The Mafia Boss Who Captivated Me

MAX-AGE

20

My jaw aches as I stare out the window, watching Dante squirt Joey with the water hose. She squeals with laughter, and the sound should make me smile, but my brain is too full of other things-secrets and lies and broken promises. A solid hand rests on my shoulder, squeezing tightly. "You know you have always been like a son to me, Maximo." "Hmm," I mumble, my eyes narrowed as I continue staring at the scene outside.

When he doesn't get the desired response, he goes straight for my weak spot. "I promised your father I would look out for you."

"And you have, Sal," I assure him. He took me in when I was fourteen, after my father was murdered. He and Sal were the best of friends. My father was his right hand. I practically grew up in this house even before my dad died. It was the one place other than my own home where I felt safe and wanted. Not that Sal fostered any of that comfort or familiarity. He has a violent temper and a cruel streak a mile long, but when he wants to shine his spotlight on you, he can make you feel like you're king of the fucking world. No, it was his children and staff who've always made me feel like I belong here.

"You know you don't have to meet with your uncle."

I swallow the thick knot in my throat. I haven't seen Uncle Vito in eight years-not since he ran off with my mom. She died a couple of months back, and I wonder if that's what prompted his call a few days ago when he asked me to meet with him. I hate him. But he's the only biological family I have left.

"I figure I might at least hear what he has to say."

Sal snorts. "Nothing he has to say will be worth listening to. I guarantee it. He was always a useless sack of shit. He stole your mother, might as well have killed your father himself. Because that is why he died, Maximo, and you can't forget that. And now he comes here looking for-what? Forgiveness? Does he want to be your uncle again now that he has nothing and nobody left?"

"I don't know what he wants, Sal."

He rubs a hand over his beard and frowns. "I can guarantee no good will come from meeting with him. We are your family, Maximo. We have always looked out for you. Protected you when you needed it. We've always had your back and we always will."

He stares at me pointedly and his eye twitches. Does he know what happened? No. He can't. Neither Dante or Lorenzo would have told him about what happened the other night. But maybe he saw something. This is his house and Salvatore Moretti sees everything.

"I know that, Sal," I say, trying to keep my tone even and calm even while my insides churn and I feel like I might throw up.

"If you choose to meet with Vito, just remember that he is my enemy." He pauses for a long beat. "And any friend of my enemy, Maximo..." He doesn't finish the sentence. Doesn't need to. The threat is implicit.

What do I hope to gain from meeting with my uncle after all these years? To hear his fake apologies and excuses? For him to tell me how much my mother suffered so he can share his grief with someone else who loved her?

I check my watch, feeling torn. If I'm going to make the meeting, I need to leave now.

"Lorenzo is going to speak to the Russians. They're causing some problems at the shipyard. I'm sure he could use your help."

I sigh and nod my agreement. "Sure, Sal."

MAX

I stare at the ceiling with my hands behind my head, my brain swimming with unanswered questions. It seems like there are a lot of pieces to this puzzle involving the Russians and my little sister, but I can't piece them all together. I spoke to Vito again last night, just the two of us, but I didn't get much sense out of him once Kat gave him more drugs. We moved him to a guest room, and I let Kristin stay with him. He's her dad, and despite what I might think of him, he seems to have been a good father to her. Still, I'll never forgive the mistakes he made when I was a kid. I might wonder if him coming back for me should mean something, but I know better. He was seven years too late. He kept my sister from me for eighteen years, and I don't think I can ever get past that. The only thing the man has ever done for me is corroborate Joey's version of events regarding Fiona Delgado and removing every last shred of doubt that Salvatore Moretti framed me for her murder.

Joey comes out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel. My perfect distraction. Sitting up, I watch her walk to her dresser.

"What are your plans today, baby girl?"

"You know what my plans are, Max. I've been talking about them all week."

"I know you've been talking about a party, but I don't believe we agreed you could go."

"Well, luckily for me, I don't need your permission. Mo is my best friend. It's not my fault that you don't like her, and I'm going to her party, Max," Joey huffs as she tosses a black swimsuit over her shoulder in disgust before continuing to rummage through her dresser drawer for something she deems more appropriate.

I walk up behind her, grabbing her waist and pressing myself against her perfect ass.

"I thought I was your best friend?"

