Married to the mafia King

Adriano

Back in the restaurant, Mezzasalma’s gunshots had broken a couple of my ribs.

It was painful just to breathe

But adrenaline and my terror for Bianca helped me ignore it.

I couldn’t ignore it anymore when we slammed into the Rolls and I got tossed around like a ragdoll.

It felt like knives were stabbing into my lungs.

I grunted and slipped back inside the car.

“You alright?” Massimo yelled as he tapped on the brakes and our car backed off.

“Yeah,” I grunted. “Just stay on him.”

Bianca

The sandy-haired man opened a bulky container sitting on the back seat

And pulled out an olive-colored metal cylinder.

It was about two feet long and four inches in diameter.

There were small rectangular blocks affixed to the top like some sort of gunsights.

Then he pulled something else out of the case:

A metallic tube about a foot long.

There was a trio of fins at the base…

And a bulbous tip that resembled an elongated grenade.

I stared in terror as I realized what I was looking at:

A rocket launcher.

I remembered what Mezzasalma had said about the helicopter.

Wait until we’re out of the city so the buildings won’t get in the way… then take it out.

If the rocket was powerful enough to take down a helicopter, it would absolutely destroy a car

Whether it was bulletproof or not.

“Keep it steady,” the sandy-haired man said as he crawled back onto the center console.

“Just make it count,” Mezzasalma snarled.

Then the man hoisted himself back up through the sunroof.

Adriano

The gunman was coming back out of the sunroof…

But he no longer had an Uzi.

He had something else braced on top of his shoulder.

“What the hell is that?” Massimo muttered.

Suddenly, I knew.

“ROCKET LAUNCHER!” I screamed. “BRAKE, BRAKE ”

Massimo slammed on the brakes

But by then, it was over.

Bianca

It felt like an eternity…

But it probably happened in less than two seconds. While the sandy-haired man was getting into position.

I knew without a doubt that if he fired it, Adriano would die.

I couldn’t let that happen.

I couldn’t.

Our car was speeding along a ridge, a high hill above the countryside.

There weren’t any cars near us besides the Mercedes.

A metal guard rail went by in a blur to my right, the reflectors flashing in our headlights.

Beyond them was only darkness.

I wondered if that was what death would be like

Going beyond what you could see, then into darkness.

I glanced over at Mezzasalma.

He was fixated on the rearview mirror

And his bad eye was the one closest to me.

If I was going to do it, I had to do it now.

I had two last thoughts in my head:

Keep my parents safe, Adriano.

And…

I love you.

I reached out with my left hand and clicked the release on Mezzasalma’s seatbelt.

I heard him exclaim, “What !”

But I had already leaned over and grabbed the steering wheel

And I turned it as hard as I could to the right.

We hit the guardrail at eighty miles per hour.

There was a screech of metal

A jolt

The world turned upside down

And then we were through…

…into the darkness.

Adriano

The Rolls hit the guard rail.

The metal buckled immediately in a shower of sparks

And the car flipped.

“NOOOOOOOO!” I screamed in horror.

I saw the guy with the rocket launcher jerk back, the tube ripped from his shoulder by the impact

And he disappeared as the car flipped.

The undercarriage of the car was all we could see

And then that disappeared over the edge, too.

A second later came the first impact, metal hitting into the ground, louder than thunder.

Massimo slammed on the brakes.

The Mercedes skidded hard and went into a fishtail…

Then came to a halt about 90 feet away from the hole in the guard rail.

I was out of the car before we completely stopped.

“BIANCA!” I screamed as I stumbled across the road, running for the gap in the metal.

I ignored the white-hot shards of pain that seared my guts and lungs.

None of that existed for me.

Nothing existed but her

And the hope that she might still be alive.

“ADRIANO, WAIT!” Massimo bellowed as he got out of the Mercedes.

I ignored him as I reached the mangled guard rail and slipped down into the underbrush covering the hill.

The Rolls was about 50 feet below me, upside down, its wheels still spinning.

Somehow the car had turned around as it slid. The headlights were facing the road, and they lit my way as I scrambled down the hill.

Then I reached the gunman with the rocket launcher.

Or at least the top half of him.

His body had been ripped in two, sheared off by the impact of the car roof with the hillside.

I ignored the horror of it all and continued down the hill.

I reached the passenger side door of the Rolls. I jerked at the handle and flung it open…

And there was Bianca, hanging upside down, her body held in place by the seatbelt.

There was blood everywhere.

Covering the leather upholstery…

The airbags that had deployed from the dashboard…

And all over her.

“Baby baby, can you hear me?!” I cried out, nearly sobbing, as I leaned in close.

No answer…

But she was still alive.

I could hear her ragged, wheezing breath.

“PILOT, GET DOWN HERE!” I screamed as I reached inside to try and support her body.

“Roger,” the pilot said in my ear. “I’m setting down in the field near the car.”

I heard the roar of the chopper above me, saw the spotlight out of the corner of my eye, felt the wind whipping around me

But it was like something happening down a muted, distant hallway.

All that mattered was Bianca.

My whole world in that instant was her.

I found the release on the seatbelt and braced myself as I clicked it.

Her body slumped upside down into my arms. I fell backward as I pulled her out, her body cushioned by mine.

Once she was on the ground with me, I gently got her on the grass and checked her.

There were minor cuts and scrapes on her face, probably from the airbag deploying…

But there were no other cuts or wounds.

That was when I realized all the blood was probably from the guy who’d been cut in half.

For a second, I allowed myself to hope.

“Baby?” I yelled over the noise from the helicopter. “Baby, can you hear me?”

No answer.

Footsteps came rushing up behind me.

Massimo.

“Let me take her,” he shouted as the wind whipped around us.

“I…”Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

“You’re in no shape to carry her! Let me take her,” Massimo yelled. “Please.”

I hesitated, then nodded.

He reached under her body, then lifted her into the air like he was carrying a child.

“Come on, we gotta get you to the hospital, too,” he yelled at me.

The wind whipped her red dress around as Massimo walked towards the chopper.

I strained to get to my feet…

And then I remembered something.

I turned back to the car.

Mezzasalma was there on the driver’s side.

He hadn’t been wearing his seatbelt. His body was broken and twisted like a pretzel, his head bent at an unnatural angle on the ceiling of the car.

But he was smiling.

His vacant gaze stared at me mockingly… especially that one white eye…

And he leered at me with yellow teeth in his blood-stained face.

I think he was dead…

I was almost sure of it…

But I didn’t give a shit.

My rage was beyond reason.

I pulled out my gun and I unloaded every bullet I had into his face.

When I heard the click that let me know it was empty…

I got to my feet, then turned and staggered towards the chopper after Massimo…

…and my girl.

My Bianca.