Taken - A Gangster Stepbrother Romance by Michaela Adams Read Free Book Online Page A

admit it out loud, the dinner was more than welcomed for her stomach. She felt her head getting clearer and her body feeling stronger with every bite. She had been a fool to lose her appetite like that, especially when she needed to have all her wits about her.
     
                  As the meal wound down, Emma watched as Antonio took a sip of his wine. The man certainly frightened her and yet he brought out something else in her as well. Something raw and stubborn and…brave?
     
                  Coming home from work or school, Emma would keep her head down and hope that no one on the street would engage her. She purposely wore baggy clothes to hide her body’s natural slim curves. And thankfully, for the most part, she had been left unmolested. But if someone ever had approached her, she knew she would’ve just kept her mouth shut and hoped for it all to end as quickly and painlessly as possible.
     
                  But Antonio brought something else out of her. She felt emboldened to fight for herself, to show him that she was more than some piece of luggage he could conveniently store wherever he pleased.
     
                  But as Emma took a sip from her own wine, she caught the sight of a gun glinting from inside Antonio’s suit jacket as he lowered his wine glass.
     
                  She could be brave but she also had to be careful.
     
                  “What am I to do here if I’m not going home?” Emma finally asked in what she hoped was a neutral sounding tone of voice.
     
                  Antonio poured himself another glass of wine. Looking over at Emma’s still nearly full glass, he leaned over and topped it off with another half inch or so of wine.
     
                  Emma was surprised by the considerate gesture but refused to be sidetracked. “Am I to be holed up here until I get married?” she asked, nearly choking on the last word.
     
                  Antonio leaned back in his chair. He looked relaxed although was a panther ever relaxed? “As it happens,” he said, swirling his wine glass, “we’ll be going out quite soon.”
     
                  Emma’s brows rose in surprise. They were? “Where?”
     
                  “To the Hastings Charity Gala.”
     
                  Emma’s jaw dropped. Hastings Charity Gala was one of the premiere social events of the year. It was attended by socialites, celebrities, and politicians. It was a huge event that would be covered internationally. And invitations to the function were highly exclusive. The tabloids loved writing up articles on who hadn’t been invited to Hastings that year or who had finally gotten in.
     
                  “To Hastings?” Emma echoed. How had a mob boss snagged such an exclusive and highly coveted invitation? “Why?”
     
                  Of all the places she thought they would be going, an international gala of the social elite was the last place she had expected.
     
                  “You need to be introduced into the public. DM Holdings is now quite a large and influential empire and the CEO of DM Holdings doesn’t just suddenly get a little sister out of nowhere,” Antonio said.
     
                  DM Holdings. The company that was turning the Del Marco Clan ‘legit.’ At least, so says the papers. But what did ‘legit’ really mean? With the Del Marco Clan involved, it probably meant shady underhanded deals with politicians or illegal factory productions abroad.
     
                  “So what? Is the Gala like my coming out?” Emma asked, sincerely stunned.
     
                  Antonio huffed a laugh. “I suppose you could call it that. It’s an appropriate venue filled the right people to show off an intimate family relation. I’ll play the protective older brother who wanted to shield