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Nightmares
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
Taken by the Mafia King Hal
TommasoI stood in the mouth of a dark alley, the full moon overhead casting the brick walls and trash cans in stark relief. Technically, I was supposed to meet Hal inside the alley, but I wasn’t stupid enough to corner myself when meeting an unknown element. In the back of my mind, I kept picturing my dad, hitting the ground in an alley just like this one and never getting up again. Stan swore up and down that Hal’s dad said he was a good kid, basically, just a little thick. I trusted Stan, trusted his sense of others. But I still placed my back against a wall and didn’t walk more than a foot into the alley. I owned enough cops in the city that I wasn’t exactly going to get picked up for loitering.A few minutes after the chosen time, someone sauntered up to me. A younger man, maybe a couple of years older than Paige, with a dense thatch of blond hair that stood up at all angles and a haze in his eyes that told me he’d imbibed something before our meeting appeared. I swallowed down a
Taken by the Mafia King Turning the Tables
PaigeA couple weeks of quiet passed. We cleared out all the women from Tom’s midday rescue that had other places to go, and the remaining few who didn’t settled into life at the Haven. I started to itch for something to do. That anger boiled in my veins nearly daily, even when women from other situations came to us. Lauren had to talk me down from facing one woman’s abuser myself when he stood outside our building for a few hours.The week of the auction, I sat down to dinner with Tom on the patio outside.“We’re moving on Marino on Friday,” he said.I swallowed hard. Friday was the day of the auction. My skin crawled as I remembered waking up in the dark, cage-lined basement. I’d cried at first, something that pissed me off to remember during the rest of my captivity. But I hadn’t known how much my life was going to change then. Now, thinking about it just made me sick. I pushed my dinner a bit away.“That’s when all the women will be there,” Tom continued.I remembered that, too. F
Taken by the Mafia King Friday Night Lights
TommasoI tapped my fingers on the steering wheel of one of the many vans positioned a couple of blocks away from the Mansion on Friday night. Stan sat in the passenger seat next to me, and a team of hand-picked men occupied the back. Over an earpiece Lyle had given me, I listened to what Killian was hearing on the inside through a call he had open in his pocket.“Yeah,” he murmured to one of his allies. “We’ve got the numbers. You’ll know when it’s going down.”“Long live the new king,” the man replied.I took a deep breath. Killian had smuggled in more of his men than Marino would normally allow in other crews, and all of his allies had been willing to appear. I’d brought a fairly small strike team—for the balls of what we were about to do—counting on support once we made it inside.Room noise filled the speaker for a long moment. I only caught snippets of conversation, low music. I could picture the whole setup. The low lighting, the quiet music, everyone in masks. With that anonym
Taken by the Mafia King It All Hits the Fan
TommasoStan looked at me. I looked back at him. My heart pounded in my ears. Marino knew exactly what we were going to try to do. He was ready.And forty or fifty women sat in cages in his basement, to be sold to God-only-knew-who if I didn’t save them. I unholstered my gun and kicked open the door.A hail of gunfire split the air before I took another step, and I dove out of the doorway. Something squelched as I landed in Hal’s blood. Stan took position on the other side of the door, and as one, we leaned in to divide the target and fired.Half a dozen men in the room beyond the door, all armed and standing in front of a second door. The room in question looked like a goddamn mudroom, except for the blood and automatic weapons. I clipped a man leaning out from behind a shoe rack in the shoulder, and Stan landed a headshot on the one behind the sink. We ducked back out.I tightened my bulletproof vest and whispered a prayer that I’d make it home to Paige as I leaned into the doorway
Taken by the Mafia King Waiting in the Wings
