Owned by the Mafia Bad Boy (Books 1 - 4)

by Raven Dark

  There’s a thing my dad taught me when he started getting me to do his interrogations; to get into the subject’s head and imagine what they felt, how they saw what you did to them. It made it easier to know how to break them. The better you knew your subject, the more aware of his weaknesses you were, and thus, the easier it was to make him crack.

  I went over what I knew of Hadler. How many witnesses he’d killed to see guilty men walk, how many people died because he abused his badge. Thinking of these made it easier to hurt him, and I scraped the pliers across the railing a little more.

  After a day and half of imprisonment and torture, he’d be beyond exhausted, almost delirious with pain. Another man would have gone insane, killing himself if we ordered him to, just to end his suffering.

  He had four kids and a wife. An elderly grandmother. Fuck, I hated the idea of using kids to scare a man, and I’d slit my own throat before I touched them, but if I had to make him think I would in order to get him to talk, I’d play the coldhearted killer, balls to the wall.

  I pictured my beautiful Anika, the one who’d saved my brother and risked my father’s rage, who’d risked her job and freedom for me. I formed an image of her father in my head, the one man I knew she’d die to protect. She’d be destroyed if she lost him, and I’d be hollow if I lost her. I had to do this. For her.

  Jaw tight, I opened the door to the freezer and walked inside. Here goes nothing.

  Agent Hadler was at the back of the room, curled up on a mattress. Asleep.

  I stared. The man was asleep? Who slept after what we’d put him through? I might have thought he was dead, but I could see him shaking, his chest expanding with his breathing. A chain bound his wrists, another his feet. He looked pale, cold, and no wonder. David would have put him in here right before he returned to the hotel, otherwise he’d have risked losing him to hypothermia. That meant he’d been in here almost forty minutes. By now, he would have begun to grow desperate. Or, he should have. Only, he was asleep. What the hell?

  David was right, we were in trouble. Made of steel indeed. Just our luck, we had to need information from a crazy man.

  Putting on my game face, I shoved the pliers into my waistband, rushed over to him, hauled him to his feet, and dragged him over to a corner of the room where a meat hook hung.

  “Come on. Wake up.”

  Agent Hadler grunted and tried to twist free, but it had the feel of a man having lost all his strength. I lifted his wrists and hung him from the hook, left him so his feet, already bare and bloody, only half touched the cold cement floor.

  One glance at his hands and feet told me what David had already tried. His fingers were bent in unnatural directions and bruised, his toes bloodied and mangled.

  Well, there were how many other bones left in the body? Jesus Christ, how much worse would I have to do if I became a kingpin? I’d pull out my own fingernails out before I allowed that to happen.

  “Hadler.”

  Hadler’s eyes didn’t even open. Was he even awake? He mumbled something. I whipped out the pliers and pushed his chin up with them.

  “Hadler.”

  Another mumble.

  I smacked his face, and he jolted awake. When his glazed, pain-filled eyes met mine, I put my face in his and gave him a maniacal grin. “Hi there.”

  “Oh, fuck. You again.” But for some reason he laughed. Like a madman.

  “Me.” His eyes tried to close and I snapped my fingers in front of them until he jolted and his head lifted. “No, no sleeping. I need you awake for this.”

  “Davros, you’re dead. You and that fuck of a driver of yours. You think Ferrara’s going to let you live after this? Do you know who he is?”

  I turned away from him, tapping the pliers into my palm. If I ever needed conformation the agent worked for Ferrara, or that Ferrara was the Boss of Bosses, that was it. I could hear the implication that Ferrara held far greater power than his kingpin status implied in Hadler’s tone, even if he didn’t realize I could. But it didn’t matter. Ferrara would never know. Once this was over, I’d keep Halder from fingering me for what happened here. “Now, now, Agent, be nice. It’s time you gave me what I want.”

  “Never. You’ll only kill me anyway.”

  “Not necessarily. There are other ways to keep you from talking to anyone once you leave here.”

  Walking slowly toward a meat packing table in the middle of the room, I counted a few beats. Giving him time to mull over what I’d said.

