Chapter 36
Aurora POV
The phone rings late in the afternoon, slicing through the silence of my bedroom at the safehouse. I stare at the screen for a second longer than necessary, heart stuttering when I see the caller ID flash with a familiar name.
Dominic.
It’s been days since he’s stopped by the safehouse to check on Gianna and I, usually getting one of his soldiers to do it for him and drop supplies off to us to keep us alive and fed.
For the third time since waking up this morning, I wonder what he’s been up to. What he’s been doing that’s been keeping him from coming around to check on us—or rather me—personally. No doubt it has to do with keeping the fractured remnants of his family together, but my questions still remain the same, nonetheless.
Even though I shouldn’t, I kind of miss him.
I answer on the second ring, trying to keep my voice steady when I speak. “Hello?”
“I’m sending a car to pick you up.”
No explanation. No apology for the time gap. Just straight to business as usual.
I blink, thrown a little bit. “Now?”
“Yes. You’ll be taken to my penthouse. Be ready for when they arrive.”
And then he hangs up.
Typical.
I pull the phone away from my ear slowly, my mind racing.
What does he want from me now?
Tossing my phone onto my bed, I head out into the little living area that separates my and Gianna’s rooms. She’s out on the couch, flipping through one of those ridiculous gossip magazines she talked one of Dominic’s soldiers into buying the last time a grocery trip was done for us.
She smiles when I move her legs to sit down next to her. “Hey.”
I launch right into it, not bothering to waste my breath. “I got a call from Dominic. He wants me to meet him at his penthouse.”
Her nose wrinkles. “Did he say why?”
I shake my head. “Just that he’s sending a car over right now.”
Gianna sits up fully, tossing the magazine aside. Her eyes narrow, serious now. “You sure you want to go?”
I chew my bottom lip, unsure. “I’m not sure I have a choice in the matter.”
“Look,” she says, leaning forward to take my hand. “You can’t let him bully you into anything. You made it clear the lengths you’ll go if you’re backed into a corner again. He knows that. Don’t let him trick you into thinking otherwise. You have just as many tricks up your sleeve as he does.”
I nod, feeling a small knot of gratitude form in my chest. “You’re right. If he’s planning on putting me in another impossible predicament, I’ll fight back.”
She smiles tightly. “Just remember who you are. You’re not some girl he can just shove around anymore.”
As much as I want to tell her that she’s right, I’m worried the second I see Dominic again, I’m going to cave.
This is going to be harder than simply keeping my wits about me.
When the car finally pulls up in front of Dominic’s gleaming high-rise, I pull in a deep breath before stepping out of the car and into the fading twilight, feeling like I’m walking into yet another trap I have no idea how to protect myself from.
This could all simply be some big formality—Dominic checking up on me and making sure I’m behaving myself while in his custody. I have no idea how he’s gotten my father to agree to this arrangement in the first place, however I’m not about to complain.
The longer I’m able to stay away from my family, the safer I feel.
I find the penthouse eerily calm when I make it up to his floor. Dominic’s study door is open, muted voices floating out of it and down the hallway to where I am. Heading for it, I catch sight of a few men I don’t recognize standing inside the room.
Flashbacks to eavesdropping on the last conversation I managed to almost walk in on has me stepping back from the door immediately, prepared to simply wait for Dominic to finish and retrieve me from the living room once he’s done.
However, barely two steps back from the door is all I get before it swings open further and I’m met with Romero who levels me with a cold, unreadable stare the second our eyes meet.
Shit…
“Give us the room,” Dominic says from inside.
I quickly step to the side as the strangers file out immediately, leaving only Romero and I behind. After he waves me in, he hesitates by the door, leaving only when Dominic pins him with a sharp glare.
Romero sighs as he shuts the door behind him, the lock clicking into place. I stand there for a moment, awkwardly clutching my small purse like it’s some kind of shield against the budding realization that I’m now alone with the one man my body can’t seem to resist.
