Well, guys, I decided to just go ahead and upload this blasted chapter. Confused, you say? This one fought me all the way. Technically, I had it done before NT2 came out, but I was really unhappy with it. I think it's cause I wrote it in segments and had to fill in the gaps. Anyway, sorry it's crap.

Adrian gasped.

"Surprised to see me?" sneered the gun wielding Italian mobster. He didn't wait for a reply but barged into the room followed by four menacing thugs.

In response, Riley and Adrian stumbled over each other to stand by the bed—Ben had not moved from the desk and was looking murderous.

"What are you doing here, Tony?" Adrian shot out.

Riley's head whipped around. "Wait, you know these guys?" he asked angrily

"They're the guys from the car show." She shot back. "And that one," she pointed at a slightly rotund uncomfortable looking Italian, "is my cousin! Why are you even here, Robbie? What did I ever do to you?"

"What did you do? What did you DO?!?" The leader yelled, sounding slightly insane. "You and your family kept my money from me!"

Adrian rolled her eyes. "Yeah, we've already discussed this, Tony. You're crazy. I don't have your money." She said with crossed arms.

Incensed, Tony made a move for Adrian, gun pointed at her face.

Riley and Tony's gang reacted immediately: Riley pulled Adrian out of the line of fire and Tony's goons stepped in front of him, telling him to cool it. Tony appeared to have quick recovery time, for he un-cocked his gun and shook his pals off his arms. "I'm cool. I'm COOL."

There was a tense moment in which Adrian and Tony shared murderous gazes.

Seeing Tony was incapacitated for the moment, one of his cronies stepped forward. "That was pretty bold. We could use a gal like you." He paused to grin in what he apparently thought was a wining manner; Riley noticed Robbie roll his eyes. The short lackey continued, "C'mon, why don't you ditch these guys and come with us? We'll explain everything—you can even have some of the money." He waited for a moment, then added "If you come now, we'll leave your little friends alone."

Adrian crossed her arms again, looking very skeptical. Riley couldn't help admiring her bravery in the face of these nut-jobs.

She smirked. "Let's not kid ourselves. You just want me to come so you can get your rocks off."

Riley's eyes widened and he struggled not to laugh.

"Now that you mention it," said the short, stocky Italian, moving close to Adrian and stroking her cheek. "You and I should—

He was cut off with a slap. "Get off me!" Adrian shouted over the raucous laughter of their other captors.

Humiliated and angry, the would be seducer snarled and pulled out his gun. The "click" that usually accompanied the cocking of a gun silenced everyone. "You little bitch." He said in a low, deadly voice.

The following seconds seemed to take place over the course of a few years. Looking back, Riley would be surprised at his own reflexes.

Everyone watched in horror as stumpy squeezed the trigger.

Adrian clenched her eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable pain that was about to blast through her body. She was surprised, therefore, when she felt two hands roughly push her to the floor. For his part, Riley was surprised he had been so quick.

He screamed in pain.

He hadn't been quick enough.

The bullet ripped through the top of his forearm and he quickly yanked it back to his side.

"Riley!" Ben yelled in concern.

With Ben's outburst, time went back to normal. The rest of the captors took hold of their hot-headed friend and forced the gun from his hand while Ben jumped over the bed to aid Riley. Adrian shakily stood up and stared into space.

"Adrian."

Ben's authoritative voice brought her back to reality with a start. She stared at him silently with wild eyes.

"Go get a towel." Ben ordered.

Adrian blinked, then mechanically made her way to the bathroom. She was surprised that she was allowed to go into the bathroom and back without any trouble from Tony or his gang. She supposed it was because they were still trying to subdue the man that had tried to kill her.

Oh God.

Riley had just saved her life.

She handed Ben the towel, then sat down on the bed.

Riley gritted his teeth in pain. Holy. Shit. He was never getting shot again. Although, considering the amount of times he'd had a gun pointed at his head, he was surprised it had taken this long for a bullet to actually cause some damage. He still hadn't opened his eyes, which meant he didn't know how bad his injury was. "Ben, how bad is it?" he asked in a constricted voice.

"Not as bad as it could have been. You were lucky." Ben replied, ripping something up. "It really just grazed your arm, though it did leave a pretty good gash and burned some skin."

Hearing this, Riley decided he could probably look at his mutilated arm. As soon as he opened his eyes, he squeezed them shut again, tighter than before. There was about a three inch long gash on the top of his right arm running almost perfectly perpendicular. It was about an inch wide and half an inch thick—it would leave a pretty bad scar after it healed. There was blood all over his hand and arm, which also happened to be blistered.

He sucked breath through his teeth in pain as he felt Ben wrap the shreds of the towel he'd been holding around his arm. Once he felt it was safe to look, he opened his eyes again. His wound was being bound quite nicely, but was quickly bleeding through the strips of towel.

