Page 65 of Obsession

The next morningconsists of me drinking far too much coffee and pacing around my studio while texting Zoe.

If Adrian really is about to betray Sam, then I need to warn him, right? But telling Sam likely means that Adrian is going to get hurt…or worse.

I have a headache.

Logically, I drink more coffee. Which does nothing to soothe the pounding in my head, nor the spiral of thoughts whooshing through my brain.

I’m not ready to believe that Adrian is going to betray my family. But I heard him loud and clear. There’s no misunderstanding when he flat out told Damien that Sam would be easier to kill outside of prison. But I can’t ignore that he asked me which side I would choose, and when I said Sam, he told me he was going to get my cousin out of prison.

I need to talk it out with Zoe before I get my husband killed. But I also know I can’t let him get Sam killed either.

I drink more coffee, and when Zoe finally shows up at my studio, I word vomit everything.

How we went to New York and I saw Lana and it was amazing.

How I slept with Adrian. Many, many times now and the sex is better than I could have ever imagined.

And how I think I’m falling… No, scratch that, I know I’m in love with my husband.

And how I also know he’s about to betray us.

THIRTY-FIVE

Adrian

I’m in the middle of watching Judge Henry Langston drink his morning coffee. His wrinkled face is twisted into a frown as he flips through the pages of the newspaper. The sight of the black and white newspaper brings me back to that first morning with Madi in my home, where she insinuated I was an old man for reading from a physical paper before I bent her over the table and punished her smart ass.

Pushing down the fond memories before my cock gets any harder, I try to focus on the judge. In a perfect world, I’d have more time to study his movements before I got him alone and laid out the terms of our arrangement. But I’m lacking time. Pressure from both Sam and Damien has me rushing this plan. My only saving grace is that Alessio was able to give me an outline of his schedule based on his calendar, which the tech wiz kid hacked into somehow. Now, I just have to hope that the man follows his schedule to the T.

“What’s he doing?” Fede asks beside me, taking a chug of his own takeout coffee.

“Just reading the paper.” I sigh.

Fede sighs, leaning back into his seat. “So, how was New York?”

“I already told you,” I say, keeping my focus on the Judge.

“No, not the whole plan part. How was it with Madi?”

Now I move the binoculars to the side and look at my brother. He’s been against my marriage to Madi since the second I proposed it. Seeing it as nothing more than a distraction.

“What are you asking?”

“Are you serious about her?” he asks, and I fear if I tell him the truth, that will only make him angry. Fede and I have always been close, and that closeness has been built on our shared need to take down the family that ruined ours.

“I don’t know, Fed,” I say with a sigh, even though I know I’m lying.

I’m in deep.

I’m in love with Madalena Russo, the daughter of the man who ordered my father’s death.

“It doesn’t matter,” I tell him. “We’re still going to take down the Costellos.”

“And then what?” he asks, the agitation rising in his words. “You two just ride off into the sunset? It doesn’t work like that, Adrian. She’s a liability.”

“What do you mean-”

The ringing of my cellphone distracts me, cutting off my words. John’s name flashes across the screen, and with a groan, I answer.

---