Page 31 of Taken by the Mafia King (Kings of Philly #1)

SERA

I ’d lost track of time.

I wasn’t sure what day it was when I woke from a restless, dreamless sleep the day after Killian kissed me in his office. My toes curled over the soft, creamy carpet as I got out of bed.

It was early enough that no one had come into my room with breakfast yet, so I padded into the bathroom for a scalding shower.

Pressing my hands to the dark tile, I closed my eyes as water beat down my neck and spine, my hair curling into thick, wet tendrils over my breasts.

I tried to get him out of my head. I thought of Emma, of my students, of my friends back home.

I even thought of Jim, but the content and safe space he once took up in my mind felt hollow now.

Instead, it had been encroached upon by the sharp, prickly, uneasy need I felt for my captor.

Everything with Jim had felt easy, if a little slow.

Killian was everything but easy. He burned me every time I got too close.

Cut me with just a look. Made a fool out of me with his wicked tongue. And yet I wanted him.

Regardless of the desire eating at me from the inside, I still contemplated escape. I’d had several chances now. Francesco’s admission of just how far I’d have to travel to find freedom was stuck in my head, playing over and over on repeat.

Eleven miles to Philadelphia, through the woods and God only knew what else.

I rested my forehead against the smooth, wet surface of the shower, closing my eyes.

My fingers twitched and curled as I imagined my hands were pressed against Killian’s chest. I imagined the hot water as nothing more than his heated, all-consuming touch on my bare skin.

I could picture him here, in front of me, naked and glistening with nothing but steam surrounding us as he pushed his body against mine and claimed me as his own.

Reaching down I slid my fingers through my aching center and shuddered.

My body lit up like a flame at the thought of him.

And a cool, icy chill racked my nerves at the thought of leaving him, if the opportunity ever arose.

I’d lost control of this situation. I’d been so willing to give up my body to Gabriele De Luca in order to survive.

Giving up my body to Killian was something born out of sheer, desperate need of a different kind, however.

My skin was beet red by the time I pulled myself out of the shower and slipped my arms through a robe. Steam billowed out behind me as I walked back into my room and paused as my toes hit the carpeted floor. I wasn’t alone.

“How is Tommaso?” I asked Olivia. She straightened her back, a smug look on her pretty face as she planted her hands on her hips. My hot skin shot up a degree in irritation. “Is he alive?”

“I’m great, thank you.” She chuckled with a roll of her eyes. “Thank you for asking, and you’re welcome for your breakfast.”

“Olivia,” I breathed, crossing the room to her side in four quick steps. “I’m serious. How is he?”

“Alive and well,” she said, taking the cloche off a plate of eggs, ham, and fruit. “Whereas you look like hell, Sera. You’ve lost weight.” Her eyes swept up and down the length of me, drowning in my silk robe. “Maybe you shouldn’t have said no every time you were offered food, hmm?”

“I haven’t been hungry for weeks,” I hissed, popping a piece of ham into my mouth while holding her gaze. “Not while everyone seems to be killing each other and getting hurt over me .”

“Over you?” She laughed. “Oh, Sera. Have some coffee. You’ve lost your mind.”

She wasn’t entirely wrong.

“I just don’t understand why I’m being kept here.” Trying to riddle that question out felt like banging my head on a brick wall over and over again. I kept asking it, and everyone kept sidestepping it. That, or they treated me like I was asking them if the sun came up every day.

“Sera.” She rolled her eyes again. “Do I need to remind you who your father is?”

I blanched and poured myself a cup of coffee, heavy on the cream and sugar.

She’d given me an implication, not an answer.

Obviously I knew who my father was. And obviously my last name and family legacy were why I was here.

I wanted the nitty gritty details behind the why.

Eventually, someone would answer me. I had to believe that.

Otherwise all that head banging on the wall would render me senseless and I’d become completely useless, and a much less interesting play thing to Killian.

Or not.

“I heard someone came here looking for their daughter.” Olivia’s statement seemed nonchalant.

“Was it my father?”

She eyed me warily for a moment before shrugging her shoulders. “I have no idea. I just know someone is here and the guys are all riled up about it.”

I exhaled deeply, then paced to a table by one of the windows with a view of the property grounds.

The landscaped gardens fanned out from the back of the house until they reached a dense and ominous-looking tree line.

Presumably the forest Francesco implied I’d have to run through in order to escape.

Not many people could afford to have full blown forests on their property in Pennsylvania.

But Killian? Well, it didn’t surprise me in the slightest that he wanted to be surrounded by shadow.

I sipped my coffee and watched Olivia over the rim. She had to know something. I knew she had full access to this house. I wondered briefly how she’d achieved that kind of trust with the Ricci family, and if she’d ever tell me about it.

She caught me staring. “I’m sorry. I really don’t know what else to say.”

“I just want to know why I’m here, why I’m still alive, and what Killian is waiting for. Why hasn’t he killed me yet?”

Why hasn’t he used me as Gabriele intended to? Why was I looking forward to it so much? And where the hell was my dad, and why was he taking so long to rescue me if he knew I was here?

“Maybe he likes you? I don’t know.” Olivia waved her hand in dismissal and chuckled to herself as she gathered up my discarded pajamas.

“You’re looking at this whole situation the wrong way, Sera.

If you were out on your own right now, you’d be dead already.

Buried in a shallow grave if you were lucky, but more likely dumped in a river somewhere. ”

“Thanks,” I hissed.

She shrugged. “You’re safe as long as you remain in the house.”

“So I’m supposed to stay here my entire life, or until Killian gets bored?”

Until he realized my father wasn’t coming for me?

“How did you get out of all of this in the first place? The Family , I mean?” she asked lightly.

The abrupt shift in conversation caught me off guard. I noticed the way Olivia broke from my gaze after asking the question, her cheeks going pink.

“I just left one day. I got into college and didn’t ask permission to go.

I just went. My dad sent men looking for me, but no one could convince me to come back.

Leo, my brother, was dead. My mother was dead.

I barely knew my father, especially after finding out what he really was.

I wasn’t his prized son, so when I made it clear I wasn’t returning home, he dropped it. ” At least, that’s what I’d assumed.

Olivia considered this, her eyes focused on the bloodstain no one could get out of the carpet after many attempts.

“What did you do to get thrown back into this mess?” she asked, and for a moment I wondered if she was asking me the question or herself.

“I don’t know,” I breathed, looking out the window. The admission made me feel vulnerable and na?ve.

Olivia must have thought so ,too, because she left without another word, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I sipped my coffee in silence, then moved back to the bed and curled up in a tight ball as my thoughts drifted back to Killian.

Why did the thought of my father coming to rescue me chill my blood, yet the thought of staying here with Killian made me feel like I had the world at my fingertips?

My dad rescuing me from this mess would come at a cost, one I couldn’t run from, just like this situation. He’d expect me to stay with him, be the doting daughter of a mafia boss. I’d be thrust back into the life I’d left years ago.

But he was my dad, my blood.

I said a quiet prayer for him, or for guidance, I wasn’t sure, and then closed my eyes again.