Riley noticed how quiet it was in the room. He lifted his head up slightly and saw Adrian. She looked terrible. Her make-up was running, her hair was messed up, and her dress was wrinkled. He grimaced when he realized her face had that same numb expression she'd had when these psychopaths had broken into Ben's house.

Speaking of psychos—he lifted his head up all the way and saw all the mafia members present were staring at him—the trigger happy time bomb had left the room.

This eye contact appeared to have been all they were waiting for.

"All right," Tony began. "I've had enough games. It's time to get what we came for. Sit."

"We'd rather stand." Ben said menacingly.

Tony pointed his gun at them. "Sit."

They sat.

"Now," Tony started, sounding like a teacher about to give a lecture. "Adrian, you wanted to know what you had done. Let me tell you a little story. You've all heard of Al Capone. Well, in 1924 his little brother died. He shut down all is operations for a whole day, and it was during that day that he decided to prepare for his own death. He had his money hidden and thought up some directions to get his son there." He glanced at Adrian. "Here's where it gets interesting. Al gave his first direction, a letter, to one of his other brothers."

Adrian gasped. "Poppa Bert!" she said breathlessly.

Tony laughed cruelly. "Figured it out? Yeah, your great grandpa was Umberto Capone."

Riley piped up. "How did you not know this?"

Adrian rounded on him. "People change their names, y'know!"

Riley went silent again.

Trembling with anger, Tony spoke hurriedly. "Yeah, my great-grandpa gave your great-grandpa the key to my inheritance and the snake kept it! Just to spite his brother! I want what's owed me!"

Ben stood up and began speaking in his trademark clam manner. "Now, just calm down. Both of your great-grandfathers lost a brother that day. Maybe Umberto just forgot about the letter."

"NO!" Tony screamed, now crazed. "Bert was a rat bastard who couldn't stand the thought of not gettin' any of his brother's money! He took the letter, and he hid it! You people are gonna help me find it, or I'll make sure you all rot in hell!"

A ringing silence fell during which Ben and Adrian shared a grim look while Riley merely looked horrified. They had all just realized the same thing: they were in way over their head.

"All o' you stand up!" Tony shouted waving his gun around. When the three treasure hunters were on their feet, Tony turned to his lackeys. "Surround 'em. We're takin' 'em to the car." With that, he left the hotel room which was then full of very shell-shocked people. The Italians followed their leader into the hall for a brief moment.

"What are we gonna do?!?" hissed Riley frantically.

"When I say, we're all going to run in different directions and meet at the car." Ben replied in a low voice.

"What?" Adrian countered. "That's your get-away plan?"

Ben rolled his eyes. "You got any better ideas?" At Adrian's sheepish expression, Ben added "I didn't think so."

The door opened. "Get out here," Instructed a gravelly voice.

Ben walked outside, followed closely by Riley and Adrian. They were quickly surrounded by a whole lot of guns. Riley gulped audibly.

The three anxious friends were escorted out the same way they had come in by the rather unsavory crew. They would send a scout ahead to every corner to check for civilians and the guns stayed out at all times; it was like an evil form of Mission Impossible.

Riley was just beginning to suspect Ben had forgotten all about their escape plan when—

"NOW!" Ben's voice rang out in the empty hallway.

Adrian, Riley, and Ben took off in three different directions.

Their captors yelled in anger and surprise as they raised their weapons.

Riley thanked his lucky stars they were horrible shots. When a couple of bullets zinged past his head while he rounded a corner, however, he glanced upward in annoyance. "Too close." He muttered to the powers that be.

He bolted into an elevator and pushed the first floor button. Ben had said to get to the car and, unlike little miss snarky britches, he had no problem with that plan. The sooner they got out of there the better. He leaned against the wall of the elevator and rested his hand on his heart, willing it to slow. The elevator dinged and his adrenaline began pumping anew. After the door opened, he stuck his head out cautiously, looking left and right. When he saw no murderous Italians, he took off towards the nearest exit.

Suddenly, he heard a gunshot. He whirled around and saw Adrian barreling towards him. "Run, Riley! Go!"

He briefly wondered just how she was managing to run in all her get up before turning and running for all he was worth. They were closer to the ballroom now, and Riley could faintly hear shouting. The gunshots had been heard.

Thank God.

Suddenly, Adrian caught up with him, grabbed his hand, and rapidly began to outstrip him. He pushed a bit harder to keep up and in no time they burst outside. They looked around for a moment, then began running again. They zipped around a corner and paused to take a breather.

"Do you remember where Ben parked the car?" Riley wheezed, feeling like the asthmatic kid he'd been in middle-school.

