Copyright © Terri Anne Browning/Anna Henson 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Terri Anne Browning, except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976.
Her Mafioso King
Written by Terri Anne Browning
All Rights Reserved ©Terri Anne Browning 2018
Cover Design and Photo by Sara Eirew
Model Simon Cooki
Edited by Lisa Hollett of Silently Correcting Your Grammar
Formatting by M.L. Pahl of IndieVention Designs
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Her Mafioso King is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
No part of this book can be reproduced in any form by electronic or mechanical means, including storage or retrieval systems, without the express permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer who may quote short excerpts in a review.
Table of Content
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue
Playlist
Prologue
Cristiano
All I could hear was the blood rushing through my ears as I crouched behind the door separating me from my pregnant little sister and Pop. Complete silence came from the earpiece that kept me in contact with the others. No one was breathing heavily, their footsteps silent as a ghost’s as they crept through the building to reach the other entrances into the room where Scarlett and Pop had been taken earlier that day.
“I’m in place,” Adrian Volkov grumbled in my ear, his accent notable in his agitation.
Despite the tension in my shoulders, I found myself almost grinning. My soon-to-be brother-in-law was furious at everyone for keeping Victoria out of the loop over the last few weeks. All he could think about was how hurt his bride-to-be was going to be when she found out Dante and I were, in fact, very much alive. All I could imagine was how pissed she was going to be when she realized I was still breathing.
I loved Victoria like crazy, but I wasn’t blind to the fact that my baby sister was more like our mother than any of us. And that… Yeah, that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Our mother hadn’t exactly been June Cleaver. Aslinn never would have qualified for any mother of the year awards, but she loved us fiercely. Her rage, however, burned just as brightly as her red hair once had.
I glanced down at my watch, expecting Ciro to check in any second. Of all of us, my best friend and brother-in-law was the most likely to explode if he didn’t get to his wife soon. Ciro’s world revolved around Scarlett and the twins she was carrying. I didn’t want to be within a hundred miles of the fucker if something did happen to my sister.
“Donati,” Adrian’s commanding voice growled in my ear. “You should be in place by now. What’s the problem?”
“Fuck off, Volkov,” Ciro snarled in a dangerously low voice seconds later. “I had three more guards to deal with on this side than you did.”
“Are you at the window yet?” I asked, interrupting the two before things could escalate.
“Yes.” There was a short pause before Ciro’s voice filled my ear again. “Place is like we expected. Boxes everywhere. Stacked too high for me to see over them.”
“You two stay where you are,” I ordered. “I’m going in for a better look.”
The thick, heavy metal door barely made a sound as I opened it enough to squeeze through. Gun at the ready, I found a maze of shipping boxes in the huge industrial garage where Scarlett’s tracker had directed us. Between her and Ciro, they’d come up with this plan to draw out Santino and Fontana, and as expected, their enemies had fallen right into her willing hands.
But that didn’t mean she or Pop wasn’t hurt. Fontana was a sick son of a bitch, worse than even Junior. The idea of my little sister alone with a monster like that had my gut churning.
I moved along the back wall, listening for any signs of my sister or father and the motherfuckers who’d dared take them after Scarlett’s doctor’s appointment earlier. Coming around a stack of boxes at least eight feet high, I caught sight of my sister’s long vibrant red hair.
Pausing, I pulled back, then risked another quick glance to assess the situation. Scarlett was tied to a chair. Her hands and legs were bound, and there was duct tape over her mouth. Her face looked stark white against the vivid color of her hair, but her brown eyes were full of rage as she looked up at the man standing over her.
“Daddy can’t save you now, bitch.”
Her nails bit into the arms of the chair she was strapped to. Her nostrils flared, but she didn’t try to speak against the restraint over her mouth.
“You’re a sexy little thing. Think once Enzo is done with you, I’ll make you my new little whore. Put you out on the streets. There are freaks out there who love fucking a pregnant bitch.”
“What did he fucking say?” Ciro snarled in my ear.
“Calm down,” Adrian advised. “Don’t lose your head now. It will just get someone killed.”
“If that were your woman in there, someone would be telling you to calm your ass down too,” I whispered back. “Now both of you, shut the fuck up.”
Silence filled my ear, and I moved closer.
The idiot was too distracted by what he was saying to Scarlett to notice I had come into view now. I kept my eyes on both him and my sister, so I noticed when she spotted me. It was just a flicker of her lashes, nothing to alert the man in front of her, but enough to let me know she was aware of my presence.
The man whom I’d never seen before still had his back to me as he placed his hand on the arm of Scarlett’s chair and leaned in close. Her nostrils flared as he got in her face, her nails biting into the chair arm as he ran his nose down her cheek. “But not before I try out your cock-sucker for myself.”
