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Second String
Last Updated:
2024-09-09 07:13:26
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Indebted to the Mafia King Country Air
Eleni“Let me get that.” Dante swoops into my path and tries to grab the full plate of pasta out of my hands.I hold on with a small smile. “I’ve been walking for two days. I think I can handle carrying my own dinner.”“You are stubborn.” He kisses the tip of my nose. “Can I take your glass instead?”I nod, and he lets go. He’s been doting on me for the last three days, barely letting me do anything. It’s sweet, but it’s also driving me insane. I pad from the kitchen into the living room and sit on the couch. Dante’s pasta and his glass of wine wait on the coffee table. I set mine next to his, and a moment later, he appears with my glass of sparkling apple juice. We both look at it for a moment. Dr. Fletcher hasn’t called yet. I haven’t gotten my period yet. Without talking about it, Dante and I both agreed I’m not going to drink until we know one way or the other.“What do you want to watch tonight?” I ask, shattering the spell.He passes me the glass and blinks a few times. “I pick
Last Updated : 2024-09-09Indebted to the Mafia King Perfect
EleniOver my clothes, under the blankets, Dante cups me like I’m made of glass. My thin shirt can’t disguise the warmth of his skin, and though my whole body still aches, I want to tell him to treat me like normal. He thumbs over my nipple, and I arch up, tilting my head back toward the ceiling. In my mind’s eye, I see the crack I tracked during the endless hours of my capture.I shut my eyes. “Fuck me like you would if we were there.”“Quietly?” Dante’s voice holds the ghost of a smile. “We have a lot of children and Mama not to wake up.”I picture a whitewashed house in Greece, next to the restaurant rather than on top of it, with a cozy front garden covered in plastic kids toys, far enough outside the city that I can commute and far enough away that the air tastes clean. A small grove of olive trees in the back where we picnic. I can almost taste the salt of the sea, just like Mama always described from home. In the darkness, it’s easy to pretend we’re already there.“Yes,” I murm
Last Updated : 2024-09-09Indebted to the Mafia King Rond Up
DanteTwo days before El’s first class at Tandon, Tony and I sit on the back porch of the safehouse. I roll a glass of scotch between my palms and stare at the trees I know hide Christos’ grave.“I don’t think there’s another choice at this point,” I say.“She was just kidnapped, Dante.” Tony takes a long pull of his beer. “Putting off college for a semester is a goddamn option.”I shake my head. “She’d be devastated. And she fucking earned it, Tone. I’m not letting Camila take this from her.”“And if you move her into the city, Camila only has the opportunity to take her life.” Tony rolls his eyes.I sip my scotch. He’s been touchy since he found out about Henry. I know it’s the right move. Even if it scares the shit out of me.“Has there been more activity?” I ask. “Or are we just hiding from shadows at this point?”“Nothing huge.” Tony shakes his head. “I don’t fucking know what they’d do at this point. They’ve got the drug trade in a stranglehold. Everyone’s hiding from goddamn sh
Last Updated : 2024-09-09Indebted to the Mafia King Fidgety
EleniI pace back and forth in the guest bedroom we’ve set up as my kind-of office over the last few days. Dante got me a laptop, and Tony brought my school books on one of his many trips up here. I could study. Maybe I should be studying. Classes start in two days. But neither Dante or I have actually, seriously said we’re going back to the city yet. I lift the blinds to check on him and Tony on the deck.They’re both gone. For a split second, cold fear grips my heart. The Russians found the safehouse, and they took both of them while I stood up here. Any second now, the door to this room will burst in, and I’ll be back in that fucking cell before I know it.Someone knocks on the door, and my heart skips a beat. But Russians wouldn’t knock. Dante would.“Come in!” I say, hoping my voice doesn’t sound panicky.Dante opens the door and steps in. He looks taller, prouder than he did a minute ago. My battered heart leaps.“What did Tony say? Good news?” I ask. “Russian syndicate destroye
Last Updated : 2024-09-09Indebted to the Mafia King Apprehension
