Page 1 of Obsession & Oath

Chapter1

Dante

Idon’t think I could ever get bored of this.

The pure adrenaline of a high-stakes job is, quite frankly, unparalleled.

The thrill comes from not knowing if I’ll make it back alive—I will, I always do—, and finally being able to make progress—so much of being a mafioso is waiting around and doing nothing?—.

And nothing tastes sweeter, nothing soothes my aching bones and inevitable scrapes, like the bottle of amaretto waiting for me in the five-star hotel room, looking over the Manhattan skyline.

It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to do it. The fact that I’m perfectly equipped to handle it is a happy accident.

Not every man has what it takes not to fold under pressure or kill without hesitation.

Or, in this instance, steal a beautiful woman from her beautiful home in order to get revenge on the not-so-beautiful Mexican Cartel.

Not that revenge is really my style, but there aren’t many men with my skill set willing to steal beautiful women from their beautiful homes.

“I need eyes, Dante,” the don barks in my earpiece.

Now, here’s a man who knows a thing or two about revenge. Leon Natali, don of the newly formed Prince’s Guild, cannot let something go, even if it turns around and bites him in the neck.

Though, to be fair to him, I’m sure I’d be pretty pissed off if the Cartel had kidnapped my wife too. Sure, it only lasted three days, but the thing about Italian dons is they’re a little touchy when it comes to reputations.

I should know.

“Working on it,” I mumble back. “Cleared points A and B.”

The problem with stealing beautiful women from their beautiful homes is that said homes are usually massive, and there are numerous places she could potentially be hiding.

“Go straight for the panic room. We’re running out of time.”

I grimace slightly. He’s not wrong; the alarm has been blaring for three minutes already, and it’s only a matter of time before reinforcements show up. Leon and his team will only be able to keep them distracted for so long.

“Copy that, boss,” I say as I shift gears and begin running in the opposite direction. Down a corridor, ducking out of sight of the sound of running footsteps and slipping into an extravagant office.

It’s a gamble, but at this point, it’s our best shot of finding her. Hopefully, the woman has enough self-preservation instincts to have come here the second the alarm went off.

“I’m here, Teo,” I bark into the second channel on my earpiece, scanning the far wall of the room where the blueprints had indicated…ah! There.

It’s a small divot in the bookcase, as cliche as they come. I tug on it, and the bookcase slides away to reveal a door with an access monitor stuck to the front. Not that I need to worry about that.

“Open sesame,” Teo murmurs sarcastically in my ear as the monitor beeps to life and the door groans open with an ominous thud.

“Have I ever told you how much I love and respect your craft? Tremendously underappreciated and constantly overlooked,” I tease Leon’s second and resident tech master as I step through the open door without issue.

“Head in the game, Grasso,” Teo scolds, but I know his tone well enough to know he’s smirking. “There’s a heat signature–”

Smack.

And here, perhaps, lies the second problem with stealing beautiful women from their beautiful homes.

Amos Rubio’s daughter, the princess of the Cartel, is really quite beautiful. A fact I knew before I started this mission, one that enticed me to take on this mission in the first place, in fact.

But in the flesh? She’s something else entirely.

She’s a goddess incarnate with olive skin and stunning curls that protrude wildly around her soft features. Dark hair and caramel eyes that look like they could choke me out just by glaring alone (I would let her).

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