NICO: A Mafia Bad Boy Romance (Claiming What's His Book 2) Read online

  NICO: A Mafia Bad Boy Romance

  By:

  Evie Adams

  Copyright Evie Adams 2016

  Copyright Cover images are as follows:

  Cover design by Evie Adams

  This book is a work of fiction. All the characters in this book are fictitious and any similarity to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidence.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Table of Contents

  Author’s Note

  Dedication

  ---

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  EPILOGUE

  LUCA

  MARCUS

  ---

  About the Author

  More From Evie Adams

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  If you want more Mafia Bad Boys:

  MARCUS : A Mafia Bad Boy Romance

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  The Actress and the Captain : An Arranged Marriage Historical Romance

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  “A hundred wagonloads of thoughts won’t pay one ounce of debt.”

  --Italian Proverb

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  PROLOGUE - NICO

  I smelled her before I heard her. Her icy cool citrus scent woke me. That silvery, musical voice filled with menace followed.

  "Nico, wake up. It's time to go for a ride."

  It was Jenny. Finally.

  I hadn't left the cell in two weeks. For a while they would take me out almost daily for a ride, let me think they were going to kill me, then return me safely to my cell.

  I didn't know why they hadn't killed me yet.

  They should have done it already.

  I would have done it already.

  But this Markov family, they seemed to play by different rules.

  They weren't us.

  They didn't play by our rules. Tradition, loyalty, respect. Those were our rules. It didn't seem like they had any.

  A woman could never rule one of our families. But for them a woman could. It didn't seem right, it didn't seem like a woman could be cruel and ruthless enough to be a boss. But maybe we had never given them enough credit.

  Maybe we didn't have one like Evgenia. 'Jenny' she liked to be called. With her platinum blond hair pulled back tightly behind her pale face, she almost glowed in the darkness of the cell.

  Her father was either dead or dying and she ruled for him. If she hadn't killed her two brothers already, maybe it would be one of them ruling.

  That showed leadership. She moved to take out her rivals before they did. They probably didn’t even consider her a rival. A huge mistake. They were weaker than her, spoiled and entitled sons. She was the forgotten daughter, the unexpected surprise. And they never saw her coming.

  She showed them.

  She was ruthless, but she was reckless too. Often she came to my cell alone. Close enough for me to get my hands around her neck but I never tried.

  Not yet.

  “I haven't been taken for a ride in days. I missed our little rides.” I told her.

  She said nothing in reply, only a smile and she turned away.

  After half a dozen of these rides I wanted them to go through with it. I couldn't stand the waiting. I couldn't stand the car ride. I couldn't stand returning to my cell, only to wait again.

  But that was the point. Mental torture. Let me break myself thinking and worrying. It was her idea I'm sure.

  And it worked.

  I no longer feared these rides. I welcomed them. I looked forward to them. I wanted to know what the ending would be. Would they ever go through with it or just keep this farce up?

  I didn't care. The fight was out of me.

  A name less gorilla opened the door and grabbed me, pulled me up to my feet. He was large and hairy and grunted more than he spoke. He breathed loudly through his nose and held me up in front of Jenny.

  She traced her hand across my cheek then down my stomach, "You need to eat more," she said as she scratched my stomach, lean from eating whatever scraps they gave me.

  Her hand went further down into my pants and she held me.

  Her hands were ice, just like the rest of her.

  I wanted to stop myself but the body can’t be argued with, it will do what comes natural to it, especially that part of the body. Especially when I hadn't touched a woman in months. The body betrays.

  "It's a shame to waste this," she said as I grew in her hand.

  I looked away. I reminded myself this was another trick, another mental game like the car rides that bring me back to this cell.

  She released me and spoke to the gorilla behind me in whatever language they spoke. Something rough, guttural, something that didn't bring out her musical voice the way English did.

  I walked between them with my hands cuffed behind me out to the car.

  A different car this time. Not the black car with tinted windows, the one that reminded me of a hearse.

  The gorilla sat me in the back without a word and Jenny swept herself in beside me. The gorilla grunted as he sat behind the wheel then started driving.

  This was also a change. Usually I sat in front, the passenger seat, and someone sat behind me. Sometimes I imagined the cold steel on my neck, other times the wire being placed over my neck, but this time there was no one in back of me, none of the usual endings to imagine.

  Jenny broke the silence, "My father rejected the last attempt at peace. Your family offered quite a bit but the old man thought it wasn't good enough.” She spoke to the air in front of her then she turned to me, “And it wasn't. You're worth more. But your family is in ruins, defeated, broken up. There just isn't enough to offer."

