Page 37 of Obsessive Love

"I lost the love of my life because of this family. It tore me apart and it's changed me indefinitely. I don't want him to become cold and bitter. I don't want him to close himself off from the world. His mind works very differently from others. He can be very impulsive and unpredictable as it is and I fear that if he was to lose you because of me or anyone else in this family like I did, he would go off the rails and lose himself. Kaleb doesn't deserve that. He's been through enough, we both have, but he deserves to find his happiness and I believe you are that for him," he states, dropping multiple bombs on me at once.

I place my hand on his, giving it a squeeze in an attempt to give him some small amount of comfort and support.

"I'm sorry that you lost her," I whisper. "I can tell that she meant a lot to you."

He offers a short nod in response and then his eyes drop to where my hand rests on his.

"All I ask of you is that you keep an open mind when it comes to my brother and if you want to, give him a chance. Just makesure that you're discreet and careful, and whatever you do, do not let my father know of your connection with Kaleb." He slides his hand out from beneath mine, pats my shoulder and then stands and leaves the room, leaving me with a scrambled mind and a whole heap of information to try and dissect.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Kaleb

Sophia's been avoiding me for a week. Well, she's been trying to and thinks she's succeeded, but little does she know, I know exactly where she's been and what she's been doing, just as I always have done.

Jericho told me about their conversation in the dining room last week, and I'm convinced that he must've spurted a load of shit that made her think I was insane and scared her off. Add on the fact that I came on quite strong the night before that conversation and told her that she was mine and I didn't care about their marriage. It's safe to assume that she's freaked out.

Thankfully, Miles has been busy finding out information on the Garcia family and their men, so I've spent all week with Adonis, taking my frustrations out on every fucker that we've managed to capture.

We know now that they plan to keep Jericho alive so that they can force him into a marriage with Brody's daughter, Ellie, once they've killed off Sophia and anyone else who would stand in the way of them taking over our city.

I've also found out that the capo, Frank, flew over to the UK last night and is set to arrive in London this evening with another load of men, so instead of thinking about the fact that my girl probably thinks I'm a psychopath at the moment and doesn't want to see me, I focus on trying to find out where in the city these New York mafia motherfuckers are so that I can hopefully take them out and send a message back to Brody Garcia in the form of a dead capo.

Currently, I'm sitting in the passenger seat of Jericho's car on the way to a meeting with our father, texting back and forth with Miles about installing a camera into Sophia's room so that I can keep a closer eye on her whilst I'm not there.

Miles:

I'd need to know when she's out of the house so that I can sneak in and install it for you, although I'm unsure about this.

Kaleb:

Lose the conscience, Miles. You helped me with the camera in her last room. For all you know, I could've been lying about only wanting it installed to see her open her gift.

Miles:

You're not doing a good job of convincing me.

Kaleb:

£3,000 should be enough to convince you. I'm not going to creep on her, it's simply going to be there for the nights when I can't sneak in. I'll let you know when she's out of the house.

Miles:

YOU SNEAK INTO HER ROOM?!?

I'm not giving you another camera.

I choose to read and ignore his last message, shaking my head in frustration at how complicated he's making this whole process. When I pocket my phone and glance out the window to see our surroundings, I notice that we're only a few streets away from my father's house, and my shoulders immediately tense.

"Remind me why he wants to see us," I say, turning to Jericho as we stop at a red light.

"From what I've been told, I'm assuming he wants to discuss the fact that more of his men are either missing or turning up dead on his doorstep. At first, he suspected it was Michael or Dominic, but now he thinks that maybe it's the Garcia family." A cunning smile spreads across his face and he smirks. "I think it's fair to say that we're in the clear and he has no idea what we're doing."

"He's bound to find it suspicious at some point when he realises that not only are his closest confidants dying, but also all of the men loyal to him are the ones that you're sending on these suicide missions, where only a few stragglers are coming back alive," I retort.

"You know the old man, Kaleb. He cares about those men as much as he cares about us, I highly doubt he even knows how many of them are dead. Think about it, Uncle Carlos was Dad's second-hand man. Since he's been gone, Dad has no idea what's been going on and he doesn't care to, so I think we're good for now."

I analyse the calm look on his face as I listen to his stern, determined tone and decide to trust my big brother on thisand believe that he has this whole plan figured out and under control.

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