Page 18 of Mafia Kings: Dario

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said to me in a deep, gentle voice.

“I said get away from her, nottalkto her!” Niccolo shouted.

The blond man smiled at me once more, then walked across the room.

“Does this have to happennow?”Adriano asked angrily.

“She’ll be here for the foreseeable future,” Niccolo said, “and we can’t very well keep Lars in the cellar, now can we? Best we get everything out in the open as soon as possible.”

Niccolo swept over and took me by the arm, then walked me to a padded leather chair and gently forced me to sit.

“Don’t worry, Lars is a teddy bear… unless you go up against the family, in which case youshouldbe worried. Here, have a drink,” Niccolo said as he poured a light brown liquid into a glass on the table beside me. “You could use a little something to put the blood back in your cheeks.”

I looked around, frightened out of my mind. I was in some sort of a parlor, filled with leather chairs, dark wood paneling, and dim lighting. The scent of cigar smoke hung faintly in the air. It was all very masculine, like a private club within the house.

Lars strolled towards Adriano and Massimo. They stood off to the side with drinks in their hands.

“Is that the girl you saw?” Adriano asked.

“If itwasn’ther, I don’t think she would’ve nearlyfaintedwhen she saw him!” Niccolo shouted over his shoulder.

Lars just nodded to Adriano likeThat’s her.

Dario sat at the far end of the parlor in a high-backed leather chair behind a massive desk. He looked like an emperor on his throne.

There were also two other men in the room I hadn’t seen before.

One looked very similar to Niccolo but with slicked-back hair and a dour expression. He was the only person in the room in a three-piece suit with a tie.

The last one, the youngest of the lot, leaned against the wall. He was absolutely beautiful, with sensuous lips, a scruffy beard, and a mop of unruly hair. He could have been a world-famous pop star or movie actor, he was so gorgeous. When he caught my eye, he smiled and winked.

I turned away in embarrassment.

“Drink, drink,” Niccolo said as he offered me the glass.

“No thank you,” I mumbled as I stared at Lars, my mind racing fearfully.

Had they brought me here to kill me – like Lars had killed the man in the café?

But… why?

“It’s only brandy – drink!” Niccolo ordered.

“She probably thinks you poisoned it,” the dour man in the three-piece suit said.

“Don’tsaysuch things, Roberto – putting ideas in her head –Madonn,”Niccolo cursed, taking the name of the Virgin Mary in vain:Ma-DON,short for Madonna. He gulped half of the brandy in one swallow and set the glass back down beside me. “See? No poison, just brandy! And now my germs, yes, but the alcohol will kill all that. Drink, for God’s sake!”

I took a sip, mostly to quiet him down and keep him off my back.

I coughed as the liquid burned in my throat.

“Are you alright?!” Niccolo asked in alarm.

“I get the feeling she’s probably never had liquor before,” Massimo said.

“It’s not scotch or whiskey, it’sbrandy!”Niccolo exclaimed.

The giant shrugged. “She’s rather innocent.”

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