  “If you think I'm going to beg you're wrong.”

  “You haven't begged yet. That's why you're still alive. But I'm sorry to say my boss no longer has any use for you.”

  "Everyone knows your voice is the old man's voice."

  She laughed and looked away. "That was true but you've been down there for a long time. My father has made a miraculous recovery and I no longer speak for him." She put her hand on my thigh and leaned in close to me, "That puts you in a very bad position. You're no longer a bargaining chip. So, we must
say good bye. If I was in charge it would not be like this," she apologized. She closed her eyes slowly, batting her lashes and planted a soft wet kiss on my cheek. A spider playing with its food.

  “Maybe it's time for you to be in charge then.” I told her.

  She backed away and yelled something at the gorilla, a short command, and he pulled the car over and took me out of the back seat again.

  We were near the water and the breeze coming off it felt amazing. Cold and fresh. The water was black, broken by silver ripples of moonlight.

  I took a deep breath and felt if this was the last thing I ever saw, that would be alright.

  The gorilla held me upright, Jenny removed a small silver pistol from her purse that glinted in the moonlight and was icy cold when she pressed it against my temple.

  I closed my eyes and felt the cold of the metal against me. I tasted the metallic adrenalin taste of pennies in my mouth. I felt the cold barrel of the gun against me, then it moved, then it pressed against me again. The waiting, the anticipation, the feeling each breath was my last overwhelmed me. These feelings I thought I had strangled, they came back. I wanted to live. The hesitations drove me crazy.

  “Just fucking do it,” I said.

  Then I heard the shot. I felt the warm blood on my back and was surprised by it. The sound and the sensations should have left me along with the bullet going through my head.

  But it wasn't me who was hit.

  The gorilla grunted and leaned into me, gasping and sucking in air and bleeding onto me as he fell to the ground.

  Jenny turned me towards her and kissed me, her soft lips pressed against mine. I was shocked, already dead.

  She pulled away. “Now you have a debt to me. I'll see you again Nico.”

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  CHAPTER 1 - MINA

  Death had come to visit and it was late.

  Big black cars with tinted windows brought death with them more often than not. They looked like hearses but even when they were just big Cadillacs, like these were, I feared them.

  Three of them pulled into the parking lot of my club while Benny and I were cleaning up the bar and dance floor, getting ready to open for the night.

  “Benny, why don't you go out the back. This doesn't concern you.”

  “I can't run out on you Mina.”

  He looked at me with those big brown eyes. They were either unquestioningly loyal, like a dog, or completely dumb like a cow. Maybe both. “Go hide then and don't come out until I get you. Nobody else.”

  He was just a handyman, he fixed the lights, the floors, the bathrooms, and whatever else needed fixing but he showed up to help me clean and open even when nothing needed fixing. It was very sweet of him.

  I tried to help him with his contracting business by showing him how I ran the club. He was a quick learner and I was almost ready to take a night off and see how he could do with it.

  The men in the black cars didn't bother to knock, they came right in.

  "Your rent is late." One of them said as soon as he walked in. They wore loose, poor-fitting suits. They weren't anybody special, just goons. Enforcers.

  Nothing to be afraid of. "What rent?" I asked.

  "Don't play stupid." He walked around the bar, puffing out his chest, looking at the bottles on the wall.

  “My problem is I used to pay one rent. To the Manetti's. Now I have three different families coming around saying I owe them rent. I'll tell you the same thing I tell them. I'll pay one rent but not three. Once Nico comes around and tells me to pay someone else, then I'll do it but not before. This is something you guys have to sort out for yourselves.”

  “Nico's been gone for a long time.”

  “I know but that's not my problem.” I argued.

  “It is now.” A voice came from the back. He wore a dark tailored suit that fit him perfectly as he walked towards me. Those dark eyes, glowing like coals focused on me, pinned me to wall like a butterfly under glass.

  “I thought you were dead.” The words escaped my mouth, I should never have said it out loud. I hadn't said it out loud for the months I had thought it. Saying it out loud would make it true.

  “Even if I were dead, you would still have a debt to me and my family. And I would still come to collect.” He said, inches from me now.

  I turned away before his gaze pierced me and before I hugged him in relief. I was glad he was safe, even though I had never said it out loud I was sure he was dead. I had mourned and believed it. The shock of him before me, alive, made my stomach flip. His face was thinner, lean and sinewy. Before he left, he had started to gain some weight, become almost puffy and bloated, almost like all these others.

