Page 26 of Obsessive Love (The King #1)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Kaleb

S ophia's been avoiding me for a week. Well, she's been trying to and thinks she's succeeded, but little does she know, I know exactly where she's been and what she's been doing, just as I always have done.

Jericho told me about their conversation in the dining room last week, and I'm convinced that he must've spurted a load of shit that made her think I was insane and scared her off. Add on the fact that I came on quite strong the night before that conversation and told her that she was mine and I didn't care about their marriage. It's safe to assume that she's freaked out.

Thankfully, Miles has been busy finding out information on the Garcia family and their men, so I've spent all week with Adonis, taking my frustrations out on every fucker that we've managed to capture.

We know now that they plan to keep Jericho alive so that they can force him into a marriage with Brody's daughter, Ellie, once they've killed off Sophia and anyone else who would stand in the way of them taking over our city.

I've also found out that the capo, Frank, flew over to the UK last night and is set to arrive in London this evening with another load of men, so instead of thinking about the fact that my girl probably thinks I'm a psychopath at the moment and doesn't want to see me, I focus on trying to find out where in the city these New York mafia motherfuckers are so that I can hopefully take them out and send a message back to Brody Garcia in the form of a dead capo.

Currently, I'm sitting in the passenger seat of Jericho's car on the way to a meeting with our father, texting back and forth with Miles about installing a camera into Sophia's room so that I can keep a closer eye on her whilst I'm not there.

Miles:

I'd need to know when she's out of the house so that I can sneak in and install it for you, although I'm unsure about this.

Kaleb:

Lose the conscience, Miles. You helped me with the camera in her last room. For all you know, I could've been lying about only wanting it installed to see her open her gift.

Miles:

You're not doing a good job of convincing me.

Kaleb:

￡3,000 should be enough to convince you. I'm not going to creep on her, it's simply going to be there for the nights when I can't sneak in. I'll let you know when she's out of the house.

Miles:

YOU SNEAK INTO HER ROOM?!?

I'm not giving you another camera.

I choose to read and ignore his last message, shaking my head in frustration at how complicated he's making this whole process. When I pocket my phone and glance out the window to see our surroundings, I notice that we're only a few streets away from my father's house, and my shoulders immediately tense.

"Remind me why he wants to see us," I say, turning to Jericho as we stop at a red light.

"From what I've been told, I'm assuming he wants to discuss the fact that more of his men are either missing or turning up dead on his doorstep. At first, he suspected it was Michael or Dominic, but now he thinks that maybe it's the Garcia family." A cunning smile spreads across his face and he smirks. "I think it's fair to say that we're in the clear and he has no idea what we're doing."

"He's bound to find it suspicious at some point when he realises that not only are his closest confidants dying, but also all of the men loyal to him are the ones that you're sending on these suicide missions, where only a few stragglers are coming back alive," I retort.

"You know the old man, Kaleb. He cares about those men as much as he cares about us, I highly doubt he even knows how many of them are dead. Think about it, Uncle Carlos was Dad's second-hand man. Since he's been gone, Dad has no idea what's been going on and he doesn't care to, so I think we're good for now."

I analyse the calm look on his face as I listen to his stern, determined tone and decide to trust my big brother on this and believe that he has this whole plan figured out and under control.

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. We already 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. " You are 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."

I pat Jericho's shoulder as I walk past him, hoping he doesn't get too much of a badgering for speaking out of hand, and I leave the room as quickly as I can before I hear another word about Sophia come out of that man's mouth.