Page 3 of Caged Bliss

“Wrong answer.”

I pull the trigger. The revolver cracks and a bullet rips into my old soldier’s body, tearing his crotch to steaming, bloody flesh. He screams and doubles over, falling to the side as I get to my feet.

“Oh, fuck, Angelo, fuck, call an ambulance, please?—”

“You know, I almost feel bad about this. I don’t think you were involved in all that shit, but here’s the problem. I can’t be fucking sure. And I want everyone that was there that night to wonder if they’re next. It’s nothing personal.”

His eyes widen. “Angelo?—”

I aim the gun at his head and pull the trigger twice.

Blood and brains stain the white couch pink and red. He twitches a few times, so I shoot him again, just to be sure.

Paulie stops begging.

Lucy appears in the doorway. Her hands come to her mouth and I can tell she’s trying not to scream. Horror plays across her face as she looks at me then falls to her knees and starts to babble, begging for her life.

“The Famiglia will provide for you,” I tell her as I walk to the door. “My condolences.”

The girl breaks down into sobs, doubled over on the floor. I should feel sorry for her, but mostly I think she’s got really bad taste in men, and I just did her a fucking favor.

Paulie probably didn’t betray me. But probably isn’t definitely, and I’ve had five long years to decide how I want to play this.

Just like I told him, there’s nothing but time behind bars, in the fucking cage they threw me, left me to rot, left me to stew on all the shit that went wrong.

I did my time. I kept my mouth shut.

And now I’m going to find the fucker that betrayed me and I’m going to put him in the ground.

Him and everyone that was involved in that night.

Outside, Elena’s standing next to the car. The driver’s coming around toward me, his weapon pulled. I grin at them and toss him the revolver, which he barely manages to catch, cursing the whole time.

“You probably want to get rid of that,” I tell him as I head to the back door. “Wipe it down first.”

“What the fuck was that, Angelo?” Elena looks more annoyed than anything. My sister’s harder than nails.

“There’s a girl in that house. Lucy something, I don’t know the last name. Make sure the Famiglia pays her off and takes care of her. She’s Paulie’s widow.”

Elena stares at me and shakes her head. “You haven’t changed at all.”

My sister is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. I respect her opinion more than almost anyone else.

Except she’s dead wrong about me.

I’ve changed more than she knows.

And everyone in this fucking city is about to find out exactly how much.

Chapter 2

Claudia

The bars of my cage rattle as a guy wearing two popped collars and a ten-thousand-dollar watch shoves a twenty at me.

I’m not supposed to take tips while I’m dancing. Technically, I’m not even supposed to talk to the clients. Tommy says that when I’m in the cage, I’m just a piece of the scenery, and my only job is to shake my tits and my ass and look bored but also sexy.

The bored part is easy—the sexy part takes a little more work.

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