Page 48 of Obsession & Oath

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Rocco Moretti walks down the final few steps toward the pool, hands in his pockets, like it’s the most normal thing in the world. Like he’s not supposed to be an ocean away, fighting a war.

“I thought I told you not to get a tan, you bastard.” Rocco drops into an easy smile as he approaches, peering over his sunglasses.

I catch his arm and greet him with a familiar shake. “The hell are you doing here?”

“Fancied a piece of paradise for myself.” He shrugs, careless with the lie as his eyes hone in on the other occupant of the pool. “It seems Miss Rubio is certainly taking advantage of it.”

“Dickhead.”

“Learning the language, too.” Rocco’s eyes flash dangerously to mine. “It seems imprisonment suits Miss Rubio a little too well, don’t you think, Dante?”

My jaw clenches. He’s right to call me out like this. I know how bad this looks. Had I more time to prepare, I would have made an effort to at least pretend I was keeping Carmen under some form of incarceration.

There was no real defense for this, and the accusation in Rocco’s eyes is entirely warranted. I am being lenient on her. I am taking advantage of my position to relax the rules. I am being influenced by my selfish desires.

“Nothing wrong with a little recreational exercise.” The smile on my face is a farce, and we all know it. “Carmen, why don’t you head back to your cell? Pierre, would you be so kind as to show Miss Rubio the way?”

“Excuse me?”

It was a mistake to break Rocco’s knowing glare to glance back at Carmen.

The water that now trickled from her curls did very little to quench the fire of her evident rage. Worse now is the fact that she’s exited the pool, and her generous curves are on full display, leaving so very little to the imagination.

Her hands go straight to her hips, jaw jutting out in glorious defiance. She’s radiant as the sun. God, the sun suits her so well. It is as if it was created entirely to show the world just how beautiful Carmen Rubio is.

And fuck it all. I would take her right here and now if I had a shred less self-respect.

Then Rocco clears his throat and everything comes crashing back to reality.

“I think you heard me,” I say before nodding at Pierre. “Be sure that Miss Rubio finds her clothes on the way down.”

I force myself to turn away from her, gesturing for Rocco to join me out in the courtyard, dutifully ignoring the curses that tumble out of Carmen’s mouth in a sacrilegious mixture of Spanish and Italian.

Rocco stares after her as he takes a seat, eyebrow raised, mouth pressed into a thin line. We wait in a moment of tense silence until the doors close behind Carmen and Pierre.

“Please tell me you’re not…”

“I’m not.”

“Forgive me for being skeptical, but I know you, Dante. There’s a beautiful woman in your house and you’ve been stuck in here for over a month.”

“I resent that,” I snap back. “But if you’re implying what I think you’re implying, then you can rest assured that it’s entirely impossible. Even if Idid,hypothetically speaking, have any inclination, which Idon’t…”

“She hates your guts,” Rocco thankfully concludes for me, visibly relaxing back into the seat. “This is messy. I’m not going to sit here and pretend you’re not playing with fire.”

“You shouldn’t be sitting here at all, actually. Why the hell are you here and not in Brooklyn?”

Rocco sighs then, running a hand through his hair. “They’ve got Mia.”

Despite the heat of the afternoon, my blood immediately begins to run cold.

“What do you mean? Mia is one of the best of us. They wouldn’t have just caught her on a whim. I didn’t think Leon was even letting her out in the field.”

But the fiery redhead was as stubborn as her husband. If she’d found a way she could have made a difference in the outcome of the war, she would have taken it with or without his permission.

Rocco’s expression only confirms my suspicion. “She was undercover for a while. The intel she got us was invaluable. Not even Leon could justify keeping her on the sidelines. We don’t know exactly when or how she was compromised, but…”

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