Semua Bab Taken by the Mafia King: Bab 251 - Bab 260

TommasoOnce Mr. Dawud left with another fifty thousand—less than a third of the cash I had after my initial payment, without counting the four bank cards sewn into the lining of my bag—I collapsed onto my bed. I felt like I may have been close enough to touch her last night but lost her again. A few hours, a less backstabbing guide, and I would’ve been done.I pulled the Polaroid out of my pocket and stared at it. She looked so thin, so tired. I didn’t know when this picture had been taken, but I didn’t want to think about how she looked now. Not after those women I saw last night.I tucked the picture back away and pulled out my phone. I needed to talk to someone who knew a piece of what Paige was going through, convince myself I hadn’t damned her by walking out of Ahmed’s office. I dialed Sera.She picked up on the second ring. “Tommaso! Do you have her?”“Not yet.” I rolled onto my back to stare at the ceiling. “I’m close, though. I think she may have been there last night, at the

TommasoI reeled back a step as that weight landed on my chest once more. Dead. Failed to save her by a couple hours, by one unlucky deal, after months of searching. I gripped the back of the chair for support. If he was right, and Paige was dead, I would…I would what? Abandon the rest of my friends and family over a girl I’d never met? She’d consumed my thoughts for the last five months, but I didn’t even know her. I just had the photograph and everything Sera said about her. I’d fought through tougher stuff than this before.But none of that kept a yawning abyss of grief from opening in my chest. If Paige was dead, I may as well have killed her. I got so close and fucked it up right at the goddamn finish line. This would swallow me if I let it.So I just couldn’t let it.“I don’t think so,” I said.“What?” Ahmed stared at me.“You don’t know her.” Technically, I didn’t know her either but whatever. “She’s tough. She’s made it this far. She wouldn’t go down that quickly.”“Mr. Conti

Paige“How is that?” I peered through the darkness of one of the many interior hallways Zahur made us stick to, barely able to see McKenna’s black eye.“Had worse.” She shrugged. Her English accent rounded the edges off all her letters. “Seen other girls come out much worse.”I nodded. In some ways, Zahur was better than some of the other bastards who had owned me. He let us wear long, thin robes over our naked bodies, let us walk around. Only in pairs and only in the isolated interior hallways he approved, but still.One of the bastards—I only called them the bastards now—had kept me in a cage for damn near the whole month and a half he had me. But Zahur had a violent streak. I came in with another girl, Delia, and he picked her to spend the first night with. I never saw her again. McKenna had taken me under her wing the next morning.“Still.” I shook my head. “You’ve got a cut in there. You should see a doctor.”She laughed, a high tinkling sound. “Mint, and I’ll just head back to M

PaigeI blinked awake the next morning in the dim light of the dormitory. Every inch of my body ached. The light cotton sheet over top of me was too heavy, burning on my bare skin, and when I tried to sit up, my head spun.The price Zahur asked was, as always, a night with me. His eyes gleamed when he offered it. My stomach churned, and I swallowed. I’d gotten used to what I thought was the worst of what the bastards could offer, but Zahur showed me a new low.He didn’t just want to take me. He wanted me to say he could, to put me in a position where I had to say yes and mean it. He wanted me to know even my ability to want belonged to him now.Bastard.The rest of the girls slept in their beds around me. Even JJ had been returned, covered in spidering black stitches. That meant I’d woken up earlier than usual. I stretched and discovered a line of the same stitches along the curve of one breast, the inside of the opposite thigh.I climbed out of bed. There was no point in thinking abo

PaigeI curled into the corner of the taxi seat and closed my eyes. The smell of exhaust leaked in through the windows, and desert heat pounded down on me. Despite the fact that I’d been through this a dozen times now, pointless tears spilled over.The sun hurt my eyes, and every time I looked at the dark-haired bastard, Mr. Conti, something like disgust crossed his face. My skin burned from the double pressure of McKenna’s robe and the awful dress they’d given me.McKenna. She would never know what happened to me. Neither would any of the others, but I’d learned a long time ago that you can only be friends with so many of the other girls. If the bastards start seeing you as some kind of ringleader, it was curtains for you.As we pulled away from the palace, I committed McKenna’s face to memory. Short blonde hair, soft blue eyes, sharp chin. If I ever got away, I’d go to Manchester and tell her Ben what happened.Not that I would get away. Mr. Conti dragged me out of Zahur’s palace an