EleniI shuffle through the hangers in the walk-in closet attached to the bedroom in the city apartment Dante showed me just before everything went wrong a few weeks ago. Classes start tomorrow. Tomorrow! And I haven’t even thought about what I’m going to wear yet. Most of my things from the house have been shipped here, but as I flick through them, all I can think about is how much longer they’re going to fit me for. Leather pants? Silk camisoles? I couldn’t have picked clothes with less stretch if I wanted to.Someone leans on their horn outside, and I’ve lived here way too long to jump, but the city noises are still abrupt after so long away from them. The cell the Russians kept me in was almost completely silent, and there are no neighbors by the safehouse. I missed the noise. I think.My mind drifts to the house on Staten Island, apparently empty right now. It wasn’t silent there by any means, just quieter. Quiet enough that I should’ve been able to hear the sirens headed for bur
Last Updated : 2024-09-09Indebted to the Mafia King Blow Them Away
Dante“No,” Wing says. “We’re not getting involved.”I scowl at the four other half-lit men in the back of the mahjong house in Chinatown. “What, does he have you all by the balls?”“No,” another triad leader, Chan, replies. “We talked before you arrived. He speaks our consensus. It’s too dangerous.”I turn to Tony, expecting him to be just as shocked as I am. The fucking triads, backing down? Tony looks back at me evenly. Fuck, he’s right. I need to keep goddamn cool.“What changed?” I ask.Wing sighs. “The feds leave a wide trail.”I grimace. “Don’t tell me this is about the deaths in Brighton.”“What else?” Chan slams his hand on the table. “Feds raid the Russians, get you your girl back, and who feels the pain? Russians. You know who will hurt if we help you?”“The triads.” Wing’s voice holds an air of finality.I shake my head. “They’re eating into your territory, aren’t they?”“Territory can be recovered.” Chan folds his arms. “Lives, not so much.”I stand. “Call me if you ever
Last Updated : 2024-09-09Indebted to the Mafia King A Part of the Crowd
Eleni“How did you get the gradient?” Kaley leans over and points at the background of the webpage on my laptop. “I feel like CSS is organizing against me. I can’t get it to work.”I glance at the front of the classroom, where Professor Villanueva taps away at her own computer. She said we weren’t supposed to help each other with this assignment. It’s a test of our initial capabilities. But then I look back at Kaley, who clasps her hands under her chin and flutters her eyelashes. God, she can’t be twenty yet, can she? After my semesters at night school, I was able to start Tandon a little ahead of the usual freshmen, but Kaley seems so young.Something in my stomach twinges. I swallow, praying it’s not midafternoon sickness. Thankfully, the rush of saliva that always precedes my attacks doesn’t appear. This twinge is more like what I imagine the baby kicking will feel like. When it can do that. Almost like the not-quite-baby inside me is telling me I should help out another at least r
Last Updated : 2024-09-09Indebted to the Mafia King Make it Happen
EleniI fidget with the waistband of the leggings Dante packed in the bag for me to change into before entering the prison and wish they hadn’t taken my ring. Apparently, the whole “no metal allowed” thing isn’t really negotiable. A burly woman stands on the opposite side of the table from me, one hand on her thick baton and the other on a walkie-talkie. I clear my throat.“Vanessa?”She quirks an eyebrow at me.“Hank sent me.” I feel ridiculous. All these code words…it’s like I’m in a kid’s movie, not a women’s prison upstate.Still, that makes Vanessa hit something on her walkie that dims the constant static pouring from it a second before the door buzzes loudly. I look up.Escorted by two more guards, chained wrist to wrist and ankle to ankle, Camila stumbles in through the heavy door. She’s barely recognizable. Her long, beautiful hair shines with grease in its loose bun at the back of her neck. The orange jumpsuit does the opposite of her endless whites and pastels, turning her a
Last Updated : 2024-09-09
Latest chapter
Indebted to the Mafia King Getting Answers
