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Enemies Closer
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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
Taken by the Mafia King So Close I Can Taste It
TommasoIt killed me to leave that place without Paige. But then, Zahur would’ve killed me if I refused, and I was no good to her dead. When I so much as frowned, half a dozen guards poured into the room while he just kept smoking that goddamn hookah. I’d agreed to come back tomorrow, ready to transfer the money, while Zahur did some “looking around.”Just thinking about him, even across the city in my hotel room, made me violent. Someday, I’d crush the smile off his face. For now, Paige came first.I paced beside my windows, overlooking Cairo at night and the door, while I nursed a glass of imported scotch I’d pilfered from the bar downstairs. My room had a minibar, but I needed the tumbler in my hand to steady me.After another long sip, I took out my phone and called Killian. I’d made a number of promises on his behalf.My best friend picked up the phone quickly. “Good news or bad news?”Just hearing his voice across the line, sharp and precise, made me a little less nervous. He wo
Taken by the Mafia King Just Another Morning After
PaigeI blinked awake the next morning in the dim light of the dormitory. Every inch of my body ached. The light cotton sheet over top of me was too heavy, burning on my bare skin, and when I tried to sit up, my head spun.The price Zahur asked was, as always, a night with me. His eyes gleamed when he offered it. My stomach churned, and I swallowed. I’d gotten used to what I thought was the worst of what the bastards could offer, but Zahur showed me a new low.He didn’t just want to take me. He wanted me to say he could, to put me in a position where I had to say yes and mean it. He wanted me to know even my ability to want belonged to him now.Bastard.The rest of the girls slept in their beds around me. Even JJ had been returned, covered in spidering black stitches. That meant I’d woken up earlier than usual. I stretched and discovered a line of the same stitches along the curve of one breast, the inside of the opposite thigh.I climbed out of bed. There was no point in thinking abo
Taken by the Mafia King First Look
TommasoMy mind tore itself in two separate directions as I stared down at Paige.She’s real, the first part of me whispered.Her cheekbones were more prominent than when the picture was taken, but her eyes still sparked with the same fire. Her red hair hung down to the small of her back in waves. That flimsy, half-see-through silk robe hung open to expose her body, but I didn’t look at anything but her face.She met my gaze, and time froze. My heart raced. Whatever had been burning in my chest these long months sang.The second part of me demanded violence, rivers of blood. The whole left side of her face was swollen into one massive bruise. Her hair was long but lank, clearly unwashed for some time. The stitches of a fresh cut cupped the top of one of her breasts. The stitches were so prominent, black against her pale skin, I couldn’t help but see them. More injuries, some older, threaded across every limb.Time seemed to restart. She ducked her head, gathered her robe around hersel
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