Victorious: A Dark Mafia Romance (Deviant Series Book 2)
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VICTORIOUS
Book 2 of the Deviant Series
ANGELA SNYDER
COPYRIGHT
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Copyright © 2019 Angela Snyder
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the publisher. You must not circulate this book in any format.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
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Victorious is Book 2 in The Deviant Series and is not intended to be read as a standalone. Please read Devious: Book 1 of The Deviant Series before reading this book.
The books in the series feature adult content and touch upon some very serious issues and sensitive topics that could be considered as triggers for some readers.
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SYNOPSIS
(VICTORIOUS: BOOK 2 OF THE DEVIANT SERIES)
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I pulled the trigger and walked away from Victoria forever.
I followed my plan for vengeance, never deviating, never straying from the path no matter what.
So why does it feel like my cold, dark heart just got ripped out of my chest?
I know I should leave New York, find my sister and put my past long behind me.
But something is holding me back.
No. Someone is holding me back.
After finding out that Victoria is in trouble, I can’t possibly leave.
Because even though I hurt her, I made a vow a long time ago that I would protect her.
And I’ll move heaven and earth to keep that promise.
PLAYLIST
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Shinedown – Monsters
Madonna – Material Girl
Bring Me the Horizon – Drown
Madonna – Oh Father
Lana Del Rey ft. The Weeknd – Lust For Life
Crown the Empire – What I Am
Lana Del Rey – Sad Girl
Tails & Inverness – Skeleton (feat. Nevve)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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VICTORIOUS
COPYRIGHT
AUTHOR'S NOTE
SYNOPSIS
PLAYLIST
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
EPILOGUE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PROLOGUE
NOLAN FARRELL
WITH TEARS IN my eyes, I stare at the bronze-colored coffin that holds the remains of my boy.
Teague wasn’t even sixteen years old yet. He had his whole life ahead of him…school, college, girlfriends, a wife…kids of his own someday that would make me a grandpa.
Feck, it must be true that only the good die young.
As head of the Irish Mob, I’ve seen a lot of bad things in my life. Things that could make the sanest of men question their own sanity and purpose.
Never have I felt guilt, remorse or utter and complete anguish like I feel right now.
Teague is dead.
And he died at the hands of Giorgio Ciccone.
They held my boy captive. Tortured him for information. And then sent him back to me in pieces.
I gaze at the closed coffin. What I wouldn’t give to see his beautiful face one last time.
He was the splittin’ image of his mother. God rest her soul.
Feck, if she could see the destruction that has laid itself out in our family’s path and what happened to Teague…
I’m almost glad she’s gone. Just so she can’t bear witness to what has happened…and what must be done now that our boy is dead.
People come and go from the wake, passing by me in a blur. Soft cries filter in and out of my ears, but I can’t do a goddamn thing but stare at my boy’s coffin. My hands clench into fists on my thighs. I will not shed one tear for Teague. No. Instead, I will hold all of that anger inside of me until it boils in my fecking veins. And then, and only then, will I avenge his death.
My right-hand man, best friend and confidant, Connor Doherty, sits down next to me. He’s quiet, biding his time, waiting for me to do the talking. And when I finally do talk, it’s quite some time later. “T’int right. A father shouldn’t bury their son. It’s fecking wrong.”
“Aye, it is.” Connor takes a long hard look at me before asking the question that’s been on the tip of everyone’s tongue around here. “So, what are we gonna do about it?”
“I’m gonna do what must be done,” I tell him cryptically.
“Eye for an eye?” he offers with a snarl.
“Tooth for fecking tooth,” I agree with a sharp nod. That’s our motto. You feck with us…we’re gonna feck with you the same exact way…except ten times worse.
Giorgio Ciccone thought he could feck with my family and get away with it. We’ll see how well he fairs when I return the goddamn favor.
CHAPTER 1
VICTORIA
MY EYES SLOWLY blink open, and the starkness of the white room startles me. Bright light streams in from the large window, making me grimace in pain.
Why am I in the hospital?
Squeezing my eyes shut, I try to remember what happened before I ended up here. My brain is so foggy, and I feel like my thoughts are too jumbled up in my mind to piece together anything that makes any sense.
The back of my head is killing me. And when my hand goes searching for the source of the pain, I come across a huge lump, which is too sore to even touch.
