Taken for his Captive: A Dark Mafia Romance (The Torenti Family Book 4) Read online

  Even though my dad wasn’t physically near me, it was a relief to hear his voice in my head. I knew that he was right, and that’s why I took a few more deep breaths as I listened.

  “No, he’s not losing his touch,” the first man argued. “It’s just that she’s eighteen now. She’s a big girl, so she was supposed to be able to protect herself.”

  How in the world did these assholes know that I had just turned eighteen? Yes, my dad and I had celebrated, but it was quiet with just the two of us. Nobody else knew, or they weren’t supposed to.

  But somehow these guys did.

  A third voice, one that I hadn’t heard before, piped up. “Eighteen and delicious looking, right? Fuck, I wish that the boss didn’t want her for himself or I’d definitely be paying her a little visit in her bed right about now.”

  The others laughed and I could only imagine the vulgar gestures he was making.

  My face burned but I didn’t have time to get upset. I had time to get even, and that meant that I had to move quickly. Even though I knew that time was of the essence before they decided to come and check on me, I waited another minute to listen for a fourth voice.

  I had to know exactly how many men were in there before I did something. Three wasn’t any problem at all. Four? Well, four might be stretching it.

  The three voices kept talking and then the first, the smoker, sighed. “You guys think we should check on her? Make sure that she hasn’t flown the coop or something?”

  Another laughed. “She was so damn drugged, I’d be surprised if anything woke her up. Naw, we’re fine. Sit your ass down.”

  The chair moved and I tensed.

  “I’m just going to check. Maybe your needle dick wouldn’t wake her up, but I just want to make sure she’s still asleep.”

  “Asshole,” needle dick muttered under his breath. “Just don’t touch her. You know as well as I do what the boss would do to us if something happened to her. He wants her for himself. Asshole has a thing about barely-legal virgins, I guess.”

  “She’s not a virgin.” The second man retorted. “Did you see those tits?”

  My face flamed and I hugged the blanket tighter around me. The thought that these assholes could have seen any part of me naked pissed me off.

  Use your anger.

  I heard footsteps coming towards me. Most girls my age would run. They’d get as fucking far away from there as possible and just hope that they could make it out the front door without getting caught, but not met. I wasn’t taught to run from bad guys.

  Bad guys ran from me.

  I dropped the blanket to the floor in a soft whoosh. Cool air made my skin prickle into goosebumps, but I ignored it. I’d be hot soon enough.

  The smoker was so close that I could practically feel him around the corner, but I forced myself to wait one more second. As soon as he turned the corner, I launched myself into the air, wrapping my legs around his waist as I took him to the ground. He went down with a thunk and a shriek, but a quick punch to the throat made that sound stop.

  It was replaced with a thick, wet gagging sound.

  I launched off of him and turned, kicking him squarely in the ribs and then in the side of the face before turning to look at the other two men. They were both stuck to their chairs like they couldn’t quite believe what they had just seen.

  Perfect.

  One of them stood, but I crossed the room faster than he could get on his feet. Not having any bulky or loose clothes on made it easy for me to grab a chair from the table and swing it over my head, bringing it down hard on top of him.

  He crumpled to the floor, but I knew that he wasn’t really out for the count. Didn’t matter. What mattered was making sure that the next asshole didn’t get on his feet.

  He screamed and I saw him reach for his hip. If he got his gun out and pointed at me then I was really and truly fucked, but I had no intention of letting that happen. I kicked for him, my heel colliding with his cheekbone hard enough for me to hear the crack.

  He fell out of his chair with a loud thud and his gun spun across the floor. Launching myself over the table, I slid across the floor for the gun. The three assholes were all on the ground, none of them in any shape to try to stop me.

  I grabbed it, the grip cool in my hand and turned, pointing at all three of them in turn while I decided which asshole to shoot first.

  Before I could, though, there was movement from the hall. I sat up and pointed the gun, my finger already squeezing the trigger.

  “Who the fuck are you?” I cried out. My heart pounded in my chest, even though I was taking deep breaths to try to calm it down. “Show yourself!”

  Nothing prepared me for the man who peered around the corner at me. He was tall and broad, with wide shoulders that were so hard and muscled I could see him popping through his t-shirt. His mouth was set in a firm line and his strong jaw was begging for someone to kiss it.

  Fuck, I wasn’t sure where that thought came from, but I couldn’t deny the fact that there was something about that man that made me want him.

  Just like his mouth, his eyes were hard. They darted around the room, taking in the damage and the three moaning assholes before he determined that they weren’t a threat and he looked back at me.

  I allowed my gaze to slide down his body, taking in the way his abs twisted and turned as he looked around, how the muscles in his forearms twitched as he decided whether or not to shoot someone.

  His dark hair was short, but still long enough for me to easily run my fingers through it.

  I shook my head. I didn’t know if this was the boss the assholes had been talking about. I had no idea if he was here to finish the job and I was thinking about cozying up to him and running my hands through his hair? Kissing his jaw? Feeling his hands slide down my body.

  Fuck.

  I had to stop that train of thought before he picked up on what I was thinking about. Even though I made my face as stony and unfriendly as possible, I had a really good feeling that he was thinking the same things that I was.

