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Last First Night on the Job
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Taken by the Mafia King Chat Therapy
PaigeI leaned against the back of Lauren’s bright-teal couch and stared at the seascape over her shoulder, ignoring both her gaze and the stare of the big, fluffy golden retriever who was sitting by her desk when I walked in today. She introduced him as Francis, her actual pet but also a therapy dog she’d like to bring to session sometimes. Of course, I told her to do whatever she wanted. Francis wouldn’t change anything about the shit I’d been through, just the same as her picture-perfect smile and bright-blue furniture wouldn’t. Nothing would.Francis huffed and sat at my feet.“So, did anything exciting happen since I last saw you?” Lauren asked.The word “no” bubbled to my lips, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to say it. Mom was leaving for France. I had a laptop and a phone again for the first time in months. And I had a job, my old job, starting Monday. Somehow, in the course of two days, everything had changed.“I guess,” I said. “I emailed my old job to see if they wanted m
Taken by the Mafia King Lunch Plans
TommasoPaige stepped out of Lauren’s office, and I braced for another icy blow-off, but she didn’t even glance at me. She just furrowed her brow and stared into the distance, like she was trying to work out some complex math problem in her head.“All good?” I asked.She nodded absently and began walking toward the elevator. I followed, just close enough to catch her if she ran. Obviously, something was going on with her, but she didn’t seem actively upset.When we reached the car, her confusion still hadn’t cleared. I frowned. “So, ready for your cheesesteak?” I asked.She looked up at me sharply, and something like a smile curved her lips as she nodded. We got in, and Patrick put the car in drive, pulling out toward the same little restaurant as always.“I was thinking,” I said. “Maybe you want to get out? A hot cheesesteak’s always best on a cold winter day, warming you up.”Paige’s eyes widened. Her breath seemed to catch. She tugged on the sleeves of her oversized sweater.“Or no
Taken by the Mafia King Suffocation
PaigeI marched up to my room after therapy, comfortably full for the first time in a while, and sat down at my desk. When I asked about the tablet, Tom told me the credit card was to buy whatever I needed, and he’d have his men pick it up. The slim, black rectangle had arrived yesterday, and setting it up had exhausted me too much to try it out. Now, I couldn’t avoid it any longer. I started work on Monday, and I hadn’t so much as drawn a line in five fucking months. My hands shook half the time I tried to pick something up, and my knowledge of color theory seemed to have fallen out of my head. I needed to be the employee they remembered. I cracked my knuckles, turned on the screen, and got to work.A couple of hours later, someone knocked on my door. I looked up from a page covered in logos for a business I got off a random generator, a flower shop that specialized in grief and grievance arrangements, and stretched. The first few were sloppy, way below my usual quality, but I could
Taken by the Mafia King Heroics
TommasoI didn’t know how long Paige spent bent over the arm of her office chair, wrapped around me. I’d shed my suit jacket between meetings, and the thin cotton of my button-down soaked through before long. My knees ached from the hard floor, but I couldn’t imagine moving. Last time, she’d grabbed me and let go quickly. If she wanted to hold on, I certainly intended to let her. She sobbed like the world was ending. I couldn’t let her face that alone.Eventually, she let go. Her cheeks had gone red in splotches, and her eyes looked puffy, but she also looked more human than she had since I’d picked her up in Cairo.She leaned sharply back. “I’m sorry, I—”“No.” I held on for an extra second, not restraining her, just letting her know she didn’t have to go. “Nothing to apologize for.”She shook her head and pulled out of my hold. I stood, trying not to show any expression as I lost her warmth. My knees complained, and I groaned. She glanced at me.“I’m starting to creak like an old ma
Taken by the Mafia King Across The Pond
PaigeI sat bolt-upright in one of Tom’s big leather chairs, staring at him as he dialed a number. The dozens of tiny arched windows behind him let in shafts of the setting sun, highlighting the details of yet another of his carefully decorated rooms. I couldn’t place this theme, but everything flowed in a natural way I found way more comforting than the soaring ridiculousness of my bedroom. Even the liquor cart, which I could have laughed at having in his office if my heart wasn’t beating out of my chest, had legs that curled like vines up to its leaf-shaped top. The edges of my hair still clung damply to my face, and I felt weirdly vulnerable, even fully clothed with a desk between us. I hadn’t even meant to say that stuff about it being unfair; it just tumbled out. But he took it in stride, like he seemed to take everything, and immediately leapt to trying to fix it. Maybe McKenna was dead—my body trembled—but I had to try. We had to try.Somehow, I believed he was actually trying.
Taken by the Mafia King Tom
TommasoI looked at Paige for a long moment. The fire in her dark eyes hadn’t dimmed, but her mouth had thinned into a severe line. She wouldn’t be letting me weasel out this time, even though I had no better answer to give her.Despite that, I chuckled. Tom. That name didn’t belong to someone like me, raised from the womb for blood. It belonged to an accountant or, well, a graphic designer. Someone who kept normal hours and grilled steaks on the weekends for the wife and kids.She blinked. “What’s so funny?”“Nothing,” I said. “To your ques—”“No one calls you Tom, huh?” she asked.I couldn’t keep the smile from my lips. She was still such a puzzle to me, but she read me like a book. “No, no one else.”She crossed her arms. “No one? Ever?”I laughed. “My nona called me Tommy sometimes. That’s about it.”“You don’t look like a Tommaso to me.” She looked me up and down.My skin heated in the path of her gaze. “Well, you can call me whatever you like.”She pursed her lips. “You didn’t a
Taken by the Mafia King Bon Voyage
PaigeEarly Friday morning, I stood in the mosaic entryway of Tom’s house with Mom and her five suitcases, waiting for Fred to come pick her up and head to the airport. Tom had moved therapy to the afternoon so I could see her off. Not that that was going very well. She kept starting sentences and stopping. I picked at the stitching on her brand new matching set of suitcases I assumed Tom had purchased for her.Finally, there was a knock on the door. Mom flung it open, and an older man with a wide smile stood there.“Fred!” Mom wrapped him in a quick, platonic hug.“Natalia.” He kissed her cheek and released her. “And Paige! I was so thrilled to hear you were home safe.”I forced a smile. My stomach flipped, and it took all my willpower not to grab Mom and drag her back. From this angle, Fred looked a whole hell of a lot like another bastard.“You know, Killian Ricci asked me to find you months ago?” he said. “When I couldn’t, I was thrilled to be able to help your mom out instead. Yo
Taken by the Mafia King Remorse
PaigeI sat on Lauren’s teal couch with Francis’s head on my feet, feeling sore from the basketball game and maybe—just maybe—a little less pissy than I had been. I kind of missed the ache of over-used muscles.“So, how have the last couple of days been?” she asked. “I know we’re meeting later so you could send off your mom. How was that?”“Fine.” I shrugged. I didn’t want to talk about the hug thing. I knew, at least conceptually, about exposure therapy, and I didn’t intend to get tricked into anything like that.“Okay.” Lauren took a note. “What about everything else?”I studied her, trying to see whatever secrets she was hiding behind her mane of blonde hair. “What do you know about my history?”She shook her head. “What you’ve told me, and that you needed a trauma specialist.”I swallowed. “And if I tell you I won’t talk about something, you won’t push?” She’d basically promised as much in our first session.She put up three fingers and grinned. “Scout’s honor.”“Tom called a frie
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