Gorgeous Mobster's Rival: The Mobster's Rival, #4

By Rachel Foster

With Bryce missing, Natalie is going crazy. But they find him, and not a minute too soon. While Bryce heals, they continue their assault on Stephan, doing all they can to get him to back off. Then, when they think it's all gone to hell, a new player appears and Bryce and Natalie finally see the end in sight. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Derek Phil
• Release date: Mar 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215686140

Book preview

Gorgeous Mobster's Rival

Rachel Foster

Copyright © 2018 by Rachel Foster

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Contents

Gorgeous Mobster's Rival

Gorgeous Mobster's Rival

1

B

ryce

I wasn’t sure what woke me: the hunger or the thirst. Or, perhaps it was the freezing cold seeping in through the cracked glass in the window panes and under the loose warehouse door. It didn’t matter, really, the fact of the matter remained.

I was right where they left me.

Everything that had happened over the past day and a half was a blur in my mind, and I wasn’t able to focus on what was going on around me now. As much as my brain tried to cling to the moment and piece together the facts, everything just slipped by as though an illusion, as though this were some bad dream I was having because of what I was about to do.

Of course, I knew that wasn’t the case. The aching in all my joints, the ropes digging into the skin of my wrists and around my ankles and knees, and the throbbing in my nose and face as well as my ribs told me that I had gone through with my plan – and it had gone terribly wrong.

I’d wanted to meet with my father, Stephan Ventimiglia, to discuss his backing out of my life. Out of our lives. It should be an easy enough conversation for any adult son to have with his father.

But, he wasn’t just any father. And, I wasn’t just any adult son.

My father was one of the most notorious mob bosses in all of New York City. All of the country, in many ways. He prided himself as being the man who was scared of nothing, but feared by all. The one who eluded the police at every turn or managed to get out of any charges without being detained for so much as a day.

When he wanted something done, it was done quickly, correctly, and without question or the person he charged was swiftly dismissed from service. And, we all knew what that meant: carried out in a body bag and disposed of in the nearest dumpster.

As I sat there, my jeans halfway frozen from sitting in my own piss for the past few hours, I thought about how I’d managed to get caught up in the life – and on the wrong side of my father. There was a time when I’d thought I was doing what was best for myself. I followed orders, and I reaped the rewards.

Sure, my father never made any sort of indication he ever loved me, but I told myself I was okay with that. He didn’t love anyone, not even my own mother. I grew up in a broken home full of fighting, and when she mysteriously passed away in a so-called accident when I was sixteen, I knew better than to ask too many questions.

Alone in the world, I had few options. I was still a minor, but with the right paperwork, I could have gone off on my own. But, clueless as to how to live my own life and without any resources of my own, I went with what seemed to be the more sensible decision. I joined my father’s mob.

I never liked getting my hands dirty, but I knew that was all part of the business. I might have to pull the trigger a time or two, but once it was done, I didn’t have to think about it anymore. I was given the respect for the job well done, I was given a promotion within the mob from time to time, and I was paid well for my troubles.

The only problem was that wasn’t good enough for me for long. After spending eight years doing all of my father’s bidding and only advancing to the rank of soldier, I wanted more. I wanted to be a leader, to be in charge of the others. I wanted to be the boss myself one day, when he passed, of course.

But, being capo came with a price. It certainly wasn’t a rank my father handed out because he liked someone. No, it had to be earned. And, I figured I was up for the challenge. I thought I was going to have to pull off some heist or take care of a rival or something I was used to doing.

I was wrong.

Instead, my father told me to do the one thing I found I could never do. He wanted me to murder the daughter of his number one rival.

I was hesitant to take on the assignment from the beginning, but when I met the girl, I knew there was no way I could go through with it. One thing led to another, and we ended up falling in love and fleeing for our lives. But, I knew that was no way for her to spend the rest of her days. Eventually, we came back, trying to appease my father and get him to leave us alone.

As expected, his stipulations were steep. Either he got his revenge through murdering either his rival or the daughter, or I turn myself back into the mob, take my punishment, and forget about them.

Obviously, I would do neither – and I was now paying dearly for it. I’d tried to fight back. I tried to stand up for myself and prove I was able to take care of my own life and the woman I’d fallen so deeply in love with. And to do this, I decided I was going to blow up all my father’s interests.

When he retaliated, I arranged for a meeting – a meeting in which he double crossed me, sent my traitor of a cousin, and landed me in this warehouse.

They hadn’t said much to me the night before. That is, they hadn’t tried to get a lot of information out of me. There were a lot of threats, a lot of promises, and a lot of anger taken out on me both physically and verbally. I was sure my nose was broken from how many times my father hit me with the butt of my own gun. I couldn’t remember much of what he said; my ears had started ringing long before he was done with beating.

I remembered some of the threats he’d made, telling me it was only a matter of time before he got what he was after. He wanted my girlfriend and her father dead, and I had little doubt he was going to keep pushing until he accomplished his goal.

That is, unless they found a way to get him off their backs. I figured the offer he had given me a few days ago no longer was on the table. I’d refused to come back to the mob then, and I doubted now that he had me, he would be satisfied with that. He wanted blood, and I knew mine wasn’t enough.

