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Home / Mafia / His Enemy, His Obsession / Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

All Chapters of His Enemy, His Obsession: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

59 Chapters

CHAPTER 32

ON“THIS IS A GODDAMN SUICIDE MISSION.”I can feel the vein in my temple throbbing against the onset of a migraine as I pace the length of the Hudson Valley kitchen. Zli just stands there, adjusting a pair of heavy, dark sunglasses and pulling a charcoal-grey baseball cap low over his brow.“We have to keep Callum in the loop, Ron,” Zli says, his voice flat and analytical, the way he sounds when he’s staring at a balance sheet of blood money. “He’s my field lead. He has a right to know that the Crimson Dragons are currently hunting him as the primary suspect in the Club Ombra hit.”I grunt, my dissatisfaction radiating in waves. Everything about this meeting with his ex-partner—and whatever history they have that Zli refuses to label—feels like we’re hand-delivering our heads to the Matriarch. But Zli insisted. He has this code, this rigid Agency loyalty that I haven't been able to fuck or reason out of him yet.It’s late afternoon when we reach the neutral ground: a busy stretch of t

CHAPTER 33

RON“CLIMB IT!” I roar, shoving Zli toward the chain-link fence. “I’ll handle this bastard. GO!”Zli hesitates for a fraction of a second, his eyes flashing with a mix of tactical calculation and raw worry. “Ron—”“I said MOVE!” I bark. I don’t have time for a debate. I whip around just as the Crimson Dragon enforcer—a hulking piece of muscle named Marco Bellini’s favorite street-soldier—swings a heavy wooden baseball bat. I dive to the left, the wood whistling inches from my ear.The soldier’s eyes go wide as he recognizes me under the streetlights. “Captain Hwan? You’re with the Ledger? The Matriarch... Tess will have your head on a spike for this!”A bloodthirsty, jagged grin spreads across my lips. I can feel the heat of the betrayal boiling in my veins. “Who’s going to tell her, you pathetic little snitch? You?”The soldier’s nostrils flare. He’s insulted, but more than that, he’s terrified. He knows my reputation. He lunges again, putting his entire weight into a horizontal swin

CHAPTER 34

RON“THIS ISN'T JUST A HEADACHE, IS IT?”Zli’s voice is a soft anchor in the drowning sea of my own agony. I’m sprawled on the leather sofa of the Hudson Valley estate, the room dimmed to a graveyard's hush. Every time my heart beats, it feels like a serrated blade is twisting behind my right eye. It’s an old friend, this pain—a familiar demon that has shared my skull for twenty years.Zli is kneeling beside me, his hands remarkably steady for a man who just witnessed a murder. He’s already worked off my boots and is now peeling back the blood-soaked towel I’d pressed to my temple. I hiss, my body jerking in a reflexive attempt to pull away from the sting.“Stay with me, Ron,” he murmurs, his tone shifting from tactical analyst to something terrifyingly tender. “You’re losing a lot of blood, and your pupils are different sizes. Talk to me. Don’t you dare drift off.”“Kitchen cabinet,” I grunt, the words vibrating like tectonic plates in my jaw. “Second shelf. The amber bottle. It’s he

CHAPTER 35

ZLI“YOU’RE LATE, AND YOU’RE BLEEDING,” I say the moment Ron’s key turns in the lock of the Brooklyn brownstone.Ron leans against the doorframe, a weary, jagged smirk playing on his lips despite the dark bruise blooming along his jaw. “Business meeting with the matriarch, Ledger. Tess doesn’t exactly hand out gold stars for participation. She hands out lessons.”He trusts me enough to leave me in this sanctuary alone, yet I haven't said a word to him about the visitor who’s currently sitting in his leather armchair, sipping a glass of his most expensive bourbon. Ron is only home for a quick change of clothes before heading back out to the Dragons' New York hub, but the timing is a razor’s edge.“Zli? Who are you talking to?”Lydia “LIL” Moretti stands up, her shadow stretching long across the hardwood floor. She’s not wearing her tactical gear; she’s in a sharp, charcoal blazer that screams FBI upper management, her grey-streaked hair pulled back into a knot so tight it looks painful

CHAPTER 36

ZLI“You trusted me to stay in the brownstone, Ron,” I mutter to the empty living room. “And I’m sitting here keeping secrets from you before the ink on our truce is even dry.”The silence of the Hudson Valley estate is heavy, almost suffocating. Ron had to head into the city for a mandatory Crimson Dragons summit—something about keeping up appearances with the Castellano family and managing the fallout from our little "disagreement" at the docks. It was the perfect window for Lydia "LIL" Moretti to slip in and deliver her warnings, but now that she’s gone, I’m left with a head full of noise and a mysterious videotape sitting on the TV console like a live grenade.The estate doesn't have a VCR. In this temple of glass and high-end tech, a magnetic tape is a fossil. I consider driving into the city to find an electronics shop in the Village, but my gut tells me to stay put. My presence in New York is already a blinking red light on every radar.To distract myself, I flip open Ron's lap

