Page 43 of Obsessive Love

His eyes flick up from the screen, and he nods before spinning the laptop around so the screen faces me.

"That right there is their Uncle Carlos," he states, pointing at the top left square of the CCTV footage on the screen. He uses the mouse to enlarge the square and I see a half-naked man sitting atop a mattress, shackled to a wall. "He's supposed to be dead."

I move closer to the desk, squinting at the footage as I examine the bruises and cuts littering his skin.

"Looks like he might as well be dead," I whisper, cringing as the man rolls over and reveals multiple deep slashes across his back.

"Soph, you understand how big this is, right?" Jaylen asks, turning the laptop back around and thankfully saving me from looking at that horrifying view any longer.

I shake my head, confused as to why he seems so shocked and intrigued.

"Part of the reason Alessandro wanted this marriage to go ahead was because many of his men were being killed off or going missing and he thought that it was the Garcia family that was behind it. The fact that Jericho has live footage of Carlos locked up suggests that he's either working with the Garcia family or-"

"Or Jericho and Kaleb are behind it all and Carlos is actually in one of those holding cells in the other room," I say, finishing his sentence for him as all the pieces come together in my mind.

He nods and I gulp as a cold shiver travels through my body.

"What do you think it all means?" I ask quietly, moving closer to him and glancing around the room as my paranoia gets the best of me and the feeling of being watched floods over me.

"It means something much bigger than I ever expected is going on."

He turns the flashlight off on my phone and then holds it up to the screen, snapping a few pictures of the CCTV footage on the screen.

"What are you doing?"

I attempt to snatch the phone out of his hand but he pulls it away from me, shaking his head.

"Don't worry, I'll send the pictures to myself and delete them from your phone. I don't want you getting caught with this. You need to pretend you don't know anything about this," he says, staring me directly in the eyes as he speaks in a low tone.

I gape at him, unsure I'll be able to keep this to myself with how often Kaleb manages to corner me and get me alone.

"Sophia, you have to promise me you will not talk about what we've seen to anyone. If they're doing this to their own uncle, I don't want to imagine what they could do to you. Please, Soph, promise me that you won't say anything until I've gained some more intel on what's going on here," he pleads, looking at me with such concern.

I look back and forth between his face and my phone and then slowly nod my head.

"Okay," I whisper. "I won't say anything."

He sighs in relief and then passes me my phone.

"Send the pictures to me and then delete them whilst I log out of his laptop. Then get out of here and leave me to lock everything back up, okay?"

"Don't be stupid. I'm not leaving you, Jay," I argue.

He shakes his head and scoffs.

"See, if I'd given you a heart attack, then I wouldn't have to deal with this stubbornness," he retorts.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Kaleb

Dominic and I jump behind one of the black SUVs we drove here, narrowly avoiding the tyrant of bullets that pelt against the metal on the other side. I quickly glance around the dark carpark that's only partially lit up by one of the cars that's currently burning, trying to spot my brother, but all I can see are flames and bleeding men.

"You have any idea where the fuck Jericho went?" I shout to Dominic, turning to look at his wide-eyed expression.

He shakes his head as he reloads his gun and wipes a hand across his sweaty forehead.

"Last I saw, he and Leo were running towards Charlie because he was blocked in and about to get lit up."

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