Page 16 of Deadly Obsession

They somehow ended up on the same assignment, to kill Cillian O’Connor, the son of the Don for the Lords of Staten Island. I’ve been trying to take down that sad excusefor a crime organization for years. Cillian was the worst of them, a rapist, low-life scum.

His father, Finn, is a piece of shit too. Finn is involved in human trafficking, and I have no doubt he’s helping this new fucker, Moonlight, who we believe is behind recent shipments.

If the Lords are working with this Moonlight douchebag, then they both need to be taken down. But dismembering a whole mob isn’t easy. I can’t go in with guns blazing. It’s too big of a mess to clean up that would involve utilizing my contacts with the FBI. I’d rather keep them out of this if I can.

The Lords are already under the agency’s eye because of the crimes Cillian committed. He was messy and one more crime away from getting the Lords slapped with RICO charges.

But he’s gone now. Dead.

And Noah was the one to take him out.

But now she’s found herself in trouble. The day after she killed Cillian, her apartment building—the same one where Lance had a safe house—blew up. That was just over two weeks ago. We spent a week trying to find the person responsible with no luck.

But now they’re both here? At Gio Lenetti’s Christmas party? Lance didn’t tell me he had been invited, so this was either planned or a coincidence, and I hate coincidences.

Time to piss him off.

I scan Noah’s body and rub my thumb over my bottom lip. She’s beautiful.

Not as beautiful as Reine.

“Elias. This idiot’s brother,” I say, then take Noah’s offered greeting.

I lift her hand to my mouth and kiss her knuckles.

“A gentleman,” Noah purrs.

“He’s not a fucking gentleman,” my brother growls.

I laugh, full belly. “I have to say... I’ve never seen my brother so... protective of another person before.”

The woman takes my brother’s fisted hand and weaves her fingers with his. His anger immediately fades.

A pang rips through my heart and stabs my insides from my heart down to my stomach.

I want that. I want a woman who can calm me down with just her touch.

What if I had her and let her go?

“What are you doing here?” Lance asks, his voice low. “If anyone were to find out the leader of the QBM is at an Empire party...”

I glance at Noah, expecting her to react to my brother calling me a fucking mob boss, but she’s Colpa Sicario. She likely knows all the heavy hitters in this godforsaken city.

“I was invited,” I say and take a drink of my whiskey.

“By my father?” Noah asks, and I whip my head back to her.

“You’re Gio Lenetti’s daughter? I thought Noemi Lenetti—”

“Died? No. It was a lie.” She snorts. “It’s weird hearing my birth name again after all these years.”

What the hell is going on? Noah is a contract killeranda mafia princess? Even worse, she’s the daughter of the man who Lance and I believe ordered our mother’s death?

I turn my attention to Lance. How long has he known she’s our rival? Is she making a play? Using my brother to get to me to take down the QBM?

“We’re working together,” Lance says.

“And fucking,” Noah adds.