  Hadler only gave a raspy laugh. “You think I haven’t done worse than break a few fingers for the family?”

  I couldn’t help a smile. “You know the police have a word for that. It’s called a confession. But then you know that, don’t you? Agent. I wonder what they do to agents in prison these days.”

  “You don’t scare me, Davros.”

  I whipped around, crossed the space between us, and very slowly, carefully pressed my foot down on his shattered toes. Hadler howled and thrashed.

  “I don’t?” I cocked my head, then slowly removed my foot.

  Breathing ragged, face slicked with sweat, he glared at me, pure hatred. “You stupid fuck.” Except he didn’t look as fierce as he had. Real fear flickered in his eyes.

  I turned and walked back to the table slowly. “Who is the rat in Dominic’s ranks, agent?”

  “How is your woman, Davros? Is her daddy still alive?”

  The words sent a bolt of alarm through me. Anika’s father. How the fuck did he know someone had almost killed him? It occurred to me he might have been referring to the incident that had landed Lance Montrose in the hospital in the first place. Days ago, Dominic had sent two men to the farm to torture him, and he’d been shot during the fight. Except I had a feeling Hadler wasn’t talking about that.

  Careful not to show my hand, and unwilling to allow him to throw me off, I turned back to him. Gave him a moment to process the total lack of emotion on my face. Then I broke the space between us again, grabbed his jaw and forced it open, letting him see the pliers in my grip. His eyes widened.

  Forgive me, Anika. “You have two choices, Agent Hadler. Either we have a nice, civil conversation about rats, or you lose a few teeth.”

  He started to scream even before I had the pliers in his mouth.

  “You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”

  “What?” David looked sidelong at me on the couch, but his deadpan expression didn’t fool me. On the table, the recorder sat, still turned off.

  “You’re delaying turning that thing on so I can’t hear all the nasty things Kane does to that agent, aren’t you?”

  He gave me a tired smile, but then it faded. “Torture is a bad business, Miss Anika. I won’t have you hearing more than you need to, and neither would Mr. Davros.”

  So it was Mr. Davros again. All business. I pushed to my feet and made a pissed off noise. “I don’t suppose it would work if I told you I’d find a way to get you fired?”

  By his grin, he knew I was bluffing. “’Fraid not.”

  “Damn it, David, stop protecting me. Haven’t I proven I can handle this?”

  He assessed me for a moment. “You have.” Then, slowly he reached out and flicked the recorder on.

  Kneeling beside the coffee table opposite David, I listened. Almost immediately, I wished he hadn’t turned the machine on. Agent Hadler’s screams blasted through the recorder, pealing in my ears. David quickly turned the volume down before anyone in the hotel could hear, leaving it just loud enough so that we could make out what went on. I’d never heard a man sound so terrified, or in so much pain.

  “Jesus. What the hell is he doing to him?” I stared at the recorder, trying hard not to think too deeply about what Kane might be doing. Or that it was my Kane doing it.

  I’d already realized Kane was not an innocent man. There were dark sides to him, sides capable of horrendous things, but actually hearing him cause someone pain… I swallowed, heart hammering.

  “Do yo
u want me to shut this off?” David’s voice cut through my thoughts, gentle. Protective. I shook my head jerkily. He nodded and I could tell by his expression, he understood. I needed to hear this.

  Hadler’s screams finally stopped and David turned the volume up a little. Kane’s voice came through, chillingly cold, almost unrecognizable.

  “So. Now that you have a few less teeth, Agent.” Utterly calm. My stomach roiled. “Let’s try again shall we?”

  The last sound I expected filtered through the recorder. A low, raspy laugh from the agent. It sounded weird, like there was liquid spilling out of his mouth—blood?—but it was definitely a laugh.

  “You idiotic fuck. How many teeth will you pull before you realize you’ll never get what you want from me, Davros?”

  I flicked a wide-eyed look at David. He gave a slight nod, seeming to confirm my thoughts. That agent was completely nuts.

  Hadler was talking again. “Impressive, what that girl has done to protect her daddy, considering he isn’t even her real father.”

