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Taken by the Mafia King Nerves
TommasoOn shaky legs, I stepped off the plane back in London. Killian’s new captain, Amelia, was good, but I’d never get used to that.“Need a few hours to refuel,” Amelia said. “Could be off as early as noon?”I laughed. “Why don’t we call it three? I need a second to catch my breath, and we need to pack up.”Paige squeezed my hand. “Three sounds good.”I smiled down at her, and we piled into yet another hired car to take us back to the hotel. She sat near me on the bench seat, just close enough that I couldn’t help thinking about the way she attached herself to me in the bed in Paris, the undulating rhythm of her hips against me as she slept. Anything I imagined after I caught her that night in Philly had been a pale imitation of the real thing. I’d been playing those high whimpers of hers, the soft gasp of my name, and the way she grabbed tighter, every day since.And I might have to keep doing just that for the rest of my days. Despite the fact that she’d kissed me, she’d frozen
Taken by the Mafia King Closing the Chapter?
PaigeA few hours into our flight, the sun had long since set, and stars shone off puffy clouds. I took a deep breath. I’d done it. I’d gone somewhere other than Tom’s house and therapy. I’d seen McKenna. Maybe we could be friends on the outside someday, when she stopped talking about everything like that, but for now, I knew we’d be a little distant. And I’d realized I loved Tom, told him at the top of the Eiffel Tower and everything. I hadn’t even been to therapy in three days, my longest break since my first session. Things were starting to feel…finished. “What will we do when we get home?” I asked quietly.Tom stirred from paging through a book while his eyelids drooped and yawned. “Unpack?”I laughed. “I mean, we got McKenna out. We made sure she’s actually okay and not some elaborate hologram that Edward concocted. What’s the next step in our long-term plan?”“We”s and “our”s had started building up in my sentences since I’d told Tom I loved him. Since he’d promised he wouldn’t
Taken by the Mafia King Headfirst
TommasoPaige and I arrived home in the dead of night, dropped into our separate beds, and struggled through jetlag until my phone vibrated, informing me I’d made the dumbass call to schedule a meeting to talk about Tony for the day after we returned. Silently, I held up the notification to Paige on a stool next to me at the breakfast bar.“So, you have to go?” She poked at her waffles.“So, we both do.” I stood with a groan. “It’s about Tony.”“Oh.” She brightened a little and followed me to my office.I struggled to swallow my yawns as my guys filed in and took their seats. Lyle, Stan, Teddy, and Carp, the men who were quickly becoming my inner circle.“So.” I tried to hide a stretch. “Tony. What do we have? I want to move fast.”“My mole finally got an in,” Stan said. “The long and short of it is that Tony’s middle management. He doesn’t procure; he doesn’t receive. Other people’s shipments just go through him.”“And I don’t know all of where they’re going, but somebody had heard h
Taken by the Mafia King Masks
PaigeI added the third image to the shared folder Lyle sent me and stretched. The AI software was advanced, but it took a lot of human involvement to actually produce something that wouldn’t throw up every red flag in the book. In some ways, I appreciated that for the job security it leant me. In others…I generated a new face—dark haired, this time, and dark-eyed—and the woman in the picture stared back at me placidly. Just the same as the first three. Too healthy. Not scared enough. I opened up my photo editor and exported the image. I looked away to grab my stylus, and when I looked back, Katie’s dark eyes loomed out of the page.Okay. I could start with the cheeks. I zoomed in on a patch of strangely lighted skin and began editing. When I blinked, the skin became mine, gaunt and pallid. I stared at the curl of dark hair at the edge of the frame until the certainty I would see my own face when I zoomed out melted away. These were fictional pictures, fictional women.I thinned out
Taken by the Mafia King Not in Philly