Revulsion filled my sister’s eyes, and the anger that was flowing through my veins reached its boiling point at seeing that motherfucker so close to her. I pulled the knife from the sheath strapped to my left thigh and came up behind him, putting the blade to his throat. I would rather have a knife in my hands than a gun anyway. I preferred to be up close and personal with the fuckers who crossed me.
The guy went stiff as a board in my arms, and I felt his gulp against the knife’s blade that was so sharp it was shaving his stubble when his throat moved. “What did you say to my baby sister?” My voice was completely calm, but I pressed the knife closer to his windpipe, easily slicing into it without going deep enough to cut through his vocal cords.
“I…” was all he got out before I jerked him back and sliced the knife across his throat. His pained groan turned into a whistle as the ai
r left him and he was unable to breathe another in.
After I pushed him away from me, he landed hard on his knees and then dropped onto his face as the blood flowed out of him and onto the concrete floor. Wiping off the blood from the blade on my pants, I used it to cut the straps of Scarlett’s restraints.
Once her hands were free, she carefully pulled the tape from her mouth. “About fucking time,” she snapped as she jumped to her feet a little unsteadily and rushed around to where Pop was tied up.
It was only then that I realized he was out cold. His face was bloody, one eye a nasty shade of black and blue. He’d taken one hell of a beating. “How long has he been out?” I demanded as I slapped Pop on the face a few times. The sharp pain had him jerking awake.
“Enzo knocked him out when he took us at the doctor’s office. Then, when he woke up again, this idiot started using him as a punching bag for fun.” Scarlett grabbed my knife and cut off a strip from her top, using it to put pressure on the cut at Pop’s temple.
“Scarlett?” He groaned, pulling back from her touch and shaking his head as if to clear it. “What…?” His eyes fell on me, and his mouth dropped open. “Cristiano?” he wheezed my name in a tone full of emotion.
“Hey, Pop,” I greeted with a grin. “Miss me?”
“What…? You…” He trailed off, shaking his head again as if he couldn’t focus.
“Cristiano, what the fuck is going on?” Ciro raged in my ear. “Is she safe?”
“I’ve got her and Pop. He’s a little out of it, though. Probably got a concussion, by the looks of it.”
Scarlett finished untying him, and he jerked to his feet. He caught my shoulders, his hands shaking. “Son, is that really you?”
I patted him on the shoulder. “It’s me, Pop. Surprised?”
To my chagrin, tears filled his eyes, and he embraced me in a hard hug, practically squeezing the air from my lungs. “Fuck. I don’t even care right now how you’re here. I’m just glad to see you, boy.”
I swallowed hard. During the time Dante and I had been lying low, pretending to be dead, I hadn’t thought about what it might be doing to my family. Especially not Pop. We argued so much that I didn’t even stop to imagine how he would take my dying.
Apparently, it had been hard on him. He held me for several long moments. It was only when I heard Ciro behind us that I lifted my gaze and found my friend hugging his wife like his life depended on having her in his arms.
“Fuck, woman,” he groaned, lifting his head from kissing her. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you or the babies?”
“We’re fine. I swear.” She sighed angrily as she glanced down at the dead man on the ground. “But Enzo took off. Left this dumbass in charge.”
“What about Santino?” Adrian questioned, having joined us. “Did you see him?”
Scarlett grimaced. “No. There was no sign of him.”
And they weren’t going to find him, ever. That little pussy was dead by now where Dante and I had left him to bleed out slowly and be eaten alive by rats. But Scarlett didn’t need to know the gory details. I wouldn’t fill her pretty little head with those images. Ciro would probably put a bullet in my own head if I did.
Pop slapped me on the back as he finally released me and turned to face the others. Adrian took one look at him and rushed forward to help me keep him steady. “Easy there, Vito. You look like you’re going to drop on your face.”
“Got one hell of a headache, boys,” Pop groaned, touching an unsteady hand to his brow.
“Papa,” Scarlett spoke soothingly as she crossed to him and touched the gash on his head once again. “I think you might need a few stitches.”
“We can take care of that at home,” Pop assured her, giving her a grim but reassuring smile. “Let’s get you home first, though, passerotta.”
As we walked out into the dimness of the evening light, Ciro’s man Paco pulled up, followed by two of Adrian’s men in another vehicle. The plan had been that those three would hold back and come in only if we needed them. But there hadn’t been a real need for them. Not in the rage Ciro was in before. There was a reason my best friend had climbed the ladder of the Cosa Nostra ranks so quickly, and it had nothing to do with the fact that our fathers were best friends or that he was like a brother to me.
He was a dangerous son of a bitch and the most feared soldier in my father’s army.
After helping Adrian get Pop into the back of his vehicle, I turned to face Paco, who was standing aside, waiting for Ciro to get Scarlett into the back of his SUV.
“Any news from Dante?” Now that the adrenaline was starting to fade, I could focus on my friend and cousin. And Anya.