Was I in a car accident?
No, I don’t remember a crash…
I don’t even remember hitting my head.
So, what do I remember?
I remember…the dinner. T
he dinner with my father and Damon. How happy I was that the two of them were finally going to meet and discuss our future together.
But I wasn’t happy for long, however.
But…why?
I must doze off again, because when I wake up, it’s dark out and I’m feeling less drowsy.
The aching in my thigh grows more intense by the second as sweat beads on my brow. Tearing back the white blanket, I stare at the gauze wrapped around my upper thigh. My skin is discolored with iodine, and there’s a bandage under the gauze where blood has seeped through to the surface.
Memories of what happened begin to flash through my mind like some kind of horror movie.
The dinner with my father.
The confession from Damon.
The truth about the Rossis.
Arlo.
Damon Romero is Arlo Rossi.
And then the gunshots…
Damon shot me.
And then he shot my father.
“Oh god,” I gasp. The heart monitor begins to beep more rapidly in the background as I try to make sense of it all.
The door to my room opens, and a large, hulking form of a man that I recognize as Marco, one of my dad’s bodyguards, enters. He’s dressed in a brown suit; the fabric straining against his muscles. His chocolate brown eyes dart up to meet mine, and they immediately widen in surprise.
“You’re awake,” he says with a deep voice that reverberates through me.
I sit up, and the ache in my thigh has me almost passing out from the pain. “Shit,” I hiss in agony through clenched teeth.
“You need pain meds? I’ll go get the doc.”
“No,” I say with a shake of my head. I don’t want to go to sleep again or not be awake for what comes next. “No narcotics. Just something mild,” I tell him before he disappears out the door once again.
The pain is keeping me awake. The pain is reminding me that I’m still alive after what happened with Damon.
Damon.
I curse his name in my head repeatedly as tears begin to fill my eyes. I allow myself a few moments to cry out my frustration and rage, and then I angrily wipe the wetness away with my hands.
Marco returns a few minutes later with some pain pills and a glass of ice water, which I down quickly. Feeling a little more clear-headed, I ask him, “Is my father…?” I can’t even say the word out loud, because it might just crush me.
His thick, dark brows mash together as he says, “He survived.”
I breathe out a sigh of relief. Even though my father and I have had our differences in the past, he’s all I have left in this world. I do need to speak to him about what Damon brought up that fateful night. Did my father really commit all those horrible acts against the Rossis? And if so, why?
I can’t even imagine him doing such unspeakable things, but then again, I’m starting to feel like the worst judge of character. Just look at what happened with Damon. He was playing me the entire time to get close to my father, and I was a fool to believe that he truly loved me.
Damon even went through me to get my father. Literally. I have the bullet wound and scars to prove it.
“Are you ready to see your father?” Marco asks me, breaking out of my terrible thoughts. “He’s in a coma right now, but the doctors seem to think he’ll pull through.”
Shaking my head, I tell him, “I’ll go to see him when he’s awake. I have a lot of questions that I need answers to.” And my father is the only person who can tell me the truth about what happened to the Rossis and why Damon is so hellbent on revenge that he was willing to risk it all…including my life.
CHAPTER 2
DAMON
MY PHONE RINGS in my pocket. Pulling the car over to the side of the road, I’m quick to answer it.
“How are you doing, my friend?” Baz asks on the other end.
It’s been three days. Three days since I shot Victoria and her father, the man who destroyed my family. Three days since I’ve seen her, heard her laugh or smelled her perfume. Three days of pure hell, wondering if she’s okay, if she made it.
Every time I close my eyes I picture Victoria lying there on the floor, blood seeping into her dress. It’s an image that will be forever seared into my brain.
“It’s done,” I tell Baz.
“Good, good. I’m glad to hear that, my friend.” And then he asks, “And did you get the information you were looking for? Did you get the name?”
“No,” I grind out. “No, I didn’t.” That’s my only regret about that night. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t have left Ciccone’s place without the name. But if I would have stayed any longer, I would have been gunned down by Ciccone’s men, and then Sara would never get justice. And this is what it’s all about now — justice for my sister.
“That’s all right. I’m sure you did everything you could. Don’t worry, I’ll keep looking, my friend.”
