Chapter 25

Dominic POV

“Knock her up?” Dominic repeated. Not because it angered him but because, for a split second, it intrigued him.

He hadn’t considered that. Hadn’t even allowed himself to think that far ahead outside of killing his father. Leonardo’s death was supposed to be the climax, the explosion that scattered the board and crowned him king. What came after he figured would be clean-up. The rebuilding of the Guerrero syndicate and reorganizing all of the frantic pawns that were none the wiser.

However, the image Theo had just painted for him—one of Aurora carrying his child, standing beside him after Leonardo’s death while untouched by the scandal because their heir would justify her presence being at his side, planted itself in his mind like a seed.

A possibility, rather.

Would she fight him on that? Probably.

Except it would give him good reason to keep her around. Enough to get Romero off his back and possibly whoever else was stupid enough to question him after Leonardo was good and buried six feet under.

If she did agree though without fighting him… Well, it wouldn’t be about love. It never was that in the first place no matter how much of a mess his head had been lately because of her. A legacy to tie her to him permanently, ensuring that she stayed tethered to him when all was said and done?

It wasn’t as ridiculous as it sounded coming from Theo’s mouth. In fact, it intrigued him enough to actually consider it seriously.

Dominic’s smile was slow, dangerous. “How clever of you to assume that was my plan. I will tell you this, it wasn’t something that crossed my mind until now.”

Theo sneered right back. “Aren’t you? You’ve always prided yourself in being ten steps ahead of everyone. You do realize if Leonardo finds out, she’s dead. Come on, you can’t be that stupid.”

Dominic tilted his head, taking a single step forward.

Theo’s eyes widened. “What… what are you doing?”

“You’ve been in this world long enough to know how this works,” Dominic replied. “You don’t get to threaten me in my own home.”

“I wasn’t—” Theo stammered, stumbling to his feet. His glass fell from his hand, shattering instantly as soon as it met the hard tile. Piece of it scattered everywhere along with the amber liquid that was left inside.

The pattern of it reminded Dominic of the way blood pooled under a body.

“Frankly, I don’t care what you think is going on.” He circled Theo now, slowly. Like a predator that had already decided the kill was happening, it was just a matter of where. “You should’ve kept your mouth shut. But then again, you never really did have a good knack of knowing how to keep yourself alive. Relying too much on your father to do that job.”

Theo’s chest rose and fell quickly as he backed up enough to slam into the wall behind him. “You—you can’t just kill me. My father will know. He’ll notice I’m missing. So will Leonardo.”

“You’ve always been stupid,” Dominic muttered.

Passing by his desk, he plucked a letter opener off of its surface, brandishing it before advancing forward. Theo dived away from the wall, just missing moving past Dominic before the back of his collar was snatched and he was thrown into the wall again.

He let out a hiss as his head slammed against the wall, practically crumbling to the ground. Dominic grabbed onto his shirt again, reeling him back up to pin him with a hand around his neck. Theo thrashed in his hold, helpless while trying to claw free.

With a single, clean thrust Theo gasped, his eyes wide with disbelief as blood spilled around the letter opener. Dominic held him upright for a moment, watching the life drain from his face with clinical detachment.

Then he let Theo crumple to the floor.

The study was quiet again.

Sighing, Dominic rolled his shoulders back, moving over to the desk again to toss the bloody letter opener on top of the paper he had been looking at before Romero had interrupted him. He shoved a hand into his pants pocket to retrieve his phone, the number he called the most already pulled up.

He tapped the contact and held the phone up to his ear.

“Romero,” he said calmly as soon as the other end picked up.

“Yes?”

“I need you to come to the penthouse. Theo is dead.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line.

“He threatened to expose our plans to my father,” Dominic said simply. “Handle it.”

Romero didn’t prompt him for further explanation. “Disposal?”

“Yes. Make it convincing.” He thought for a moment. “A bar fight gone wrong. That will be believable since he likes to party.”

“Understood. I’ll be there in ten.”

As soon as the call ended, Dominic pulled his phone away from his ear and tossed it onto his desk. Letting out a sigh, he ran his clean hand over his face before glancing over his shoulder at the still body lying on his study’s floor.

What a mess.

He hadn’t planned on killing anyone before the wedding but as it stood, sometimes these things couldn’t be helped.

Theo had served his purpose with the Guerreros. He was merely a tool, one that had grown to be too much of a liability for Dominic to feel comfortable keeping him around. Once tools broke, it was best to discard them.

Dominic found his thoughts drifting back to Aurora.

She wouldn’t know about this. Not yet, at least. This was all for the best anyway. She already had too many enemies because of the family she was born into. Too many people willing to take advantage of her because she didn’t know how to properly stand up for herself.

Now she had one less in the world to worry about.

With Theo dead, she’d be safe from his advances.

Maybe he had been wrong. Maybe the heir talk had been absurd.

Then again… maybe it hadn’t been.

Dominic pictured her again—walking next to him in that same park he’d just fucked her in, her hair pinned back from her face, lips swollen from his kiss, that familiar fire in her eyes when she challenged him, and a swollen belly she had a hand resting over.

She wasn’t built for this world. Not like he was.

Yet somehow, she was still standing. Maybe that made her even more dangerous than he was. Someone like her with a deep want to keep on fighting no matter the circumstances wasn’t the kind of person to be underestimated lightly.

Romero’s voice pulled him out of the thought. “I see we went for the messy route.”

Dominic blinked a few times to clear his head. Had it been ten minutes already? “It was a spur of the moment situation.”

Romero eyed him. “I see that.”

The study grew quiet for a long moment before Romero chose to speak again.

“I’ll need a few hours,” he said, nodding to the body. “You want me to notify his father after I get him cleaned up?”

Dominic shook his head. “I’ll handle that. Just make sure it looks convincing. Give him a few more wounds if you have to. We don’t need some coroner calling our bluff.”

Romero nodded. “What do you want the story to be?”

“A bar up in North End,” Dominic said after a moment. “Fight broke out. Theo got caught in it trying to be macho and show off. It didn’t end well. Pay off who you need to.”

Romero tilted his head. “His father might buy it but Leonardo won’t.”

“He won’t need to. He’ll be too focused on the wedding.” Dominic straightened his jacket. “He already is so this shouldn’t be that difficult to pull off.”

Romero nodded. “Understood.”

After helping his second roll the body up in a carpet to transport out of the penthouse, Dominic left him to finish the job and headed off to take a shower. Under the warm spray, he let the tension bleed from his shoulders, a long sigh leaving him.

He closed his eyes for just a moment and there she was again.

Aurora.

That woman was going to end up destroying him if he didn’t get himself in check.