Page 11 of Obsession & Oath

We’re late. Leon needs me. What choice do I have?

“Then you have mine,” I say bitterly. “I will see you in ten hours.”

I hang up the phone without another word and begin racing down the stairs.

With every step, I tread deeper and deeper into my own dreadful despair.

The only thing that keeps the fire warm in my veins, the thing that keeps me pushing forward to my inevitable fate, is my anger.

The manifestation of which sits in the back of the car parked outside, blindfolded and radiating a particular brand of hatred of her own.

As I get behind the wheel and look in the rearview mirror, something as hot as molten lava settles in my stomach.

I have never hated anyone more than Carmen Rubio.

Chapter4

Carmen

Iam, quite frankly, very, very bored with being moved around and manhandled against my will.

Truly, I’ve almost lost count of all the times I’ve been tied up and shoved into the back of a car. It’s probably a smart move on the Prince’s Guild’s part to have kept me moving this long.

But this time, they made the mistake of telling me where they’re taking me.

“If you think for one second I’m going to willingly get on aplanewithout screaming up a storm, you are sorely mistaken.”

Embarrassingly, despite being blindfolded, I knew it was Dante who got into the car the second he closed the door, effectively trapping his scent inside.

I tell myself that the man had been too close to me that night he kidnapped me. And with little else to do these last few days other than plot my escape attempts, it was perfectly normal to ruminate on certain details.

His scent has stuck with me only because my mother used to wear amber, and the note is familiar. It invokes hazy memories of ballgowns and vanities that I haven’t thought about in the fifteen years since her death.

“I was really hoping we could do this the easy way.” Dante sounds detached and irritated, a far cry from the flirt who threw me over his shoulder with ease.

I remember then how he sounded in that conference room, too—like this entire ordeal was some kind of inconvenience. Vaguely, I wonder if he likes this situation any more than I do. If I can somehow use that to my advantage.

“You really think the TSA is going to let you drag me through security?” I bite back.

“Nope,” he pops the “p”, and the car lurches to one side, launching me awkwardly against the door. “They’ll let me through with an unconscious woman in desperate need of medical attention, though.”

Fury rallies in my veins. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Oh, I absolutely would,” he replies entirely seriously. “I’d just prefer it if you did this willingly. Saves me the headache.”

I don’t trust the fact he’s giving me a choice one bit.

“What’s stopping me from just saying I’ll play along and then causing havoc at the most inconvenient opportunity?”

Dante lets out a sigh that promptly turns into a groan. “See, now I’m just going to have to drug you. You could have just kept your mouth shut, but no.”

“You’re kidnapping me to an entirely different country. What else do you expect me to do?”

“Have the common sense to have at least a little self-preservation!” he snaps right back.

The car comes to an abrupt stop, and I listen intently as Dante throws the car open and slams it back shut. It takes about two seconds for the door I’m leaning against to jerk open, and I shriek as I try to regain my balance.

A firm hand steadies me by the shoulder, and a moment later, the bag is removed from my head.

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