The Darkest King: A Dark Mafia Romance (The Dark Kings of NYC Book 1)

The backslapping and man hugs happen the moment I walk in the door of the Dark Kings headquarters. I had an abandoned warehouse converted into a highly secure space, with an office, kitchen area, punching bag, and pool table.

On the wall is the same CSI-type setup I have at home. Photos everywhere, with white boards where we brainstorm leads.

The biometric security allows entry to only me, Decker, Nathan, and Mack and is under twenty-four-seven surveillance by one of the best security companies in America.

Which I own.

We spent the most time here before the boys went out into the field and began infiltrating the Italian and Mexican mafias.

Damn, I miss hanging out with these assholes.

“Dude. What the fuck are you getting yourself into?” Decker asks, flopping into a chair and twisting the cap off a beer bottle.

Mack makes some, fortunately for him, indecipherable mumble from his leaning spot by the window. Nathan smirks at him.

Fuckers.

I can’t decide if they think I’m insane—which is most likely—or their attitude has something to do with Mia. Which irritates me more than I want to admit.

Especially after a long day of not hearing from her. She hasn’t responded to my delivery of roses, and George says she hasn’t left the apartment all day.

Maybe she really is sick.

The magnetic pull to leave and go home to her frustrates me. Tonight is important, and I’m worried her damn PMS?

She never ignores me, so I can only assume she’s angry at my tone. I reacted out of frustration for my growing feelings and fucked up. Big time. Angry Mia isn’t going to be organizing a family catch-up, especially when I haven’t given her a reason for wanting to see them.

That could’ve confused her and was likely a mistake on my behalf. One I need to rectify, reasoning it out with something along the lines of needing to keep up appearances with her father and the media. Which I could’ve fucking said if I stopped thinking about those icy blue eyes and her sweet pussy and how they’re distracting me.

I dropped her a text before climbing out of the car, and now my phone is in front of me, and I feel like a goddamn schoolboy waiting for a reply.

Wait up for me tonight. We need to talk. C

It’s just sitting there with no response. Unread. I’m going to slam my cock into her so damn hard after she’s ignored me all day.

Twice now.

Decker stares at me, waiting for an answer to his question.

“The opportunity fell in my lap,” I say, remembering how Mia had lain on my lap a few nights ago as I palmed her sweet, tanned ass.

God, she was moist as fuck.

“Direct access to Joe Mancini is not something I was willing to say no to,” I add.

“You couldn’t just fuck her and go to family dinners?” Decker laughs, lifting his foot onto his knee and taking a swig out of his bottle. He looks dangerous as hell in his gangster getup. Black jeans, steel-capped boots, a black shirt open and showing his vast array of tattoos—which are also visible along his forearm where his shirt is rolled up. Dark glasses on his head.

On his hands are a number of silver and black rings. One of them represents his position in the Costilla Cartel, where he’s spent the last six years. Predominantly based in Sinaloa, Mexico.

“She’s a sweet piece of ass,” Nathan says, tossing Mack a beer.

Mack catches it and shakes his head, throwing it back. Tonight, he’s driving.

Meanwhile, I’m counting to ten in my head so I don’t pull out the Glock tucked into the back of my pants and shoot Nathan, the asshole.

He’s taunting me. Waiting for a reaction. He won’t get it. Okay, he might get it.

Fuck!

“Her brother is planning a coup. Cade Mancini is close to making a move, and it turns out Mia is one of his pawns.” I explain.

Nathan flicks his cap into a trash can. “He’s partnered up with Salvo ‘Sly’ Vitale.”

Decker curses.  “Let me guess, Salvo gets the sister for his help with putting Cade in the top job.”

Nathan nods darkly.

“So, you what, proposed to save the mafia princess? What the hell am I missing here?” Decker asks, his humor fading. “Because you being so close to Mancini puts Nathan in a tenuous position, Barrett.”

I fucking know.

“And if someone figures it out and starts talking, then starts to look at your marine buddies, I’m fucked too,” he adds.

He’s right, but I took the risk anyway.

These gangsters won’t mess about either. They’ll shoot someone they suspect without digging deeper or waiting for an explanation.

If they did, it’s only because they’re playing with their food.

I curse. “Look, it’s been six fucking years. I can’t ask you guys to stay in there much longer. If you want to get out now, do it.”

“You’re not asking. I’m exactly where I need to be,” Nathan growls, finishing his beer and tossing it in the same trash can as the cap. Then he crosses the room to a sofa and sits. His legs wide, his hands dropping to his hips.

The tan holster over his black shirt presses into his muscular frame, a gold chain around his neck visible over his tats. He pulls out one of his Glocks and places it on the sofa next to him. Then sighs.

We’re all quiet.

Nathan’s brother was a victim of the Italian mafia. Killed because he couldn’t pay for the drugs one of the assholes gave him without permission.

He wants revenge as much as me.

But it’s a long game, and a dangerous one.

I turn back to Decker. “Mia told her father we were engaged the night after we met. Nothing to do with me. She wants her freedom. I took the opportunity that was laid out on a silver damn platter.”

“Night they fucked,” Mack helpfully corrects.

Nathan snorts.

I glare at both of them.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to see her as just someone I fuck.

“Why would she do that?” Deck asks.

“She doesn’t want to go into the business. She loves her family, but the shit they do doesn’t sit well with her.” I can hear myself from their point of view, but I don’t stop talking. “She wants her freedom and has business ideas. Once I get the information I’m after, I’ll help her set up a new life.”

The silence is deafening.

“Jesus,” Nathan says, shaking his head.

Decker stares at me.

