The Beauty And The Heist

Chapter 34

Adrian Alessandro DeLuca

My somewhat girlfriend is an asshole.

"So," she said after a minute of silence, "On a scale of one to ten how pissed are you?"

"Sideways eight," I said, calmly sipping the alcohol I had been served while trying to avoid a certain pretty air hostess's advances.

"Oh god," she sighed.

She was obviously distressed, she was fidgeting far too much and her body language said as much. I did nothing to put her at ease.

"So, want to tell me what exactly were you thinking?"

"It was your plan, I simply took the steps to execute it."

I should have kept my mouth shut. But I never saw it coming, I never thought she'd actually go ahead and endanger her life for me yet again. Either she was extremely brave or extremely insane. My money was on the latter.

"Do you even realize what could have happened?!" I asked, my voice took on a threatening undertone. Usually I had a good check on my emotion and maintained a cool composure but this bitch had crossed the line into insanity.

"I would've been fine," she murmured.

"You could have died," I told her, doing my best not to raise my voice. "How difficult do you think it is to sneak a weapon on the flight? It's much, much easier than you think. I would know. What do you think would have happened to you in L.A?"

"Adrian..."

"Shut up. Do you know what the situation is back home?" I demanded. As expected, she had no answer.

I didn't speak to her for the rest of the flight back. I wasn't entirely sure whatever little control I had over my temper would last if I spoke to her. When Isaac told me about Castellino's call, I made him keep a track of her phone. Unfortunately she was smart enough to ditch it the minute we got on the flight. Fortunately, by then it was way too late.

I had been sitting behind her with a .25 caliber Beretta in my hand, listening to every word.

At least twelve passengers in this compartment were my men. Armed and ready to kill if Castellino got violent.

"It would have been more believable, coming from my mouth instead of Roy's." She whispered.

I didn't reply. She had a point, but I was letting my emotions make my decisions for me. I was too stressed to think straight and acknowledge that she had a valid point. You would think that after three years of handling my little criminal empire I would be used to stress by now.

She reached out for my hand but I withdrew it before she could touch. I saw her flinch, I was too pissed with this bullshit.

Right now, we were in a mess. Castellino and Abandonato were after her, they had been trying to kill me since I came into power.

Right now, I had to be the Boss or I wouldn't be able to help her or Roy or any life that hung precariously on the balance.

The plane landed at LAX and we got off.

"See? I'm safe. Castellino wouldn't have done anything."

I snapped my fingers and the twelve men marched around us, weapons hidden but drawn.

"Okay, fair point," she said, inching closer to me and away from them.

"We're going back to Italy in four hours. You are going to join me on the flight back and yes, that's an order."