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Pain Into Power
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Taken by the Mafia King Best Christmas Eve Ever
SeraI watched the SUVs leave into the snowy landscape. Big, fat flakes drifted by, and with all the Christmas lights on, the night still felt calm and magical. I was determined to keep it that way, if not for my sake, then the rest of the household’s.It was planned a few days ago that Olivia, Penny, Joyce, Callie, Pepper, and Rosemary would help me make this the Christmas to remember for Dustin. We’d make it special for Michael, too, though he wouldn’t remember a moment. His mom would take plenty of pictures, though. We planned to make more cookies, drink hot chocolate, watch Christmas movies, and do whatever Dustin wanted to do since it was his first real Christmas Eve.“Every year, Mom just spends a little more on dinner than usual and gets me a gift that’s less of a want and more of a need,” Dustin had told me in the kitchen earlier that day while we ate lunch. He shrugged when the staff and I reacted with shock and sympathy. “It’s all I really had, but I enjoyed it. She still ma
Taken by the Mafia King Guns Blazing
KillianLights, music, and rowdy voices from Andre’s cabin echoed through the dark forest all the way to where we were parked half a mile down the road. “The paranoid bastard probably has guards everywhere,” Caterina said from the passenger seat. “We’ll need to sneak in there on foot. To reiterate, you all want to bust through the door, bullets flying?”All five of the men in our vehicle concurred, “Yes.”Caterina shook her head slowly, then continued, “Fine. We’ll go through the front door. Generally, there are at least ten of his biggest, most bloodthirsty guys on the perimeter as guards. Surrounding him personally are only five; they’re more brains than brawn but no less dirty. Everyone else is partygoers. Wives and sidepieces aren’t allowed, but they might have other paid girls.” “Don’t touch any of them. If they need saving, we save them. Is that understood?” I asked my men.Everyone nodded, and I knew I could trust them.“Good.” Caterina’s eyes, like the dark blue depths of th
Taken by the Mafia King Home For Christmas
SeraBy nine, the staff had been relieved of their duties and gone off to bed.Dustin scrubbed at his eyes, trying to stay awake, but I steered him toward his room. “Go to bed, dude. The sooner you fall asleep, the sooner it’ll be Christmas.”“But Christmas is in three hours—”“Nope. It’s not Christmas until you’re opening presents.”“Well, when is that?”“We’ll just have to find out. Stop stalling, you goof.”“Okay, okay, I’m going! Are you going to make sure I brush my teeth?!”“What are you, eight? No!”“Good, because I’m out of toothpaste.”“How the hell… Never mind. You can come use mine.”Laughing about our banter, we brushed our teeth in Killian’s bathroom and then went to Dustin’s room to sit on his bed and gossip like siblings.I missed it. I didn’t realize it, but I missed having a family—a real family. Dad stopped being my dad when I stepped away from the syndicate to go to college. And Leo… We hadn’t had a close bond in the few years before he died. Somehow, this feeling o
Taken by the Mafia King Hell Hath No Fury
Killian“The north wall,” Caterina ordered, pointing to the stretch of wall decorated with five six-foot tall paintings. “The middle one is a trap door.”With Tommaso guarding Caterina’s back, we forged a path through the quickly thinning crowd across the room. The plank floor was more of a carpet of bodies. The club lights had turned off, leaving only dim ceiling lighting. The chaos simmered down to a dark anticipation. Who would crawl free of the bodies?“No survivors except the women,” I reminded the guys. I looked around to see if I recognized Roxy among the women, but I wasn’t exactly sure what she looked like. Was she even here? The men fell in step to guard the trap door that Caterina swung open to reveal a metal door with a keypad. “Shit. Do you think he changed it since you were last here?”Caterina snorted and started tapping a comically long code. “He’s so prideful that he won’t. I’m the only other one who knows it, unless something changed in the time I’ve been gone, and
