Page 84 of Obsession & Oath

“The exchange will take place in forty-eight hours.” Leon gestures to the map spread before us, a neutral location marked in black ink. “Everything is set, but we all know the Cartel. We can’t trust them.”

A murmur of agreement moves through the room.

“If all goes well, we’ll walk away with Mia, and Rubio will take his daughter without incident.” Leon exhales sharply. “But we’d be fucking idiots to believe that’s how this will go down.”

No one argues.

Because we all know it’s true.

This war has been going on too long, the losses too steep. And Leon is desperate, clearly holding himself together by sheer force of will.

But there’s that voice in my head that reminds me that Amos Rubio wouldn’t give up Mia unless he thought he was getting something more in return.

Carmen should be enough. She’d been enough for me to consider sacrificingeverything.

But why did Rubio care about hernow?

* * *

The air in the warehouse is thick with the stench of oil and dust, the silence pressing down on us like a weighted shroud.

Carmen stands between us, her face unreadable. She hasn’t looked at me once since we arrived. I pretend it doesn’t hurt.

I glance instead at Leon, who’s speaking with Rocco and Teo in low tones. They stand close together, eyes never leaving the door. Even Teo, who’s usually so detached, has a hard edge to him today.

“It’ll work,” Leon says, the words coming out steady, but there’s a tension in his jaw, a crack in the resolve. “We’ll walk out with Mia.”

Rocco gives a humorless chuckle. “And if it doesn’t, we’re packing enough heat to blow them out of the water, right?”

Teo triple-checks the safety on allsixof his firearms.“We’ve got the upper hand here. No matter how it plays out, we control the room. The four of us can take four of them, even if Amos walks through those doors.”

I want to believe them. I want to. But there’s a weight in my chest that won’t go away, a feeling deep in my gut that something is wrong. Something we’ve overlooked.

“Carmen—”

“Cállate.”

It’s the first thing she’s said to me since our conversation in the car back in Italy. God, I’ve missed the sound of her voice.

God, I wish I could take her and leave this place.

I press on anyway. “If something happens?—”

“I told you toshut up.”

And then the door creaks.

The sound is like a trigger. The tension that’s been coiling in my chest snaps. Every muscle in my body goes rigid. My heart rate jumps, thumping so loudly I can’t hear anything else.

The Cartel is here.

They step into the warehouse, four of Rubio’s men dragging someone behind them. None of them are Amos.

That, I realize too late, is the first sign that this is not going to go as planned. They move in silence, their eyes cold, and they bring Mia with them. Her head is covered by a bag, and she’s tied and bruised. She’s clearly been beaten.

My blood runs cold.

I feel my hands tighten into fists at my sides.

---