Baz is about to hang up when I hear myself blurting out, “Victoria. Is she…did she…?”
“She’s in the hospital,” he answers. “She had surgery and pulled through.”
I let out a sigh of relief. I didn’t realize how heavy the burden on me was until just now. It feels like a thousand bricks have been lifted off my shoulders. “Thank you,” I tell him.
“But just so you know…her father made it too, although his condition is precarious.”
My hand clutches the phone hard, the plastic threatening to crack under the force of my grip. If Victoria’s father is still alive, there’s a chance I can still get the information I need. A chance that I can save my sister. But I know my chances of getting close to Ciccone again are even slimmer now. He will have beefed up his security detail tenfold.
“Thank you for letting me know,” I grit out.
Baz ends the call, and I set my phone down in the center console of an old Toyota that I highjacked outside of Syracuse yesterday. I’ve been running away from New York City with no real destination in mind. Maybe California…or Canada perhaps.
But the fact that I can’t seem to leave the state is unnerving. It’s like I keep driving around in circles hoping to finally make a choice.
And so, when I come to a sign that says New York City, one-hundred-ninety-five miles, I make the rash decision to take the exit and drive back to the city where I left everything behind.
Including the only girl I’ve ever loved.
CHAPTER 3
VICTORIA
THE NEXT MORNING, the doctor comes in to see me. Jack Park is young, probably only a few years older than me, with blond hair and bright blue eyes. He’s dressed in blue scrubs under a white lab coat, and his handsome face is all business when I ask him to tell me about my father first.
“He’s in a medically induced coma at the moment. That will allow his brain to rest while giving his body time to heal. He suffered some severe damage, but we’re optimistic that he’s going to pull through.”
I nod in response, feeling like I’m being torn in two. On the one hand, I want my father to live and thrive.
But on the other hand, if he did everything that Damon said he did…then maybe this world would be better without him in it.
“Now, as for you, Miss Ciccone, we had to surgically remove the bullet from your thigh. But, thankfully, there was no bone, nerve or major muscle damage. You were extremely lucky.”
Lucky?
There’s that word again. Why do I keep hearing that term when describing my life? I don’t feel so damn lucky.
I was caught in the crossfires of a decade-long revenge-fueled feud between my family and the boy I once loved. The boy who I thought was dead. The boy who ultimately used me to get what he wanted — revenge on my father.
Damon was so thirsty for his vengeance that he sacrificed me and my life and didn’t even hesitate.
Lucky? No, I don’t think lucky is the right term for what happened to me.
“We’re going to start you on physical therapy tomorrow so that we can get you up and walkin
g in no time,” Dr. Park tells me with a smile stretching his thin lips.
“Thank you, Doctor,” I whisper. I’m going to work my ass off in physical therapy so I can get the hell out of here as soon as possible and back to my life. The life before Damon crashed through it like a wrecking ball and broke my heart into a million pieces.
CHAPTER 4
VICTORIA
AFTER A WEEK of extensive and exhausting rehabilitation for my leg, I’m finally released from the hospital. I still have to deal with wound care and more outpatient physical therapy, but at least I’m home. The next few weeks are going to be tedious and difficult, but anything to keep my mind off the gaping, festering hole Damon left in my heart is a blessing.
I walk into my apartment, and immediately the two bodyguards who drove me here are pushing past me and searching through every room. I have no idea what they’re looking for; but if they think Damon is hiding here, they’re sadly mistaken.
He’s too much of a coward to be here.
Once it’s all clear, they tell me they’ll be waiting outside of my apartment building in case I need anything or want to go anywhere.
Great. Just like old times.
I had forgotten how much I loathed a protection detail. I didn’t realize how good I had it here when I first moved in and had some freedom for the first time in my life. Boy, was that short-lived. Now I wish I wouldn’t have allowed myself to get used to being so free.
Feeling exhausted, I go to my bedroom and begin to strip off my clothes. Pulling on some comfy pajamas, I go to my bed, ready to crawl in and take a long nap, and stop short. There, in the middle of the mattress is a small, navy blue box.
Biting my lip, I hesitate. Should I go get one of the guards to inspect it first? Obviously someone was in my apartment while I was gone, but the two of them did search through the place before I came in.
So, whoever left this is obviously long gone.