Taken by the Mafia King Pretty Drunks
Sera“And so,” I giggled, “I called him mio re.”Olivia and Penny, just as giddily drunk as I was, gasped, “No way!”“Way!” I wriggled from between them on the parlor couch to reach for the wine bottle on the coffee table. We’d run out of eggnog and rum a while ago. “He’s just so sexy.”“You want to climb him like a koala climbs bamboo,” Olivia asked dreamily.Penny hiccupped and swatted at her, hitting me in the process. “Koalas don’t climb bamboo, they eat euca—ecu—Sera. Sera, honey, what’s that word? The leaf word—it’s a leaf, right?”My brain gears churned extra hard through the alcohol-induced fog to conjure what they were talking about. “Eucalypt!”Penny sucked in a breath, eyes wide. “Yes, that’s it!” Then she closed her eyes and rested her head on my shoulder. Even though I was drunk as all hell, I managed to catch her mug before it spilled all over me. “So tired…”“Poor mama can’t hold her alcohol anymore,” Olivia purred. I’d discovered that she was a sarcastic drunk.“No,” m
Taken by the Mafia King Burn It Down
KillianAfter firing the bullet, Caterina had stood there for a moment, staring at her husband’s dead body, then dropped the gun with a metallic clatter. She’d clapped her hand over her mouth to stifle the sob. For a chilling moment, I’d remembered her and Patrick’s exchange in the armory.“What if you regret it?”“I doubt it. If I do, I’ll know it is for a good cause.”I’d motioned for the guys to give us a moment. They nodded and slipped out.Alone, I’d began, “Ms. Morelli—”“I don’t regret it,” Caterina had blurted, whipping her head around to glare at me with eyes shining with tears. Then she’d turned away, hastily wiping blood and tears from her face. “I…I’m happy.”She’d laughed once derisively. “Need I remind you we’re living in the same world? I’m born and bred mafia, just like you, Killian. This bloody shit… It’s normalized. It’s normal. And we’re all better off without that monster.”Now, after our phone call to Sera, we were back at it, dealing with the aftermath. Caterina
Taken by the Mafia King A Bathtub Built for Two
SeraI managed to get Olivia and Penny awake enough to take them to the closest spare room. Still fully dressed, they were out like lights the moment I laid the thick quilt over them. I just hoped Michael slept through the rest of the night. The baby monitor crackled from the nightstand next to Penny’s head.Feeling like a ghost, I drifted down the halls lit with Christmas lights to our bathroom, where we stored plenty of medical supplies. I gathered an armful of everything I would need to patch up wounds and carried it to the kitchen. Then I padded to the foyer and sat in front of the tree where I would hear the garage door opening, humming Christmas tunes to keep me calm but awake.It didn’t work very well.The next thing I knew, I was jolted awake by the sound of a car door slamming shut. I blinked at the light streaming in from the overhead window—dawn.“Shit!”I scrambled, hungover as hell, to reach the door to the garage just as it opened—and Killian stood on the threshold.My
Taken by the Mafia King Christmas
SeraI remembered to look at the clock before collapsing into bed. When I jolted awake to a stream of shouting, only two hours had passed. I started to lurch out of bed, fearing another raid, but was held back by the cage of Killian’s arms around my torso. He wasn’t panicked.Then I remembered that it was Christmas morning and the shouting was Dustin, not caring that everyone had been up late mobstering when he was about to have his first Christmas with more than just a slightly expensive dinner.I collapsed back into Killian’s bare-chested embrace, nestling my face in the crook of his elbow. He smelled like lavender oil. “What a wakeup call,” I grumbled.Killian stirred, and I felt terrible that he had been woken up. Everyone deserved the next whole day to rest and recover. “Sleep is overrated,” he mumbled into my hair, his breath sending a shiver down my spine. I curled my toes and blushed into my pillow when his hand splayed across my bare stomach and skated upward to palm my breas
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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