  His eyes roamed over my body and I felt myself start to react to him. There was something about the way he stood, staring at me, even though it only lasted a few seconds, that made me shiver. I felt my nipples harden and heat and desire pool between my legs.

  “Who the fuck are you?” I stood up, the gun still pointed right at his chest. Someone appeared behind him, but I didn’t flinch. I didn’t look away from the first guy’s face.

  “Nicolo. I’m here to save you, Isabella. You need to come with us.” He actually twitched the gun at me like he thought that it was going to be enough for me to suddenly follow him out of the house.

  Fat fucking chance.

  I arched an eyebrow at him and tried to forget that I was practically naked. My tank top had gotten pulled up when I vaulted over the table and landed on the floor, but I didn’t want to adjust it right then. I was willing to let him look at my stomach if that was what it took to keep him from realizing that I was as big of a threat as he was.

  “I don’t go anywhere with strangers.” I’d relaxed my pressure on the trigger a bit, but I still felt the cool metal pressing into my skin. It would have been so easy to shoot him and his little friend and get the fuck out of there.

  Yeah, except I didn’t really know where there was.

  “Your dad hired me. We’re…” he paused and my mind automatically tried to fill in the blanks of what he was going to say.

  Friends? Neighbors?

  “Business associates,” he said simply, letting the word hang in the air between us without any more information.

  Business associates. Yeah, that explained a few things. It explained why he looked like he walked right out of a mafia movie, why he was absolutely covered in muscles, why he had a suppressor on his gun that looked like it cost more than my new computer.

  It also explained why he suddenly turned and fired three shots into the heads of the assholes on the floor. I jumped back by reflex, but the
blood pooling on the floor wasn’t going to come anywhere near my bare feet.

  The man chuckled. “Listen, Isabella, you can fight it all you want, but I’m your best chance at getting the fuck out of here.”

  “I’m just fine,” I snapped, but as soon as the words were out of my mouth, we heard footsteps in the hall.

  “Fuck,” Nicolo said, turning and dropping down to the ground in one fluid movement. His friend darted behind him into the kitchen, his back to me, crouching down so that he had a clear shot down the hall.

  A volley of bullets rained down the hall, some of them imbedding themselves in the drywall, others flying into the kitchen. I ducked, throwing my hands over my head and ran for it. Those two idiots could sit by and get shot at all they wanted, but I wasn’t about to stand there and get some new holes put in me.

  There was a door on the other side of the kitchen, and even though I didn’t know where it led to, that wasn’t going to stop me or slow me down. I ran for it, my head ducked down, pulling my tank top down around my stomach. As soon as I grabbed the handle, someone yelled my name, but I wasn’t sticking around to see who it was.

  I was out of there.

  Something slammed into my shoulder as I opened the door and I fell through it, barely catching myself on my hands as I landed. The gun skittered away from me across the floor and blood started leaking onto the floor.

  Pain thot through my body, and I knew that it was only the adrenaline coursing through my veins that kept me focused and able to think. I also knew that if I stayed down, I was fucked. I had to use the adrenaline while I had it and try to get the fuck away.

  I wasn’t used to running for my life, but I was more than happy to let the assholes back in the kitchen take care of each other for me.

  “Asshole shot me!” I yelled, more to myself than to anyone else, then gritted my teeth and pushed off of the floor. Red hot pain seared through my shoulder and I screamed, dropping back down to my knees for a moment while I gathered my strength.

  If I just sat there, then I was going to die. That’s all there was to it. Gathering every ounce of strength that I had, I pushed myself up with my good arm and took off through the living room. A back window was cracked for fresh air, and that was where I headed, throwing my weight under it and standing up to force it open.

  It squeaked open, barely wide enough for a cat to get through. “Fuck!” I screamed, slamming my good shoulder into it again. This time it opened more and I pushed the screen out, taking one last look around the room before I ducked through it.

  There was still gunfire in the kitchen, and I knew that if I stuck around, it would probably make its way into the room with me, so I gritted my teeth, stuck one leg through the window, swung the other through so I was sitting on the sill, and jumped.

  Chapter 4

  Nicolo

  The fuck just happened?

  It was supposed to be a simple rescue, and we were led to believe that Isabella would still be passed out in bed, waiting on us to come and rescue her.

  Not crouched in the kitchen, almost naked, growling like a fucking feral animal.

  I couldn’t wipe the image from my mind. Her perky tits, her perfectly flat stomach…I didn’t get a chance to see her ass, but that didn’t mean anything. If the rest of her looked like that, then I had no doubts that I’d enjoy the view from behind just as much.

  I had a fuckton of questions that I wanted to ask her, like how the hell did you kick those guy’s asses? And what the fuck were you wearing?

  But most importantly I needed to figure out where the fuck she went.

  She’d obviously been hit by one of the assholes shooting down the hall and into the kitchen. He’d rushed us, and even though Freddy clipped him, the fucker kept coming. Luckily he didn’t get too much farther, but I heard her yell when she went down.

  Shot through the fucking shoulder. Most women would stay on the ground after that, so I didn’t think anything about looking away.

