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Taking a Bite of the Big Apple
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Taken by the Mafia King Deal with the Devil
TommasoI crossed my arms and leaned against the wall of the warehouse. “Where the fuck is he?”“Late.” Stan shook his head.“We should take him out for being a bad operator, if nothing else.” Carp kicked a rock between two of his feet. “It’s been a fucking hour.”Headlights cut through the darkness, and a car pulled up with a spray of gravel. A slim man climbed out but left it running. “Conti?”I stepped forward with my hand out to shake. “Dan. Than—”Another man climbed out of the car and marched over to me, then began patting me down without a word.“Gun,” the man grunted.Dan eyed me. “Leave it. For now.”“Good to meet you, too,” I muttered as his bruiser stepped aside. “If weapons are allowed, what are you looking for?”“Wires.” Dan crossed his arms. “I’ve heard Italians are rats.”I gritted my teeth. “Not this Italian.”His bruiser patted down the rest of my men, and when they passed, Dan finally let us inside. When he opened the door, BO and the reek of human waste wafted out.
Taken by the Mafia King On the Job
PaigeI tapped my foot on the tarmac in front of the private jet and fiddled with my phone. I should’ve insisted on going with Tom, Morozov or no Morozov. Waiting here was like torture. I didn’t know what was happening to Tom, or the women, or anything. I didn’t even have anyone to goddamn talk to. If Tom didn’t make time in his schedule soon, I’d take myself to the shooting range to brush up. Maybe if Lauren and I went together, he’d trust her assessment of my skills. And it wouldn’t be bad to have someone living at the Haven who could use a gun.My phone vibrated, and I tapped on the notification immediately.A text from Tom: More women than expected. Gonna need a few trips with the cars.I frowned and started typing out a response. I couldn’t even remember how many cars he’d rented anymore, but I needed to make sure we had room at the Haven. Before I could reply, he texted again.Tom: And probably a few with the jet.My mouth fell open.Me: How many are there?Tom: Thirty-two.My s
Taken by the Mafia King Close Call
PaigeI yawned as we taxied up to the Philly airport in the pale, pre-sunrise light. I’d texted Lauren before we took off, and she had everything ready. The door opened, and I stood.“Okay, ladies, we’re going to get into a few cars and head for the shelter. Your beds are all ready, but there’ll be a little bit of intake before we’re all allowed to pass out.” I smiled.A few of the women laughed weakly, but most of them just stared at me or clung to each other.Tom squeezed my hand as they started to pile off. “I have to head home,” he said. “Syndicate stuff.”I nodded. He wouldn’t be much help at the shelter right now anyway, and I didn’t know what he had to clean up after the raid. “Talk later?”He smiled and kissed my hand.I joined the women in the fleet of black cars waiting outside the plane. In the small space, as on the plane, the smell of them was inescapable. I hadn’t asked any questions about how they’d been kept, of Tom or of the women, but I could imagine from that alone.
Taken by the Mafia King Business as Usual
TommasoWhen Paige still hadn’t arrived home after lunch, I climbed in my car. I knew it was stupid. I’d been meeting with my men all morning, talking over the information Lyle had already scraped from Dan’s computers and anything Stan heard in New York, and my eyelids dragged, but I just couldn’t fall asleep until she returned. I knew she’d be safe at the shelter, but I’d grown used to her presence snuggled against my side.I drove around to each of my warehouses. Business had been good over these last few months, but it had been good because I kept an eye on it. That was one piece of information I picked up from Killian that I was happy to take. My staff would work better for an attentive boss, and I’d be less likely to miss shit in general. Everything seemed to be running smoothly, and none of my foremen reported any trouble.Finally, I headed out of the city to check on what used to be Tony’s base of operations. I’d posted Teddy out there to keep a handle on the situation, and he
Taken by the Mafia King Ups and Downs
PaigeI slept through most of the day after the raid, but I returned to the shelter the day after that. I straightened my T-shirt and glanced at the blazer I’d thrown in the back of the car on a whim. Normally, I didn’t bother trying to look professional, but Lauren said a few of the families would be arriving to pick up the women we’d rescued from New York today. Part of me wanted to make a good impression, to actually seem like I knew what I was doing here. I grabbed it but didn’t put it on. I could always decide when I saw the families.The shelter was in chaos when I walked in. Staff and volunteers ran in every direction. I managed to grab Sera out of the flow.“What’s going on?” I asked.She shrugged a little helplessly. “Some kind of printer problem. Not all of the resource pamphlets are printed, and we don’t have enough for all the women that are leaving.”I grimaced. I knew we should’ve sprung for a new printer, not the secondhand one I found online. Sera bustled off, and I sp
Taken by the Mafia King The First Shoe Drops
TommasoI yawned and stretched back in my office chair. Just a few more loose ends to tie up, and I’d be done for the night. We’d been home for a couple of days now, and I promised Paige, even though I had to do a little work after dinner, that I’d finish up before bed, and we’d watch some movie she’d been talking about for weeks. I was excited. I just needed to be certain the New York job went all right. I rubbed my face and leaned back toward my computer.My phone rang, and I grabbed it with a sigh. “Yes?”“Tommaso,” Stan said. “I’m at Tony’s old stomping ground. You know those loiterers Teddy mentioned?”I sat up. “Yeah?”Someone yelped on the other end of the line.“Get over here as soon as you can.” Stan hung up without another word.“Motherfucker.” I dropped my phone onto my desk. Never any rest for the wicked, but I was starting to get too old for this shit.No, I couldn’t think like that. I’d just gotten my own syndicate. I tightened my tie, pulled my favorite gun out of a des
Taken by the Mafia King Different Directions
PaigeI tucked my feet underneath me on the leather couch in the den and changed to a new channel on the huge TV. Reality show I’d never heard of, reality show I’d never heard of, infomercial, news. With a sigh, I settled on the third random reality show and dropped my head back against the couch. I had the old action-comedy movie my dad always watched when summer started to drift into fall queued up on one of our many streaming services, but I didn’t even know if it was worth waiting for Tom to come home. He’d looked wiped when he kissed me goodbye. I knew any call from Stan was serious, but I also knew he needed a break, and something longer than an evening in New York. I’d been so busy with the shelter that I hadn’t noticed, but Tom had been burning the candle at both ends for too long. I just didn’t know how a crime lord took a vacation without doing what my family did.Tom walked in, pulled his tie off, and dropped onto the couch next to me.“That good?” I turned down the volume
Taken by the Mafia King Ticking Clock
Tommaso“Great.” I nodded as Carp finished up another favorable report on my other warehouses dotted around the city the next afternoon. “Anything else we need to talk about?”Teddy looked at the floor, obviously thinking about the Phil thing. I’d informed Carp at the beginning of the meeting, so all my top guys knew, but I didn’t want to harp on it until we had something solider than a late-night conversation with Killian to plan off of.Stan sighed. “The auction at The Mansion is coming up.”I grimaced. Paige and I hadn’t talked about it yet, but we both knew neither of us could actually let the auction go on as planned. Not in our city, where we’d staked our claim. Not when that auction was the thing that had gotten her kidnapped in the first place, had started all of this. And, as big as I’d talked about going public, as much as I thought that might be the only thing that saved us from the kind of rumors that would slowly dismantle my whole organization, tipping Riccardo Marino of
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