“She’ll hate you, Connor,” Mack says. “If you destroy her family, especially her father, she will hate you passionately.”

My jaw tightens. I fucking know!

“Are you in love with her?” Decker asks, rearing back like I’m the devil.

Maybe I am.

The entire plan seemed like a good idea a few weeks ago. Using her is just not sitting well with me anymore. Mia is innocent. Yet I can’t turn back now.

Or can I? Maybe I should set her free. We’ll end the engagement.

Would I?

“No. Fuck, no,” I reply, not believing my own words. Jesus, no. No. “Look, I’m just saying Mia doesn’t deserve to be collateral damage.” I sound defensive.

“Just a pawn, like her family uses her?” Nathan says.

I stand, fisting my hands on the table and glaring across the room at him.

“Do you want to fuck her? Is that what this is?” I growl, and he slowly raises his brows, unaffected by my aggression. “Then keep your fucking eyes off her next time.”

“He’s in love with her,” Mack says, shaking his head.

I snarl at him.

“Fuck off. I’m trying to work out how to use this situation to our advantage without hurting an innocent. We don’t know if Carlos is part of the Italian mob. Until I do, we stay on script. Cade needs to be our focus right now, not where my cock is going.” I sit down.

They all stare at me like I’m an idiot.

I am.

“He’s right. We need to stop him,” Nathan says. “He’s still got plans to nab her. If our guys hadn’t been in the bar that night, he would’ve dragged her out of there.”

The hair on the back of my neck rises. I know that was his plan, but to hear Nathan speak the words sends ice through me.

“He touches her, he’s dead,” I say without thinking.

Decker shakes his head and stands up. “And this is why it’s a fucking stupid idea. Break it off. Fuck her on the side, or whatever you need to do, but keep away from Joe and Cade, or this is going to get ugly.”

I curse.

“I can’t. They’ll marry her off to that cunt, Vitale.” I run my hand angrily through my hair.

“I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen,” Nathan says darkly. “I’ll protect her.”

The fuck you will.

She’s mine, I say to myself, finally accepting how damn deep I am in this now.

“No.”

All three of them glare at me.

Decker shakes his head again and walks to the pool table, leaning and crossing his arms.

“We need a game plan for when Cade makes his move. First, Decker, update us on the Mexicans. Any closer to Pablo Garcia?” I ask, referring to the head of the Mexican Cartel.

He rubs his forehead.

“Fine, we’ll drop it for now. But yeah, I think I have a lead. Older guy, named Carlos, living in Eldorado. There are a few rumors that indicate he could be our guy. It’ll take me some time to get to him.”

What?

My eyes widen.

It’s rare I get excited these days. Every single lead has been a dead one. Especially in Mexico, where there are about seven trillion million Carlos’.

An exaggeration, obviously.

“Fuck man, you couldn’t have led with that?” I say, laughing, and the tension in the room lifts as Mack and Nathan join me.

An hour later, there’s still no reply on my phone, and my heart rate is increasing. Something’s wrong. Mia is not this stubborn.

I text George, and he confirms she hasn’t left, but I’m ready to go.

Decker gave us a good, detailed rundown on what’s happening across the border and their plans stateside. Nathan did the same with the Mancini mob. Some of it, including my plans to marry Mia—incoming family members, including influential mobsters from Sicily and Rome next month.

“Guess we’re not standing up for you, huh,” Decker says, shrugging.

These two are my best friends.

I can’t imagine not having them with me while I make such a huge life decision. We’ve killed to protect each other while serving, and now, they have put their lives on hold to help me avenge my family.

Sure, they each have their own reasons for doing it, but every day, I remind myself how grateful and fucking lucky I am to know these two men.

And Mack.

We didn’t serve together. He joined a few years after us, but when we met, just before I retired, I knew he was someone I could trust. We stayed in contact, then three years ago, he contacted me and said he wanted in.

I laughed at him and said I didn’t know what he was talking about. The way he stared at me across the table we were having a drink at told me all I needed to know.

“You don’t know what I’m doing.”

“I know whatever it is, it’s a worthy cause, and I’m fucking drifting out here. I need a purpose and know you’re a good man,” Mack said.

“I’m not,” I replied honestly. I was a man full of rage with a need to destroy the people who fucked up my life by assassinating my family. Instead of growing up with parents, I was sent away to a boarding school full of rich assholes and strict teachers.

It had been pure hell.

No one had told me it was okay to grieve or be sad. All I had were my memories of their deaths, the dead looks in their eyes as I crawled out of the space under the stairs, and a detective who gave me a new life.

Detective Scott saved my life, but I was still left with the big question I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer to.

Why?

No one knew about the boxes or the key.

“Yeah, you are, Barrett. Saying you’re not just proves it,” Mack said.

“Give me a week,” I replied, and after checking with the other Dark Kings, we invited him into the group.

I never looked back.

He might look like my personal bodyguard, but Mack does a lot more than that. He recruits men into my security, manages them, is my direct link with Nathan, and so much more.

“It’s not a real wedding or marriage,” I remind them. “If this lead of yours works out, it may not happen.”

Decker pulls on a jacket. “Connor, you know it doesn’t happen that fast. It could, but I can’t make any promises. So, prepare to marry your little mafia princess.”

No one is marrying anyone unless she answers my fucking messages.

I didn’t miss his wording either. Your. And they notice I didn’t correct him.

I nod at Mack, and we make to leave.

“Regular updates on Cade,” I say to Nathan, and he nods.

Then we climb into the car and drive home.

When I walk into the penthouse, I know immediately.

Mia is gone.