Caught Up

"“Grab her hand in the streets and her hair in the sheets.”

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REVIEW

Would I read this again? Yes No Maybe

Spice Level Legend How spicy is this book?

Tropes	Trigger Warnings
Found family, Second chance, Voyeurism, He falls first, Morally grey MMC	Kink-friendly, Violence, Sex work, Mafia, Coercion, Graphic sex, Light BDSM, Stalking

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SUMMARY

This is book 2 in the Into Darkness series. These books can be read as standalone but if you need a refresher on book 1 Lights Out - that can be found here.

If you’ve read Lights Out then you are familiar with Nico aka Junior. Nico is Aly’s cousin who helps with her and Josh’s “situation”. 

Nico is the son of Nico Senior who plays a role in the local Mafia as the “cleaner”. Nico and his sons take out the trash…and clean it all up basically. (Trash is people in case you were confused). Nico Jr. is over this. He wants out. The story opens with Nico Jr spending his birthday with his brothers doing a cleaning job. It’s implied that who they are cleaning up is Tommy Marchetti. Who just happens to be the father of Nico’s ex-girlfriend from high school, Lauren. Nico and Lauren started seeing each other in her junior year (his senior) until her dad found out. He beat the shit out of Nico and told him that if he ever came near Lauren again, he’d kill him. 

Lauren didn’t know about this so when it came out (by her shitty friend who shared her diary to the whole school) that they were hooking up and then Nico denied it, it broke her heart. She was so confused as to why all of a sudden he was ghosting her, skipped school for a week, and when he came back, he denied they were ever a thing. The whole school ended up bullying Lauren so much that she switched schools and tried to forget that Nico ever existed.

Nico never got over her though. He was always watching her, helping her out if he could. For example, he broke into her shitty friend's house, stole Lauren’s diary back, planted drugs in this chick's room and in her locker, then notified police. The principal who didn’t do anything to stop the bullying got his ass kicked. And he hasn’t stopped watching out for her since.

Lauren now has a very successful Me4U account (think OnlyFans). Her very first subscriber (and most dedicated and supportive) is NT95 (aka Nico). Lauren is very involved with getting a law passed that ensured local sex workers could report assault without getting in trouble for prostitution. She just recently had a meeting with a local Councilwoman and was pretty sure she had the votes to get it passed.

Now that Tommy is out of the picture, Nico thinks it’s time to reunite with Lauren. He goes with his mom to church, knowing Lauren will be there, and confronts her (by pushing her up against a wall and making her think that clearly she has been possessed by a dead horny nun because she should not find this man or his actions attractive). He also might have put a tracker in her purse… 

When he notices some old women giving her the side eye and talking badly about her, he also might slit all their tires….

Nico uses that tracker and tracks her to this sex club called Velvet. She owns a portion of this club along with some other friends but they are currently getting screwed (and not in the good way) by their landlord who keeps raising their rent. They are worried they might have to find a new place. That plus renovations will cost a pretty penny. 

Anyways, Nico shows up at the club. His tracker is pretty spot on so he ends up sitting right next to her. They are in a room and Nico really doesn’t know what he has gotten himself into until the show starts. It’s a voyeur room. Lauren tries to get him to leave but he’s not having it. She notices half way through the event that he is really enjoying himself. Afterwards, they end up in a stairwell and she tells him that she is still not happy with him about all that went down in high school. He says what do I need to do? She tells him to grovel. So he drops to his knees and begs for her forgiveness. Yeah, that works pretty well. Then they’re hooking up in the stairwell until they are interrupted by her roommates who have come to check on her. 

Nico decides its time to come clean about NT95. He sends Lauren a request on Me4U, to meet up (which she does not do). He offers her $5000. She turns it down and then he sends a picture of a page of her diary from highschool and ups his offer to $7000. He wants to play out a fantasy that she wrote about when they were teens. She then realizes that her favorite, most loyal, Day 1, subscriber, has been Nico this whole time. She agrees to meet up with him.

They meet up at an arcade they used to frequent that is currently closed. But Nico has connections so he is able to get a key. He fulfills one of her fantasies (going down on her in the picture booth while it takes their pictures). But he refuses to let her repay the favor. She says she might forgive him and then asks him out on Friday, to Velvet. 