  My heart nearly stopped in my chest. I didn’t realize I had looked at David again until I saw him raise his brow. “How the hell does he know?”

  “He’s probably just trying to throw Mr. Davros off.”

  “But David, he’s right.”

  “What?”

  “Lance isn’t my dad.” Somehow it stung to say that. Lance had told me he wasn’t my real father over a week ago now, but this was the first time I’d actually let myself say it.

  David put his chin on his chest. “I see.”

  “How the hell does he know that?”

  He held up his hand, and I silenced, listening to the recorder as Hadler spoke yet again.

  “I wonder what your woman would give to know the truth.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Ah. I got your attention now, haven’t I?” Hadler’s voice oozed triumph.

  “What makes you think I care who her father is?” But I noticed Kane took a fraction of a second too long to reply.

  “Because, I’m betting she knows he’s not. Every girl wants to know who her daddy is, and what better way to gain her loyalty than to give her what every girl needs?”

  Blood rushed to my head, my heart thudding in my ears as it sank in. How, I didn’t know, but this corrupt agent knew who my real dad was. For all I knew, he night be the only one who did.

  “I’ll tell you what, Davros,” Agent Hadler went on. “You let me go now, and I’ll tell you who Daniella’s real father is. Something tells me you’d find it rather interesting.”

  Heart racing, I leaned forward, straining to catch every word.

  “You know, it’s strange how much I don’t care. I couldn’t care more if her father was the fucking king of Norway.”

  “Oh, you will, when you hear his name. Information is power. You have no idea who your slave is, do you?”

  “My priority right now is Dominic. You tell me who the rat is in his ranks, and you leave, with all your unbroken bones and teeth in tact. Or, you can open wide again.”

  Oh, I knew in my heart Kane was just trying to stay on point. Keeping control of the conversation in his hands and not letting the agent derail him with information he knew we’d want. Still, I felt my heart squeeze in my chest at what I was losing here. This might be my only chance to learn who my father was.

  “Oh, yeah. You gotta protect her daddy, right? How loyal would she be as a slave if you let him die? Next time, he will, you know. She’s not going to let him live long enough for Daniella to hear the truth.”

  She?

  “I know what you’re doing, agent. It’s not going to work.”

  “Do you know what the family does to women slaves when their masters die? Another, bigger, meaner master takes her. He uses her until there is nothing left but a broken, gibbering mess.”

  Kane growled, the first real sign of anger from him. There was a sickening crack, like bone snapping. Another howl from Hadler. “I want the rat’s name. Now.”

  “Ah. Just as I thought. I’ve seen enough men hooked on a woman to know it when I see it. If Daniella Montrose is your slave, I’m the Pope.”

  “Tell me the name.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “Then open wide.” Feet scraped the floor and chains rattled, then once more, screams pealed. Kane shouted over them. “If pulling out your teeth isn’t going to work, perhaps you’d like to lose something else. An eye?”

  This time, the screams he let out were filled with so much terror I almost covered my ears.

  “Stop! You can’t…the rat…”

  Feet shuffled again. Kane moving back to let him talk, I thought. Hadler heaved breaths, and when he spoke again, his voice shook.

  “You have to protect me. Do you get that? Ferrara—”

  “The name!”

  “Davros, you don’t understand! This is bigger than you think.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  More heaving breaths, and then I actually heard him swallow. “Dominic Gavini doesn’t have a rat in his crew.”

  My stomach plummeted, real panic gripping me as I felt my only hope of saving the man who raised me slip away.

  “You lie,” Kane snapped. “Tell me the truth. Now.”

  “I am. Davros. There’s no rat in his crew. Dominic Gavini is the rat.”

  THE END

  End of Book 4 – Available now, Owned by the Mafia Bad Boy 5.

  Want more Raven Dark? Sign up for the newsletter to receive updates about new releases and freebies. I promise, no spam, ever.

  You can find a full list of my books at my Author Page on Amazon. If you liked this book, please consider leaving a review on Amazon and Goodreads. Reviews help readers decide to buy a book, and the support is much appreciated.