Chapter 105

Aurora POV

The man’s grip is crushing my arm as he squeezes to keep hold of me, fingers digging so deep I know there’ll be bruises later of his handprint. I thrash wildly, screaming at the top of my lungs, but it’s useless.

“Let me go!” I shriek, kicking out while my shoes scrape uselessly against the polished floor as he drags me backwards. My nails dig into his skin. I twist and claw, desperate, but he’s too strong.

Fuck!

“Stop making this difficult,” he snaps.

The voice.

Oh, god.

Every muscle in my body seizes. My stomach drops like a stone, cold spreading outward until it fills my chest, my hands, my legs.

It’s Alek.

My panic spikes so hard that it’s almost blinding. The restaurant, the gunfire, Dominic, they all fade like the colors draining from a photograph. There’s only the feel of Alek’s hand on my arm as he continues to drag me back into a service hallway and over to a door.

I have no time to process before he slams his shoulder into it, forcing the stiff hinges to creak and groan while they unlatch and open.

“Keep your mouth shut,” he growls, dragging me out into the alley behind the restaurant.

The warm afternoon air hits my face like a slap. I stumble as he shoves me forward, and for a moment I think he’s going to hit me because that’s the least of what he’s going to do to me now that he knows I’ve double-crossed him.

Strangely, he doesn’t. Instead, he releases me abruptly and rips the mask off his face. His shoulders are rigid while he pulls in a few harsh breaths, a hand reaching up to drag through his hair, making it messy.

I spin on him, my back pressed to the brick wall, chest heaving slightly. “What are you doing here?”

He turns, his face caught in the shadows swallowing us both from the overhang of the roof. Like this, he looks far more menacing than I’m used to seeing.

He drags another hand down his face. “Somehow… Dominic came more prepared than I thought.”

I blink, my mind spinning.

He… doesn’t know?

Oh my God. He doesn’t know I told Dominic. That I double crossed him.

My heart slams against my ribs like it’s trying to break free. The realization hits me like lightning. He thinks I’m still his loyal little pawn.

Think, Aurora. Think.

I swallow hard, my mind spinning as I force my voice to tremble, to sound desperate. “I—I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened.”

Alek’s eyes narrow on me.

“Like I said, Dominic’s been paranoid lately,” I say quickly. “He’s been on edge ever since the last meeting. Getting me back has made him antsy. I couldn’t get him to let his guard down and leave the guns back at the hotel before we left. I tried but he fought me on it. I didn’t want to push it and make myself look suspicious.”

It’s a dangerous game, feeding him these lies, but if I can keep him believing I’m on his side, maybe, just maybe, I can take him out myself. Since Dominic is still busy clearing out the restaurant, it may give me enough time with Alek to do something.

Like steal his gun from him and shoot him.

Alek exhales sharply, his mouth twisting with frustration. “Yes, I do remember you saying he has been overly skittish. You’re sure he hasn’t seen you use your phone? Or suspect you are in contact with me?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

Alek rubs a hand down his face, muttering something in Russian under his breath.

I force my shoulders to slump and my hands to wring together like I’m wracked with guilt. “He’s barely let me out of his sight since he picked me up. We should probably leave before he comes out here.”

He paces a few steps away from me, pulling a phone out of his pocket while stuffing his mask inside his other. His head is shaking wildly, annoyance written all over his body language like a second skin.

“Stay here,” he orders, turning away while putting the phone up to his ear.

I press back against the wall, my fingers curling into fists as I watch him pace the short distance between the two walls on either side of us. My eyes keep snapping back to the door leading into the restaurant, strangely with no sign of Dominic bursting through it.

What happened?

Why isn’t he following me?

He clearly saw me being kidnapped by some stranger. Why isn’t he chasing after us?

A dreadful thought fills my head within seconds: what if someone gunned him down before he could reach me?

“What do you mean we are being overrun?” Alek’s voice snaps my attention back to him.