PaigeI sat in one of the many vans outside of the Mansion with Sera. We could just barely hear the few remaining gunshots, and Sera flinched almost every time. I sighed and fiddled with the radio.“It’s better out here,” Sera said.“No the fuck it’s not,” I spat. I would’ve given almost anything to walk in there with Tom, but he said that while my shooting was getting up to par, this was going to be all-out war. I wasn’t ready for a combat situation, so I had to sit in the fucking car. Again.She met my gaze steadily. “Let’s say you’re not gonna get hurt. Let’s say you can tolerate watching him get hurt. Would you really be able to walk back in there?”I swallowed and looked at my hands. Last night, I dreamt that Gamal, our house guest, was chasing me through the basement I remembered from my night at the Mansion, and all of the bastards I could remember bid on me when I accidentally stumbled onto the auction block. Once again, though, the dream ended before anyone won. But realistic
Taken by the Mafia King Clean-Up Crew
TommasoI slipped my phone back into my pocket and looked around the basement. Dead bodies lay everywhere around me, but thankfully, all of them were men. When I left Stan, he’d taken the guys directly down here and cleaned up before any of Killian’s allies—who might be supportive but also might not take the same care—could reach the room first. A few of the men milling around were just piling bodies off to the sides so the women could exit their cages onto something other than dead flesh.They reminded me of Hal, on the ground outside in a puddle of his blood. He might not have been the brightest bulb in the box, but he was ultimately a good kid who’d gotten roped into this mess by nothing more than a couple unlucky family ties. I made a mental note to take care of Hal’s mom. Anonymously, of course.“Conti!” one of the men called.I looked at him, and he tossed me something. I caught it on instinct. A sparkling ring of keys he’d clearly found on one of the bodies. I nodded to him and
Taken by the Mafia King Deja Vu
PaigeStanding in the basement of the Mansion, I handed the last woman a set of clean sweats and stepped back as she began to change. The ceiling, padded to reduce noise traveling upstairs in a way I hadn’t understood last time I was here, pressed down on me.No, it didn’t. It just felt like it did. I scrubbed my hands over the goosebumps on my arms and forced myself to stop looking. I didn’t need to see this place through all new eyes. Riccardo Marino was dead. No one else would ever be kept in the tall, metal cages I hadn’t known to appreciate when I was last here.That was another train of thought I didn’t want to follow. I turned to a couple of women, who’d already been checked out by Sera, sitting on the floor together and crying.“Is there anything I can get for you?” I asked. “We’re moving out soon”—as soon as Sera finished checking over the last few, if I had my say—“but if there’s anything immediate, I’ll see what I can do.”One of them looked up at me with her lower lip quiv
Taken by the Mafia King Clean Sweep
TommasoI watched the last van, with Paige in it, pull out of the Mansion’s driveway. In the end, I’d counted forty-five women. I knew she’d been ready for a lot, but that might overwhelm her shelter, no matter how prepared she’d been.Stan walked up to me. “All the bodies on the first floor have been stacked up. Do we have a disposal plan, or are we sending them back to families as a final threat?”Lyle leaned back from the laptop Killian had found in the panic room Marino was trying to escape into. “If we’re, um, sending bodies back, I wouldn’t make that list until I’ve, you know, finished up here.”I nodded. “Makes sense. Marino’s neighbors will know not to say anything by now. Does he have a walk-in freezer?”Stan frowned. “I think so, but we’re probably talking about too many bodies.”“Of course.” I scrubbed a hand through my curls. “All right, put everyone you know belongs to another syndicate in the freezer for now, and come find me when you hit capacity. Lyle, keep at that lap
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Taken by the Mafia King Epilogue
