All Chapters of Taken by the Mafia King: Chapter 281 - Chapter 290

PaigeI blinked then rubbed my eyes like that would change what I was seeing. All the therapists I’d imagined were graying old men, rubbing their beards and trying to stare down my shirt in leather-shrouded offices. Instead, Dr. McMillan—Dr. Lauren McMillan—stood in front of a rounded teal chair with one of the longest manes of flowing blonde hair I’d ever seen in my life. She wore a deep green blazer over a cream button-down, and pants that matched her jacket, but that seemed more like a concession to her position than something that actually suited her. She pulled out a steno pad and a handful of different colored pens then smiled at me like some kind of sorority girl.“Paige, right?” she asked.“Uh, yeah.” I nodded my head. “How do we…do this?”“You can sit wherever you’d like.” She swept her arm over an assortment of matching teal furniture, other chairs and a couch, all of which looked weird against the utilitarian gray of her walls and carpet. “If it’s easier for someone else to

PaigeI climbed the stairs back up to my second-floor room feeling completely full for the first time since—maybe since I’d been kidnapped. Two muffins, a cheesesteak, and an order of onion rings. That was what it took now.Well, most of an order of onion rings. That foreign smile crawled back across my face, stretching unused muscles back into shape. As much as I could hit him sometimes, as furious as I was that he’d woken me up like he did, having Tom steal an onion ring felt so dizzyingly normal I couldn’t help but smile. He was obviously a multimillionaire. Another serving of cheesesteak and onion rings couldn’t possibly put him in the red. But he hadn’t gotten his own, and he’d refused when I’d first offered to share. So then he’d resorted to stealing. It was almost funny, like something that would happen in a high school lunchroom rather than the back of a mobster’s SUV.I turned into my room and shut the door behind me. Standing up long enough for another shower sounded exhaus

PaigeThe next morning, I sat at the high countertop in the kitchen across from Mom, picking at the final few pieces of bacon she’d insisted Olivia put on my plate that remained of my breakfast—well, brunch, because I’d slept in again. Olivia puttered around behind us, training a new girl who’d introduced herself earlier as Miranda. The new girl seemed to be keeping up with Olivia decently well, but every time Mom or I made a noise, she whipped around like she was expecting an army of men with guns to come crashing through the door.“So, I’ve got news.” Mom bit her lip, an old habit from when she knew I wouldn’t like what came next.Normally, my stomach would drop, and I’d start worrying about what else could go wrong. Now, my chest lightened. Had Tom already talked to her about moving out? Did he maybe even make it seem like it was his idea, or something about the house, or anything that wouldn’t tell her for certain I couldn’t have her around while I figured out who the hell Now-Pai

PaigeI drifted back and forth behind Adrian as he set up a really nice laptop and a second massive monitor behind it on a desk that had been brought into my room a few minutes after I made it up the stairs. Adrian seemed nice enough, but I didn’t intend to leave him alone in my room, even if he was just setting up a laptop.“Alrighty,” he drawled. “I think that might be just about all you need. Unless there are any programs you want downloaded?”I shook my head. I knew enough to do that, at least. “I don’t know if this is weird, but how’d you end up here with an accent like that?”He laughed a little self-consciously and stood up. “I’m from Texas, originally, but Killian tracked me down for my IT skills a while back.”I raised an eyebrow. I didn’t know what seemed weirder, this giant of a man being stuck behind a computer in Texas somewhere, or an IT professional being recruited by the mafia.“I know, I know.” He laughed again. “I never exactly pictured my résumé ending me up in a li

TommasoI leaned against the steel leg of a massive shelving unit, big enough to hold dozens of shipping containers, and watched as an eighteen-wheeler backed up to the yawning mouth of Andre Bianchi’s biggest warehouse.No, not Andre’s. Mine. The crown jewel of my nascent empire, the money-making machine that made it easy to give Paige a card without a limit.All right, her smile made it easy to give it to her. This place made me confident I wouldn’t have to worry about the bills if she chose to redesign her whole room.As the beeping stopped, a dozen guys in coveralls swarmed forward to begin loading. Some of them were civilians, guys who’d been checked up and down but just needed a job and didn’t mind never asking any questions. Those guys took the change of leadership easiest, especially because I ran a better ship than Andre already. Between them were the men in the life, in the know, which every half-intelligent mafioso kept in their warehouses to make sure none of the civilians