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“We’re kidnapping the bride-to-be.”
“What!” Benedetto says all too loudly, and I have to clamp a hand over his mouth, as I glare him into silence.
“Shut up!”
Benedetto huffs, crossing his arms. “Just what are you thinking, Romano?Doyou want to start a war?”
I grind my teeth angrily, “Tiziano should have asked himself that question when he decided to take my fiancée for a test drive. This is just tit for tat.”
“Yeah, but the bride isn’t Tiziano’s. She’sGiuseppe Cardinali’sdaughter.” Benedetto hisses at me as if I’m some kind of idiot who doesn’t know what he’s doing.
“Look, are you with me on this or not?” I growl, lifting my gun.
“I…” Benedetto looks from Mark to me. “I can’t let you do this, cous.” He suddenly lunges for me, grabbing at my gun. I can see Mark snickering from the corner of my eye. My main worry though is that someone is going to come out back to investigate all this scuffling.
Lucky for us, the kitchen is quite loud, what with pots banging, chefs shouting, dishes clanging, food sizzling. I jerk my gun away from Benedetto with one hand while closing my other hand around his neck. Now he is getting on my nerves and I have had enough. I squeeze hard, watching his face go red.
Mark stops snickering and grabs my hand, pulling ineffectually. “Ey now, c’mon. There’s no need for this. Romano, stop.”
I let go of Benedetto’s neck. I just wanted to teach him a lesson, not kill him. He begins to wheeze, clutching his neck and glaring at me. “I’m not sticking around for this.” He spits before stumbling out the door. I don’t even know where he’s going because he drove over here with us.
With a shrug, I turn to Mark. “You leaving as well?”
He looks at me, shaking his head. “Nah. But you better know what you’re doing.”
I give him a rakish grin. “C’mon now, you know I always do.”
He rolls his eyes and raises his gun. “What’s the plan then?”
I incline my head and we both creep forward, towards the kitchen. The girl is still on the phone, sniveling away.
“So are you coming,madrina?”
Whatever reply she gets makes her heave a sigh of relief. “Thank you. I’ll be waiting in the back alley of the hotel, where there are no paps. Tell them to call me when they’re close.”
I meet Mark’s eye, jerking my head towards the exit. We could just wait for her to step outside and grab her.
“Thank you so much, auntie Lu. You don’t know how much you are helping me.”
As we’re backing away, we hear her sign off. “I’ll be waiting just behind the dumpster, okay? Come fast, before they realize I’ve left.”
Mark and I quickly step outside. The kitchen porter is still passed out by the door. Without having to say a word, we each take one of his arms and pull him up, dragging him further away from the door so that the girl won’t see him when she steps out.
We each take a side of the door and wait. Not too long after, the door swings open and the still crying girl stumbles out. It’s the work of a moment to grab her and knock her out before dragging her to the car.
We get in and drive off at speed, exhilarated to have gotten away so easily.
Mark turns to me, his face uncharacteristically serious. “Now what, Romano?”
I give a large, satisfied sigh. “Hey, we’re just gonna keep her for a short time. We’ll send a note over to the Cardinalis with the message that if Tiziano isn’t sufficiently punished for what he did, they’ll never see their daughter again.”
Mark gives me an incredulous look. “What? You’re going to kill her?”
I snort. “Course not. What do you take me for? We’ll just keep her for a while and then take her back. That should be enough time to sow anger and discord in the Cardinali camp. Maybe we can take advantage of that. Who knows, maybe Patrizio won’t want her back – two birds, one stone.”
“Are you going to tell your Dad about this?”
“Of course… in due time.” I flick Mark a grin.