As the afternoon wore on, I tried to adjust myself in the chair, doing everything I could to ease the aches and cramps practically consuming me. Every time I fought against the ropes they just sank further into my skin, and there was no way for me to sit any higher or lower in the chair. I had to just endure the pain, hoping that I would figure out a way to escape.

I shook my head, smirking at the thought. No one escaped from my father. When he had a victim, he was in control of everything. It was his choice now whether I lived or died, and I wasn’t going to show any kind of weakness. He wasn’t going to know that I was scared, and I would certainly never beg for his mercy. If he was going to kill me, I would take it like a man to the end.

The hours dragged by, and I wondered when he was going to return. It was strange that neither he nor my cousin had come back. I didn’t expect any food or water, but I did expect them to make sure I was still tied to the chair and suffering. I certainly didn’t look forward to when they would return, but that didn’t change the fact that I was still curious.

I sighed. My thoughts naturally went back to Natalie, and I hoped she was safe at her father’s house. We’d been staying there ever since she and I had come back to New York City. It was the safest place for her, and if I had been smart and listened to what Peter had told me, I could be back there with her.

There was a part of me that wondered if I was bait for Natalie and her father to come find. Perhaps that is why my own father didn’t murder me. But then, how would they know where to find me? I thought. I was in some warehouse down by the docks, that much was sure, but with all the different places they could have taken me, there would be no way for Natalie or her father to know where to start their search.

Unless, of course, my father sent them a note telling them where I was, I realized.

Perhaps that was his plan to draw them out of hiding so he could strike. It was certainly the way I’d go about doing things, though I had to admit that I often thought of myself as much smarter than my father. That was no secret.

He was the kind of man who thought with the barrel of his gun, not with his brain. He didn’t shoot first and ask questions later, he shot and didn’t bother with the questions, at all. I, on the other hand, was far more calculating than that. I was the one who thought things through, who made sure that all the pieces fell into place.

I would be a damn good mob boss if I chose to stay in the business, though I wasn’t at all sorry to be getting out.

At least I had been getting out before I was caught up in this mess. Now, I wasn’t sure I was even going to see the morning, let alone get out of the warehouse and back to my real life.

With a surge of adrenaline rushing through me, I fought against the ropes once more, trying my best to break free. Of course, I didn’t even have a plan beyond that. Once I was out of the chair, I would have to figure out how to get out of the warehouse, what part of the city I was in, and how I was going to get home in the condition I was in.

For all I knew, once night fell, I would be just as susceptible to freezing to death as I was anything else. Not to mention I might be guarded, depending on what it was my father was doing. There were so many unanswered questions, I didn’t even know where to start.

All I could think about was what I wanted to do to my father if I was ever able to get out of this. I was done with him. I was over the situation, and I was going to strike hard if I ever got the chance to do it. I didn’t want to reconcile with my father – I wanted him out of my life forever.

I didn’t care if I had to pull the trigger myself, if I ever had a gun in my hand and my father in front of me, I was going to do what had to be done to make sure he could never touch me or Natalie again.

I wanted to kill him. More than anything, I wanted to kill him.

2

N

atalie

I paced back and forth in the kitchen, worried sick. My father and Peter had been searching for Bryce for over a day, but there was still no news. I hated feeling so helpless, but there wasn’t anything I could do but wait for them to come back. And hopefully they would with Bryce. I wanted to call my father and see how things were doing, but I knew that would be a bad idea.

If he and Peter were sneaking around or even in hiding, a ringing phone could be enough to expose them, and all would be lost.

You should try to sit down and get your mind off things, Judy encouraged me. I shot her a look, and she smiled, though I could see that she was just as worried as I was. She’d come to love Bryce, and she knew what could go wrong in this sort of situation. It will do you some good.

I’m so worried about him. Why haven’t they found him yet? Dad should know where to look, don’t you think? I asked. I didn’t bother hiding how worried I was, there really wasn’t any point. I was sick with fear and anger. I was pissed off that Stephan had abducted Bryce, and I was pissed off at him for putting himself in that situation in the first place.

The entire thing was so sick, and I didn’t know what the outcome would be. I just wanted Bryce to come home and be safe in my arms once more.

Your father knows what he’s doing, but I’m sure there are a lot of places they need to look. You know how it is with them, they never make anything easy, she replied with another encouraging smile. I’m sure they are going to have good news when they return.

I sighed. She was right, my father would know where to look, but with all the warehouses, there was no telling where Bryce might be. I just worried about what they were doing to him. For all I knew, his father might have murdered him already.

But, I knew I had no choice but to trust my father. There was no way we had time to go to the cops or much they could do if we did. They wouldn’t have any idea where Bryce was, and they would take way too long even if they did. If there was one thing I’d learned about the cops in this city, it was that they were pretty much useless if you wanted something done fast.

Don’t think about that, Judy said, cutting into my thoughts. There were times when I felt the woman could read my mind, and I shook my head. She gave me another small smile, but it was impossible for her to hide how worried