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Taking Care
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Taken by the Mafia King Saying Godbye
PaigeI walked into the Haven the afternoon after the auction at the Mansion with Lyle at my side. I’d really meant to be in early, but after falling asleep at sunrise, I hadn’t been able to get myself out of bed until after noon.“Okay, I’m going to set you up in my office,” I said. “We need to be able to check the information with you, but there are still a lot of women here who aren’t recently kidnapped mob daughters, so I’d like to keep you out of sight.”He nodded, and I thought he looked a little relieved. Lyle was awkward at the best of times, and no matter how good his intentions were, I didn’t really want to know what he’d have to say to a bunch of very recent sex-trafficking victims. It seemed he didn’t either.Sera and Lauren stood in the common room with most of the women we’d rescued last night, clearly collecting information. Lauren looked a little puffy-eyed, like she’d stayed up the rest of the night and come in at her normal time, but otherwise, she seemed okay. I nod
Taken by the Mafia King Fallout
PaigeI opened and closed my mouth a few times. How did I answer a question like that? Why did her grandfather sell her? Sophia just stared up at me, nearly as frozen as she had been but with her thin, cold fingers clamped around my wrist.“Your grandfather was a bad man,” I said awkwardly. “An evil one.”She didn’t move. That wasn’t nearly enough, and I knew it. With a sigh, I sat down on the couch next to her. She didn’t release my wrist, just shifted with me.“Riccardo Marino had been in the mafia for a long, long time. And”—I shrugged—“I’m not a lot older than you, but I’m old enough to know that when you keep doing the same thing, it starts to seem like the only thing you can do.”Memories of keeping all my emotions locked up tight in my mind, of my shame and fury when my reactions to my trauma broke loose, poured through my mind. Only tons of work with Lauren, and continuing work with my new therapist, had broken me out of that rut.“If I had to guess, I’d say your grandpa neede
Taken by the Mafia King Closing In
TommasoI readjusted the chair at Marino’s desk for the third time and swore to myself I’d get an interior designer in her before I turned it into anything. The old man had crap taste, especially in squeaky wooden rolling chairs for desks. His office was huge, but so comically dark it looked like it was waiting for a fairytale princess to come open the curtains for the first time in a century as a metaphor for warming the prince’s heart, and it was starting to grate on me.Or maybe what was grating on me was the mountain of paperwork in front of me. Riccardo had resisted joining the new millennium as much as he could, and aside from the elements of the business Niccolo had been involved in, like tracking the details of the women, his records looked like they hadn’t left 1980. I’d figured out that he had less money than I’d anticipated and almost nothing else yet. At this point, half my job was organizing the papers to be digitized.My phone rang, and I snatched it up with a sigh of re
Taken by the Mafia King Slaying Dragons
PaigeI sat at the table in the group room across from my office at the shelter with the final two women rescued from the Mansion that we didn’t know if we could release.Daniela, a woman a few years older than me with short, pitch-black hair, crossed her arms. “I know I agreed to stick around until you figured this out, but I’m telling you, my family wouldn’t do this to me. Your guy is running into a clerical error or something, probably for both of us.”I nodded. “He definitely might be. If we had concrete information either way, you’d know.”Luci, the brunette who’d first asked me if she could call her family back in the basement, swiped tears from her eyes. “I’m not so sure. My brother was really quiet the week before I was kidnapped.”“Don’t say that.” Daniela whipped toward her. “They’re missing both of our information, and that’s probably for a good reason, so since my family didn’t do this to me, yours probably didn’t do this to you.”Luci shrank, and I put my hands up.“There
Taken by the Mafia King Fire Power
TommasoI sat—blessedly—in my own chair in my home office and stared across the top of my desk at Stan and Killian, whom I’d called in for a top-secret planning meeting once I’d gotten off the phone with Mostafa.“The rumors worked,” I said.Stan raised a to-go coffee he’d brought in with him in a small “cheers.”“Has Zahur taken the bait?” Killian asked.“Exactly as I planned.” I smiled a wide, hungry smile. The bastard’s ego was going to be the death of him if I could help it. His ego, and Paige.“So do you have a timing or location of the deal?” Killian leaned forward, a small sparkle in his eyes. Zahur hadn’t touched Sera, but in the past few months, Killian had grown to like Paige as our sporadic double-dates became a little more regular. I didn’t know which of them he wanted revenge for more, after I dropped Marino.“I told Zahur to name his price, but there’s a small wrinkle.” I leaned back in my chair and eyed the two of them. “He never participates in deals in person.”Stan b
Taken by the Mafia King Relaxation
PaigeWhen I arrived home after work that day, I didn’t find Tom in his office, or the gym, or the bedroom. Eventually, though it was early for dinner, I checked the kitchen and couldn’t help laughing. He stood in front of the stove wearing one of Miranda’s aprons, already smeared with something red.“What?” he said as he turned. “You don’t think this is sexy?”“Maybe if you had nothing underneath.” I pictured the tiny apron stretched over his bare frame and started salivating.“Noted.” He grinned.I wandered over to the stove. “What are you doing?”“Spoiling you.” He kissed me. “For me, the Mansion was a coup. For you, it was a nightmare, and I didn’t do enough.”I shook my head. “You did—”He covered my protest with his mouth. Desire kindled in my gut.He pulled back and stirred the sauce. “That’s what I thought. I have one step left before this simmers for ninety minutes. What do you say you go upstairs and get ready for a massage, and I’ll be up soon?”I swatted him. “Now you’re j
Taken by the Mafia King Away From Home
TommasoI crossed my arms and leaned against the wall as a few of my men collected the last of Julie Marino’s things in the foyer of the Mansion.“That’s it.” Carp swiped sweat off his forehead.“Good.” A mountain of crates and boxes, all crammed with clothes, furs, jewels, and a few art pieces with her name on them towered almost to the second-floor balcony. Paige said Julie seemed trustworthy, at least on the matter of Sophia, so I was less resentful about how much goddamn time I’d spent finding all her shit than I might be, but less definitely wasn’t zero. This would be the third and final courier trip, and I couldn’t wait for it to be over.“Wait!” Teddy called from a hallway.I turned.“Found another bag.” He hoisted a pink and purple duffel over his head as he rounded the corner.I sighed. “Julie’s?”He shook his head. “Sophia’s, if the sizes are anything to go by.”I winced and had him add it to the pile. We’d found a few other caches of Sophia’s stuff hidden around the house,
Taken by the Mafia King House Hunt
PaigeI shoved my sweaty hair back off my forehead and set the weights back down in the weight rack. Over the summer, I’d gotten in the habit of working out in the basement gym at least once a week, just to keep myself ready. Finally, my muscles were returning to the state I remembered from before my kidnapping, taut and powerful. I padded up the stairs to shower off and wait for Tom to come home.Something thudded on the other side of the wall. Then again. My heart skipped a beat. I knew, now, that the gym and storage areas weren’t the only rooms in the basement. Gamal, the prisoner still living in our house, was down here, too.After a moment, the noises stopped. Tom said he had some of his best guys down there. Gamal probably tried something stupid and got knocked around for it. Served him right.I hummed as I entered the first floor and locked the basement behind me, a habit I’d gotten into since we got our first house guest. Sun streamed in the windows, and I breathed in the feel
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