Mafia Kings: Valentino: Dark Mafia Romance Series #6 by Olivia Thorn

Mafia Kings: Valentino: Chapter 31

The highway followed the coast and eventually headed up into the hills. Soon we took a smaller highway farther up into the mountains.

The view was gorgeous – especially the sparkling blue of the Mediterranean behind us.

Cat would have loved to have seen this, I thought bitterly.

As far as I knew, she’d never seen the Mediterranean.

And now I’ll never get to take her.

Thirty minutes later, we took an off-ramp into nowhere. There were only a few scattered villages along the two-lane road. Everything else was rolling hills that went on for miles, full of scrub brush, boulders, and a few cedar trees here and there. Occasionally you would see a crumbling stone building, probably 200 years old, that the inhabitants had abandoned.

Then things got worse.

The road narrowed to one lane with a stomach-churning drop on one side. If there hadn’t been metal guardrails, it would’ve been incredibly easy to just go sailing off the cliff.

Thank God there wasn’t any traffic coming in the opposite direction. I had no idea how they would have gotten past us.

The road itself was awful. Chunks of asphalt were broken away, and there were potholes everywhere. The ride became a series of jarring bumps as the caravan continued.

Finally, after 25 minutes of driving out into the middle of nowhere, I saw what looked like a large stone building in the distance. It was surrounded by tall, skinny cedars and had a sloped roof of rounded clay tiles.

Is this it? I wondered.

Sure enough, we turned down a gravel road towards the building. After a few minutes, we reached a massive brick wall with a wrought-iron gate, much like the one my family had around our property in Tuscany.

Unlike ours, though, there were no surveillance cameras or automatic gates – just two guys with shotguns standing guard.

As soon as they saw the cars, they unlocked a chain around the bars and pulled the gates open.

After we drove through, they shut the doors again and locked the chain.

Beyond the brick walls, there weren’t any trees – just lots of dry grass and rocky ground. Probably so nobody could sneak across the property and attack it.

We soon came to the building I’d seen from the road. Its three-story walls were made of massive sandstone blocks worn down by centuries, with two dozen arched windows barricaded with metal bars.

I wondered if the bars were to keep people out… or in.

The SUV drove around the corner, and I realized that the wall belonged to just one of two buildings that made up a larger compound.

Between the two buildings stood a massive iron gate – not made of bars with space between them, but a solid sheet of hammered metal.

Perfect for stopping bullets, I mused.

slab was a single doorway big enough for a person

at the doorway saw the SUVs and went inside. Then he and three other men manually pulled back the iron gate on

entered, I noticed the rooftop terraces on either side of the gate. At least

Snipers nest.

the two buildings, and I realized it was actually

that stretched for at

a grassy courtyard. The fountain in the center had what looked like an ancient Roman sculpture of a woman pouring water from

drive and hung from chains embedded into the stone walls. Inside them were colorful

in front of the entrance to the main building: giant doors made of weathered wood with iron trim and massive rings as

quickly hopped out and

Shotgun didn’t do the

on,” Vicari said. “Time

warily got out and stood by the car

guys wearing black pants, white shirts, black vests, and caps came out first. They all had shotguns or rifles, so I was guessing they were foot

face was wrinkled as a walnut, with skin browned by decades of harsh sun, and white hair pulled back in a tight

high neck, lots of black lace, and long sleeves that came down to her wrists. A

she walked. The old lady took small steps, and it was a long process

years old and sharp as a tack.

to the old woman, who had finally reached

“this is the

up at me and smiled. Her teeth were tiny and yellow, though she was

Vicari said. “I got a

agreed in a thick

chuckle in spite of myself. “Thank

up and patted my cheek softly

was a surprisingly

were surrounded by guys with guns,

my daughter,

followed the Don’s gaze

And was immediately confused.

standing in the

was actually kind of

face, even

shy. She looked at me, but when our eyes met, she glanced

brown, curly, and extended past her

clothes were old-fashioned – a floral print dress with dark brown flowers on a light brown background. Everything about it was incredibly modest: sleeves halfway to her

could be changed. The one thing I wasn’t crazy about was how thin she was: tall

that drove me wild about Cat was her curves. She weighed a few extra pounds, yeah, but in all the right places. I knew a lot of guys liked thin chicks, but I’d take a thick woman any day

wife-to-be was more