Page 26 of Fortune's Kiss
“What?”Lo whirled around.Mayté’s older brother came in from one of the doors, bewilderment written all over his brown face.It was really him.
“Wha—” He slowed to a stop, a wide-eyed gaze locked on Mayté.Until it flickered to Lo.
A warm tremor ran through her heart.Carlos’s attire may not have been as extravagant as Dominic’s; he didn’t have a suit or cravat.Instead, he wore a white dress shirt.The top couple of buttons were missing.He also had on beige slacks with a patch on the knee that his mother must have sewn on.His thick, unkempt hair wisped into the tiniest of curls just under his ear.He looked handsome …
“Hello!”Dominic waved.“Another familiar—”
“What do you think you’re doing here?”Mayté’s words echoed, catching the attention of the other entrants, but she didn’t seem to care.She balled up her fists.
“I could ask the same thing,” Carlos said, voice steady.He was the calm to her fury.Always the water to her fire.“I’m here to save our family,including you.”Always the voice of reason, but this time his words didn’t douse Mayté’s flames.This time they were liquid fuel.
“Save …me?”Mayté growled.“Nowyou’ve decided to do something?”Her nostrils flared and her entire body shook.“All theseyearsyou could have stepped up to help, and onlynowyou’re trying?”
Oh.Lo had seen her best friend look like that one other time before.When they were only twelve and Carlos had just turned thirteen.The two had fought about something Lo couldn’t remember, but the part that stayed forever in her mind was how Carlos spilled his horchata all over the table, soaking the pile of sketches Mayté had toiled over.He swore it was an accident, but didn’t get far in his explanation, because Mayté gave him a black eye.
And now she was about to do it again.
“It’s too late!”She stormed toward Carlos, but Lo snatched her arm just in time.
“Let me go,” Mayté growled.
“No.”Lo clung to her best friend tighter.Mayté would never hurt her, no matter how angry she got.“Listen.”Lo leaned close and lowered her voice.“Don’t do this.Not here.You might get kicked out for fighting, and we must win this.Don’t forget what’s on the line.”
That seemed to be enough to calm her.“Fine,” she huffed.
“I wish you would have told me you intended to come.”Carlos pinched the bridge of his nose.“Now we’re competing against each other for the same thing.”
Mayté let out a soft, bitter chuckle.“That’s where you’re wrong.I’m here formyself.When I win, I’m taking my fortune and getting out of Milagro.”
Carlos flinched, the pain of her words worse than a black eye.“What about our family?”
“What about them?”she scoffed.“Why should I help my family when they couldn’t care less about me?Carlos, you know what would have happened if I’d stayed.No one was going to try to stop it.”
Dominic quietly stared.Lo wanted to snap at him to mind his own business, but someone clapped.
“My, aren’t you Las Cinco children so amusing.”A petite woman strutted to the front of the group.She was wearing a gaudy gown with puffed sleeves, big ribbons, and long gloves.Underneath her ridiculously big hat—decked out with flowers, ribbons, and … a birdcage?—short brown tendrils curled into ribbons that framed her milky white face.No doubt this fashion atrocity was coveted in Hispana.
“Who is that?”Mayté whispered.
“Señora Montoya,” Dominic answered.
“La Reina de Los Vampiros,” Lo whispered back, ignoring Dominic.
Señora Montoya stopped in front of them.Her thick perfume was suffocating.Her children had been the ones in the gleaming white carriage who had nearly run them down yesterday, and Lo could see where they had gotten their haughty attitudes.Señora Montoya tapped her cheek as she eyed the four of them.“Oh, my.No, I meantLas Cuatro.”Her cold smile cut through Mayté and Carlos.She wrinkled her tiny little nose.“I apologize.”
Carlos looked down, and Mayté gripped her rebozo tighter.How dare she?Lo opened her mouth, but Mayté spoke first.“Once I win, Las Cuatro won’t matter.”She stared straight into Señora Montoya’s eyes.The world spat on Mayté and tried its best to pull her down to the mud, but no matter what happened, she held her head up high.Lo admired that.
“Ohhhh,” Señora Montoya squawked.“Is that so, dear?Well, I can assure you whenIwin, Las Cuatro will never be the same.”
No doubt if this deranged woman won, she would use the fortune and power to make sure el orden antiguo ruled all of San Solera once again.If Mayté and Lo lost, they would eventually return to a nightmare.A world possibly even worse than the one they’d left.
“Then may the best person win,” Lo said, voice as sharp and cold as a steel dagger.
“Ah, Lorena de León,” Señora Montoya cooed.“You could’ve been a perfect match for my son, had it not been for that bullheaded father of yours.”
“Sorry, I never heard he intended to court me,” Lo muttered.This woman had no idea her father was dead.While it wasnice to hear someone speak ill of that demon, Señora Montoya deserved a spot next to him in El Infierno.
Lo felt both Carlos and Dominic staring.
