Page 37 of Mafia King's Surprise Baby

The place is packed, but it’s not hard to spot Abrashi with his back to us, seated at a blackjack table.

We amble up to him. Mattia grabs his collar and pushes him into the chair.

“Ardian, my man,” he hollers, as if all’s right between us and him. He’s slurring a bit on purpose, too. “Got a surprise for you tonight.”

I nod at the croupier. “Whatever his stake, I’ll cover it.”

Everyone knows who I am, the heir to Don Eduardo Pellegrini, and that I’m good for my word.

Mattia hauls Abrashi out of his seat. “Come on. Let’s party!”

Abrashi is surprisingly silent all the way to the car. Mattia slides with him into the back seat as I settle behind the wheel. He must’ve snuck a bottle of vodka from the bar at the den becauseI don’t keep liquor in my car. He opens it, a little sloshing on my seats. I wince. He’ll pay for the cleaning, but we have bigger fish to fry at the moment.

I have a plan in mind, and for this, I drive us to one of my restaurants, in Hell’s Kitchen. It’s always good to have a front, and I’m a man who likes his food and doesn’t hide it. So what better way to build my operations around a string of eateries all over New York? I find struggling but brilliant chefs, offer to finance their own place, and in return, they give me their loyalty and turn a blind eye when I need them to.

Vince’s, where I asked Bianca to meet me, is one such place. My hands clench on the steering wheel when I recall that encounter. The feel of her in my arms, pressed to my body as I pushed her against the wall, my finger delving into her hot, wet pussy, the taste of her…

I inhale sharply and snap out of my thoughts. I can’t lose the plot right now. If I think of Bianca too hard, that’s exactly what will happen.

I reach the restaurant, conveniently closed for renovations. There are no cameras around, and no one is crazy enough to try and attack my place. I pay the gang leaders in the area enough money for them to steer clear of my piece of their territory.

“Wha-what’s going on?” Abrashi asks as Mattia and I get out, and I haul him out of the car.

“You’ll get your chance to speak,” I tell him, pushing him inside the kitchens.

Mattia finds a chair; I plonk my charge onto it.

“Where’s Bianca?” Mattia asks.

Fuck! Too soon. Doesn’t thecazzoknow anything about interrogation techniques?

His eyes are wild, though, and I give him another minute before he starts frothing at the mouth with anger and frustration. Of course he’s losing it. It’s his sister we’re talking about here—he was supposed to protect her. Instead, he all but shoved her into a famished and fucked-up lion’s den, completely defenseless.

I place a hand on my best friend’s shoulder. “Let me handle this, okay?”

He nods, turning his back to us, cursing in a string of Italian and English.

Fuck. He’s totally showing our hand here. I’m losing all the leverage I could bring with every second that passes.

Might as well just get on with it.

“You heard him,” I state. “Where’s Bianca?”

Abrashi has the balls to smile. “I hear my dear fiancée has gone missing.”

“She hasn’t. Because you have her.”

He shrugs. “Maybe I do. Maybe I don’t.”

“Stop playing games!” Mattia yells, stalking back to us.

I stop him with an arm braced on his chest.

Abrashi laughs, knowing he’s got us by the balls.

I wonder if he knows how muchweknow about him. I’d already decided I wouldn’t lay a fist on him tonight—it would hurt my plan if I had to go all the way. The monster in my blood was told to take a backseat by the cold, calculating one in my head. So I need to change tact, hit him where it really hurt using only my words.

I look at Mattia. We exchange a glance, and I know he’ll follow me into the bowels of Hell to get Bianca back.

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