Page 2 of Merciless & Mated

I dared to turn over and sit on my knees. “You know, I don’t think I will.”

“You will if you know what’s good for you.”

“Well, I am just a stupid cunt,” I mocked. “But at least someone thinks I have value. No one’s ever going to pay for you, are they, little bootlicker? You probably do every single thing your boss tells you, don’t you? And I bet they don’t give a flying fuck if you die.”

If looks could kill, I’d have been meeting my maker.

I got to my feet and kicked the chain-link with the side of my foot. I was barefoot from when they had taken me, but I could make a little noise this way. “Go run back to your mommy and cry that the mean omega made fun of you. I’m sure you’ll find a very sympathetic ear.”

He whipped out his gun and pointed it at me through the chain-link, launching my heart into my throat, but one of the other men finally noticed us and hauled him away.

“The fuck are you doing? You can’t afford what she costs if you kill her.”

He shrugged the other man off and stomped away, yelling back that they should let him know once I had been delivered.

“Tell your mom I said hi!” I shouted after him. “Don’t forget to ask for your sticker!”

One of the traffickers came over and paused in front of me with his hands on his hips. “That mouth is going to get you killed.”

“I’ve been told that.”

He sighed and shook his head like he was a disappointed parent and not a criminal that ruined every life he touched. “If I give you something to eat, will you shut the fuck up?”

“Only if you give the other two ladies some food too, and more water.”

He shuffled away and returned a moment later with a handful of protein bars and three bottles of water he shoved through the chain-link at us. “Eat it and shut your mouth. We wouldn’t want you to have an accident on the way to delivery.”

I hoarded the new supplies like a little dragon, scarfing down a bar and sipping more slowly at my water. It was barely anything, but it was better than nothing. I couldn’t do much for the other ladies, but hopefully the food and water was some small comfort.

Tomorrow was my only chance for escape. No one was coming for me. My father didn’t have the resources for a search, and while he might be beloved in our community, I couldn’t afford to hold out hope they would rally and find me. I had to rely on myself. I was going to get the hell out of here or die trying.

CHAPTER 2

MARCO

“Marco, I have a job for you.” Bianca Gallo swept into my rooms without so much as a knock, a privilege of being the boss, I supposed. Everything here belonged to her and we served at her leisure.

“What kind of job?” I asked.

“The Mancinis offered me their daughter if I could get her back from her captors. If you can get her out, you can have her.”

I stared at her for a long moment. “Do we know where she’s being held?”

Bianca shrugged. “I imagine if her family could’ve found her themselves, they would’ve done so. Do you want her or not?”

I had grown plenty used to Bianca’s impatience, her need for impossible questions to be answered immediately. I could always reject the girl later, so for now I agreed. “I’ll take care of it.”

Bianca nodded decisively. “Good. Their family is beloved for their nauseating work with the poor in their district, so we might as well take advantage of their goodwill with the community and solidify a deeper alliance, even if they do insult me by thinking their daughter would be good enough for me.”

I read between those lines. The Mancini girl wasn’t good enough for Bianca, but she was good enough for me. Being near the top meant we could take on what Bianca found to be unsavory while still giving her the credit.

“I’m taking their restaurant as payment. They’re close enough to Rossi territory we can use it to run drugs through their kitchens, and I needed a new money-laundering front anyway. He was so desperate for our help that he promised anything I wanted.”

One thing I’d learned in my time serving Bianca was to never offer her anything she wanted or she’d take everything someone could offer just because.

I had grown up under the thumb of the Gallos, worked my way up to underboss, but Bianca didn’t give a shit about hierarchy behind closed doors and treated us all however she pleased. Her father, Darius, had been the opposite, enforcing harsh protocol with everyone, though they both ran this family with an iron fist, and I couldn’t decide whether he or his daughter might be worse.

Bianca’s power, while absolute on the south side of the river, had been coming under threat as of late. She needed to boost her resources to take on what we were all coming to see was a looming war. The dividing lines in the sand had been widening for years until it was painfully clear who was on top. Both the Gallos and the Rossis had been shoring up their alliances for decades, with the Gallos firmly holding south of the river and the Rossis controlling the north. The only real hold out was Romano territory, which spanned both sides of the river to the east and controlled one of the bridges. The only way for the Rossis or Gallos to expand their empires was into the territory of the other. I only wondered how long it would take for us to hit a boiling point and spill into war.

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