PaigeI stood in the vestibule outside of the chapel, clutching my flowers, my heart hammering in my chest. Organ music belted through the doors, and I was just waiting for my cue.We all were. My two bridesmaids, in simple maroon dresses, stood ahead of me. Like she could feel my eyes, Lauren turned back and winked. I smiled. The dress looked spectacular on her, and I’d promised up and down that Tom would invite enough handsome men for her to go home with a date. This, of course, had been complicated by Tom choosing Killian and Stan as his two groomsmen. While I liked the older man, and he kept Lauren laughing, I didn’t exactly see the two of them as a couple.Mom stepped up next to me with a smile. Her mother-of-the-bride dress, a deep burgundy gown with gold accents, caught the light and sent it dancing. “Are you excited?”I inhaled sharply. “I kind of can’t stop thinking about the seating chart for the reception. Who have I become?”She laughed. “Your father.”Tears beaded in my e
Taken by the Mafia King Old Time's Sake
KillianI sat behind my desk and looked out over my men. Tommaso took his usual seat. Adrian hovered in the corner like he wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself yet, just like he had at the beginning. Patrick was still laughing about spilling his wine. Just like old times. I stood and started pouring everyone drinks.“So,” I said, “do you have an update on the warehouses, Adrian?”He started toward my desk, then paused. An odd moment passed. It wasn’t really my desk anymore. I’d left the hunk of wood behind because I had no need for it on the island, and he’d loaded it down with computers in my absence. Despite that, I’d never seen anyone sit behind it but my father besides me.I offered Adrian a drink. “Sit.”He nodded. “Didn’t want to step on your toes. The situation is pretty simple, all told, but I can tell there’s a certain amount of grace I’m supposed to be handling this foreman with, and I don’t—”Tommaso joined me at the bar to pour. “Do you remember that foreman in the so
Taken by the Mafia King Big News
PaigeI tucked my arm through Tom’s and straightened my long, floral romper. He kissed me on the cheek, then knocked on the door. Joyce swung it open.“Hello!” She welcomed us both in with hugs. “Mr. and Mrs. Ricci are in the drawing room. Please, come in.”We let ourselves be bustled through the door, the wine we’d brought carried off to the kitchen, and our coats taken to some closet somewhere in the mansion. Adrian used it as a base of operations when Killian and Sera weren’t home, so I’d been here a few times since the wedding, but I’d never felt comfortable here. Finally, we were led to the closed doors of the drawing room, and Tom opened them with a smile.Inside, we found not only “Mr. and Mrs. Ricci,” but also Olivia and Patrick, Adrian and Penny—who still wouldn’t even talk about their dance at the wedding—and Sera’s mother and brother, as well as Lauren. Sera leapt up to greet us, and Killian followed a few paces behind. I threw myself into the hug just as much as Sera did—I
Taken by the Mafia King Checking Up
SeraI folded a T-shirt and put it into Killian’s suitcase. “Are you sure we need to leave so soon?”He chuckled and took the T-shirt back out, then replaced it with a suit shirt. “Very, unfortunately. Adrian is in the middle of a difficult situation with one of the warehouses, and he needs a steady hand to guide him through.”My stomach churned at the thought of leaving the villa. We’d only been here for a couple of months, and we’d promised everyone we’d return, but dammit, I wasn’t ready yet. Lazing around the villa and having sex whenever the mood took us was way too fun to stop after only a few months.“But we’ll be back soon, right?” I asked like I didn’t already know.“Cara mia.” Killian took my hands. “What is happening in that head of yours?”I sighed. “I don’t know. The thought of leaving just make me kind of sick. We just got away from all that. I don’t want to be scared again.”He studied me for a long moment. “You do look a little pale. How sick is this making you exactly
Taken by the Mafia King Humdrum Excitement
PaigeI squeezed Tom’s hand in the car on the way to the airport.“Sad to be leaving?” he asked.I smiled. “Always. It’s so magical here.”He laughed. “Not just saying that because we’ve spent most of the vacation in bed?”I ran my free hand up his leg. “No, we have weekends for that at home.”“Fair enough.” He kissed the back of my hand. “I do like going on these little vacations, though. It’s a nice escape for a few days.”I nodded. I really was going to miss Paris, but I wouldn’t have wanted to stay much longer anyway. Lauren had been texting me updates about the shelter, especially the new one as women settled in. I kept thinking about how much I was missing, how much they needed me there. And I knew Tom was feeling the same. Apparently, Lyle had his sights set on someone new, and Tom was itching to pull the trigger. Anybody else would probably think we were freaks, desperate to leave a luxury vacation to get back to our grueling jobs. But those people didn’t realize just how much
