Page 6 of Taken By the Mafia King
Gabriele rolled down his window just a touch and laughed, shouting, “Go fuck yourself!” before the car peeled out of the driveway and drove off into the night. But Mattia had shouted something back that I didn’t catch.
I snapped my head around to try to look through the window to confirm it had been Mattia. Oh God, if it had been? He’d go get my father. I’d be rescued, wouldn’t I?
My father had made it very, very clear when I chose to leave the safety of the family and pursue a career—a life outside of the confines of the mafia—that I wouldn’t be safe. He’d been so angry with me. I’d disappointed him. Betrayed him and our family name. At least that’s what he said I’d done when he pointed a finger in my face and told me never to come home.
Would he come for me despite all that?
“We need to talk about this.”
Mattia’s words sliced through me as Gabriele groped his way up my thigh. I closed my eyes, trying to clear my mind of every thought and every unwelcome touch.
“Where to, Boss?” the driver asked.
“Give me the bag,” Gabriele growled. I barely caught his movement before he shoved a black bag over my head and secured it tightly around my neck. His hand curled around the column of my throat, finger tapping on my skin. “Go to sleep now, bella. You need your rest for what I have planned for you.”
I gasped, fighting for air as my body started to twitch. Then I felt myself slip into nothingness, and everything was quiet.
CHAPTER 6
KILLIAN
The petite, almost fragile-looking woman shivering like a wet cat in front of me was Delaney Lombardi. Her name rolled off my tongue as I tapped her shoulder to get her attention, but she was wide-eyed and in some kind of terrified trance.
Tommaso sighed heavily, giving me an exasperated look as I snapped my fingers at her. “Raise your arms up,” my right-hand man told her. I glanced at Tommaso, shaking my head, as Delaney started sobbing between us. We were standing in a small alcove somewhere in the back of the mansion, three of my best guards forming a semi-circle around us to shield the girl from watchful eyes as Tommaso pulled a large sweatshirt over her head. It was his, and it swallowed her up so much that the length of it brushed against her knees.
“Better?” Tommaso asked as Delaney glanced between us with wide hazel eyes filled with nothing but fear and confusion. That was a natural reaction, I supposed, but also a predictable one. Boring. “Pretty cold in here, huh?”
She swallowed, the column of her throat bobbing with effort as she gave us a quick nod. Her shoulder-length bleached-blonde hair was sweaty and clinging to her forehead. I glanced between my guards, making sure we were still alone and unseen.The auction was over, and now everyone who had better places to go was leaving, especially those that had bought women tonight.
“Get her in the car,” I said to Tommaso, who nodded and tried to take Delaney by the elbow, but she flinched away from him, whimpering.
I exhaled deeply, rolling my eyes away from Tommaso and placing both of my hands on her narrow shoulders. She jumped, trying to pull away but I dug my fingers in, finding just skin and bone. She was so thin, so pathetic. I might’ve felt sorry for her if I was capable of it, or if I wasn’t using her to draw her rat of a father out of hiding.
“I’m not interested in you in the slightest,” I assured her, arching a brow as her lower lip jutted out and trembled. “Not my type, sweetheart.”
“W-Why am I h-here then?”
“I think you know,” I said, shrugging.
“Hungry? You look hungry,” Tommaso said. “Get in the car and we’ll stop for something to eat on the way, alright? Sounds good to you?”
“I j-just wanna go home?—”
I cut her off before her desperation choked her up again. “Not gonna happen. Go on now.”
She winced and started crying again as Tommaso led her away, followed closely by one of the guards. I sighed, shaking my head as the fawn of a girl tripped over her own bare feet several times before disappearing out a door leading to a large, open space lined with cars.
I waited for a while. I didn’t want to be seen with Delaney. She was one of the last to be auctioned off, and I’d had Tommaso bid on her while I crept through the crowd looking for someone I hadn’t been aware was there before he’d placed a bid on thatdark-haired woman that had locked eyes with me and done something sharp to my body I could barely put into words.
It didn’t take long to find out her name. Gabriele de Luca was a boisterous bastard, the kind that liked to brag.Seraphina Bianchi. The fucking princess of the Bianchi family. How the hell had she ended up here, and more importantly, why?
Gabriele was also a sick fuck and my enemy. I wasn’t too keen on the idea of someone like Seraphina being spread wide for him, especially after seeing that flash of heat roll through her while she’d held my gaze.
I’d almost bid on her on impulse. I would have, had Tommaso not drawn my attention away toward a commotion in the back of the room.
That moment would probably haunt me forever, especially after finding out her name. I had a history with the Bianchis and it wasn’t good. Her recognition of me was clear as day.
The way she’d looked at me had sparked something long dormant in me.
