Adriana
Adriana leaned her head back on the headrest of her seat, looking blankly ahead at the stretch of woods in front of the car. She felt numb now, completely drained of all energy and will to fight. She was going to die. God had let her live this long so she could talk to Ryder, but now he had abandoned her, leaving her to die in this awful place, perhaps a payment for all the crimes she’d helped this family commit.
Her body felt fuzzy, wrapped up in static, her head empty except for stray thoughts like, I never fell in love. I never went to Europe. I never got married or had kids or did anything meaningful with my life at all. She didn’t feel any fear anymore though. It was like her brain had already died, abandoning her body at the last moment to avoid the reality of what was happening to her.
She was going to be raped, and then she was going to be murdered. Her dad would never find her body. But now that Ryder knew what happened, maybe they’d both get closure. Maybe this will be what gets Giovanni killed, she thought, letting herself feel a little comforted by that idea.
They rolled to a stop in the middle of woods, surrounded by trees on all sides. “Get out,” Giovanni directed her, snapping his fingers when she hesitated to comply.
“All right, I’m going, I’m going,” Adriana replied, undoing her seatbelt and then hopping out of the car as slowly as she could. She inhaled, sucking in as much sweet natural air as she could, preparing herself for what lay ahead of her. Giovanni exited the vehicle, too, coming up behind her and grabbing her breasts.
“You’re so fucking hot,” Giovanni grunted out into her ear, biting the side of her neck. Adriana gritted her teeth and balled her hands up into fists again, just to prevent herself from screaming out in pain. She shut her eyes and made herself think of Ryder—Ryder’s beautiful mouth, his firm hands, his sweet body. She could do this. She could make her last moments on this Earth count by spending them thinking of the one miracle she’d been granted in her whole life: Ryder.
Giovanni shoved his hands under her shirt, clawing his way up her torso, but he didn’t have time to grab her bare breasts, as a loud crashing sound tore through the trees, giving Adriana a chance to tear her body away from Giovanni’s.
She took off running, rushing through the woods until she found a particularly large trunk to hide beside, ducking her head low enough so that nobody walking in the area above the log could see her. Even still, she could make out a little bit of what was happening. Another car had followed Giovanni’s path into the forest around the compound, crashing into his car and pushing it into a tree. Adriana had no idea what was going on. Maybe someone was carrying out a hit on Giovanni? Could she be that lucky?
Then she heard something that made her breath go cold inside of her chest. “Giovanni! Fucker! Put the gun down!”
It was Ryder!
“You get the fuck out of here, Ryder! I mean it! You ever show your face in this town again, and I’ll be sure it’s the last thing you ever see! Fucking move it!” Giovanni shouted back.
Adriana edged herself up to stare over the curve of the log, watching as Giovanni slowly approached Ryder, who had two servants standing by his side, hunched behind their car for cover from Giovanni’s gun.
“Giovanni, you can’t take all of us, okay? Just put the gun down, and we can talk. I have something you’ll want to barter for.”
“Oh, yeah, and what’s that?” Giovanni asked mockingly, even though he froze on the spot, clenching his fist tighter around the gun in his hand.
“I’ve got proof of what you and Mom did. Bobby and Sal and Harry and Tommy. And Dad. That’s enough shit to make the whole organization turn against you, even the guys you’ve got in your pocket right now. I’ve already sent it out to a friend and told them I was coming to see you. If I die, they release the info to everybody in the Rainieri family. But you can prevent that, by putting the gun down now.”
“No fucking way!” Giovanni screamed, pointing his gun in the air and shooting off three shots in quick succession, making birds scream and scatter farther away into the sky.
“Giovanni, be smart about this!” Ryder yelled, fear evident in his voice even as he stuck his head out around the corner of the car to look at his brother.
Giovanni didn’t answer, instead pointing his gun right at his brother and pulling the trigger.
Adriana gasped, her pulse coming to a standstill. Ryder! Ryder, no!
Her eyes squeezed shut on reflex, probably an instinctive response so as not to watch Ryder die, but she pried them open, breathing hard in the silence that had fallen around her.
There was no body lying on the ground. Only leaves.
Adriana edged up a little higher to look at the area behind Ryder’s town car, revealing all three of them still standing there, bent over and breathing hard. Relief coursed through Adriana’s veins immediately, and she sagged against the log, adrenaline temporarily abandoning her body. But she quickly refocused her eyes on Giovanni, remembering the danger that still surrounded them.
“Why are you hiding, big brother?” Giovanni taunted, stepping closer to the town car. “Aren’t you the big, tough man? Aren’t you the rightful boss, huh?”
“Is that what this is about?” Ryder asked, shouting louder so that his voice would carry over to his brother. “You think I want the Rainieri family? You can have it! It’s yours! Just let me and Adriana go!”
“So you and that whore can ride off into the sunset together? No fucking way!” Giovanni suddenly marched faster over to the town car. Ryder and the others set off into a run, splitting up into three different directions. Giovanni was caught off guard, firing his gun every which way and failing to hit any of them. “Motherfucker!” he screamed as he set off after Ryder.
Adriana’s limbs surged into action then, no longer content to remain hiding in safety while her man was threatened. She took off as fast as she could through the trees, pushing her limbs to their absolute limit until she crashed into Giovanni’s back, knocking the gun out of his hands by the sheer force of her momentum. “Stay down, fucker,” she whispered into his ear before biting his shoulder, making him scream out in pain.
“Adriana!” Ryder yelled out, turning around to run back to Giovanni, kicking his little brother right in the face as he approached.
