Frank Russo had a secret. One that only he and a select few knew. One that he had been keeping for almost eighteen years.
He had been keeping this secret because he didn't kill women.
After the Russo Empire sold the women and they were out of sight, they were out of mind too. Frank knew that most of them didn't live long because he sold them to ruthless men. Men who laid hands on women and took what they wanted.
Frank didn't need to take anything from a woman.
Not even his wife, who had apparently up and left him. Frank knew Quinn couldn't get far, and it was only a matter of time before she returned. She hadn’t taken any credit cards, and she could only have so much cash on her. Frank managed all of the money, and it wasn't as though Quinn Russo had a job. Plus, he had some of his men looking for her, so Frank wasn't worried. She'd turn up eventually.
He wasn't worried about anything because not only did he run New York City, he paid a lot of the police force for their service.
His son was finally getting to know every aspect of his empire and would one day take over just like Frank and Dominic had. That was why Frank had started Frankie early with selling drugs for him, and now that Frankie was a man, Frank was going to teach him everything he knew and make sure that everyone in New York City feared Frankie too.
No one messed with a Russo and lived to talk about it.
Frank knocked on his son's bedroom door. "Yeah?" Frankie called out.
With a huge smile on Frank's face, he opened the dark wood door. He was so proud of his son. At the auction, Frankie took notes like he was instructed to and was really grasping how to run the whores. It almost made Frank wonder if he should have started Frankie earlier. Maybe test drive a few more or even run the streets looking for prey so he knew the ins and outs.
"I'm going out of town for the night. I trust that everything will be fine here?" Of course, everything would be fine. Frankie was a man now.
"Yeah, not the first time you've gone away."
No, it wasn't the first time Frank had left on business. Except no one knew that it wasn't necessarily business he left to go do. It was his secret and one that made him hard just thinking about it. Each time her mouth was on his cock or his dick was driving into her, he knew he was the one who had taken everything from her.
Her husband …
Her child …
Her freedom.
"Right," Frank agreed. "When I return, we'll go back to the warehouse for you to see what new product was brought in."
"There's another auction?" Frankie sat up straighter in his bed where he had been reading.
"Every month. We have to make money somehow." Frank laughed at his sarcastic reply. Of course, they needed to sell women to make money.
"Let me write that down." Frankie got off his bed to grab his notebook.
Frank left Frankie to his note-taking and left the apartment. His driver was waiting in one of his cars out front. He didn't take the limo out of the city. Usually, the trip to the Catskills Mountains was to make sure everything was as he'd left it in his one-bedroom hunting cabin that was thirty miles from any civilization. Frank's father purchased the cabin when Frank and Dominic were boys, but Frank didn't realize at the time how handy the place would be when he needed to keep something—or someone—hidden.
The drive seemed to take longer because of the excitement flowing through Frank's veins. He was like a cat that ate the canary, and when the car finally pulled up just as the winter sky started to darken and smoke billowed out of the chimney, Frank was bursting at the seams.
He got out of the car, said goodbye to Louis, who would stay in the nearest town for the night before returning to drive Frank back to the city, and hurried into the warm cabin.
Jackie looked up from the book she was reading. "I wasn't expecting you."
"I know. I have news." Frank took off his coat.
"And what's that?"
"I saw your daughter."