Seized Mafia Bride by Mae Doyle

Lorenzo

Ijust poured myself a cup of coffee when my phone rings. Eyeballing it, I consider not answering, but I know full well that this is a conversation that’s going to have to happen.

Dane speaks before I even get a chance to say hello.

“What the fuck? Did you kidnap that girl last night, Lorenzo?” He’s breathing hard like he just ran a marathon and I wait a moment to make sure that he’d done being pissed before I respond.

“I saved her from her asshole ex who was going to kidnap her and then brought her here to keep her safe.” Taking a sip of my coffee, I wait for him to respond. He will. I know he will.

Brothers always have some shit to say to each other.

“And what’s your plan? You going to keep her and make her fall in love with you?”

“It works for the Bonannos,” I shoot back. “In fact, I bet that they might have some tips and tricks on how to keep her here and mine, what do you think?”

“I think that you’ve lost your goddamn mind,” he tells me. His voice is low enough that I’m sure that his wife is just in the other room and he doesn’t want her to hear what’s going on. “How the fuck you think that you’re going to keep her and not let it all fall apart at some point is beyond me.”

“Then thank fuck you bought your bride and didn’t have to worry about something like this,” I tell him, my voice calm. Dane can get high and mighty with me all he wants, but I don’t give a shit. “I’ve made my decision. Mia is mine.”

Silence for a moment, then he sighs. I know my brother well enough to picture him scrubbing his hand over his face like he’s honestly tired of everything and can’t seem to focus on what’s going on. “Your funeral, Lorenzo. Anyway, I wanted to give you a heads-up. We need you downtown.”

Even though he can’t see me, I shake my head. “Not my plan for the day, brother. I want to cozy up to Mia and get to know her a little bit better.”

“Tough. You’ll want to be here for this. Do you remember Taylor Hunt?”

Pausing, I search my memories for the person’s name. It’s been a long damn time since I heard it and I’m honestly surprised to hear anything about the man. He left town years ago, his tail between his legs, and we all honestly thought that we’d seen the last of him when he peaced out.

“Why the hell does a shitstain lawyer like him think that it’s a good idea to come back to town?” My coffee suddenly doesn’t taste good and I dump it in the sink while I wait for my brother’s response.

“That’s a fucking good question. From the sounds of it, he ran into some big money out west and decided to come back and try his luck again.”

“Try it how?” I’m already slipping my wallet and keys into my pocket. Sure, I want to stay here with Mia, but it sounds like Dane is right—we have other shit that we’re going to have to do today.

“He just bought a huge warehouse in the middle of downtown. You remember the mill building?”

“The one that shut down after a fire? Of course I do.” Turning, I grab my gun and slip it into its holster. I usually wear it around the house but hadn’t wanted to wear it in front of Mia and freak her out.

“That’s the one. He bought it and there’s some rumors on the street that he’s going to be running a shipping company out of it. Johnny’s doing his best to get all of the details, but people aren’t really willing to talk right now.”

Rolling my eyes, I head to the door. “I’m sure that Johnny will be more than persuasive. But what the fuck do we care about him running a shipping company? Sure, Taylor’s an utter asshole, but—”

He cuts me off. “Girls. Sounds like he’s going to be running a front to keep people in town happy and quiet and then moving the stuff that makes him the real money out the back under their noses. Sounds like we need to pay him a little visit and make sure that the rumors we’re hearing aren’t true.”

“Motherfucker.” Mia can’t possibly get out of the room I locked her in and there isn’t anyone who would come by to let her out, but I still set the alarm, pressing my hand against the pad by the door before leaving. In the garage, I slip into my car, still holding the phone against my ear while I think about what else to say.

“So you’re coming?” Dane asks, when he hears the sound of my car purr to life.

“I’m fucking coming. Don’t do anything stupid without me.” Mashing the button for the garage door to raise, I sit impatiently while I think about what this means for our town.

Taylor Hunt made his money helping assholes do illegal shit right under the cop’s noses. He won’t have wanted to stop, but why the fuck he thinks that he needs to come back to town and operate out of here is beyond me.

