Page 16 of Obsession

Madi looked like she could hold her own, take down any man who tried to enter her orbit, and yet, I wanted to be crushed by her.

Maybe I’m a masochist.

Or maybe I’m the fool who thinks he can tame her.

“Can I have a moment?” The question is paired with a quick knock on the open door.

Nonna glances at Damien Romano before her eyes pass back to me. Naive, maybe, but my grandmother isn’t dumb. She knows what the Costello family does for a living, and she knows that with Marcus and Junior gone and Sam in prison, Damien is the head of the family.

“Of course. I’ll get out of your hair,amore mio,”she says brightly, pressing onto her toes to leave a kiss on my cheek. Sheswipes her thumb over the spot, removing any lipstick that clung to my skin, and gives me one last warm smile before she leaves.

Damien shuts the door behind her. “Yournonna?”

“Si,”I answer, walking the three steps it takes to get me to the makeshift bar I set up on the coffee table. It’s not much, just a thirty-year-old bottle of Glenfiddich and two crystal tumblers. I pour us each two fingers’ worth of the pricey liquor.

Wordlessly, Damien takes his, clinking the glass against mine before tilting it back.

I let the liquid burn its way down my throat before I bring my gaze back to the man across from me. “So, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?”

“I was surprised to hear the wedding was still on,” Damien says, perching himself on the edge of the velvet couch. His dark eyes wander over my suit, pausing at the sight of the blue bow tie before coming up to my eyes.

Bringing the crystal to my lips, I take another slow sip of the amber liquid. “Yeah?” I question. “Why’s that?”

“I would’ve thought my nephew’s death would scare you off. It’s a dangerous line of work, after all.”

“Not if you’re just the lawyer.”

Damien laughs like I told the funniest joke. I can’t quite place his angle, and normally, I can scope out everyone’s intentions. This family isn’t any more ambitious than most; they just happen to be ambitious in a very specific niche. One that’s not quite legal.

As far as Damien knows, I’m just a money-hungry attorney with loose morals willing to work with the mafia. It’s not a hard story to believe, considering how many corrupt people are in positions of power in this world. They see me as another chess piece they can move around as they see fit. The lawyer who will do their bidding in the courtroom. They give me favors and cold,hard cash in exchange, and I take it like a greedy little pup, only encouraging their idea of me.

And I won’t lie, the money is nice. I was making plenty before I got involved with the Costellos, but working for them easily quadrupled the amount I was taking in.

But what they don’t know is that I don’t care about the money.

All I care about is my end game. The plan where I tear down this family piece by piece. Until every last one of them is dead or in prison — punished for their sins.

“Even if you’rejust the lawyer,” Damien mimics me. “You have blood on your hands, just like the rest of us.”

As he says the words, I can feel the metaphorical blood on my fingertips. I close my eyes for a moment, sucking in a breath and centering myself. I can’t show weakness, not in front of Damien.

My rule from the beginning has been to make sure no good men like my father find themselves punished for the crimes of this family. I got off the men they wanted back on the streets, and if someone was sent to prison, I made sure he deserved it. I’m not in the business of letting innocents suffer.

“Maybe, but my job is to clean up that blood.” I hold up my free hand, flipping it back and forth. “Looks sparkly clean to me.”

Damien chuckles deeply. “It’s gonna get bloodier, you realize that, right?” His thick eyebrow ticks upward with the question. “Marcus’s death just means that Sam isn’t going to go down as easily as we thought. That kid’s a fighter.” He shakes his head like he’s both proud and pissed at his other nephew. He’s also the first one to point blank say that Marcus is dead. I assumed as much, but until now, everyone else has said “missing,” paired with the fact that there’s no body. But I guess it’s easy enough to put two and two together. Marcus started a fight with JohnVitale that he couldn’t finish and only one of them walked away with their life intact.

I press my fingers against the glass, squeezing it tightly. “What’s your point, Damien?”

He shrugs his shoulders, a smirk playing on his lips. “If you’re one to scare easily, you should back out now.”

I run that eerie statement through my mind, analyzing it for the meaning that lingers underneath. “You’re expecting a war.”

“Something like that…” Damien eyes me. “So the question is, are you in or out?”

I should say out. I should leave this church, let Madi and my revenge scheme go, and get the hell out of New Orleans. My father would have never wanted to see me working with the mafia. He’d be disappointed if he knew what I succumbed to.

But he’s not here anymore.

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