Taken by the Mafia King Perfect Fit
TommasoWhen I told Paige I’d set everything up for another two days in Paris, she’d immediately insisted we spend a day shopping. I put up a cursory front of complaints, but in truth, I was perfectly happy following her from store to store and carrying her bags. Even better, she loved it when I made jokes about some of the worst, frilliest, most French things we came across. She laughed and joined in. For years, I’d heard men complaining about shopping with their girlfriends—fiancées—saying it was the most boring thing in the world, but even if we weren’t laughing up a storm as we paid our way through the most expensive boutiques in Paris, I still would’ve been having a ball. The sun was shining, she kept looking at the ring I’d put on her finger with a soft wonderment I’d never seen in her eyes anymore, and my face hurt from smiling. Paige and I could’ve made a hell of an afternoon out of reading the phone book.“Stop!” she said.I froze, my free hand twitching toward the gun I’d hi
Taken by the Mafia King Beginning of Forever
PaigeI didn’t know how long Tom and I lay there, listening to the fireworks and seeing the very top of their arcs through the sliver of windows accessible from the floor. I pillowed my head on his chest and enjoyed the steady beat of his heart. Engaged. The last time I was here, I’d been on the cusp of recovery, just starting to make strides toward the person I was today. Now, I wasn’t done—I didn’t know if there was a done for traumatized people or people in general—but I was so much better, stronger, happier than I had been.The last time Tom and I were in Paris, I’d thrown myself at him and chickened out. As much as I could stay at a private view of the Eiffel Tower, I wanted to show him just how much had changed. Just how much I meant the “yes” that had fallen so easily from my lips. I rolled on top of him.“What do you say we take this back to that hotel room you picked out?”Tom grinned and pulled me down for a kiss. I pressed myself against him, feeling every line of his body.
Taken by the Mafia King The Only Ones
PaigeI sat across from Tom in an empty, stunning restaurant in the middle of the Eiffel Tower with my head spinning like the three sips of wine I’d had with the appetizer were enough to make me drunk. He’d really rented out the Eiffel Tower. And not one floor, the whole thing. We’d ridden an empty elevator, the two-Michelin-star chef kept coming out to tell us why he’d selected particular dishes based on the information Tom had given him about our preferences, and I couldn’t hear anything but the soft classical music over the speakers. It felt like a dream.Tom took my hand. “So?”“So what?” I asked.“Was the surprise worth it?” He grinned.I looked over his suit, a forest green that brought out his eyes, worn without a tie. His dark curls tumbled into his face. I’d never seen him look so perfectly put together and so casual. He looked…well, he looked exactly like the man I’d fallen in love with. Nothing like the one who’d scared me so badly all those months ago in Cairo.“I get the
Taken by the Mafia King Peace Time
TommasoDespite how much I wanted Paige to keep that little black dress on, we had a few hours before the Tower officially emptied out for our use. I talked her into putting on something a little more walkable and keeping the lingerie on. As if to punish me for my restraint, she picked a pair of tiny, wide-legged shorts that showed the tops of the garters attached to her stockings every time she moved and a fitted blouse. I changed and somehow convinced myself to leave the hotel room instead of stripping everything off her and spending the hours in bed.She took my hand as we stepped into the lobby. “I should’ve known. When you plan a surprise, it’s never just one thing. Where are we off to first?”“So nosy.” I smiled.“You’re right, I’ll stop asking.” She slid the room key out of her pocket and fiddled with it for a second, then dropped it. With a small smile, she bent at the waist to pick it up, exposing those garter straps again.I grabbed her waist and hurried her the final few st
