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Cairo
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Taken by the Mafia King If She's Even Here
TommasoI stepped through the door, and the bartender shut it behind me. I swallowed. “Mr. Saad?”A lamp flickered on, a weak halogen bulb that spilled light over the middle of the desk. I blinked in the sudden glare. The man’s brown wrist caught the light, bearing a glittering Rolex I recognized from their latest line, before he shook a shirtsleeve over it and folded his hands on top of a high-end laptop.“Ahmed, please, Mr. Conti.”I exhaled quietly. I knew that reedy voice, that thick accent. Ahmed had a flair for the dramatic, apparently. My heart pounded. If I’d found him, I’d find Paige before long.“Do you have the money?” he asked.I set my bag on his desk, tilted it toward me, and unzipped it. Ahmed was a middleman-of-all-trades, a guide to the Egyptian underworld for anyone able to pay the right price. For a simple tour of the area, I would’ve had to pay fifty thousand American dollars, but I couldn’t wait that long. I had let Paige suffer for long enough.I pulled out the c
Taken by the Mafia King Red-Head in a Cage
TommasoI stalked out of the hotel that night and pulled my coat around me to ward off a sudden breeze. Fucking deserts. The second the sun went down, it was like a whole different climate. But the yelling, crowded streets, and stink of exhaust hadn’t gone anywhere.Napping proved futile. I didn’t know how I was gonna sleep in that damned bed when I finally had to, but I definitely couldn’t with Paige so close I could touch her. Instead, I spent the afternoon fighting with the hotel wi-fi to find and memorize walking directions to the market Ahmed had given me. If I never had to get in a car and traverse the streets of Cairo again, it would be too soon.Heads turned as I walked, but fewer than in the daylight and in Ahmed’s part of town. I still towered over most of the people on the street, but I towered everywhere I went. At least in downtown, I blended in with the other pale-skinned tourists.That wouldn’t last. Like everything I needed in Cairo, the market sat somewhere most touri
Taken by the Mafia King Enemies Closer
TommasoI stormed into Ahmed’s fucking tavern, the noon sun hot on my shoulders. I’d spent the last few hours pacing back and forth in my hotel room, trying to convince myself to get some fucking sleep for the first time since arriving in Cairo, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t even lie down.That fucking snake needed to know I shouldn’t be fucked with, not because of the Ricci name at my back but because I knew how to solve my own goddamn problems.I marched up to the bar and the same reedy bartender. The place was even emptier than yesterday, and the few red-eyed men at the tables stared even more. I didn’t care. Last time, I’d been crossing my fingers and hoping for a lead. Now, with my Beretta in my shoulder holster and the laughter of that guard ringing in my ears, I wasn’t hoping for shit. I had come here to get what I paid for.It took a lot to make me angry, but Ahmed had managed it.“Almawyrid yantaziru,” I spat.The bartender eyeballed me for another long moment. He ran his
Taken by the Mafia King On The Scent
TommasoOnce Mr. Dawud left with another fifty thousand—less than a third of the cash I had after my initial payment, without counting the four bank cards sewn into the lining of my bag—I collapsed onto my bed. I felt like I may have been close enough to touch her last night but lost her again. A few hours, a less backstabbing guide, and I would’ve been done.I pulled the Polaroid out of my pocket and stared at it. She looked so thin, so tired. I didn’t know when this picture had been taken, but I didn’t want to think about how she looked now. Not after those women I saw last night.I tucked the picture back away and pulled out my phone. I needed to talk to someone who knew a piece of what Paige was going through, convince myself I hadn’t damned her by walking out of Ahmed’s office. I dialed Sera.She picked up on the second ring. “Tommaso! Do you have her?”“Not yet.” I rolled onto my back to stare at the ceiling. “I’m close, though. I think she may have been there last night, at the
Taken by the Mafia King Dead End
TommasoThe following morning, I bounced into the crappy little tavern and gave Ahmed’s bartender the password with a smile on my face. Whatever the bastard said he found, I had a name to throw at him. I finally had the goddamn upper hand.I stuck my hand in my pocket to fidget with the edge of Paige’s photograph. If this lead panned out, I could be seeing her as soon as today. We could be on a plane home tomorrow. My life spread out before me, glittering and bright.The bartender, for some reason, seemed to regard this with more suspicion than when I came in threatening him with a gun. He let me back eventually, and I headed down the dark hall toward Ahmed. Even the dry, sweltering heat here couldn’t bring me down.As always, Ahmed sat behind his desk with one lamp illuminating the whole room. Four massive goons, at least as big as me, stood along the back wall. I even recognized the one who escorted me to my hotel. One more than yesterday. Had something changed? Did he expect me to
Taken by the Mafia King Shot in the Dark
TommasoI reeled back a step as that weight landed on my chest once more. Dead. Failed to save her by a couple hours, by one unlucky deal, after months of searching. I gripped the back of the chair for support. If he was right, and Paige was dead, I would…I would what? Abandon the rest of my friends and family over a girl I’d never met? She’d consumed my thoughts for the last five months, but I didn’t even know her. I just had the photograph and everything Sera said about her. I’d fought through tougher stuff than this before.But none of that kept a yawning abyss of grief from opening in my chest. If Paige was dead, I may as well have killed her. I got so close and fucked it up right at the goddamn finish line. This would swallow me if I let it.So I just couldn’t let it.“I don’t think so,” I said.“What?” Ahmed stared at me.“You don’t know her.” Technically, I didn’t know her either but whatever. “She’s tough. She’s made it this far. She wouldn’t go down that quickly.”“Mr. Conti
Taken by the Mafia King Deal with the Devil
TommasoZahur laughed and stuck his hands in his pockets. “That is very possible, Mr. Conti. I have a great many things. But why would you wanting one of them convince me not to kill you?”I swallowed. This close, I could see the hard glint in his eye. Zahur Farhat didn’t waste words. When he said he would kill me, he meant it.“I’m the right hand of the mafia king of Philadelphia.” I put my hand in my pocket to grab the Polaroid. “He and I are willing to do a lot to get her back.”Guns rattled behind me. At least five, more than the two guards behind me could hold. No safeties came off, but I doubted a man like Zahur bothered keeping them on. I slowly pulled the picture out of my pocket and held my hands up.“No weapons,” I said. “Just a picture.”“Ah, let him. He knows the mafia king.” Zahur laughed. “For a title like that, I can look at something before I kill you.” He snatched the picture.I watched his face closely. He didn’t lose any of the hardness, but one of his eyebrows twit
Taken by the Mafia King A Light in the Darkness
Paige“How is that?” I peered through the darkness of one of the many interior hallways Zahur made us stick to, barely able to see McKenna’s black eye.“Had worse.” She shrugged. Her English accent rounded the edges off all her letters. “Seen other girls come out much worse.”I nodded. In some ways, Zahur was better than some of the other bastards who had owned me. He let us wear long, thin robes over our naked bodies, let us walk around. Only in pairs and only in the isolated interior hallways he approved, but still.One of the bastards—I only called them the bastards now—had kept me in a cage for damn near the whole month and a half he had me. But Zahur had a violent streak. I came in with another girl, Delia, and he picked her to spend the first night with. I never saw her again. McKenna had taken me under her wing the next morning.“Still.” I shook my head. “You’ve got a cut in there. You should see a doctor.”She laughed, a high tinkling sound. “Mint, and I’ll just head back to M
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