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Ups and Downs
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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
Taken by the Mafia King Finally
PaigeI walked out of the bulk home goods store outside the city laden with bags. A few extra plastic containers for personal items, a whole bunch of nice, new sheets, and a couple of puzzles that looked interesting dangled off my arms, all for the Haven. The doors shut behind me, and I paused.After a moment, Sera stepped out after me, her arms equally full of bags. She puffed a sigh. “I feel like it’s back to school season.”I smiled. She’d been volunteering at the shelter occasionally and insisted on making all the bigger supply runs with me. They were the only shopping trips I’d agreed to so far, and I suspected she went to convince me regular shopping for clothing and accessories would be fun too.“Oh yeah?” I said as we headed for the car.She nodded dramatically. “My school was far from the worst off, but every year, they sent these huge supply lists to parents, and every year, at least half of the kids came in trying to hide that they didn’t have most of the supplies because t
Taken by the Mafia King Nipped in the Bud
TommasoI adjusted the strap on my bulletproof vest and stared through the dark at the house in front of me. We couldn’t have asked for a better night, thick cloud cover hiding us from even the neighbors’ view. Out in the suburbs, houses stood at arm’s length from each other, but just close enough to be a problem. The house in question looked like almost every other, a simple split-level from the ‘70s. I hadn’t done a hit on a place this obviously middle-class since…maybe ever, but the pair of guys with guns rounding the corner out of sight again told me we had the right place.Phil Sinatra’s house. It looked more like an accountant’s wet dream. I smirked. I knew he was small time, but he should’ve considered what the hell his own operation looked like before he tried to come at me.Killian clapped me on the shoulder, a dark mask already covering half his face. Since he’d gotten Phil’s location, he’d insisted on coming and bringing a few of his guys. “Ready?”I grinned and pulled my o
Taken by the Mafia King Shooting Practice
PaigeI sat at the kitchen island after a long day at the shelter, nursing an after-work salted caramel cookie and trying to convince myself to go shower when Tom stumbled in, looking exhausted and rumpled. His tie hung askew, his curls stuck up in random directions, and dark bags drooped under his eyes.“Hey.” I smiled worriedly. I hadn’t seen Tom since dinner yesterday, when he told me he had a raid that night. He was asleep in bed when I woke up and left for the shelter in the morning, so I knew nothing bad happened to him, but I didn’t know what exactly had happened. His expression told me there was a chance nothing good happened either.“Hi.” He dropped into the stool next to me. “I heard you come in. I was thinking it’s time for you to brush up on your shooting.”My heart skipped a beat. “Did the raid go that bad?”“No, no.” He shook his head. “Nothing to do with that.”“Well, then what—”He stood and held his hand out to me. “Do you want to go shooting or what?”I frowned but t
Taken by the Mafia King Sink In
PaigeI pulled Tom into the huge master bathroom, still attached at the lips like we had been since he kissed me on the shooting range out back. With one fumbling hand, I switched on the tap in the bathtub.He smiled. “I thought we were showering.”I kissed his five o’clock shadow. “I thought you needed a little more relaxation.”He started to reply, but I pulled off my shirt and bra in one smooth motion, and his mouth fell open.“Whatever you say,” he mumbled.I laughed. The bags under his eyes, how hard he took the death of Phil’s wife, they all worried me. I’d been working so hard that I hadn’t even noticed his exhaustion. So I unfastened the many buttons on his shirt with careful hands and kissed every inch of newly exposed skin while the tub filled.He groaned. “We have to shut the tub off sometime.”I rolled my eyes, but I had taken long enough that the water sloshed dangerously high. I flipped the water off again and looked at him. Despite his exhaustion, he glistened, all tone
Taken by the Mafia King Back to It
TommasoI blinked awake in the morning sunlight, feeling better rested than I had in months. Paige lay next to me, still naked, so I hadn’t woken up too late. I pressed a gentle kiss to her shoulder. We’d woken up a few more times after our afternoon to enjoy each other and have Miranda bring food up that we grabbed from the hallway, snickering and wearing sheets, like kids in a hotel room. Paige had been right, of course. I needed to rest. And her fingers in my hair, the gentle way she took care of me before turning into one of the sexiest women I’d ever seen, made her point better than words ever could.She stirred under my lips, her red hair catching the sun like flames. “Mm, morning.”“Good morning.” I kissed her. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to be late to the shelter today?”She kissed me back. “No more than you’re willing to stay out of your office.” Paige rolled out of bed, her body shining in the morning light.I groaned and reached for her, but she was right. I’d taken e
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