Taking Over the Dark (High Stakes Syndicate #2)

Chapter 1

ONE

ZAMIR

“I’ll fucking gut you myself, Zamir Prifti!” Marcello’s seething, and I would like to know why this anger is clearly geared toward me…

So, I question him as any sane person would, “What the fuck is going on?!” All I remember is being in the locker rooms getting my shit after the post-game interviews, and when I came to, I was in a goddamn supply closet on the lower level of the stadium.

“Don’t fucking play dumb, Prifti. Stay where the fuck you are.” Eh, I don’t like the last name shit. I don’t want psycho-man mad at me…

Whatever this is, it can’t be good.

“I’m at the stadium…” I trail off, trying to wait and see if that’s a shock to him, but he doesn’t give me anything, so I keep going. “I was knocked the fuck out and thrown into one of the supply closets. I didn’t even see who drugged me.”

“We’ll see. Stay there, or you’ll add even more to the hit on your head.” Shit, he’s not joking.

Alex

WE HAVE A PROBLEM!

ANSWER YOUR GODDAMN PHONE!

ZAMIR! IT’S OUR DADS!

I hit one of Alex’s fifteen missed call notifications to call him back. My body is still feeling the effects of being drugged by whatever they used on me, and I sure as fuck would like some of that information.

I feel like the fragile damsel in distress that everyone keeps the details from.

“Where the fuck have you been, Zamir? They didn’t hurt you, did they?!” Alex barks out, sounding extremely distressed as he picks the call up.

“I just woke up in a goddamn supply closet. Somebody drugged my ass in the locker rooms, but clearly, not with a ton. They wanted me up shortly after.”

? * “FUCK!” I pull my phone away from my ear because that may have just busted my eardrum.

I let out an irritated huff of breath, trying my hardest not to let my anger get the best of me. “Goddamn! There’s no need to yell, Alex!”

“You have no clue, do you?” He mumbles the rest under his breath, “It’s all pointing to you… Marcello’s going to have your neck.”

Tired of all the beating around the bush, I grit out, “What the fuck is pointing to me? I’m the goddamn victim here! If somebody doesn’t tell me what the fuck is going on, your neck is going to be the worry, but it’ll be at my hands, not Marcello’s.”

“Somebody drugged Ellie and Nash at Club Onyx and took them…”

“No,” is all I can get out before my mind starts to spin out of control.

A moment of silence passes before Alex speaks up again in a barely there whisper, “Z. Everything is pointing to you…” Marcello has to know I would never hurt him or anyone we care about. Those two have quickly become the most important people in my life.

“Yeah, I can see that now, genius! Get Arben to pull the CCTV footage from the stadium and send it over to Noah. That’s the only hope for saving my ass. And make it quick. I know Marcello’s already on his way here. I just got off the phone with him, but he was being all cryptic.” Fuck knows he’s driving at breakneck speeds to come break mine.

Arben hasn’t slipped my mind either, and that’s who’s looking at the footage. My life is literally in his hands as we speak. All of this started when I had him look into Marcello a couple of months back… I thought I could trust him. He’s practically family, and a great hacker, but clearly, something went amiss.

Surviving Marcello is my highest priority at the moment. I need to get out of this to find Ellie and Nash… my worlds . After that he can do as he pleases with me. And I hate to admit it, but I’m only becoming more and more attached to Marcello as the days pass.

“I’m right beside Arben, and we’re watching the footage now. You were clearly knocked the fuck out, slung over some big-ass guy’s shoulder, and thrown into the basement closet clear as day,” Alex mindlessly speaks into the phone.

“Send it to me and Cello. Now!” I’m planning to shove my phone in Marcello’s face when he gets to me and pray to the god nobody believes in that he takes a second to watch the footage.

I have had a bad feeling my family has been up to something… and that something is all of this. Too much has happened that leads back to the Albanians, and they knew the easiest thing to do would be to pin this all on me. My dad and Vito knew that getting close to Ellie would, in turn, put me in Marcello’s orbit. Agron Prifti is nothing less than a leach when it comes to anything or anyone that can get him extra power or money.

The only two things that man cares about.

I was never willing to do the depraved shit my father and his brother were always dabbling in, and it always seemed to get worse and worse as the years went on. I made it very clear where the lines I kept were. I’ve killed in the most ruthless ways, but it was at least people I knew were deserving of it. But when they started trafficking drugs they weren’t supposed to, fucking with other families’ businesses and money, and then cutting those drugs with shit that would kill people with the smallest amount, I dipped. That was right before I left for college to play ball. Whatever bits and pieces of information Alex is able to pick up from his father, he always relays it to me… none of the information is ever anything good.

“Alex… watch your back. I don’t have a good feeling about any of this. This whole thing has to be somebody very close to us.” I hope he takes that to heart because the very man he’s in the same room with could be the reason all of this started.

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