CHAPTER 37

RON From the challenging peak with the Crimson Dragons’ leadership at the Castellano estate to the constant, fluttering squabbles between my crews in Lower Manhattan, it’s been one fire after another. My lungs feel like they’re lined with New York gauze and banal espresso. Now the shitty day has turned into an indeed shittier night, climaxing in a family event I noway asked to attend. I walk through the Bellgrave’s revolving doors with the enthusiasm of a man heading to his own prosecution, my shoulders set in a sullen line that broadcasts my mood to every valet and swell in the lobby. A couple of women draped in Bulgari diamonds regard over with egregious interest, drawn by the sharp cut of my tuxedo and the dangerous, tired energy I’m radiating. They presumably fete me — the rebellious Hwan son, the bonewho runs the clubs and the" licit" fronts, the bonewho does not relatively fit the earth of his ruthless mama . I fully ignore them. I’m not in my usual kittenish, life- of- th

CHAPTER 38

RON“Ronan, I hope you aren’t trying to slither out of here like a snake before the final toast.”I stop dead at the sound of my mother addressing me. It’s the first time we’ve been alone all night, away from the prying eyes of the Castellano capos. Theresa "Tess" Nalila is draped in a crimson gown that looks like dried blood, her gold watch catching the light as she crosses her arms. Despite the celebratory music drifting from the ballroom, her face is a mask of stone.We’ve wound up near the entrance of The Vesuvius Room. The rest of the syndicate is on the opposite side of the gold-leafed hall, laughing and drinking to a merger built on corpses.“I have a migraine, Mother. I need to go,” I say, the lie tasting like ash.“Stop lying. I know you’ve been up to no good lately. Those nights in Brooklyn weren't spent at a poker table.” She steps closer, the scent of her expensive perfume clashing with the sterile smell of the hotel. “If you don’t tell me what’s going on, I’ll let you suf

CHAPTER 39

ZLICALLUM’S BLOOD splatters across my cheek. It sprays into my mouth, metallic and hot. Some of it even stings my eyes, blurring my vision with a crimson film.The bang from the gunshot is a physical blow—it rings in my ears for seconds, a high-pitched whine that drowns out the world. It’s so loud and jarring that the Vesuvius Room tilts on its axis.I can only remain where I am, kneeling on the cold marble, my head swimming. The scene around me wavers like a heat mirage. It’s only when reality comes crashing back a heartbeat later that I grasp the finality of the silence.Callum is dead.I’m a forensic analyst, but I was trained at the CIA. I’m not supposed to be thrown by violence. I’ve seen the photos of Gina’s crime scene; I’ve seen the ledger of death the Crimson Dragons have written across New York.Yet this is different—I can only blink and stare, completely shaken to my core. One moment Callum was kneeling right next to me, mouthing off to Tess and the guards with that arroga

CHAPTER 40

RON“My mother’s discovered Zli is with the Financial Crimes Unit, and everything went to hell from there.”“Crazy shit!” Julian exclaims. While I’m vibrating with a fury so hot it’s turning into a cold, focused burn, Julian looks like he’s on the most thrilling ride of his life. He twists in the passenger seat of the Porsche to address the man sitting in the back. “Wow, Ledger. You’re one relentless guy! I’d never want to get on your bad side. Infiltrating a Vesuvius Room gala at the Bellgrave? What a night!”Zli doesn’t respond. He’s staring out the window as the sleek skyscrapers of Manhattan zip by, the city lights blurring into long, neon streaks. Even in the dim light of the cabin, I can see the heavy, hollow look in his eyes.Callum Hart is dead, and I know exactly what’s going through Zli’s analytical mind. He’s calculating the blame, and the decimal point is landing squarely on himself.Callum died trying to protect him. He died because Zli wouldn't let the mission go. I know

CHAPTER 41

RON“I never want to look at them again. I’m not sure I even want to look in the mirror right now.”ZLI“You can express yourself, Zli,” Ron says quietly. He steps closer, his voice low and grounding against the hum of the Hudson Valley estate’s security systems. “You don’t need to shut down like this. Not here. Not with me.”I ignore him, my pulse pounding in my ears like a hammer against an anvil. My skin feels too tight for my body, and I’m jittery, vibrating with a frantic energy I don’t know how to vent. Emotions I’ve spent years categorizing and filing away are swelling inside me, rising like a volcano that’s seconds away from a catastrophic eruption.No matter how hard I try to keep it contained, it’s inevitable. It’s going to explode out of me, and when it does, I’ll fall apart in front of him. I’ll shatter, and I don't know if he—or anyone—has the blueprints to put me back together again.Ron approaches me again, reaching out. I push him away, my palms flat against his chest,

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