She stands up straight, blowing a strand of hair from her eyes and holding something blue in her hand. Turning in my arms, she gives me a snarky smile. "You are, tough guy. I just meant she's one of my best girlfriends. Look, I know you don't like her ..."

"Nope, not even a little bit," I agree.

"I'm going to her party, Max. You can even come with me if you're that bothered about it."

I take the bikini from her hands and inspect it. At least it's not one of those stringy ones and it will cover her ass and tits. "I wish I could, baby, because you will look fucking hot in this, but I have to speak to Vito some more. We still don't know who kidnapped me or why. And that is the only reason I don't want you going to this party today. Not because I don't like Monique, and not because you're going to spend the entire afternoon in this sexy little number."

"It's hardly sexy. I mean I can show you a much sexier one if you'd prefer?" She flutters her eyelashes at me and sinks her teeth into her plump lower lip, making me want to do the same.

I grin at her. "Definitely later."

"I'll be safe though, Max. This whole thing with you and Vito and the Russians is something to do with Kristin's baby daddy, right? Even Dante and Lorenzo agreed I could go."

"But your brothers no longer get to decide what you do and where you go, baby girl," I remind her as I trail my lips over the sweet-smelling skin of her throat. "I do."

I don't miss the shudder that runs through her body. My spoiled little brat loves to be dominated, even though she'll never admit it. She doesn't argue, but probably only because she's afraid I'd make her stay home.

Instead she tries a completely different and way more effective tactic. "Henry and Ash will be with me. I'll be gone for a few hours and then I'll be back here." She runs her hands down my chest and over my abs. "And I will be so grateful to you that I'll do anything you want."

I fist my hand in her hair, pulling her head back until she gasps. "You'll do anything I want, regardless, Joey. Because you're my needy little slut."

Her cheeks turn pink. "Please, Max?"

Why do I feel like this is such a bad idea? Her brothers think it's safe. She'll have armed guards. The threat right now is to Kristin.

"You can't keep me locked away forever. I'm a grown woman, aren't I?" she whispers.

I press my forehead against hers. She's right about that. My girl has been protected and locked away almost her entire life and I saw the damage it did to her. She deserves much more than that, especially from me. How do I expect her to be all I know she's capable of being if I don't let her breathe? If I wanted a submissive, compliant woman who obeyed my every whim, Joey Moretti wouldn't be the woman for me.

"Fine. But you stay for four hours, then you get your ass back here. Don't get drunk because it makes you less alert. And do everything Henry and Ash tell you. Understand me?"

She throws her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist, peppering kisses all over my face. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

I carry her to the bed and lay us down on it. I have at least another hour before Vito's awake enough for more questions. "You want to show me how grateful you are, baby?"

She lifts her eyebrows. "What do you have in mind?"

I pull open her towel and kiss her silky skin, peppering kisses over her breasts and moving down her body, over her stomach, toward her pussy. I can smell her arousal already and it makes me hard. "First of all, you can come all over my face." Kiss. "And then my cock." Kiss. "And then..." I swirl my tongue over her clit.

"And then?" she whimpers.

"Then you will suck my cock so you can taste just how delicious your cunt is."

"Yes, please," she says as she pushes her hips up until she can grind herself on my face.

"That's my naughty little slut."

***

"She'll be fine, compagno," Dante says with a wry smile as I check my watch for the hundredth time this hour.

"Yeah, well, until she's back here, I won't relax."

He laughs softly. "She's really done a number on you."

"I love her, D. I think about her every second of every fucking day. I can't help it."

He nods like he knows exactly what I mean. "Did you get anything more from Vito last night?" he says, getting back to the business at hand.

"No. Once Kat gave him some more drugs, he was making no sense at all. Kristin said he was still sleeping when I checked at lunch. I figured I'd let him sleep it off a little longer and we'll talk to him when he's lucid. I asked her to let him know we want to see him as soon as he wakes up."

He rubs a hand over his beard. "I spoke to Dmitri this morning. He's following a lead on Pushkin, thinks he might be in Miami." "Miami?"

Dante nods. "Has some property down there in his dead ex-wife's name. Managed to keep it low-key until now." "And his sons?"

"No sign of them yet. Rumor has it Viktor and Ivan went back to the motherland to try to drum up support to oppose Dmitri." "Fuck, that's all we need."Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

"Dmitri doesn't think they'll have much success. The Pushkins don't have many allies left right now and any support they had is waning. Even the New York branch promised Dmitri their support, and they were always going to be the ones that would tip the scales. With Vlad Mikhailov's backing from the Bratva and our support in Chicago, Dmitri is set."