TommasoBetween bursts of planning Tony’s demise, I wandered up to Paige’s room. No particular reason, except that after our trip to London, having her out of arm’s reach made me a little uneasy. Her door was slightly cracked when I walked up to it, and I peeked in.She had pulled her hair up into a messy bun and tucked one knee into her chest, yet another of the oversized sweaters she favored pushed up to her elbows. Her tablet sat on her lap, and she glanced between it and the screen in front of her, displaying a bold, modern logo. Her tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth.My heart thudded unevenly. She was so goddamn beautiful.She started to turn, and I danced back out of the door. I didn’t want to distract her, make her lose her train of thought. Through the open door, I heard her sigh. I could almost imagine her shaking her head and returning to her work. I began heading back down to my office.Paige was beautiful, but if she was only beautiful, I would’ve been satisfied
Taken by the Mafia King Comfort and Safety
PaigeI folded my legs underneath me on Lauren’s bright blue couch and scratched Francis’s head. It felt like I hadn’t been here in a month, but I’d only missed one session.“So, London?” Lauren said.“And Paris,” I replied. “For a night.”She hummed. “How was it?”“It was—” The answer caught in my throat, too bulky to possibly escape. One word, a sentence, a whole therapy session couldn’t sum up how it had been. It had been everything and nothing at all. My whole world was different, and I didn’t know if anything had changed.“Fair enough.” She smiled. “Let’s start smaller. You saw McKenna, right?”“I did.” I sank my fingers deeper into Francis’s fur. “And she seemed good. I mean, not good. She looked like someone had run her through a woodchipper. But”—I shook my head—“she seemed good with everything?”Lauren frowned. “What does that mean?”“Like, she wouldn’t stop talking about it.” I shrugged. “And always with the same excitement she had when saying hi or talking about her family.
Taken by the Mafia King Like Normal People
Tommaso“Do we have time to grab lunch somewhere we can actually sit down?” Paige asked.I glanced at my watch. I needed to get documents in order for a shipment going out tonight. I was looking into new arms dealers to pick up Tony’s orders once we took him down, and Stan was coming over for a strategy meeting at 2:00.“Of course,” I said.She grinned. She couldn’t know just how much I had going on right now.***After a bit of discussion in the car, we ended up at a sushi place I’d always loved. The hostess offered us a corner booth, and we sat.“I’ve never actually had sushi before,” Paige admitted. “I don’t know if I’ve ever had fish that wasn’t breaded and fried.”I laughed. “Then we’ll skip the stuff that’s still alive and tries to crawl back out.”Paige’s mouth fell open. “You’re joking.”“Nope.” I turned over my menu with a smile.“We’re doing that someday.” She squared her shoulders. “I have to know.”“For now, let’s—”At a table in the middle of the room, a couple began argu
Taken by the Mafia King Lucky Paige
PaigeBeth sat in the backseat of Tom’s car, sniffling and fiddling with the receipt I’d given her with my number on it. She’d asked to be taken to her mother’s house, and the pressure in my lungs had finally released. Laying out Steve felt great, but only leaving Beth with my number hadn’t felt like nearly enough. This was much, much better.“Mom warned me, you know,” Beth said. “She said Steve was trouble, that he was the exact same kind of guy as her third husband, who ended up in prison. But I didn’t li-i-sten!” Beth dissolved into tears.I reached back and patted her knee. I’d never really known what to do with tears, but I knew the feeling that everything bad that happened to you was your fault.“You’re listening now,” I said.Beth sucked in a deep breath. “Am I? Steve’s the only guy who’s ever gonna love me. I’m damaged goods now.”“No,” I said with surprising vehemence. “Steve was a fucking liar.”Beth shook her head. “He was the only one who told me how annoying my laugh was,
Latest chapter
Taken by the Mafia King Epilogue
Taken by the Mafia King Old Time's Sake
Taken by the Mafia King Big News
Taken by the Mafia King Checking Up
Taken by the Mafia King Humdrum Excitement
Taken by the Mafia King Perfect Fit
Taken by the Mafia King Beginning of Forever
Taken by the Mafia King The Only Ones
Taken by the Mafia King Peace Time
