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Why, Though?
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
Taken by the Mafia King Long-Term
PaigeI crossed my legs in one of the leather armchairs in Tom’s office and watched a small parade of men in suits file into the room. The older guy, Stan, I’d seen around, and I’d needed Lyle’s help a few times with my computer, but the rest were all strangers to me. I twisted my hands together in my lap and glanced at Tom, who sat behind his huge desk looking every inch the sort of guy who could pull together the sort of operation we were talking about. The exhaustion and frustration had drained away the second I tried the same tough-love thing on him Lauren had used on me. I bit my lip and tried not to think about the kiss that had followed. I’d never pay attention in the meeting if I did.“All right, gentlemen,” Tom said. “For those of you who don’t know her, I’d like to introduce you to Paige Bruno. She’ll be consulting on this job and all other jobs like this.”A small thrill traveled down my spine. Consulting sounded so official, not like I was Tom’s charity case or a girl he k
Taken by the Mafia King Punching Bag
TommasoI slammed my fists into the speedbag attached to the ceiling of my home gym, imagining Zahur’s face on the leather. I had him in my fucking sights now. I could feel it. This plan might not work, maybe the next one wouldn’t, but I’d have him. Maybe I’d swallow up his two-bit operation and take mine properly international. If only anybody would fucking get back to me. I knew it had only been twenty-four hours, but I was ready to feel his piece-of-shit nose crunch under my fists.The door to the gym opened, and I stopped. Paige stood in the doorway, wearing a pair of leggings and a sweatshirt like usual, but this time, she’d added sneakers. I caught the speedbag before it could swing into my face.“Miranda said you were down here.” She stepped in and closed the door behind her. “I, uh, have a favor to ask.”“Anything.” Despite the sweatshirt, I could see her legs had started to fill out a little to match her face, and her cheeks actually had some color.“My dad taught me to fight
Taken by the Mafia King Can't Put the Lid Back On
PaigeThe scalding hot shower spray pounded down on my shoulders, and I sank my teeth into my lower lip until I tasted blood to keep from crying. Dark memories, dark rooms full of angry men with all the power over me they could want, fought for my attention. Dozens of them, hundreds, maybe more. In the end, I didn’t even know how many bastards there were.I forced myself to grab and open the bottle of rosemary, mint, and lavender-scented body wash I’d ordered a few weeks ago. It was so sharp and herbal that it was the only thing I’d found that could keep my mind off my body while I showered. I poured a dollop onto a loofah and began scrubbing myself.Tom hadn’t done anything I didn’t want him to do. I initiated the kiss. He barely touched my fucking side, and God help me, it felt good until he hit one of my scars. I had just remembered the bastard who gave it to me, the shine of the knife as he did, and I couldn’t see Tom anymore. When I thought about that moment in the gym, I couldn’
Taken by the Mafia King A Break in the Case
TommasoOne of these days, I’d stop expecting everything to change at the drop of a hat. Nearly a week had passed since the training incident, and Paige wasn’t avoiding me by any means, but she hadn’t sought me out again. Since I had my own place now, I tried to work out once a day in my home gym, even if only for a little while, and I always made sure to tell Miranda I was going. No sign of Paige. We ate dinner together every night, and breakfast most mornings, and she’d been perfectly pleasant, but she didn’t even tiptoe up to that line again. She just worked and went to therapy, and I kept finding her journaling in the evenings, a new habit she’d picked up. I wasn’t disappointed, exactly, just a little confused. But I’d give her whatever space she needed.Plus, it wasn’t like I wasn’t busy. I ran my hand though my curls and knocked back the remainder of a glass of scotch I’d been refilling since dinner. Lyle had gotten me some information, and so had Stan and Carp. I flicked on the
Taken by the Mafia King The Call
PaigeI clicked from my email to my drawing program and back again. The client had ridiculously specific requests for the logo for their new side business, a candles and wax melts shop they were adding to their stationery empire, but that wasn’t really why I was clicking back and forth. I just couldn’t focus. It had been three days since I got the idea for a strawberry-peanut butter swirl ice cream and accidentally discovered Tom’s contact found McKenna, and I hadn’t heard a goddamn thing. Every night, I went to sleep terrified that she’d been killed, and no one wanted to tell me. Every morning, I woke up sure today would be the day we heard. But lunch had already passed with nothing.My phone rang, and I picked it up. Non-American number. I swallowed down a sigh. As I got more comfortable in Tom’s house, I’d been working on calling Mom once a week, but she’d taken that as an invitation to call me whenever she wanted.No, wait. I peered at the number. That wasn’t a French country code
Taken by the Mafia King Airborne
TommasoI paced back and forth in my office. McKenna had given the go-ahead to come to London whenever we wanted the day after she got home, and Paige said she wanted to go right away. I wanted to do that for her. But taking her on a commercial jet seemed fucking awful every time I thought about it. Over the last month, I’d learned she’d only been on one flight before her kidnapping, so her main experience with commercial planes would be the flight back from Egypt where I kept her handcuffed to me, and she expected me to sell her at any moment. It would only make sense to take a private plane. But I didn’t have one, which would mean borrowing Killian’s. Even though he’d sold the bird that had taken a nosedive and had landed me in jail for a day, he got a new one, but I was still nervous.Fuck. Okay. I just needed to get over that. I might never like flying enough to make it worth having a private plane of my own, but I could take one flight to England and back. For Paige. Everything h
Taken by the Mafia King Jetsetter
PaigeEmotions warred for attention in my mind as I pulled the little wheeled suitcase I’d ordered for pickup after Tom told me about the plane across the tarmac. Excitement put a bounce in my step as I thought about seeing McKenna again. Stress weighed me down when I remembered how bad my first few days had been, and how she hadn’t even been home for a week yet. Anticipation fizzed through my veins as I tried to guess what a private plane might be like in the main cabin, not shoved in the bathroom.Next to me, Tom looked like he was doing his best to stay calm. He’d been quiet all morning, and as we rounded the final corner in the small airport outside the city to see a small, private plane and Killian standing next to it, he turned white. I wanted to reach out to him, but not where Killian could potentially take it home for Sera to gossip about. Or where she could see, if she’d just walked away.He closed the distance between us with a wide smile. “I’ll help with suitcases, but the
Taken by the Mafia King Walking On Glass
TommasoI glanced at Paige out of the corner of my eye as we stepped into the elevator. Her shoulders were hunched, and her hand in mine was tense. She kept glancing around the matte black walls like something was going to jump out, but she wouldn’t look at me. Something had happened when we walked into the hotel, and I had no idea what.“Are you okay?” I asked.She nodded absently.I tapped my foot and wished I could pace. But I’d have to let go of her hand for that and there wasn’t much room. Did she want me to let go of her hand? She hadn’t released mine, but more often than not when she got tense like this, she wanted me to disappear.The elevator dinged, and a few other guests stepped on. Paige froze up. They hit a button for a few floors above and chatted amongst themselves until they departed. I expected her to melt once we were alone again, but nothing changed.“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked.She nodded again, still not looking at me. My heart sank. When we finally reache
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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