"Good. He's a whole lot easier to work with than his predecessors." I crack my neck and wince at the jolt of pain that shoots through my shoulder.

"You okay?" Dante asks.

The knock on the door stops me from answering.

"Come in," Dante calls, and my uncle shuffles into the room using a cane Kat must have found somewhere.

"You wanted to see me?" he asks, his eyes darting around the small space. Despite what we all learned yesterday, there's still a lot of mistrust and suspicion between us.

"Yes. Have a seat." Dante indicates the empty chair opposite his and Vito takes a seat while I perch on the edge of the desk.

"We're just trying to piece together where everything fits, and we need your help," Dante says, and Vito nods his understanding.

"You're sure that your kidnapping had nothing to do with Kristin and the father of her baby?" I ask.

Vito frowns and shakes his head. "No. I told you, it was Pushkin. He's wanted me dead for years. I knew too much about his trafficking operation, but as long as Sal was alive, I was safe."

Dante leans forward. "Because of the recording you had of him killing Fiona?"

"Yes. If anything happened to me, that would go straight to the press. So Sal kept Pushkin off my back, but as soon as he was killed, Pushkin wanted me to pay. He didn't even need me dead, he just wanted to remind me that he could do it." "Right," I mumble, running a hand over my beard. I feel like we're still missing something. It doesn't explain who kidnapped me and why.

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"Why would it have anything to do with the guy Kristin was dating? He didn't even know she was pregnant. He couldn't have. She didn't know when we left."

"Why didn't you help her find him once she did know? She told me he was Russian. Was he-"

"He was Bratva, yes. She didn't tell me much about him, but I did a little digging. He's connected, but I don't know how much. Couldn't even get his last name. He was like a ghost." "Was he the reason you left New Jersey?"

"No. At least not entirely. We left because I started getting the feeling we were being watched. Call it intuition, but I wasn't taking any chances. And I couldn't be sure it wasn't a coincidence that my daughter's boyfriend happened to be part of the Russian mob."

"Why are you so sure that you being taken had nothing to do with her?"

"Because they never mentioned her once. Pushkin's men tortured me. They wanted to know what I knew about the sex trafficking ring and whether I had enough to put their boss away for life, I guess. And then when I told them everything I knew, they left me for dead. If it had anything to do with Kristin, they would've asked about her."

Dante voices his agreement, and I wrack my brain to remember every single thing that was said when those Russian assholes had me chained up.

"Why do you think it would be anything to do with my daughter?" Vito asks, his eyes narrowed.

"Max?" Dante says.

"Fuckers kidnapped me too. When I heard the Russian accents, I assumed it was retaliation because we were backing Dmitri for the takeover, but then they started going on about how their boss was going to kill me because I touched his girl." "Kristin?" Vito asks with a frown.

"I assumed so. I mean nobody knew she was my sister. If anyone was following her and saw her leaving my apartment, they could have jumped to conclusions."

"If it was her boyfriend and it was about getting her back, why not take her too?" Vito asks.

"I know. That part didn't make sense to me either, but at the time I didn't know if they did have her. After Dante and Lorenzo got me out and I found out she was here, I knew they never could have gotten to her here."

Vito shifts in his seat, wincing. "Could it have been about the dead girl? Fiona?"

"That is one long ass time to wait for revenge." Dante shakes his head. "And her father died a few months after she did. Who would take their revenge?"

A fucking lightbulb explodes in my brain. "The girl. They weren't talking about Kristin or Fiona ..."

Dante frowns. "Then who?"

"Joey, D. They were talking about Joey." My heart starts racing so fast that it feels like it's going to burst right through my chest at any second. I fish my cell from my pocket and bring up the tracking app. "Joey?"

"Your father promised her to Viktor."

Horror dawns on his face. "But that was four years ago, Max. We smoothed it over. He married someone else."

I glare at him, pissed at us both for not realizing it sooner while Vito stares at the two of us in confusion. "And his wife mysteriously disappeared two years later-because he never fucking wanted her. He wanted his Italian Mafia princess. You think he gives a fuck that it was four years ago?" I snap. "They said I had my hands on his girl. We assumed they were referring to Kristin, but they were talking about Joey. She is the girl."

He gapes at me in horror. "Fuck! Where is she?"

