Page 134 of Cook

“I am here to offer a partnership,” said Massimo. His smile glinted in the light.

“Like I said, MC biz goes through the Prez. And where I come from, a gun to the skull doesn’t really constitute an offer.”

If I got Wilde involved, then I would be pulling Bou and everyone else into it. All the members and their ol’ ladies would get involved. This wasn’t going to be an everyday agreement.

If I was making a deal with the Mafia, I might as well have been trying to sell my soul for a fiddle—devil went down to Phoenix, in this case. I was no coward, but I had to do what I could to protect Maddie. If I brought Massimo to church, at least we would have our numbers and weapons.

They hadn’t ventured into our territory before, so this moving of firearms across the border must be really fucking important to them.

“Then we can take this message to him,” said Massimo. “And your club. Together.”

“Why would I do that?” I asked.

Massimo fluttered his dark eyelashes and then pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this.”

I braced for the gunshot.

It didn’t come.

That gave me enough of a pause to make the situation click. If they wanted me dead, they would’ve already killed me. But they didn’t, instead proposing a... partnership. Whatever the fuck that meant.

Massimo pulled something up on his cell phone and then pointed the screen to me. My breath caught in the back of my throat.

It was a video of my mom in a kitchen, but not her kitchen. She stirred a big pot of something, laughed, and chatted with someone off screen. Then the camera swung to the side and showed her serving a group of Mafia capos, all wearing matching dark suits with their rings on display on top of the mahogany table.

The place looked like a penthouse or some shit. Where the fuck was she?

I clenched my teeth shut as a growl rubbed the back of my throat. I swallowed it down, though I wanted to fight it out. I wanted to yell at them and grab the gun and shoot all these fuckers until it was only Massimo and me. Then I could torture him until he told me where my mother was.

Fuck, did they have Maddie too? I never should’ve let her leave the playroom alone. I should’ve fought how I suppressed the need to follow her. I should’ve gone with my gut and—

“I like that look on his face,” mused Snakes with a devilish smile.

Massimo sent him a fleeting look before turning back to me. “As you can see, your mother is being looked after. This video is from earlier tonight. She makes a mean spaghetti, if I do say so myself.”

My chest rumbled as I seethed.

The man continued, “We understand that she has some mental health concerns, so we have brought her medications too. My doctors will check in on her to make sure she’s well.”

He held out his hand for the phone. “We will continue to treat her well if you help us, Cook.”

I smashed the phone on the desk. “Where is Maddie?”

“Not here,” said Massimo with a nonchalant shrug. “Not there, either.”

“If you hurt her, I will fucking kill you.” The red tint around my vision returned.

Massimo waved me off. “I don’t have her.”

“I don’t believe you,” I snapped. “Where is she?”

Massimo shrugged. “She ran when she saw me.”

A snarl ripped from my lips. Maddie would recognize the Mafia.Of course she would run if she’d ever met him at that fucking club in LA.

Somehow, I doubted Massimo’s claim. He had tracked us here, but how? He looked far too comfortable behind Mercer’s desk. And as at home as Sloan Mercer had been... Ah, shit.

It all made sense. This place, like Enigma, also belonged to the Mafia, and Sloan had been passing all the information to Massimo.

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