Adrian panted, truly suffering in her too tight dress, and clutched a stitch in her side. She gazed out at the parking lot, then pointed excitedly. "There! I see it!"

Riley nodded and glanced around the corner. He didn't see any gun wielding crazy people. "All right, on three. One, Two—

"I can't, Riley! My dress," Adrian forced out. "It's too tight."

Riley looked at her in horror. She wasn't kidding: every breath she took was an obvious struggle, and her chest was heaving in an unhealthy manner. "But—but we have to get to the car."

Adrian rolled her eyes. "Well, either you carry me," she spat out venomously, "or find us a place to hide till I can breathe again!"

Riley's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "There's no need to get snappy." He turned his back to her. "Hop on."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Well, I can't very well carry you bridal style with a mangled arm can I?" he shot back, waving his bandaged arm in her face. "Now get on, we're sitting ducks out here."

Adrian sighed, then, after multiple tries, climbed onto Riley's back. Once she was secure, Riley took off at a brisk jog. "Watch out for those psychos, would ya?" he whispered.

Adrian nodded, then slumped forward eerily, causing Riley to stop in his tracks full of dread.

Fearing she had passed out from lack of oxygen, Riley stopped. "Adrian?"

"Sleeping Beauty's not gonna answer you, Prince Charming." Replied a thick voice.

Riley's breath caught in his throat. Slowly, he turned around. It was one of Tony's goons.

"Y'know technically, if she's Sleeping Beauty, I'd be Prince Phillip." He quipped nervously.

It was the last thing he said before his world went black.

Ben stood at the car waiting nervously. Where were Riley and Adrian? Had the mafia gotten hold of them? Were the alive? He didn't think he could live with himself if Riley had gotten seriously injured.

He didn't even want to think about having to tell the Cooper family about Adrian.

They were fine. He was sure of it. They had to be.

"Gates."

Ben whirled around to see Tony approaching him. He whipped his cell phone out. "If you come any closer, I'll call the FBI. They're friends of mine." He finished lamely.

Tony laughed. "You don't wanna do that, dude."

Ben looked at him, confused. "I think I do."

Tony smirked. "If you do, I'll have my boys shoot your friends."

Ben blinked, becoming less confused and more uneasy by the moment.

Tony nodded to someone over Ben's shoulder.

Ben turned around to see a black SUV pulling a small U-haul behind it. It came to a stop behind Tony and one of his thugs got out and opened the back of the U-haul. There lay Riley and Adrian, unconscious, on a bed of flat, uncomfortable looking pillows.

Ben sighed and dropped his phone to his side.

Tony's smirk became even more smug. "I'll tell you how this is gonna go down. You're gonna tell me where the next clue is and then run along home like a good little boy."

"And if I don't?"

Tony shrugged. "Hey, if you wanna see your friends' brains splattered all over the asphault, be my guest."

Ben was silent for a moment, furiously trying to find another course of action. As far as he could tell, there wasn't one. "Johnson City. You need to go to Montrose Court in Johnson City, Tennessee."

"Much obliged," Tony quipped, thinking. After a minute or so, he spoke again. "Now, you get back in your car and go home to your wife and little girl. We're gonna go on down to Little Chicago to get my money. If you follow, I'll kill 'em. If you call the cops, I'll kill 'em. If you call the FBI, I'll torture 'em, then I'll kill 'em."

Ben growled in anger.

"After I've got my money, I'll let 'em go and you can come get them." He opened a passenger door of the SUV. "Ciao." He said smarmily and got in.

As he watched the U-haul that contained Riley and Adrian roll away, Ben sighed. He shook his head and kicked the ground angrily. He then took another deep breath and got in his own car. Quickly making a decision, he dialed Abigail's cell.

"Hello?"

"Abigail, it's me."

"Hey, what've you got so far?"

"Trouble."

"Trouble?"

"Yeah, the mafia caught up with us in Cicero and now they have Riley and Adrian."

"Oh, no."

"Exactly. The next clue led us to an old apartment complex called Montrose Court in Johnson City, Tennessee. That's where they're headed now. I need you to call Sadusky and tell him about the situation."

"All right, what else do you need me to tell him?"

"Tell him to be discreet. If Tony and his thugs see FBI agents or myself, Adrian and Riley are as good as dead."

Abigail sighed, obviously writing things down. "Who's Tony?"

"Tony Yale. He's Al Capone's great-grandson and Adrian's long lost second cousin. He's nuts. Have Sadusky look him up."

"Ok. Where are you going?"

"I'm going to catch a plane to Nashville, then jet over to Johnson City. I'll probably beat them; I have a feeling they'll be driving the whole way."

"So that gives us at least one whole day, doesn't it?"

Assuming they drive through the night, yes. We may have more."

"Be careful." Abigail pleaded.

"I will."