Page 12 of Abducted By the Mafia Don
Cute that she thinks he only has three sons, and I haven’t killed the others yet. Thaxted has only one child alive at this point, out of the many he had. Admittedly, he thinks he has two.
My spy—Harrison—is pretending to be Thaxted’s son. Like a cuckoo laying its eggs in the nest of another bird, Thaxted is pouring his resources into Harrison, unaware that I murdered his real son. And Thaxted has become attached to my spy, which will make it all the sweeter when Harrison betrays him.
“Oh. You killed the others already.” Her eyes widen.
“Such a clever girl.” I smile slightly at the way she has put the pieces of the puzzle together.
She pulls herself up a bit straighter at my praise. “If it were me, I’d want revenge.”
“I do.” I pause, because my throat feels rusty with disuse on this subject. “I keep the photo there because it helps meremember why I breathe every day. My mother was deeply superstitious. I wasn’t there, but I have reports that corroborate what I know in my gut. Before she died, she cursed Thaxted.”
She nods, as though this is a totally sane thing to do.
“And that curse? It’sme.”
5
DOM
“You?” she echoes, leaning back against the edge of my desk.
An unknowing temptation. I’d love to push her onto the glossy dark wood and shove myself between her thighs, my hand over her mouth.
“I am the curse my mother put on Thaxted.”
“I don’t get it.” She tilts her head to the side, reminding me of an adorably confused puppy.
“One of the things Thaxted and Richmond had, or maybe have, in common was a belief in the importance of legacy.” As I say the words, there’s a slam of realisation.
Her.
Taggie is supposed to be part ofRichmond. She’s the one who should have my children and means that Richmond has a new generation of raucous family.
I push the revelation aside. It can’t be.
“Thaxted also believes intensely in tradition and family. But his method is different. Instead of a loving, connected group with children growing up with their parents, he’s ofthe ‘introduce me to my sons when they’re twenty-one’ philosophy.”
I don’t mention daughters. I don’t want her to make this connection. But her brow is furrowed with lack of understanding about where this is going, so I think I’m fine.
“He has dozens of children, and unlike Richmond, which my parents made a tight family unit, he only cares about them when they’re old enough to be useful to him.”
Her lip wrinkles.
“Exactly,” I agree with her implicit assessment. “He killed my family, so I carry out my mother’s curse and take from him what he cares about most: his family tradition.
“Since he murdered my family, he has become exceptionally unlucky. His eldest son died in a car accident. His next eldest died because of faulty electrical wiring in his house. The others had a house fire, drug overdose caused by a bad batch, blood poisoning during a routine operation, severe allergic reaction causing hospitalisation and subsequently dying of a secondary infection, an accident when cleaning a gun that was loaded, and a fall down the stairs. Every common, unfortunate cause of death has been visited on Thaxted’s family since he killed the Richmond mafia.”
The corners of her mouth tug upwards. “You’re the curse.”
“But you can call me Dom.” I keep my face blank.
She giggles and we’re gazing at each other, and the connection is as intense as it is undeniable.
It takes a long moment, then her expression freezes.
“And that’s why you were there that night.”
Or alternatively, I was following her because I need her close by so I can breathe. I’ve fallen in passionate and tragic love with a girl half my age who was supposed to be part of my vengeance.