But Giovanni didn’t stay down for long, knocking Adriana off his back and then leaping to his feet to punch his brother in the face.
“Yeah, come on, asshole, show me what you got,” Ryder taunted his brother, swinging several times but missing while Giovanni launched several ferocious punches into his stomach.
“You will never fucking beat me,” Giovanni spat, swinging his arms this way and that to knock Adriana back to the ground when she tried to attack him again.
“That’s the last time you ever fucking touch her!” Ryder screamed, grabbing Giovanni by the shoulders and forcing him to the ground, kicking him in the face several times until blood spurted out from his brother’s mouth.
“Oh, man, I can’t wait to tie you up and make you watch me while I screw her,” Giovanni said, spitting more blood out of his mouth before he staggered to his feet and surged forward to wrestle Ryder back down to the ground.
“You. Will. Never. Hurt. Her. Again,” Ryder said in between punches, struggling under Giovanni’s weight but still managing to do his fair share of damage himself.
Adriana took the opportunity to scan the area around them, searching for Ryder’s servant and driver, but instead, her eyes landed on something much better. The gun, just off to one side, a mere foot away from the tangle of the two men fighting for her.
Adriana took off running, going the long way around a tree so that Giovanni wouldn’t be able to stop her before she could get to the other side.
Meanwhile, Giovanni got the upper hand over Ryder, smashing him in the face again and again and again and again, but then Ryder flipped them over and returned the favor.
“Fucker, piece of shit,” Ryder muttered as he landed blow after blow into Giovanni’s face.
Adriana finally got to the gun, grabbing it and cocking it as she pointed it at Giovanni. “Ryder. Stop it. I’ve got this.”
But Ryder didn’t stop, even after Giovanni went limp under him, apparently accepting his defeat. He just kept smacking his brother, again and again, turning him into a red-purple blur, covered in blood.
“Ryder!” Adriana screamed as loud as she could, finally making Ryder pause in his violence and look up at her. “Don’t do it. He’s not worth it, okay? Don’t be like him.”
Ryder looked like he wanted to argue with her, wiping the blood off his own face and opening his mouth to reply, but when Adriana interjected, “Please. Don’t,” he just nodded and got off his brother.
“It’s over,” Adriana said, sighing in relief even as Giovanni rolled over, his hands shaking as he raised them to wipe the blood away from his face.
“Giovanni,” Ryder called out when Giovanni began to crawl away, trying to escape in the general direction of the compound on the other side of the woods. “It’s finished. We’ve got the proof we need. It’s done.”
“It’s not done,” Giovanni croaked out, his voice hoarse after the beating he’d received. “It’s never done. The Rainieri family will go on.”
“Yes, but not with you at the helm,” Ryder said, following his brother and stepping on his hand to keep him from moving forward any further. “We know, Giovanni. About the girls.”
“What?” Giovanni had to spit out a little more blood to force the word out of his mouth.
“The small Russian wrenches,” Adriana said, shaking her head in disgust. “You’re going to go to jail for a very long time.”
All at once, Giovanni reared up from the ground, using the last bit of his strength to knock Ryder off his feet before turning on his heel and rushing towards Adriana, who barely had time to start running before Giovanni crashed into her, making her fall to the ground while Giovanni wrenched the gun from her hands.
“No! Ryder! Ryder!” she screamed, sure that it was her last moment on this planet.
There was a single shot, right behind her and, for a moment, Adriana was certain that her life had ended. There was only darkness around her, pressing in on all sides.
“Adriana. Adriana, baby, I’m here. It’s okay. I’m here.” Ryder’s voice pierced through the fuzzy darkness, the warmth of his hand tearing through the numbness around her and pulling her out of the shadow.
She gasped for air as her eyes opened again. She must have passed out, but she looked around the woods now and saw only Ryder, who was cupping her face and wiping the sweat from her forehead. “It’s okay. We’re alive, baby. We’re alive.”
“W-what happened?” Adriana stuttered out, her breath coming hard and fast as she tried to get her body to calm down.
“Giovanni,” Ryder said, gesturing over to the left, where his lifeless body was still on the ground. “He killed himself.”
“Jesus Christ,” Adriana murmured, leaning forward and pressing her head onto Ryder’s shoulder. “Jesus fucking Christ.”
“I know, baby,” Ryder said soothingly into her ear, rubbing the back of her neck and the top of her back until she stopped breathing so hard. “It’s going to be okay though.”
“I’m so sorry,” Adriana murmured, pulling back to look Ryder in the eyes, which were red and irritated like he was holding back tears. “I’m so fucking sorry, honey.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. First your father, and now this.” Adriana gestured to Giovanni’s empty, bloody body. “I can’t imagine what you must be feeling right now.”
Ryder was quiet a moment, biting down on his bottom lip and then looking up at Adriana through his thick dark eyelashes. “Yeah, I don’t think I’m feeling it yet either.” He sniffed and picked a clump of blood off his nose, tossing it to the ground.
“Your nose… I think it’s broken,” Adriana said, whimpering as she carefully touched the beaten, bloody mess in the center of Ryder’s face.
“I’ll be okay,” Ryder said, wincing a little as he readjusted his legs. “Today could have gone a lot worse.”
“Oh, yeah?” Adriana felt a smile flutter its way onto her face.
“Yeah,” Ryder replied, helping Adriana stagger to her feet and walk back over to the town car, where the two servants were waiting for them. “I could be dealing with this alone. But I’m not. I have you.”