Page 56 of Taken by the Mafia King (Kings of Philly #1)

SERA

“ N o,” Delaney pleaded, trying to tug her wrist free from my grasp.

We faced the closed door of Killian’s office. Male voices came from the other side, muffled and unintelligible.

“We must,” I said.

“No,” she said again. “I’ll go back to my room. I’ll be good. I swear. Just don’t make me go back to the basement.”

“You deserve answers. He can’t keep you like this. Be brave, Delaney. For your father.”

Her bottom lip trembled, but she lifted her chin at the mention of her father, and I saw a devoted daughter in her watery gaze. I saw myself. At least, the version of myself that used to exist.

She nodded, and that was all the permission I needed.

I shoved the door to Killian’s office open so hard it bounced off the wall.

Eight men dressed in fine Italian suits stood around the room.

Killian’s back was to me from his spot in front of the fireplace.

He didn’t turn to look at the disturbance, but every other head in the room whipped toward me.

Delaney hovered over the threshold, her bravery only letting her get so far.

“Killian,” I said.

The men turned to look at him.

Killian’s shoulders rolled like he was shrugging off irritation. He turned his head to the side, the light of the fire casting his profile into shadow. If he was surprised to see me he didn’t show it.

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and saw Francesco and Mikey kick off the far wall lined with windows where they’d been causally perched. Even Tommaso moved toward us, although a bit slower than his comrades.

I stalked forward, looking each man in the eye as I placed myself in the center of the semi-circle they’d formed around the Hand of Death.

Then I dropped the finger down on the coffee table. It didn’t quite have the dramatic effect I was going for. A severed finger hitting a surface didn’t make much noise. The ring around the digit clanged, though, and all eyes shifted to the finger, except for Killian’s.

He finally turned to face me, looking bored.

Someone behind me risked a chuckle but was quickly and nervously shushed by a few of the men standing around us, watching like they were at a soccer match.

“What is this?” I asked, even though I knew the answer. Killian only narrowed his eyes at me. “ What is this ?” I repeated through gritted teeth.

Delaney’s whimpering broke into sobs, which caused a flurry of uncomfortable movement in the room. These men could claim lives, hold people prisoner, and cut off fingers—among other worse things, I assumed—but they couldn’t stomach a girl crying?

I wanted to scream at them all.

“Get Lombardi out of here,” Killian said with cool, dry calm.

In an instant, Delaney’s cries were silenced.

I didn’t look over my shoulder to see who had escorted her out of the room or where she’d been taken.

I kept my eyes on Killian, knowing he could read the expression on my face through and through.

He stepped forward. “Come with me.” He expected me to flinch and step out of his way but I stood my ground.

Grabbing my arm, he yanked me toward the door and dragged me into the hallway, my bare heels gliding over his freshly waxed floors.

The door slammed shut, and in a split second he had me pinned against the wall.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Do you know who was in that room?”

“Let me guess,” I sneered, nose to nose with my captor. “More men like you .”

“Men I need on my side. And your schemes are growing tiresome, Sera.”

“You think I’m the one scheming? I was upstairs enjoying a nice, quiet breakfast with Olivia when Delaney came into the room with her father’s finger in her hand! Oh, and also, she had a gun! What the hell is going on?”

He pressed me against the wall even harder, our bodies practically meshing together. I was too pissed off to notice if it turned me on.

“You forget who you’re talking to.”

“You talk about keeping me safe all the time. Saying I’ll have a target on my back if I walk outside those gates, when in reality, you have a deranged woman living a few doors down from me that cannot be contained.

She will smother me in my fucking sleep, Killian.

What is your plan with her? And why have you not told her the truth? ”

“You’re not privy to that information,” he hissed, heat radiating from his body. “And being allowed to freely move about my home is a privilege, not a fucking right. You’d best remember that.”

“Tell her,” I snapped, shoving against him, but he didn’t move an inch. “Before she kills one of us, Killian. Whoever she was before the auction is gone, and now she’s wandering the house with her dead father’s finger!”

“What would you have me do, Sera? Kill her? Do to her what I did to her father?”

I found it hard to breathe as he pressed into me, his arm locked over my chest.

“Do you think she’s the first person who’s lost her mind in this house? She’s not. And you’d be wise to ignore her, and let it be. It’s none of your concern.”

I shoved him hard again and he backed up a step, but only because he wanted to.

“Go back to your room.” His hard eyes glared at me, and a chill went down my spine as I remembered who he was.

“This is wrong. She believes her father is alive and coming for her.”

“Like you, her father is the reason she’s here in the first place.”

His words stung, but I ignored them. “Unlike me,” I hissed, pointing a finger at him, “you bought her, Killian. This mess is your responsibility to clean up!”

Pure death flashed behind his eyes at my tone. I relished in it, my mouth curving into a smile as he looked me up and down and growled through gritted teeth. “Get the fuck out of my sight.”

“My pleasure,” I said.

I turned on my heel and stalked toward the stairs. He shouted for Mikey to follow me, but I was already halfway up the staircase when I heard Mikey’s frantic footsteps in the foyer.

“Well, well, well,” came a lifted female voice in front of me.

Menthol-laced smoke burned my eyes. When it cleared, Killian’s mother, dressed in red, stepped toward me as I came to a halt on the second-to-last stair.

She looked me up and down, her thin, red-painted lips thinning even more as they pressed into a fine line of calculated distaste.

“I can’t believe you’re still alive, Bianchi. ”

Eyes as pale blue as Killian’s sized me up, her cherry red lips curving into a cat-like smile around a cigarette when she met my gaze.

Her stare felt more dangerous than the loaded gun Delaney had burst into my room carrying.

More dangerous than Killian’s rage. I attempted to move past her but she blocked my path and remained perched at the top of the stairs like a predatory bird. And I was the mouse.

Killian’s mother was up to something.