Come Friday, Lauren is at the club, and Nico is not. He texted her that he is hung up with family stuff but he will be there soon. She gets pissed and turns her phone off. She watches the show, then goes downstairs and is drinking while some guy tries flirting with her. Nico arrives, walks up her, pushes the dude out of the way, and kisses her. But that’s a weak way of describing it. It’s like he consumes her. Marks her as his. She tells him to go upstairs and he’s thinking they are going to a private room, but nope, another show. During the show, she gives him head. In a room full of people. While he’s watching a live threesome. While everyone else is hooking up around them.

She questions why he was late and he tells her that his dad called a family dinner at the last minute and he had to attend. Nico has been quietly putting away money and making investments because he doesn’t want to work for his dad anymore. He wants out. His dad must sense this because during dinner, he tells Nico he wants him to take on more responsibility and gives him control over a big job. Nico knows this is his dad’s way of holding onto him and also, if they get caught, Nico gets in trouble, not his dad.

Lauren tells Nico about the dude raising the rent and how they need to find a new place. Unknown to Lauren, Nico has been quietly taking care of her problems for the last 10 years, so he’s like ok, I can take care of this one too. Later, he asks Josh to look into who owns the building for him. 

Before the night is over, some drunk assholes get past the bouncers and come into the club. Nico, who already has anger problems and is all worked up over his family dinner, handles the problem. He doesn’t kill anyone but he does use force. Right before this, Nico was just trying to make conversation and asked Lauren what she wants to do after “all this” is over (meaning her Me4U). She takes that as him wanting to control her and gets all pissed off at him. That, plus the violence (aka protecting), she kicks him out and tells him to leave. 

After he leaves, she realizes that the phone left on the table is his. He took hers. 

She calls him and he says whatever she does, do not answer that phone, and he will meet her tomorrow at church to trade them back.

The next day, he calls her, tells her to come find him in the church. He is hiding in one of the confessionals and he grabs her as she walks by. He apologizes for how his questions came off, he doesn’t want to control her, and doesn’t think she needs to stop, he was just asking. Then they hook up. In the confessional in church. While some priests are right outside the door talking about baseball. 

A week later, after talking with Josh, Nico sends Lauren another request on Me4U. This one for 10 grand asking her to go to his cousins BBQ/engagement party with him. Other than Aly, no other members of his family will be there. She denies it because she has a new reason to be mad at him - she found the tracker in her purse. Immediately he’s knocking at her door. 

He comes clean about…most things. Tells her he has been silently taking care of her for years. He planted the drugs, he beat up the principal, he slit the old ladies tires, he got her parking tickets wiped clean, he fixed her car when it got damaged, he blackmailed Councilwoman Blackwell into meeting with her. She says please stop interfering in my life and he’s like “No.” He says he won’t apologize for helping make her life a little easier and he won’t stop. He asks her again to come to Aly’s party with him. She agrees.

When she gets to the party, she meets Aly and they hit it off. Then she meets Josh and gets wide eyed. She looks back and forth from him to Aly and then looks at Aly and says “Aly…Oxen Free?” Aly grabs her and quickly walks away from Nico and Josh is like yeah I don’t know what that's about at all….

Nico gets the pleasure of meeting Tyler again. He doesn’t really like him. But if you remember, Tyler is kind of a douche that Josh only loves because he has been such a good friend their entire lives. 

Josh had managed to get Lauren’s club landlord's name and found out that the dude owes a lot of money to some bookie. Nico has been trying to figure out which bookie but this guy is new and very good at staying hidden so he put his brother on the job. Nico wants to buy the dude’s debts from the bookie and then use that leverage to make the dude sign the building lease over to Nico.

They go back to Laurens place and she invites him in. He gets a phone call and says he has to go but he’ll be back. She’s like no big deal, this is just casual right? He says what if I want something more than that? They both admit to being scared but then she agrees she also wants more. 

The phone call he got was from his brother. He found the bookie and has tracked down his location. Nico and some of his guys go there but when he gets there he is shocked to discover he knows the bookie - its Tyler. (yeah…what the fuck?). They agree to a deal for future partnerships and just like that, Nico owns this landlord's debts.

