Paid In Full: Escaping The Mafia King

ia and traded me to Dante Moretti, New York

tead of letting me go, he locked me in

risoner in a

aded me in heavy diamonds, and brutally

ess eventually betrayed me, selling me

entire warehouse of m

s trembling as he touched my bruised

t make me feel safe; it

m. I was just collateral. A pet

n blackout, I ran into the free

had a new name and

gallery with graying hair and begging me to come

elope containing every cen

. I don't want your money, and

pte

rete. His finger, quivering with the palsy of his terror, rose in my direction; he was offering my body to

hick, reeking of damp metal an

serrated plastic of a zip tie cu

a man who had raised me with a heavy hand and a colder heart-was now weeping like a blubbering child. He

im was a statue against

tself, commanding fear throughout the city. Just last month, he had orche

lence dressed in a cust

forgot their function. His eyes were the color of a churni

eemed to shrink the space around me, his shadow

eat of his body, carrying with it the scent of expen

my jaw. His grip was unyielding, a band of iron. He tilt

my skin until a dull ache spread through the bone. He studied my f

and wretched whine. "She is a virgin. She is untouched. You

and the metallic burn of bile rose to the bac

n. His rough thumb brushed over my quivering lower lip. The touch wa

s past the thickening knot in my d

a muscle worked itself in

a breath's distance from my ear.

that sent a shudder I could not sup

a single, economical movement, Dante pulled a pistol of p

Carlo's head without a

bt is s

t the edge of my vision. But instead of a shot, the gun barrel lowered. As Carlo's forehead met the floorboard

lization of my new reality a phy

d touched

my shoulders hitched upwards in a s

her man-younger, with eyes of

u

eone I had seen, but never marked, at

the tie had carved into my wrists. His hand made a slight, aborted movement toward his pocket, but

e sound was nearly lost in the vastness of the sp

is futile promise, Dante's voice cut through

Luca. You do not t

s head dipped in a gesture of s

nce more. He looked at my red, chafed

of steel, he severed the plastic tie, only to replace its bite with h

to the Fam

the exit, leaving what was left of my pas