My stomach twists.

Hopefully that means Romero and Marco have been successful with extracting Gianna.

“Hold them off! No! Pull everyone back to—”

Whatever’s said next makes him fall silent, recoiling as if he’s been shot right in the chest. His mouth drops open but no sound comes out of him. I pray that’s a good sign for our side; that his men have been slain as brutally as Dominic and Luca have been taking out the ones in the restaurant.

Alek lets out an angry growl, ripping the phone away from his ear. “Aurora. Come with—”

He doesn’t get to finish his sentence, interrupted by the grinding sound of the back door to the restaurant opening. There’s barely any time for me to turn to the source of the noise before a gunshot cracks through the air.

A gasp rips out of Alek’s throat.

And there, standing just on the landing leading down to the alley way, is Dominic.

My knees nearly give out in relief.

He stands with his gun raised, pressed white shirt streaked with blood and whatever parts of the men he’s torn through littering his front. His eyes are molten steel as they focus on Alek, a calm so cold it makes my skin prickle.

He looks like death given flesh.

“Running so soon, Alek?” Dominic says.

I’m caught between them both but unfortunately, Alek is closer. He grabs my wrist, tugging me toward him and causing me to stumble. Dominic’s finger flexes on the trigger of his gun, something flashing in his eyes that I can’t quite name.

“I suggest you let go of her.”

Alek tightens his grip on me. “She will be coming with me.”

“No. She won’t.”

Alek laughs bitterly, shaking his head. “You do not understand the situation you are in, Guerrero. You are out of your depth. You don’t—”

Another shot fires, this one grazes Alek’s shoulder. The force of it spins him halfway around, causing him to let go of me in order to clutch at the wound now bleeding. Rivulets of blood soak his shoulder and arm.

“Next one doesn’t miss,” Dominic growls.

Alek’s eyes flash with hatred. His hand moves to grab the gun holstered to his hip, ripping it up and out to aim it at Dominic

“No!” I scream, trying to wrench it away.

Before he can aim it, a third shot cracks through the air but not from Alek.

It’s from Dominic’s gun again.

Alek lets out a strangled sound and drops the gun, clutching his side where more crimson spreads rapidly.

“Fuck,” he snarls.

I move before I know what I’m doing and grab his gun off of the ground. My hands are steady when I grip it, a calmness washing over me the moment I train it at his chest.

Dominic advances slowly down the stairs, his gun steady. “Step back and maybe I’ll let you crawl out of here alive.”

For a second, Alek hesitates. His eyes dart to me while anger and disbelief flash through them when I refuse to move the gun away from him. By now he must know what’s going on. It’s plainly obvious I’m no longer on his side.

“I see,” he spits. “You played me.”

My finger flexes over the trigger. “You made it easy.”

Alek’s face twists in rage.

The sound of tires squealing against pavement startles me. A car pulls up at the mouth of the alley, stopping as a cloud of dust kicks up around it. Alek only glances back at us once before hobbling towards it, still clutching his wounds while a trail of blood is left in his wake.

“Stay behind me,” Dominic murmurs, quickly coming over to stand in front of me, blocking me from view.

I cling to him as Alek yanks open the car door once he reaches it. More blood drips onto the street as he hauls himself inside.

“This isn’t over,” he snarls before slamming the door shut.

The engine roars to life.

Dominic raises his gun again, but the car is already in motion, tires squealing as it disappears down the street and leaving nothing behind.

For a moment, the alley is silent aside from my ragged breaths.

Dominic turns to me, his face softening slightly. “You okay?”

I nod, though my knees feel like jelly. “I think so.”

He reaches down, pulling me to his chest with surprising gentleness. “Good. I’m glad.”

I’m so relieved seeing him alive.

I thought… I worried that he had been…“Luca make it, too?”

“Yes.” He bends and scoops me up into his arms, using only one of them to steady me while the other keeps a sturdy grip on his gun. “Now let’s go home.”