they’d easily overtake me.

Better to take theirs.

Back in the lobby, I heard distant shooting – both automatic fire from an assault rifle and repeated shots from a pistol.

Brattatatatatatat!

Bang bang bang bang!

Manfredo was facing off against the mercenary.

Then the gunfire stopped.

Somebody had probably won the shootout…

And my money wasn’t on Manfredo.

I reached the speedboat and unlashed the rope tying it to the pier. Then I stepped down into the craft, careful to keep my balance.

It was long and narrow and made of burnished teak, with two seats in the front, a narrow aisle between them, and three seats in the back of the cockpit.

I kept Lucia over my shoulder the entire time. Only once I was safely inside the boat did I set her down on her feet.

“Sit!” I yelled at her as I turned to the control panel. Thank God the keys were still in the ignition.

Of course, Lucia freaked out when she saw the dead mercenary on the floor.

“OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD – ”

“SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN!” I roared as I started the motor.

“THERE’S A DEAD BODY!”

“AND THERE’S GONNA BE TWO MORE IF I DON’T GET US OUT OF HERE!”

The boat was flush with the dock, so I reached over and pushed us away hard.

The nose of the boat slowly moved and pointed two foot out into the canal.

It was enough to get us going. Luckily there weren’t any other boats close enough to cause a problem.

I spun the steering wheel and slowly eased forward on the throttle.

I aimed my Glock at the university’s front door the entire time, watching in case a mercenary came out.

The boat angled towards the Grand Canal. I eased forward on the throttle to increase our speed –

And saw a figure limping towards us from the shadows of the main doorway, now about 50 feet away.

He was bald and all in black.

Not Manfredo.

But at least he was limping, which meant Manfredo had probably tagged him.

Before the mercenary could fire, I slammed the throttle forward.

The nose of the boat bucked up in the air and I slammed back in my seat.

Lucia screamed as she tumbled into the seats at the back of the cabin –

And we took off like a shot into the Grand Canal.