*Cal*Tony takes a little longer than I’d like with the cartel bastards the Saints captured. By the time his men haul in two guys who are, I’d say, unrecognizable, I’m basically digging a hole in the floor with all my anticipation and agitation, having spent the last hour pacing.The guy I cuffed in the basement looks up from his spot in the corner, and his eyes widen when he sees two more of his people have also been taken by us. He doesn’t have any strength in him to say anything, but he’s been pretty quiet anyway compared to some of the smart-mouthed assholes I’ve beaten the shit out before.“Hey,” Tony greets me, walking behind his guys who are now restraining the newly kidnapped men to chairs, away from the first one. “Brought you a little present.”I grunt. “After the day I just had, you have no idea how glad I am to see them,” I tell him, darting a deathly glance to the newcomers and cracking my knuckles.“I owe you already. I’m glad I could return the favor for once,” Tony say
Indebted to the Mafia King Light at the End of the Tunnel
*Cal*I consider going after Heidi. Following her upstairs, grabbing her by the arm, turning her to me and crashing my lips into hers, hoping she can feel how much I love her and how much I’m willing to fight for us.But that’d be a lie.And also unfair to her.Because if I truly was willing to do anything for her, I’d accept turning my back on the mafia and the Irish Kings without a question. I wouldn’t hesitate. I wouldn’t consider anything other than having her by my side.But I can’t.I can’t give her what she wants. I can’t promise her something I’m not ready to do. Therefore, I’d rather she hates me now, while she still has any feelings for me, then watch her fall out of love with me while we are together. That’d hurt me more than anything.Realization begins to sink in. We’re truly over now. There’s no turning back, no saving this relationship that’s barely even started. I try to convince myself that this is for the best. Heidi will finally be safe away from me. She can return
Indebted to the Mafia King Honest Confessions
*Cal*“What does this mean?” I want to know. I need to know. “What did you come here to talk to me about?”Heidi stares at me for a bit until she inhales sharply and turns her gaze to the ceiling. She is clearly uncomfortable with my questions, but I can’t move on not knowing what’s going through her mind.Does the fact that she came here to have sex with me in my office mean that she forgives me? That she’s willing to put everything behind us and start anew? That she belongs to me completely, no questions asked?Knowing her, I doubt that's what it means.But I need to hear her say it. I need to understand what she’s thinking. Otherwise, I might misinterpret all of it and ruin everything–again.“Heidi?” I call softly when she doesn’t answer me.She looks at me again, her beautiful, big eyes watching me intently. I push her hair out of her face, and lean forward to kiss her lips. It’s a soft kiss, but I try to convey all of my feelings for her through it.“I don’t know what this means,
Indebted to the Mafia King Sex and Doubt
*Cal*I spent most of the night and the morning trying to get something out of the cartel’s man I found lurking outside Heidi’s building. Anything useful at all that will help me put an end to all of this nonsense. The interrogation took several hours, and I was so fucking mad that I didn’t let any of my men deal with him even though I was exhausted. It was ugly, to say the least, and I split my knuckles multiple times as I tried to force some words out of his mouth. But in the end, I didn’t get much. The guy eventually murmured some addresses to me, but so far, my men only hit dead ends with the investigation on the De La Cruz cartel.At some point during the night, Tony showed up and helped me a little bit with the interrogation, and then he left, saying he would ask his men to start investigating as well.So far, I haven’t heard from him.The sun was rising in the sky by the time I came to my office. I sat down in my chair to clear my mind, hoping I could think about what I heard
Indebted to the Mafia King Make Me Forget
*Heidi*“Are you sure you don’t need me to come with you to talk to this guy?” my grandfather offers for the millionth time in the past hour. “I’m positive I can convince him to sell me the shop at half the price he’s demanding.”I chuckle, shaking my head.“I’m good, Grandpa. If he doesn’t accept my offer, I’m sure I can find another great place somewhere else. As much as I love this one, I’m not willing to pay more than it is worth.”Grandpa nods, finally conceding.“Well, I have to get going,” I say, getting up from the chair. “You guys have to get ready for dinner, and I stayed for too long already. I don’t want them to forbid me to come visit you next time.”“They wouldn’t dare,” Grandma murmurs, standing and pulling me into a tight hug. It instantly makes me feel like I can fight the entire world. Her embrace charges my battery, and I feel renewed. Determined. Ready for whatever the world throws my way.“Thanks, Granny. I love you,” I tell her. Then I pull away from her to hug m
