Page 71 of Obsession & Oath

Rina’s eyes narrow slightly at Carmen before switching to Italian. “I wasn’t aware the Grasso di Ferro hosted guests at the Iron Castle.”

Carmen blinks back at her. Perhaps if Rina had cursed at her, she might have understood. But then again, her dismissive tone seems to translate anyway.

“I’m from Cancún,” Carmen replies stiffly.

“Lo siento,” Rina quips back.

“If you’re concerned, Rina, I’m sure you could take it up with Evelina,” I step in to answer her original question.

A flash of something cold crosses Rina’s face, but it’s gone before I can read it. She tilts her head, her lips curving into something like a smile. “I see. Forgive me. I wasn’t aware that you were entertaining international proposals.”

“No decisions have been made yet,” I remind her quickly, though I can feel Carmen tensing under my arm again.

Rina seems to take that in, though she doesn’t look as rattled. Instead, she just nods, her gaze flicking to Carmen one more time before she pulls her attention back to me.

“Enjoy yourself, Dante,” she says in that sugary, sweet voice of hers. “It seems you’ve certainly got a lot of thinking to do. I only advise that you consider all of your options.”

Her eyes glitter with something I can’t quite place before she turns on her heel and heads off into the crowd without another word.

I watch her go, but Carmen doesn’t speak.

I glance down at her, offering a crooked smile. “You okay?”

She takes a deep breath, shifting her weight slightly, though her expression remains unreadable.

“She was one of the bachelorettes, wasn’t she?” she asks, her voice a little quieter than normal.

I chuckle, but there’s a slight unease in my chest. “Rina is…a part of my past. But she no longer holds my interest.”

“But she did propose, didn’t she?” she deduces before pausing for a moment. “You do realize, don’t you, that Rina is going to tell everyone you’ve finally found your match?”

Her words hang in the air, and for a moment, I’m not sure how to respond.

“Let her. If that’s what she wants to believe, then fine.” I give a nonchalant shrug, though I can feel a bit of tension creeping up my spine. “But it doesn’t change anything.”

Her hand falters slightly as she adjusts the flowers in her grasp, her face losing some of the lightness it had just moments ago.

For a long second, I wonder if I’ve said something wrong. Then I see it in her eyes—the sudden, unmistakable shift. Carmen pulls back just a bit, distancing herself.

“Do you even know what you’re doing, Dante?” she asks, her gaze serious. “Whatthismeans?”

The question catches me off guard, and I open my mouth to respond before I realize I have no idea how to answer. There’s no real plan here. Nothing is mapped out.

We’re caught in the middle of something that’s as uncertain as it is dangerous, but…I don’t know. It feels different with Carmen.

“Carmen—”

She cuts me off, her tone firmer now. “You don’t get it, do you?”

“I get it perfectly fine,” I argue back, “but my marriage prospects aren’t going to combust over one rumor. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about, and you know it.” She gestures to us, to everything that’s been building between us. “When we go back to Brooklyn—when I go back—I’m still part of the Cartel. You’re still part of the Guild. We’re on opposite sides, Dante. You know that, right?”

The words hit me harder than I expected. It’s like a punch to the gut. She’s right, of course. We’ve been dancing around it, pretending that things might be different, but when all is said and done, we’re still enemies.

She’s still my prisoner, whether I want to admit it or not. And the war won’t just stop because we’ve shared a few stolen moments under the sun.

I swallow hard, and for the first time in what feels like forever, I don’t have a smart-ass comment to throw back at her. I have no easy answer. Just silence.

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