Page 38 of Obsessive Love

As we turn onto the road my father lives down, I pull my phone back out of my pocket and quickly check the tracking app, seeing that Sophia is still at her parent's house. I breathe a sigh of relief, knowing she's in a safe and secure place.

"I was tempted to tell her about the tracker in the butterfly clip the other morning, you know? Just to throw a spanner into your well-thought-out plan," Jericho teases.

My narrowed eyes slice over to him and the bastard laughs.

"That look right there is exactly why I decided to keep my mouth shut and let you continue with your stalkerish behaviour."

"Honestly, you should thank me, brother. I'm keeping your wife safe and making sure I can keep an eye on her twenty-four-seven so that you don't have to," I tell him.

"You're only doing it because you're obsessively in love with her," he states. "Don't act like you're doing any of that for my benefit because we both know that's complete and utter bullshit."

"Touché."

His words swish around in my head for a few moments and as we pull up to the gates of my father's property, I grin and look back down at the phone, staring at the blinking dot showing Sophia's location.

"You know what, Jer, I like that. She's my obsessive love."

My brother snorts and shakes his head, muttering something under his breath before winding down his window and pressing the code into the keypad, granting us access to our father's house of nightmares.

"What a surprise it is to see you here," my father says, pointedly staring at me as Jericho and I step into his office. "Thank you for finally gracing us with your presence when it's needed."

"I've been busy. Can't be at your beck and call whenever you want me to be, Father," I spit back.

My father glares at me from behind his desk as Jericho and I take a seat opposite him.

"I see you still haven't learnt to respect your elders and the chain of command."

I scoff and shake my head. "You know what they say, you can't teach an old dog new tricks."

"What are we here for?" Jericho asks, purposefully interrupting our bickering before it gets any further.

My father watches me for a few more moments before turning to Jericho and handing him a stack of papers.

"There's some information on the Garcia family that I've managed to get a hold of and I'm positive that they're the ones targeting us. Seeing as you're in charge now, I thought I'd hand it over to you and see what you'd suggest we do," he says, displeasure filling his tone as he talks about Jericho being in charge.

I smirk and glance over at the papers Jericho's shuffling through, knowing that Jericho's next comment is going to anger him further.

"Well, thanks, but I don't need these." Jericho places the papers back on the desk, sliding them in front of our father. "Two of those men have already been questioned and are now being disposed of and the other man is the capo, Frank. Wealready have all the information we need on him and we're planning a hit on him tonight."

I watch in amusement as my father's face slowly turns red as he grinds his teeth and clenches his jaw.

"Very well," he bites out. "Seems like you have everything under control already."

"We're also bringing Dominic with us tonight, putting him in charge of the attack."

"That's absurd!" he shouts, standing from his chair and punching his fists against the desk as he leans forward, glowering at the pair of us. "Youare the leader of both families now, Jericho. That was in the contract! You should be in charge of everything and overseeing every mission, not Dominic King!"

Jericho shrugs and stands from his chair, indicating that we'll be leaving sooner than I thought, thank God.

"As you said, Pops, I'm in charge now. I'm thinking about this logically. It's bound to be a dangerous situation tonight with a lot of possible losses on both sides, so I'd rather send Dominic into the frail than send myself. Dominic is expendable in your plan for the Rossi future. I'm not," he states.

His narrowed gaze flickers back and forth between us before he sits back in his chair and stares at Jericho with a frown.

"Maybe you should consider having Leo around with you for protection instead of your brother because it seems to me that you've been spending too much time with Kaleb if you think that this is the right way to speak to me, son. Besides, isn't he meant to be appointed as a bodyguard for that wife of yours? God knows what that woman might be getting up to without someone keeping tabs on her."

I stand from my chair, purposefully pushing down on the arms as I scoot it back so that the legs loudly scratch against the floor, hopefully creating scuff marks on the polished wooden floors.

"Considering you're talking about me as if I'm not here, I might as well leave and wait in the car. Pleasure seeing you, Father, as always."

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