Part of me had wanted to grab her when she’d run out after Dante, but I knew she was needed more elsewhere. Allegra was in trouble, and Anya knew what she was doing. She would have my friend’s back and protect my precious little cousin.
Didn’t mean I wasn’t worried about that stubborn-ass woman, though. My little badass could hold her own, but I constantly had this urge—this fucking need—to protect her.
Paco shook his head in the negative. “Not a word from his end.”
“Fuck,” I groaned. “Keep me posted.”
Back at the compound, a doctor was already waiting to check Pop over. I tried to stay back out of the limelight so the doctor could focus on him, but Victoria wasn’t having any of that.
“Why the fuck am I the only one who didn’t know about this?” she raged as tears spilled down her cheeks. I wasn’t sure if she was happy to see me or not, but I knew to stay out of her way as she glared at her twin, our brother-in-law, and her fiancé. “And how could you do this without me, Scarlett? What if something had happened to you or the babies? I should have been the bait, damn it!”
Adrian’s face paled a few shades, and he grabbed her wrist, pulling her roughly against him. As he kissed the top of her head, his voice shook ever so slightly when he spoke. “Don’t say stupid shit, kotyonok. There was no way in hell I was going to allow you to be anyone’s bait.”
For half a second, my sister seemed as if she was going to lean into him, but by the time he was done speaking, she was pushing him back forcefully. “Allow me?” she repeated in a deceptively soft tone. “You wouldn’t allow me? You don’t fucking own me, Adrian!”
I hid my grin as the Russian realized his mistake and quickly tried to rectify it. “No, of course not. But you own me. My heart and soul are yours, woman. And I wouldn’t have been sane for a single minute had you been the bait. What if your blood sugar levels had dropped and we couldn’t get to you in time?”
“What if they had hurt my niece and nephew?” she snarled back, not for a second mollified by his pretty words of who owned whom.
“Focus, Tor,” Scarlett commanded, interjecting before our sister could get any more worked up. “Allegra is still out there. With Gio.”
“Gio.” Pop spat out his brother’s name. “Bring me that bastard so I can kill him myself! He nearly cost me my son’s life as well as Dante’s, who is like a son to me. How did he hide his true self from me for all these years? My own fucking brother.”
For the next few hours, I tried to explain everything to Pop. How Anya had come up with the plan to fake Dante’s and my deaths, both to protect Dante and to get Gio to show his true colors. From time to time, Scarlett or Ciro would cut in, explaining how they found out that Gio had put a hit out on Dante through Fontana. But what really set Pop off was when I described the scars on Allegra’s body she’d shown me.
By the end of it, he was vibrating with rage and regret.
“I feel like I’ve failed that poor girl.” He shook his head as his hands trembled with the force of his fury. “I should have questioned her mother’s death more. But my own mother was in the house that night, damn it! If she knew about this, she would have put a stop to it.”
I grimaced. “About Lauren, Pop…”
Every eye in the room snapped to me, and I dived into explaining w
hat little I knew about Allegra’s mother and the fact that she had been alive and living with the De Stefanos this whole time. The room fell into a stunned silence, and no one spoke again until my phone rang a good twenty minutes later from a number I recognized as one Dante’s burners.
I was thankful he was fine, and we were all worried about Allegra after she’d been shot by her own fucking father. But my old friend assured me my precious cousin was going to be fine.
And that Anya was safe.
With a promise to get fresh clothes for him and Allegra, I hung up. Stretching the stiffness out of my shoulders, I stood from the chair I’d taken hours earlier. “Victoria, will you and Scarlett take Dante an overnight bag?”
“Of course,” my youngest sister assured me. “But where are you going?”
“I have somewhere to be,” was all I told her as I started to leave the room.
As soon as I walked outside, I had my phone to my ear. She wasn’t answering her phone, but I had several numbers I could use to get in touch with her. Calling her earlier hadn’t been an option. I wasn’t sure what she could have been in the middle of, and I didn’t want to call and fuck up anything that could have gotten her hurt.
Waiting had been agonizing, but now that I knew she was okay, I needed to hear her voice.
By the third number, I finally got an answer. “Where are you?” she demanded by way of greeting.
“Leaving Pop’s now, tesoro. Are you okay?”
I could practically hear her eyes rolling before she even spoke. “Of course I’m okay. I have Allegra’s sister. I need to know what to do with her.”
“I’ll meet you both at my apartment in thirty minutes,” I assured her, climbing into the back of the waiting SUV. Two of my men climbed in the front.
“Have you heard from Dante?”
I grimaced, not wanting to talk about my conversation with my old friend over the phone. Little Jenny didn’t need to know that her last living parent was dead through me. Dante could break that news to her. “We can talk when I see you,” was all I told her. “See you soon.”
She huffed and hung up, leaving me sitting there grinning down at the phone.
Her Mafioso King (The Vitucci Mafiosos Book 4) Page 1