  But not her. Fucking Isabella got up and made a run for it. Breathing shallowly, I followed the drops of blood into the living room. Behind me I heard the muffled bangs as Freddy finished off the assholes who interrupted us.

  Yeah, there would be some major cleanup here later, but that wasn’t my job. I was on a recovery mission, and until I had Isabella with me and got her someplace safe, it didn’t matter the carnage I left in my wake.

  That was the thing about being on top. There were always people below you who were ready to lick your boots and do what you told them to do. They’d probably have to burn the fucking house to the ground to get rid of all of the blood but again, not my fucking problem.

  “She went out the fucking window! Fuck!” I kicked the wall hard enough to dent the drywall and leaned out the open window. It was cold outside and wind whipped around me, but I couldn’t see Isabella.

  “She was barefoot.” Freddy appeared at my side, frowning. “And almost naked, in case you didn’t notice. Combine that with getting shot and she’s not going to get very fucking far.”

  I glared at him. “Don’t think about her naked.”

  Yeah, right. It was practically all I could see whenever I blinked. Just Isabella, crouched on the floor, her sweet cunt and tits covered up by a thin piece of fabric. I shifted, reaching down to adjust my cock.

  “Okay. I’ll think about her barefoot, running through the streets looking like a fucking victim as she bleeds from her shoulder,” Freddy snapped. “We need to find her before someone else does.”

  “No fucking shit.” I slam the window shut in frustration. She must have been even smaller than I thought originally for her to be able to fit through that tiny space. There was no way that I could squeeze through after her, but that didn’t mean that I was giving up the chase.

  Not by a long fucking shot.

  “Let’s go,” I said to Freddy, storming back into the kitchen. “Call Ricky, let him know that we need a full clean-up or a burn-down, and we’re going to go find her. Do you have kits in the truck?”

  One thing that we all have are our kits. They’re basically bug-out bags, but since we’re not preppers worried about the end of the world, they’re a bit more useful than that. Some food in case we get stuck away from home for a while, sure, but also extra ammo, knives, flashlights, rope, and handcuffs. They have satellite and burner phones, bolt cutters, lock picks, and a few extra goodies that I like to have on hand.

  Meds, some drugs to keep people quiet, that sort of thing. Nothing bad, but definitely stuff that you want to be on the right side of.

  “Of course.” Freddy answered me while dialing Ricky. Those phones would have to be destroyed after this mission, but it didn’t matter. We should have just bought stock in the fucking company for as many phones as we went through.

  He spoke to his brother and then slipped the phone back into his pocket before we went out the front door. I went first, my hand on my pistol, keeping an eye out as I walked down the front step. The neighbors weren’t so close that they would have heard gunshots, but you can’t ever put it past some asshole to be out walking his dog in the dark who would call it in.

  Everyone’s a threat.

  We crossed the street in a hurry and Freddy unlocked the truck for us to grab our bags. Mine slipped easily onto my back and I snapped the straps across my chest so that I could run. The last thing that I wanted was to be dealing with a bag when I need to grab Isabella and go.

  “Manhunt?” Freddy asked. He had his backpack on too, but had pulled his flashlight out and was shining it on the ground.

  I nodded. We all knew what manhunt meant. We needed to find her, as quickly as possible, without her knowing that we were coming. She didn’t still have the gun she pulled on me, which was good, but she’d managed to kick those guy’s asses before we got to her, so something was up with her.

  “Find her, subdue her, get her fuck out of here. Remember, she was shot in the shoulder, so be careful of it, but don’t be afraid to press there to ta
ke her down a few notches. She’s a hellcat, Freddy, and I don’t think that she’s going to come easily.”

  He nodded and we cut back across the street. Once we circled around the house we split up, him looping around the other side as I cut deeper into the woods. My little hellcat wouldn’t want to be around a lot of buildings and people.

  I had a very good feeling that she’d venture off into the woods to lick her wounds and try to feel better. That’s what I would do if I were in her situation, so I cut off across the grass. The moon was still high enough in the sky to cast enough light for pale shadows on the yard, and even though I had a flashlight in my hand, I didn’t want to have to use it unless necessary.

  Chances were good that she would figure out that I was coming for her, but I wanted to have the element of surprise, if possible. The last thing I wanted was for her to get spooked and run deeper into the woods.

  I knew from looking at a map before the job that the house backed up to a national forest. It was a smart move for them – easy disposal of bodies without having to go too far from the house – but not great for me.

  Not great for Isabella.

  Someone stupid would probably call out for her and hope that she would turn herself in, but I’d seen the look in her eyes. I knew her father, and I had no doubts in my mind that she was running for it.

  There was a path that led from the grass into the woods, and I followed it for a bit, finally switching on my flashlight when I couldn’t easily see any longer. I turned the beam to low and swept it across the path, looking for drops of blood.

  There. Not on the path, like I had hoped, but up against a tree trunk. It was obvious that she had leaned against it, at least for a moment, to catch her breath. What she didn’t know was that in doing so, she’d make it that much easier for me to track her.

  I scanned the area before switching off the flashlight again and cutting off from the path. Moving slower, I kept listening, hoping that I would hear a twig break, her swear. Something.