CARMEN, riverdale.

' caramel '

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    CARMEN HUFFED, shutting her eyes tightly. They were the color of an angry red from having put on a lighter shade of brown contacts for hours, turning the dark shade into a calming caramel. She loathes having to force them on her eyes, feeling constricted. The only reason why she did was under pretense of being a woman instead of a teenager, to seek out two of their most loyal business allies.

She had currently locked herself in the bathroom of their office to remove the irritating contacts, combing through her hair. The only way Novak would know her was through her eyes, he never saw her again after the business in Budapest, that's why her only utility was a pair of contacts.

Carmen pulled open the door, her mouth threatening to twitch into a scowl as her eyes watered and stung. She knew it was ridiculous to ask a business man if he has any eye drops, but she figured it wouldn't hurt to do so. What have she got to lose? "So, uh, do you have some hopefully, not expired eye drops around here?"

Liam Tremaine chuckled, moving around her to the cabinet near the window. Carmen then remembered that he used study to become an optalmologist, but never came around due to his family business being passed down to his shoulders.

"What happened?" He asks with amusement as he passes her the small bottle of eyedrops, which she graciously accepted.

"The contacts are spawns of Satan, I swear," Carmen shook her head, looking up and tilted the bottle for a drop to fall into her eye. "If I wasn't using them for pretense, I would've burnt them to ash."

"Talking about becoming Clark Kent now, aren't we?" Liam joked, watching her blink rapidly as some of the solution dripped from her eyes.

"What, no? I'm better off as the Joker, I think? Ah, shit—"

"Woah, you kiss your father with that mouth? Really, little C?" Liam huffed out a laugh.

"I thought I made it clear for you not to call me that," Carmen turns to him with narrowed eyes, though it's hard not to be intimidated when she looked as if she was drunk and high off her horse.

"I'm calling you little C, not 'that', what else do you want me to call you?" Liam sassed.

Carmen stares at him.

"Okay, I'll stop,"Liam clears his throat. "To what do I owe this precious visit from my favorite niece?"

"I could leave," Carmen offered lightly.

"No, no, I don't mean like that, silly," Liam chuckled, a firm hand on het back. "Sit with me."

"Where's Adelaide?" Carmen turns to him.

"Last I heard, she was in Argentina," Liam shrugged. "Might call later."

Carmen decides it was better to rip the bandaid off, "My dad's been taken."

Liam nearly had whiplash when he did a double take, almost dropping the things he was gathering to fix on top of his table. "What?"

"My dad's been taken," Carmen shrugged. "By Novak. And he decided that dropping a building on Apollo and I last night was a good idea. Basically, the building we got for the Agency in Riverdale's gone and blown to pieces."

"Jesus Christ, is that how you got your limp? And the cut on your head? I think you need to change the bandages, and you shouldn't be walking much on that," Liam gave her a disapproving look.

"The limp is from the explosion, yeah. And the cut on my head, was, uh, one of Novak's dumbasses, Dane Walsh, got it when I followed Dad, but I didn't get to him." Carmen said sheepishly.

"That lunatic's gone too far, have you figured out a way to get to him?"

"I think so," Carmen nods. "Though it involves a traitor."

"What do you mean—Jack Lind? Carmen, he's just going to turn on you! He's so deep in Novak's ass that his men follows him around, and you're practically a fugitive to them." Liam scolded, but Carmen shushes him hurriedly, slapping his arm.

"We're not talking about this here."

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   "IF YOU'D told that you'd be coming back to New York for a suicidal rescue mission, I would've gotten you a better deal with an apartment in a trusted and safer neighborhood, not here," Liam complained to Carmen as he follows her through the building. Surprisingly, as they arrived in the hallway of the fifth floor, everything else was clean, and even comforting to the eyes.

"What part of laying low don't you understand if I'm going to rent one of the high-class apartments here?" Carmen rolled her eyes at him.

"I meant living in a more reliable neighborhood, not here," Liam clarified.

"Novak would expect that, maybe that's why you'd see a lot of his cronies. He wouldn't expect to find me here, he knows I wouldn't go against Dad's requests to always pick the best, so I did the one thing he wouldn't think of me doing," Carmen reveals, pulling him inside the apartment. A space rather enough for three, though it felt cozy enough to be called home.

Sadly, Carmen wouldn't consider anything home unless it had the one thing that ever made it feel like home in the first place, her father.

"Elliot, Sweet Pea, Wyn, this is Liam Tremaine, one of the Agency's most trusted business allies. Liam, Elliot James, my mother's friend, and Sweet Pea, Wynona Tanner, friends of mine."

"You never mentioned a Tremaine in your business," Elliot cuts in.

"Well—" Liam was about to defend himself.

"Because, I'm not obliged to talking about business to you, and politics is not exactly a favorable topic to bring up to the dinner table." Carmen immediately interjected.

"Whatever concerns the Sorrels also concerns my knowledge, Carmen," Elliot pressed, his brows pulled together in frustration.

"A Murdock and a Sorrel, that's who you're talking to, Elliot. The Sorrels were not exactly around to have raised me into what you thought I'd be believing in, the Murdocks, however, which is my father, have, and if you have any objection with that, my companions and I could instead take our leave." Carmen narrowed her eyes and schooled her expression into a more composed one, as if Elliot was nothing but another businessman that wanted to offer a partnership, only to be refused. She regards him stiffly, lifting her chin and went to move past him, with Liam following.

"Carmen, you're staying. Fine, I won't meddle with your business, but stay. I know your mother would probably kill me if I let you leave and find another place to stay that isn't under my approval of safety, more so maybe your father," Elliot clears his throat awkwardly, almost refusing to meet her eyes.

It was almost satisfying watching Carmen, a teenager, render someone like Elliot, who was exactly twenty-one, speechless and unable to talk back just as fast, in Liam's eyes. It was why he had admired and befriended the two Murdocks in the first place, and it was a friendship he'd rather not risk to lose.

"Thought so," Carmen shook her head and continued forward. "We have a lot to talk about, sit with me. I need your word on the plan I deviced before we left, and a few back up plans."

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