Page 1 of Mafia Handbook

Chapter One

“I’m sorry, Ma’am, your card has been declined.”

Milena sighed in frustration, reaching into her wallet for her emergency twenty dollars. She should be used to this by now, money stolen faster than she could make it. Yet each time a cashier looked at her with sympathy in their eyes, the annoyance returned.

“I’m sorry.” Milena offered, handing over what she suspected was the last of the money she’d see for a while, smiling genuinely as the cashier handed back her meager change and the plastic bag containing her purchase.

Exiting the store, she pulled out her cellphone as she crossed the parking lot, tossing her box of tampons into the front seat, and sliding fluidly behind the wheel of a car as old as she was. Opening her banking app, Milena wasn't surprised to see a zero-balance staring back at her. Less than an hour ago it had contained nearly five hundred dollars. Pressing the contact-us feature, Milena took a deep breath, the words she needed to say etched inside her head.

“First National Bank, fraudulent charges department, this is Greg, how can I help you?”

“Hello, Greg, this is Milena Rossi. I need to report my account has been hacked.”

“Hacked?” Milena rolled her eyes at Greg’s disbelief. “Do you mean a charge on your account you didn't make?”

“No, Greg, I mean hacked. As in every dime taken out and put into an account you can't trace.”

“I see.” Milena could hear the condescension in his voice, able to picture the faceless man sitting with a headset on, tossing a stress ball against the wall of his cubicle. “Can I have your account number so I can access the charges?”

Milena read the series of numbers to him, before tossing her head back against the seat. She could hear the keys clicking, and readied herself for the inevitable.

“I see your initial deposit.”

Resisting the urge to scoff, Milena allowed her gaze to drift to a couple holding hands as they walked into the drug store. She missed being in a relationship, the chaos of her world chasing away more than a few men.

“Then there’s…”

Milena blinked away the couple, giving her full attention back to Greg.

“Hum.”

A part of her wished she’d kept a running tally on the myriad of responses she’d received when the investigator got to this part.

“Ma’am, I need to place you on hold in order to get my manager.”

A wayward smile crossed Milena's lips as she looked down at her phone. How disappointing she found Greg, giving up after such a short attempt at finding her stolen money.

As the advertisement for the bank’s services echoed in the car, Milena's attention drifted to the magazine lying on the passenger seat. She’d made a promise to herself after the last time her account was hacked, she would take the little bit of money she had and invest in moving her life off the grid.

“Thank you for holding, Milena. My name is Darin Walker, one of the supervisors here at First National. I must admit I’ve never seen anything like what you’ve presented today. Normally, when a request for transfer comes in, our system will place a hold on the account until the requesting parties can be verified and a confirmation from the account holder is given. In this case, neither happened prior to the money leaving your account.”

Shaking her head, Milena kept her eyes trained on the bearded face of the man on the magazine cover. Having heard this more times than she could count, but she couldn’t understand why it kept happening.

“As per our policy, I will need to freeze your account.”

Angry tears pricked at the back of her eyes, “That won’t be necessary, Mr. Walker. I’d like to terminate the account. Please contact me when your investigation is concluded so I can collect the missing money.”

“I completely understand, and have taken the liberty of speaking with Mr. Clark, the branch manager at the location where you opened the account. He has been instructed to return the amount stolen.”

Snapping her focus to her phone, in all the reports she’d made over the past two years, no one had ever called it what it was. Theft.

“On a personal note, Ma’am. If I were you, I’d make a report with your local police.”

Ending the call, Milena twisted the key in the ignition, steering her car out of the parking lot and into traffic. She’d filed a mountain of reports with the police, all of them following the same path her stolen money had.

Taking a deep breath,Milena rapped her knuckles against the door of her sister’s condo. Adjusting the grip on the bag in her hand, Milena bounced on the balls of her feet as she waited for the door to open. As the click of the lock sounded, she donned a smile she hoped Oakley would find genuine.

Dipping her head to the side as she locked eyes with Oakley. “Hey, I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

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