Chapter 107

Aurora POV

I can still feel the sting on my cheek.

It’s faint now, more ache than the burning I’d felt when it happened, but it lingers like a brand… like a cruel reminder of the moment everything with Gianna truly shattered.

The car is silent as Dominic drives us back to the hotel from our morning spent having breakfast together, trying to get us back to a new normal. His grip on the steering wheel is tight, knuckles pale while he focuses on the road in front of us.

The quiet isn’t peaceful, it’s taut, thrumming with the low hum of his anger that I know still boils just under the surface of his skin.

He hasn’t spoken since leaving the restaurant but I can feel it rolling off him in waves. He’d only commented once more on the mark left by Gianna when we woke up this morning, a deep line forming between his brows as his fingers glided over my tender skin.

I press my hand to my cheek where I remember him touching, wincing at the sting where Gianna’s palm had connected.

God… she hit me.

The memory replays like a cruel loop, over and over again. Gianna’s eyes wild, brimming with tears and rage, her voice shaking as she told with me she couldn’t understand what I’d done: “How could you? You… we were supposed to be working with Alek to get out of this mess but you’ve dragged us back in. And for what? For some man who’s never treated you right?”

At that moment, my voice and trembled, trying so desperately to get through to her: “It’s not what you think, Gianna, I swear. Alek lied to us. Dominic told me he made up that story about Dominic selling you to him. He wanted to drive a wedge between us so he could snatch us up and use us against the Guerreros, and it worked. God, I’m so sorry you got involved in any of this.”

What I thought to be a straight-forward explanation had suddenly flipped our relationship upside down. She hadn’t believed me: “You’re lying. He’s gotten into your head again. You’re hearing whatever he wants to hear because you’re scared of him. This is exactly what happens every time you get involved with him!”

Nothing I could say would change her mind. No pleading, no begging: “No! I’m not. Gianna, please, just listen—”

She simply wouldn’t listen: “No, Aurora! No more listening. If you’re too far gone to see what’s happening, then I’ll slap you back into reality.”

And who could blame her? Her hand had cracked across my face before I could even finish my response back, the sound still echoes in my ears.

I don’t even think she realized she’d done it until after the fact. The anger in her eyes had been born from desperation, not malice.

I get it. I really do.

If our positions were reversed, if I thought she was throwing herself to the wolves, I’d probably be just as desperate to get through to my friend as her. Maybe even worse if I had been determined to shake some sense into her.

But understanding her reasons doesn’t make the hurt any less sharp and now I’m left wondering if I’ve lost her completely.

Dominic exhales through his nose, the sound enough to snap me out of my thoughts.

“You’re quiet,” he says finally.

“I’m… just thinking,” I murmur.

He hums softly. “About her?”

“Yes.”

His hands tighten briefly on the wheel. “Don’t. She’s back in the States with her father. She’s fine.”

“You’ll… let me go see her right? When we get back.”

I can feel his anger still simmering just beneath the surface, like a storm waiting to break.

“I’ll try,” he mutters finally. “For you.”

Relief slumps my shoulders.

The hotel parking lot is quiet when we arrive back. Dominic kills the engine and sits there for a moment, staring straight ahead like he’s trying to burn holes in the windshield.

“Come on,” he says before unbuckling and popping open his door.

I follow him in silence up to the suite. The door clicks shut behind us. Thankfully all of Mikhail’s men are long gone, leaving only the two of us behind. I’m not sure where Luca’s run off to but at this point, I don’t really care.

Dominic lead me to the bedroom.

“Sit,” he orders gently once we’re past the doorway.

I obey, sinking into the edge of the bed.

When he approaches me, he reaches out to tilt my chin up. “Let me see it.”

“It’s fine. It doesn't hurt that much.”

“Aurora.”

I meet his eyes, and something about the simmering intensity I find staring back at me makes me shiver.

I tilt my chin up obediently.

He kneels in front of me, his thumb brushing along the tender skin.

“See? It’s already fading,” I whisper, only to wince when he applies a small amount of pressure to the spot right above my jaw.

He pulls back slightly. “Stay put. I’ll grab ice.”

By the time he returns with a plastic bag wrapped in a towel, I’m sitting cross-legged on the bed, staring at my hands.

“Hold still,” he murmurs, pressing the cool pack gently to my cheek.

I flinch at the touch at first but slowly relax as the cold seeps in, numbing the tender skin. Dominic sits beside me, his broad frame a solid presence that I can’t help but lean into. He doesn’t speak for a while and neither do I.

It’s not awkward silence but it is charged. Heavy.

Finally, I break the silence, desperately needing to focus on something, anything, else at the moment. “What happens now? With Alek still out there.”

“He’ll be taking this time to regroup, so we’ll need to focus on our next steps. Tracking him down and taking him out won’t be for a while. He’s too weak to try and fight us again.” Dominic says.

I blink at him. “How can you be so sure?”

“Because Alek’s no fool. He knows he’s been outplayed. He’ll stay in Russia and lick his wounds. If he has any brains he’ll stay far away from the Guerrero family for good.”

I stare at him for a long moment, letting the words sink in. Slowly, the knot of tension in my chest loosens. “You really believe that?”

“Yes.”

Somehow, I believe his stone-cold confidence. I let out a long breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “Good. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder.”

“You won’t have to. Not with me.”

A few days later, I find myself seated on a private jet back to the States.

I sit by the window, watching clouds roll past in lazy waves. Dominic sits beside me, reading something on his phone, one hand resting casually on my knee.

He’s calm now, a predator at rest. Now that the worst is over and I’m back with him, he has no reason to fight.

But I know better.

If Alek—or anyone else for that matter—dares to come for me again, Dominic won’t hesitate. He’ll kill them right where they stand with no hesitation.

As comforting as that is though, Gianna’s face keeps flashing in my mind. The way she looked at me in the hotel room with rage, fear and heartbreak all twisted together…

I don’t know if I’ll ever get her back.

A part of me wonders if I even deserve to.