Page 9 of The Lost Kings

Presley

A drian had apparently offered to send his private jet to pick me up, but I wanted to use this rare window of freedom to refuse and fly there myself.

Scotty would never approve of me flying commercial, or without someone following me.

However, since I was doing him a favor that I’d never wanted to begin with, I explained I’d be going alone and in my own way.

Once the plane landed, I secured my carry-on and found a taxi to the cute hotel I had booked myself. Then showered before dropping into bed.

I stared at my dark phone, willing my best friends to figure out what Scotty had done and bypass it.

More than six months had passed since they left, and things weren’t getting easier; they were getting more complicated and dangerous.

I knew they had their reasons for crashing out the way they did but honestly, would it have killed them to just fight me in the training ring so we could get past it? I missed them.

I needed them.

Alex had trained in the gym with me the day before yesterday and asked again if I had heard from them.

My throat had practically closed over the question, and when I saw her disappointment, I felt like I had failed her and everyone else in the house.

They hadn’t just left me; they’d left all of us.

I had asked her if they were anywhere on social media because I’d gotten desperate for any crumb about their lives.

She’d informed me what I had already assumed; they weren’t anywhere, not anymore.

All of their socials were deleted, nothing new had been created.

If only I had told Scotty to show me the texts…

Turning on my back, I stared at the ceiling and willed sleep to claim me. When it finally did, it was to the image of someone standing over me with a smile.

I woke to the sound of someone singing.

Groggy and jet-lagged, I wasn’t sure what exactly was going on as I gathered my surroundings and tried to piece together where I was.

I wasn’t in my hotel room anymore…

Which suddenly had me shooting up in bed…except I wasn’t on one.

The couch I was on was royal blue and velvet soft. The blanket over me was down feathered and plush. The light in the room was all natural, and someone was cooking bacon.

“Good morning, Bellissima .”

A man came into view wearing a simple black T-shirt that was tight enough to reveal sculpted abs, defined biceps, and an Adam’s apple that had to be three times bigger than the average male’s.

I tried not to linger on any other details, like the fact that he had thick, chestnut hair that was long enough to fall over a pair of stunning blue eyes or that his face was so handsome my jaw actually lightly dropped.

“Where am I?” My voice was too quiet for how I felt, but my gut told me I was in the home of Adrian Adesso, which meant I had been moved against my will and ultimately kidnapped by the don of the Adesso family.

The man drew closer, holding a spatula in one hand and letting his other dangle at his side. “I’m Adrian. I apologize for the way in which I brought you here but the invitation I had extended strongly encouraged you to take me up on being hosted while visiting.”

His methods in which he got his way, regardless of what I had chosen, reminded me of Scotty, which made me viscerally angry for utterly no reason other than being bested.

“You kidnapped me. I’m a minor you know, you could go to jail for that.”

Adrian smirked, and I hated how the sight of it made my stomach do a tiny twist.

“Yes, you’re seventeen. For now. No one will be touching you, or hurting you…do you know how old I am?”

Young. Far too young to be the head of one of the most powerful families in Italy.

His smile widened as he dropped into a crouch before me. “I’m nineteen, not too much older than you.”

“Oh goodie, should I be thanking you for drugging me?” I lifted my middle finger.

How did I get out of here?

Adrian’s smirk faltered the smallest bit.

“An extremely small dose of ketamine, only so you didn’t wake up and hurt anyone before we were able to get you to safety.

You’re probably wondering why I took you, and the answer is simple: There are other families that know about your arrival and a few who had even tracked you to your hotel. ”

Scotty had done worse than drug me with a low dose of ketamine in some of our training sessions, so while that part should piss me off, it didn’t. The other families being there however, that got my attention.

Adrian stood and pulled out his phone then turned it toward me, showing camera footage playing. There outside my hotel were two black cars, and out of them five men exited, two of which attached their silencer barrels as they pulled open the glass doors.

The angle of the camera switched to the staircase outside of my room, and the men came into focus. I recognized them.

“They’re from the Yullivi family.”

Someone who had been at war with my dad for several years…I had done some research on them because their methods in reaching my father became aggressive nearly nine years ago. They said there was a debt Dad owed, but my father owed several debts to too many families.

Adrian kept his phone in place as the camera revealed a secondary set of men who entered the hall from a room across from mine. They quickly disposed of the Yullivi men and pulled the bodies into the room they’d left.

The footage went black and Adrian’s gaze on me was severe as I tipped my head back and locked my eyes on his.

“You’re not safe in Italy. Unless you’re with me.”

Bullshit. I refused to believe him. “Just because they don’t want to play with their food before they eat it, doesn’t mean I’m any safer with you.”

He let out a small laugh before sauntering back into the kitchen. “Come eat, Bellissima .”

“Stop calling me beautiful and maybe I will.” I kicked my legs over the covers and relaxed at seeing my clothes in place. They’d kept me clothed, and safe…although I had no idea if he’d placed trackers in me, or on me…

Shit, what a nightmare. I was going to have to let Scotty deal with all of that because this was all his fault.

My stomach grumbled so loudly that I slapped my hand over it.

I was going to have to eat, and I was going to have to remain here with him for the week, hearing him out or whatever it was that he wanted.

I had no idea why he’d even be interested.

It wasn’t as if my father had anything of worth that he’d benefit from.

We didn’t have our own made family, which meant no access to men or weapons or even money.

Slowly sliding off the couch, I walked into the bright, oversized kitchen. The island was nearly ten feet long, topped with thick quartz, and the floors were a beautiful wood that gleamed under the sunlight cutting through the windows. “Why do you even want me here?”

Adrian’s eyes remained on the food as he replied, “I guess pity, and another reason that I’ll share with you at a later time.”

“Pity?” My fingers curled over the back of the leather stool tucked under the island.

“Yes.” Adrian’s eyes met mine. “Your father was very young when he created his Joker persona. I understand why he stole from everyone…he was backed into a corner and really had no choice. Scotty explained that the family he worked for demanded your dad be handed over to be held accountable for killing their boss; he essentially was told to accept his death. I would have done what he did, and I respect him for that. Now, I see that he wants to keep his family safe, and for that, my respect for him only grows.”

I watched him carefully as he moved around the kitchen, plating the bacon and eggs and applying butter to the toast. Questions lingered on my tongue, but something told me to wait to ask them because as sincere as Adrian seemed to be, and as touched as I was that he had a decent disposition toward my family, something in my gut told me he was lying.

I just had to wait him out until I was able to prove it.

Unfortunately for him, I’d been training my entire life to do exactly that.