Page 74 of Forbidden Obsession

“Continue to make me proud. I know you will.”

“Of course, Father.”

He nodded and his lips thinned. “It’s time, Dominic. In just under a few months, you’ll marry into the Cappalli family to tie our family bonds and strengthen our relationships. It’s the only thing that matters now.”

Surprise rippled through me, and with it, the anger I felt clouded my vision and drummed against my skull, giving me an instant massive headache.

“How does that help our current situation?”

“You don’t understand how powerful you are, son. You’ve made a name for yourself in the underworld. Having you as a son-in-law guarantees safety. No one is willing to come against you or me. Therefore, we must reassure our friends and link with two of the most powerful families next to ours—the Cappallis and the Niccolòs.”

I locked my jaw and kept my breathing steady. I knew this day would one day come, but to know I was the reason to usher it in must have been a bit of my karma swinging at me tenfold.

“We? You mean me. How will we link with the both of them?”

“I also mean me, too.”

Surprised, a deep guffaw dropped from my mouth, but Dameon’s serious demeanor sucked that mirth from my gut straightaway.

“That is not a joke?”

“Why would it be?”

“You’re sixty-nine fuckin’-years old.”

He frowned and glared. “And still breathing. My dick still gets hard. What does my age have to do with it?”

I reined in my annoyance and straightened my shoulders. “I didn’t think you would wed again.”

His glare dropped, and he inhaled a deep breath. “You mean after your mother.”

I locked my jaw. I never talked about my mother. She was a ghost who abandoned me as soon as I’d arrived, so there was no point.

“Yes, well, that was the plan, but plans change, and right now, this is the only thing that matters.” He took a sip of his liquor.

“Drink up. In the next coming weeks, things will move fast.”

I swallowed the entire glass in a single gulp, slammed it on the desk, and nodded. “As you wish.”

Drawing on the cigar, I turned my back and left the office, needing to blow off some steam.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Lightning scattered across the sky, followed by rumbles of thunder. I found it appropriate that the weather aligned with my mood—hostile and violent.

After changing at the warehouse, I'd asked myself why anger fired through me with untethered vehemence. What did I stand to lose in a life where my existence wasn’t living in the first place?

But I knew the answer, even though I tried to deny it. I would lose the one person who had given me purpose and shared the only joy I’d ever felt in a world so cold.

Penelope.

I’d rather cut my own head off before marrying into the Cappalli family. But before I set the time and date for my own demise, I would kill everyone else first.

The pulse in my body throbbed as anger rolled through me, and when I kicked in the door of Benjamin Caruso’s home, he snapped out of his slumber and sat up quickly on the side of the bed.

“Who’s there?” he yelled as I floated out of the shadows like an apparition. Benjamin’s eyes widened, and terror struck across his face. “Who…” he fumbled with his words. “Who are you?”

I pulled the shotgun into the dim lighting so he could see it, and his worrying eyes dropped to the weapon.

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