Looking back to him, I find Dominic wearing a smile. It’s not a kind one, or one filled with glee. It’s a slow, amused curl of his mouth that makes me feel like a mouse staring down a cat after being trapped into an inescapable corner.
“You could sit down, you know,” he drawls, gesturing lazily to one of the leather chairs across from his desk.
My head shakes, ignoring the request. “Why am I here?”
His smile deepens, clearly entertained by my impatience. “Straight to the point, I see.”
He leans back in his chair, studying me with those sharp, intense eyes of his.
There’s another beat of silence that passes over us. It takes everything in me not to squirm under that inscrutable gaze. To show him that I’m being affected even though I’m sure he knows how easily he can get under my skin.
It’s not like he hasn’t done so before with less effort.
“I had a meeting earlier with your family and my father’s inner circle,” he says, voice casual. “Some concerns were raised.”
I frown. “Like what?”
“About the alliance between our families. Regarding whether loyalties between us all would hold now that my father is dead.”
I blink, trying to process that. Not exactly the subject I thought he would be bringing to my attention but one that I’m interested in nonetheless.
Before this, I hadn’t actually thought about what would happen with the fragile alliance between the Carusos and Guerreros now with Leonardo no longer here. Sure, we did technically get married in front of a bunch of witnesses but the licences was never signed and on top of that, we never consummate anything.
So while technically, I’d gone through the motions of solidifying our alliance, one could argue it wasn’t at all valid.
“I’m guessing your family is requesting something from mine in order to continue the alliance?”
Dominic’s gaze flickers with something I can’t name. “Yes. I’ve come up with a solution that is quite simple. Since the original alliance was built around a marriage, it makes sense to only continue that agreement through a different channel.”
He trails off, as if waiting for me to fill in the blanks.
I don’t. Mostly because I don’t want to guess where this is going.
I just cross my arms and lift an eyebrow. “Be frank with me, Dominic.”
His smile flashes again, more amused. He rises from his chair slowly, stalking around the desk until he’s standing just a few feet away from me. I hate the way my heart stutters when he’s this close, when I can smell his cologne and feel his body heat close to me.
I should be standing my ground like Gianna told me to, yet all my body wants is to fall into his arms and beg him to toss everything off his desk in order to lay me down on top of it and fuck me.
When will I be free of this man? Free from the hold he has over me?
“Here’s the reality of the situation, Aurora. In order to preserve the alliance and keep both our families from tearing each other apart, in the meantime, we need another marriage to replace the one that was lost.”
I stare at him for a long moment. “Okay…”
“You and me.” He clarifies.
The words hit me like a slap. I stagger back half a step, nearly doubling over as my knees lock up out of sheer surprise.
“What?” I whisper.
His head tilts, the predator eyeing the prey that just stumbled into his claws.
“You and me, Aurora. Husband and wife. That’s the deal.”
I shake my head, trying to clear it. “You’re joking.”
“I’m not.”
“But—” I sputter. “Why? You don’t… There has to be someone else.”
Marrying into the Guerrero family again would surely get me killed this time around. I’d escaped with my life only because I’d been smart enough to out-smart the heir at his own game. This time, I wouldn’t be so lucky.
He’d know what to look out for. He’d know if I was planning something behind his back.
Dominic had only agreed to keeping Gianna and Stefano safe during the switch of power when it came to Leonardo’s downfall. We’d never struck a deal that would further make sure they were never dragged into any of this, let alone a deal that protected me from becoming collateral damage in Dominic’s next scheme.
His expression hardens slightly. “There isn’t.”
I laugh, a broken, bitter sound. “I can’t believe I’m going to be forced to marry another one of you again. What, Camilla wasn’t an option? My father didn’t want to give up his precious golden child to a monster?”
He says nothing.
I press the heels of my hands into my eyes, willing myself not to cry.
Not here.
Not in front of him.
When I look at him again, he’s watching me with that same unreadable intensity he always wears. “You have no other options but to accept.”