The next day, Lauren goes to visit her sister, Kristen. Her grandma had told Lauren that Kristen had told her their dad is missing, and this time feels different than other times he has ran off. They think he’s missing for real. Lauren and her sister do not really get along and this visit isn’t any different. She questions why Kristen didn’t tell her about their dad and she’s like because there isn’t much to tell, the only thing they know is that he was last seen with Nico Senior. Kristen’s husband, Hugo, works for the mob boss, Lorenzo, so he hears things. Kristen tells Lauren that Nico and his boys are the clean-up crew for Lorenzo. So the rumor is that they “cleaned up” Tommy. Lauren feels like she is having a panic attack.

Meanwhile, Nico is at the landlord’s guy apartment, convincing him (by threatening to remove fingers) to sign over the deed for the building that Velvet is in. He does it…only after losing a finger. That Nico kindly put in a bag of ice to be reattached later. He heads home and when he gets there, he gets tased in the back. He is a mobster, he responds violently to someone being violent towards him. He spins around quickly, knocks the weapon away, grabs the person by the throat and slams them in the wall before realizing that its Lauren. He’s like WTF lady. She says she knows he had something to do with her father’s disappearance, she knows they are the mob’s clean up crew, and she wants answers. They argue, he ends up yelling that yes he killed her dad and then decided to fuck his daughter as a last fuck you to him. Then immediately regrets it because that’s not true. She tells him to stay the fuck away from her. Before she leaves, Nico warns her not to tell anyone what she knows. That his dad won’t hesitate to get rid of her.

Three days later, Lauren hasn’t gotten out of bed. She is devastated that she let Nico hurt her AGAIN. She doesn’t really care that her dad is dead…he was never much than a sperm donor to her. But still…she can’t be with the guy that killed him…can she?

Nico shows up at her house. She thinks he is there to kill her but he’s just there to give her the deed to the building. He tells her that that’s what he was doing the other night when he had to leave. He wanted to get some clean money, help Velvet grow, start a life with Lauren, but now that none of that is an option, he just wants her to have the building. She asks him what really happened to her dad. He tells her that they don’t just clean up dead bodies, but they help get rid of live ones too. Her dad, Tommy, “cooked the books” for some higher ups in the mob. The feds were closing in on him and Tommy went to Lorenzo for help. Lorenzo made it look like Tommy disappeared but really sent him to Italy to work for his cousins back home. Nico has video proof of this as well. He tells Lauren everything, answers all of her questions.

She tells him she can’t take the deed, she wants him to have it, she wants him to get out of his father’s control. He apologizes many times for everything. She makes him promise no more secrets, no more lies. Then he comes clean about what really happened in high school - how her dad beat the shit out of him and threatened to kill him. How his dad threatened to get rid of Lauren. 

Nico tells her he is going to tell his dad that he wants out at the next family dinner. She wants to go. Josh and Aly have to go, per their agreement with Nico Senior, and Josh is going to be there as emotional (and physical) support for Nico. 

Two weeks later, they are all having family dinner. Nico Senior is not happy that Lauren is there. He insults her, Aly yells at him. Nico tells him he bought a building. Senior can’t figure out what the con is and Nico tells him there is none, it's legit, he wants out of the mob business. Senior throws a glass at his head, which misses but splashes Lauren with wine. He gets up in Nico’s face yelling then tries to side step him to get to Lauren but Josh is there. With his cell phone. Tells Senior to tell one more step and see what happens (remember, Josh is blackmailing him with telling the feds all his dirty little secrets). Senior instead lunges at Nico and starts strangling him. Lauren tases him to get him to let go. 

Senior passes out and Moira (Nico’s mom) tells them they should probably leave before he wakes up. Nico’s brothers (Stefan, Greg, and Alec) try to get Moira to leave with them but she says she can handle their dad. Stefan grabs a bag and says they should all leave to teach Senior a lesson, then he walks out. 

Outside, Aly says she thinks they can all agree that family dinners are over. Josh says but what if we have our own?

In the epilogue, they are at Aly’s house for family dinner. Lauren’s two roommates and their significant others are there. Tyler shows up, with his new girlfriend, Stella. Josh asks how they met and he says, “Well, that’s kind of a long story.” 

Which I’m hoping we hear in book 3.