I belong tomyself.
Tohim.
Tous.
And as I close my eyes, nestled against the man I love, cradling the life between us, I know something with peaceful finality.
This is just the beginning of forever.
EPILOGUE - CARMEN
Months pass. The ash washes away from where the Rubio Mansion burned. My father is buried with a bullet hole in his chest. Life can never be the same again.
But I don’t want it to be, either.
The war is over, but peace doesn’t happen overnight.
At first, I didn’t want anything to do with it.
But the negotiations were slow, tense, full of old grudges and fresh wounds. The Cartel surrendered to avoid bloodshed, but they were more than capable of causing headaches.
And at some point, between Dante’s complaints and late nights, moving from hotel to hotel, to purefrustrationat my morning sickness and sheer, inescapable boredom, I walked into the Prince’s Guild casino and sat myself down at the table.
Mia was on one side, and Dante was to my left. Both were capable of taking out anyone who had any problems with me.
The remaining factions of the Cartel refused to negotiate with Leon after what happened. Bitterness and frustration from both sides only fueled those fires.
But me? Ironically enough, the Cartel seemed to view killing your father as a right ofpassage.At least, that’s what they told me. Dante theorized they were trying to get a handle on the power vacuum that my father and Lacruz left behind.
So, the Cartel surrendered. Undermyterms.
It was strange at first, stepping into that role. I had spent my whole life beingownedby the Cartel, a daughter, a pawn, a symbol of their empire. But now, I sat at the table as something else. Not a princess, not a prisoner—a leader.
Dante doesn’t love it. I see the way his jaw clenches every time I step into another meeting, the way his hand always hovers near his gun when we sit down with men who used to call themselves my father’s most loyal.
But he doesn’t stop me. He trusts me to make the decisions I need to make.
Mia, too, has been by my side through all of it, offering insights or a discrete assassination when we debrief afterward. Often, while the redhead indulges in a glass of wine and offers me herbal remedies for my horrendous pregnancy symptoms.
I end up meeting Cassandra and Isabella, too. Rocco and Teo’s partners end up welcoming me into their group with surprising ease.
Isabella is sharp-tongued and devastatingly beautiful. She is completely ruthless when she wants to be, but she laughs wildly and freely and draws me in with a surprising gentleness.
Cassandra is quieter, but there’s a steel in her that’s impossible to ignore. It takes a while for her to open up, tosingfor me. But after hearing her voice, there was no going back. I was always going to be totally enamored by her.
Between the three of them, I have something I haven’t had in years—friends.
And when we meet together, when they bring their children and share their own stories and happiness, I see my own child’s future. This is the next generation of powerful leaders—capable of anything they put their minds to.
The city belongs to the Prince’s Guild now, a formidable empire with no one left to oppose it.
After the negotiations finish and pregnancy gets the better of me, I whisper one night to Dante that I’m done.
The very next day, the Cartel is essentially annexed to the Prince’s Guild, and Dante eagerly hands over the reins to Rocco. If he muttered “good riddance” as he did so, that’s between him and God.
Teo and Isabella also settle back in Brooklyn, keeping on top of the Guild’s operations, while Leon and Mia keep Manhattan in line, both couples working tirelessly to strengthen an alliance that has taken a heavy beating from the war.
And Dante and I help. We’re in Brooklyn one week and Manhattan the next. We take a surprisingly unremarkable trip to Cancún, and then it’s several nights in Long Island.
