Ruthless: Mob Boss Book One Read Online Free PDF Page A

pulled on gray sweats and left his building before the sun came up. He jogged toward the river, keeping the pace light until he hit the Parkway.
    He’d slept fitfully, his altercation with Carlo Rossi’s daughter running loops in in his mind. He didn’t know what he’d expected. He’d seen pictures of her in the planning stages of the kidnapping, but the photographs hadn’t done her justice. She was beautiful, with golden hair that fell in waves to her waist and green eyes he’d almost gotten lost in. But it was more than that, more even than the soft swell of her curves, a contrast to all the women in the city who honed themselves to lean, hard planes that offered little in the way of comfort.
    It had been in her eyes; something familiar and lonely. It had connected to a hidden part of his psyche, and in the moment he’d stood in front of her, all he’d wanted was to banish it from her forever.
    He pushed himself to pick up the pace, a kind of punishment for his lack of discipline. His hormones were obviously out of control. The girl was a very important pawn in a very important game of chess; his only hope of getting the security tape that would incriminate Carlo Rossi in the death of his parents. He could sleep with any girl in the city.
    But not her.
    His senses felt oddly sharp in spite of his lack of sleep, and he continued past the point where he normally turned back toward his apartment, hoping to banish the distraction. It worked to some degree, and he turned his thoughts to the more practical aspects of holding Carlo Rossi’s daughter hostage.
    That she wasn’t eating was a problem. He was already in violation of the Syndicate’s code—the kidnapping and murder of family members was prohibited unless a very specific set of benchmarks had been met. They hadn’t been, although it wouldn’t have been necessary at all if Carlo hadn’t first violated the code. Still, Nico was walking a fine line, and the survival of his organization depended on his ability to stay on the right side of it.
    Kidnapping Angelica was risky. Letting her starve would be suicide.
    He turned up West 90th Street and headed for the apartment, his limbs warm and loose. The run had gotten his blood pumping, and he was annoyed to find his thoughts drift back to the girl. This is what happened when you were used to getting what you want. The first time you saw something you couldn’t have, it became an obsession. Not because you really wanted it, but because you knew you couldn’t have it.
    Still, it wouldn’t hurt to be kind to her. It wasn’t her fault her father was a bastard.
    She had to eat.

8
    She inventoried her purse for the hundredth time, peering at herself in the pocket mirror she rarely used but had been carrying around since Lauren gave it to her two Christmases ago. Her hair was disgusting, and her face had taken on the pale, translucent look of the very ill.
    Or the perpetually imprisoned.
    Her thoughts drifted back to Nico Vitale for the hundredth time in the two days since he’d invaded her room with his edict to eat. Her proximity to him had awakened some kind of primal need inside her, something that made her either crazy or ridiculous or both.
    “You really need to get laid when this is all over, Angelica,” she muttered under her breath, closing the mirror.
    Her lack of sex life was the only possible explanation for her attraction to the man responsible for her kidnapping. She wasn’t some dysfunctional ingenue with daddy issues. Okay, maybe she had some daddy issues, but Nico Vitale was anything but fatherly, and she’d worked through her feelings about her father, both alone and with the help of the therapist she’d seen on campus sophomore year.
    No, what she’d felt when Nico’s body had been close enough to touch was primal, physical. Probably had to do with pheromones or something. Lust was like that. Or that’s what she’d heard anyway. She hadn’t had much experience with it outside of a