  But the careless person he was only a few months ago, growing fat and lazy and content, seemed to have died wherever he was these last few months.

  The new Nico looked like the skinny boy again, except his face was hardened and mean and the eyes almost hollow and lifeless. He always made threats but they were boyish threats. It seemed like an act, like he was playing a part and not yet completely comfortable with it. Acting tough because he had to, because it was expected of him.

  The new Nico seemed more ruthless, his words had more meaning. They weren’t a boast, they were a promise.

  I busied myself wiping down the bar with a wet sponge rather than look him in those eyes. “Of course, I'll have an envelope for you today. I'm glad you're back.”

  “Are you?” He turned me towards him.

  “Yes.” I told him and didn’t look away this time. Something in his face changed, his heavy eyelids flew up, a relief, a surprise, I’m not sure.

  His voice softened, almost a question instead of an order, “You have a manager, someone to run this place for you if you're gone?”

  “I'm here everyday. I don't think it can run without me.”

  “I thought that about my family but I was wrong too. Few of us are as indispensable as we like to think. I'm taking you with me. I’ll send someone to look after the place for you.”

  “But I can't. We're just about to open,” I pleaded as he grabbed my wrists together and began leading me out. I screamed when he pulled me hard towards him and almost fell.

  “Get your hands off her,” yelled Benny from the door. He didn't hide himself very well but dogs and cows never do.

  “Benny it's alright, you open up today. You know how. I think Nico and I just need to talk. That's all.” He was confused, he wanted to save me and didn't understand I was the one trying to save him.

  Nico let my wrists go and walked straight towards Benny, his shoes pounding the floor. But Benny never wavered, he stood his ground, squeezed his lips together and was completely unprepared for Nico's open-hand punch that knocked him back and collapsed him like a bag of potatoes.

  I ran over and pushed Nico out of the way, “What did you do that for?” I yelled at Nico.

  “For you,” Benny spoke, opening his eyes.

  “I know, I'm sorry.” I held his hand.

  “Bring her to the car.” Nico said and walked away.

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  CHAPTER 2 - NICO

  'I thought you were dead'.

  It was the trembling way it spilled from her lips, the way her eyes showed relief and gratitude. Nobody else had said it in quite that way. No one else had actually been happy I was alive.

  I didn't want to correct her. To tell her that I was dead, many times, half a dozen times at least.

  I hadn't planned to take her. I had planned to collect my rent, that was all. But the relief I felt near her, the care I saw in her eyes put me at ease. It forced me to let down my guard just for a second, the first time since I had been back that I felt normal, even if only for a second.

  I shouldn't have hit that guy. He was harmless. But he spoke to me, ordered me when I was in that moment of peace, popped the bubble surrounding me, and the rage came out with it. He hadn't done anything but no
thing was enough to set me off. The anger was harder to control since I came back. It felt like I couldn't control the violence and the only reason I stopped when he hit the floor was Mina there, yelling at me.

  I needed to get this under control.

  I couldn't accomplish what I wanted to, what I needed to with that monster inside me always trying to claw its way out.

  Mina seemed to help so that's why I took her and brought her here, a few hours north of the city.

  The property here used to be a club for the rich and elite of New York a generation ago. Now it was a clubhouse for gangsters getting away from the city.

  But I had plans for it and for Mina.

  We sat in the restaurant, what used to be a ballroom. It was almost empty, only a few of my men playing cards and laughing too loud and scaring away any decent customers.

  Aldo sat next to me eating something that looked disgusting and smelled worse. “What are you eating?” I asked him.

  “Babalucci,” he answered. “I have some before every job that I might not comeback from. Remember that thing I have to do this afternoon?”

  “Yes.” Babalucci was snails. Sometimes they were cooked, sometimes they were raw. As kids we dared each other to try it and Aldo was the only one dumb enough to ever do it.

  “Any word from Tess?” I asked him to change the subject. He was my top lieutenant. His father was my father's top lieutenant and we grew up both knowing what our adult roles would be.

  “None.” He answered, sadly. “Either I was right and Marcelo took her or she wanted to be gone and she got gone. I'm looking but since you got taken, it's been hard to take care of everything.” His sister Tess was the one I was supposed to marry, when she went missing I went after her and was caught by the Markovs in my carelessness. I had rushed out trying to find her and it got me in trouble.

  Why the Markovs took me was easy, they wanted money.

  Why Jenny had let me go, for nothing in return; hat was a mystery I could not explain. Though as I familiarized myself with my family's business, I could begin to guess at her reasons.