I look down at the screen and close my eyes, flooded with relief. "She's at Monique's house, where she's supposed to be."

"Wait." Dante shakes his head. "Nobody knew about you and Joey. She didn't even tell her friends."

"Maybe someone saw us?"

"Where?"

I pinch the bridge of my nose. Nowhere. I was extra careful with her. Even the night I screwed her outside the club, I made sure we were in a secluded spot that nobody could get to. "I don't know. Maybe she told someone?" "She said she didn't though, and why would she say that now that it's all out in the open?"

"I don't know, D." I continue to watch the blue dot on the tracking app. I need to call her, then I need to bring her home. My gut tells me she's the one in danger. And I let her go to that fucking party without me. Fuck! "Who's with her?" Dante asks.

"Ash is watching her, and Henry's outside. It's a small party. Monique and a few of the girls from high school." My mind races, but I can't process everything quickly enough. "Toby!"

"I thought it was girls only?"

"No." I shake my head. "Toby knew about me and her."

"He did? How?"

"That night she went on a date with him. I came for her. I was fucking raging when I saw her crying. He must have figured it out."

"Toby?" Dante repeats.

"I can't think of anyone else who even saw us together, D. Not like that. I had my arm around her. Maybe it was obvious...?"

"Then we go pay the little fuck a visit," Dante says, taking his gun from his desk drawer.

"I'll tell Joey to come straight back here." I bring up her number and call her cell. I'm vaguely aware of Vito asking if he can help while I listen to Joey's phone ring several times before going to voicemail. Not bothering to leave a message, I

hang up and dial Ash's number instead. I shove aside the violent swell of rage and panic swirling in my gut and remind myself she's at a pool party. Her phone's probably in her purse.

Ash picks up on the third ring. "Yup?"

"Do you have eyes on Joey?"

"Sure do. She's floating around the pool on a giant pink flamingo."

"And you're with her? You can actually see her?"

"Yeah. I'm looking at her right now, Boss. Standing about twenty feet away from her."

Relief washes over me, and I nod to Dante who's watching me intently for any sign of distress.

"Everything okay?" Ash asks.

"I need you to bring her home, right now."

"Okay. And, um, what shall I tell her?"

I rub my temples. He's one of the scariest men I know, but I guess even he doesn't relish the thought of dealing with Joey after she's told to do something she doesn't want to do. And I don't want him having to carry her out of there-because then I'd have to break every finger he touched her with. "Put her on for me."

"Sure, boss."

I wait for him to pass the phone to her. The sound of her voice puts a huge smile on my face. "You missing me?"

"Always, baby girl."

She giggles. "Aw, you're so sweet." She's obviously been drinking, which is only going to make this more difficult.

"I need you to listen to me, baby. You need to come home with Ash. Right now."

"But Max..." she whines.

"Now, Joey."

It must be the tone of my voice that makes her pay attention. "What's happened? Is it Anya?" she says, sounding afraid.

"No. Everyone is fine, I promise. But I need you to come back to the house."

"But we just made a fresh batch of margaritas."

"Joey, if you don't get your ass back here now, Ash will have to carry you to the car in your bathing suit. And you know if he does that, I'm going to have to fucking kill him for putting his hands on you. So get your ass dressed and get home." "You're freaking me out."

I suck in a breath. "I'll explain later. Just get dressed and go straight home with Ash, okay?"

"Why can't you come and get me? Where are you?" I hear the panic in her voice.

"Joey, for the love of god, do as you're fucking told for once," I snap. I don't have time for her questions right now.

"Fine." She sighs. "I'll be home soon."

"Put Ash back on."

There's another dramatic sigh from my girl before Ash is back on the phone. "Get her out of there and back home as fast as you can. And do it quietly. Don't take your eyes off her for a second."

"Okay, but-"

"But what?" I bark.

"She just got out of the pool. She's in her bikini, boss."

Fuck! I don't want him watching her change. "Stand outside the room while she changes. No pit stops. No margaritas for the road. She gives you any hassle, you pick her up and carry her ass out of there. You understand me?" "Yes, Boss."

"Good. Call me when she's home."

When I look up again, Vito has left the room and Dante is still staring at me. "She bitching about leaving the party?" he asks.

"She'll get over it," I say with a shrug. She can spend her whole goddamn life pissed at me if she wants to. I don't care, as long as she's safe.