Something must have drawn him here. There’s no other reason. Sure, we’re situated near some larger cities and we have the interstate running right around us in all directions, making it easy to move goods, but that doesn’t make us special.

There are plenty of other places he could have chosen to operate out of.

There’s something else that would have made him want to come back and I need to figure out what the fuck it is. As soon as we know what drew him here, we can destroy it, destroy him, and then not have to worry about him pulling his shit around here.

My car eats up the road and in no time I’m pulling into the warehouse parking lot. Lightly touching my gun, I get out. We won’t need them here, not this morning, but it’s always a good idea to be prepared.

Johnny walks up to me. “The cousins all had to go,” he says, his eyes flicking to the warehouse as he speaks. “But they said to call them if we need any help.”

“Fair.” It would be nice to have their manpower here with us but they all have shit to do too, and the Accardi family has never backed down from a challenge. “Let’s go see what this asshole wants.”

Dane joins us and the three of us walk up to the building like we received personal invitations. There’s no reason to try to hide—the security cameras tracked us from the moment we pulled into the parking lot. Taylor knows that we’re coming, but he’ll be able to see that we’re not currently a threat.

Before we reach the front door, a small man as wide as he is tall leans out, opening the door for us. He has a gun on one hip and a radio on the other. “The Accardis,” he says, giving his head a little shake. “We had a feeling that you would be coming.”

“Great.” Walking up to the door, I push past him and step into the building. It’s shadowy in here, with only half of the huge industrial lights hung from the ceiling turned on. The floor is dusty but there are a few push brooms scattered around the space like we interrupted someone from cleaning.

Johnny and Dane follow me, the three of us looking around the room while we wait on Taylor to show up. He likes to make an entrance, to feel like he’s showing off, but that’s never impressed me. We’ll wait him out.

After a few moments, during which time we say nothing, a door at the end of the room opens and Taylor walks into it. He’s dressed casually, in jeans and a polo shirt, but I know as well as anyone that he’s packing. There’s no way that he would come here without a gun, and I’m not surprised when he turns and I see the bulge on his hip.

“The Accardis,” he says, throwing his arms wide open. “What a wonderful surprise. What in the world would bring the three of you straight to my door?”

“We heard you were in town, Taylor,” I say, giving him a small nod. He reaches out to shake my hand but I have no interest in touching the man. “Came by to see what you’d gotten yourself mixed up in this time.”

He laughs, a hollow laugh, and I feel more than hear the man who opened the door shift on his feet behind us. “Come now, Lorenzo, why do you think that everything I do has to be a personal attack on your family?”

“Because it always is,” Dane offers. He and Johnny flank me, the three of us ready for anything. Even though Taylor is a piece of shit, though, I don’t think that he’ll fire first.

Not when he’s so outnumbered.

“I’m an honest man now, gents. Changed. I’m here to start fresh and make an honest living. No more working for bad guys being their lawyer, so don’t even ask me to do any work for you.” He grins, showing off his bright white teeth. “I’m running a shipping company.”

“We heard. What are you going to be shipping, Taylor?” Johnny crosses his arms on his chest while he waits for a response.

Taylor doesn’t answer. A loud radio squawk from behind me makes my ears hurt and I slowly turn to see what the door man is doing.

“Let the boss know that we can’t find her. Looks like someone was killed in her apartment last night but she’s missing and there’s no sign of where she could be.”

The man tries to turn down his radio, but it’s too late. We all heard the message.

And I know right away what the hell it’s referring to.

“Missing someone?” Dane fixes his gaze on Taylor, who flaps his hand like he’s unconcerned.

He may try to act like this doesn’t faze him, but I can see the bit of red creeping up under his collar. “Just looking for my niece,” he says, casually, like it doesn’t matter.

“You don’t have any siblings,” I point out.

He chuckles and rolls his eyes. “Yeah, you’re right. I call her my niece just because I’ve been keeping an eye on her for so long. But now I’m back and I need someone at my side, someone to keep my bed warm. You three know how it is.”

I do. I know exactly how it is and there’s no way in hell that he’s going to get Mia.