Indebted to the Mafia King Comforting Talk
*Heidi*Despite my hopes that I would drop into a deep slumber and not wake at all during the night, my dreams were haunted by faceless men following Cal and I around town. Inevitably, one or the both of us got shot in each of my nightmares. In one of those dreams, these men get to my grandparents. That’s when I wake up sweating and unable to fall asleep again.I get up from bed and make some coffee before the sun is even up. After that, I grab my laptop and start searching for shops to buy again since my meeting with the owner of the Greenwich Village store yesterday wasn’t successful. The guy wasn’t willing to budge on lowering the price, and since I don’t even have the insurance money yet, I couldn’t commit to something I couldn’t afford.I spend the entire morning on real estate websites. However, none of them really stick out to me. I don’t particularly love anything I see, and by the time the clock strikes eleven in the morning, I’m tired of looking at the computer screen, my ey
Indebted to the Mafia King Hands Tied
*Heidi*As soon as Cal’s out the door, I’m left desolated, as if I’m drifting. My mind is numb, and I’m momentarily frozen in place, unsure of what to do. Nothing makes sense and, for a moment, I think I might be dreaming that all of this is just a weird fantasy, some sort of illusion I created in my head. How can Cal–this sweet, sexy, and kind human being–be a criminal?It’s absurd…Lifting up from the floor where I’ve been static for a couple of minutes, I walk toward the window, eager for some fresh air. I pull it open, breathing in the cold evening air. It feels like a wake up call, the wind brushing against my face, drying up the tears streaming down my cheeks.The night is so beautiful, the moon shining so bright up in the sky. It contrasts sharply with the chaos and the destruction that I feel within my heart. I’ve never felt this broken before in my life.Maybe when my parents died, yes, but I was too young to remember exactly what it felt like. But now that I’m mature enough,
Indebted to the Mafia King A Clue at Last
*Cal*“Fuck!” I hiss, punching the wall next to the elevator outside Heidi’s apartment. Thankfully, there’s no one with me as I head downstairs after being told to leave her home, so I’m left alone with my anger and frustration.I should’ve seen this coming. It was bound to happen from the beginning. Of course, she would find out. How did I ever think I could keep it hidden from her forever?I could’ve treaded more carefully, but as soon as I heard her saying over the phone that she thought she was being followed, I saw red. I rushed to her apartment, not even trying to control my feelings and emotions. I was all over the place, all sorts of scenarios running through my mind until I could make sure that she was all right.She immediately picked up that I was hiding something from her. Once I decided to come clean with her, everything just poured out of me, and everything I’d been struggling to keep from her was completely exposed.As soon as I get to the building exit, I hesitate, hal
Indebted to the Mafia King Shattered
*Heidi*I blink once, twice, my brain struggling to make sense of the words that just came out of Cal’s mouth.Irish Kings? What the fuck is that?Why do I recognize this name from somewhere?But where…?Then it occurs to me, like a meteor hitting me straight in the face.Irish Kings… That’s the name of the Irish mafia gang in New York. I have no idea why or where I remember it from, but I might have read about them at some point in the past, or heard about them on TV or in the news.“The Irish Kings…as in, the mafia?” I ask, hoping that saying it out loud will convince me that that isn't what he meant because that would be utterly ridiculous.The whole idea is stupid. Even repeating the name sounds idiotic to me. There’s no way I fell in love with a mafia boss. Is there? This is not a fucking movie. This is real life.I remember joking about it once with him in the car right after we met. He slammed on the brakes so hard that we were almost rear ended. I had no idea how close to ho
