Page 169 of My Mafia Queen

Cold like my gun, I look around.

Propped against the wall with a fresh wound on his shoulder and blood splattered over his face, Damaso cracks a smile.

“Good job,gattino,” he says, while all I care about is that he’s not mad at me because I came back.

“Is Vito okay?” I ask, looking at his right-hand man.

“We’re all good.”

He pulls up and helps Vito up.

“Anyone else in the house?” Damaso asks, grabbing a kitchen towel and wiping the blood off his face.

“Uh, yes. I need to check,” I say, moving toward the door. “Did you find Tina?”

“Yeah. We got her. She’s good. She’s with my doctor.”

I stop.

“Doctor?”

“Long story. She’s fine now.”

“Are you sure?”

“We’ll go see her, “ he says. “But first, I need to make some calls to clean the house. Phone?” he says, stretching his hand out and looking at Vito. “Mine has a bullet in it,” Damaso explains.

Vito fishes out his phone.

“Go,” he says, looking at me while tapping the phone and pressing it to his ear. His focus goes to the person he is talking to. “I need the cleaning crew. Uh-huh… The golden package,” he says, whatever that means.

He’s still talking in the kitchen as I go upstairs.

I fear the worst, and my fears are justified when, after checking every room, I finally find Jen passed out in one of them.

The good news is that she is alive.

The bad news is that she’s naked and lying on a bed, covered in bruises.

Tears prick my eyes, and the little guilt I had for putting Anthony out magically disappears.

I wish I did the same to the other two guys who forced their dicks into her.

32

CARMINA

A week later

Her childhood place

“And this,”Damaso says. “And this,” he adds, while my father turns the page and signs on every dotted line Damaso points to.

My father’s face is unreadable as he basically agrees to hand my little sister over to me for a good chunk of money.

It’s like he’s waited his entire life for this opportunity.

In his head, we’ve always been two growing liabilities. Kids who needed to be fed and clothed and sent to school.

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