Chapter 41
Aurora POV
After almost an entire week living at the safehouse, Gianna and I are returned to my family’s estate with little reason behind the sudden change.
Days slip by without a single word from Dominic.
The silence is maddening, pressing against me like the edge of a blade poised at my throat. I thought the wait for my forced marriage to Leonardo was torture but this is infinitely worse. Every minute that passes without hearing from him only feeds the paranoia gnawing at my insides.
Will he soon force my hand?
Worse yet, he could already be planning something to ensure my answer to his proposal is a resounding ‘yes’ like he expected to hear the moment he presented it to me. His face had been surprised by my hesitancy, not at all expecting for me to not jump at the chance to marry him.
Funny how confident he’d been in hindsight considering he’d been the one that forced me to get some kind of a backbone by blackmailing him right back.
I pace my bedroom incessantly, the plush carpet wearing a thin line of steps behind me.
Sleep is rare and fractured, haunted by half-formed nightmares of what my life will be like if I do decide to walk down the aisle and tie myself to someone like Dominic Guerrero for the rest of it.
He’s already proved he was capable of killing his own father and orchestrating whatever chaos needed in order to achieve his goals. His ruthlessness terrifies me even as it inexplicably draws me closer. But I know better than to trust a man whose power was forged in blood.
Dominic might have promised not to frame my family for Leonardo’s death, but that doesn't mean he won't still punish me in return if he doesn’t get what he wants out of me. He has it in his head that, for whatever reason, agreeing to go along with this ridiculous arrangement won’t end in a blazing mess.
And if Dominic decides Gianna and Stefano are the pressure points needed to force me to comply, there’s little I can do to protect them.
It’s late evening when I sneak down to the main floor to grab a few things to eat before bed that I hear voices drift through the cracked door of my father’s study while passing by.
I pause in the dark hallway, curiosity nagging at me to stay and listen. Really, I should learn by now not to do this considering Dominic had caught me each and every time, but then again, curiosity did always end up killing the cat in the end.
Perhaps it would be a fitting end to me. I wouldn’t die by Dominic slowly bleeding the life from me, but by my father’s hands like I’ve always feared.
“I don’t trust it,” my father is saying. “He’s far too calm about all of this. Your own father is gunned down in the middle of a reception and you hardly bat an eye? Just go with the flow and agree to elect the consigliere as the Guerrero boss and yourself as capo? I don’t trust it.”
Someone else speaks up. “He emerged unscathed from the Russians’ attack. He’s positioned perfectly now that his father’s out of the picture. Once Matteo’s gone, he’ll be next in line.”
“Exactly my point,” my father growls back. “You don’t find that suspicious at all?”
There’s a sudden silence, the implication hanging heavy in the air.
Stefano’s familiar voice finally cuts through the tension. “Leonardo was assassinated in front of dozens of armed guards and witnesses and were able to get in and out without losing any of their own. Think about it: if the Russians were serious about dismantling the Guerrero family, wouldn’t Dominic be their prime target?”
Murmurs ripple around the room in agreement.
“He’s Leonardo’s heir, for Christ’s sake,” Stefano continues. “Killing the head of the Guerrero family makes sense but then leaving Dominic alive isn’t an oversight. It’s intentional.”
“You think Dominic was involved?” My father replies.
“I don’t know,” Stefano replies cautiously. “But it’s impossible not to consider. Dominic and Leonardo were always rumored to be at odds. He had everything to gain from his death.”
Shit.
My heart starts to race, pounding painfully against my ribcage.
If they find out Dominic was responsible—if they discover that he was the puppet master behind Leonardo’s murder—then everyone tied to him is at risk.
Including me.
Before blackmailing him, Dominic’s plan had been perfect. Near flawless in its execution had it actually been able to be enacted. Gunning his father down at the altar and framing me as the unwilling bride behind it was nothing short of genius.
He’d played his cards just right. Set the pieces into motion that he had slowly been nudged towards the finish line for years.
And I’d gone and completely dismantled it all in a single morning.
I’d forced him to act recklessly—desperately, even. I’d given him no time to come up with something more solid before the moment he’d been waiting for his entire life had completely slipped through his fingers.
My only intention had been to get him away from pointing the finger at me and my family. I never expected him to come up with an entirely new plan within a couple of hours. Realistically, he should’ve taken more time to figure out another arrangement instead of acting impulsively.
Now he may pay the price for it.
“Look,” Stefano speaks again, his voice measured. “I’m not saying we have any solid proof. But I think we can all agree it’s highly suspicious. He’s maneuvered himself into power overnight and is now demanding to marry Aurora right after his own father’s death. Perhaps delaying things is our best bet. He could be working on taking over our syndicate soon.”
“Yes. However, he’s made it clear that the marriage was non-negotiable.” My father responds.
Stefano sighs heavily. “Exactly my point. Dominic is solidifying his control by using your daughter as a pawn to secure his position against us. It seems he’ll do anything to maintain the upper hand. If we’re not careful, we’ll be crushed in the process.”
The others break into tense discussion, their voices overlapping with worried speculation. I can’t catch all of their words, but the little I do hear is enough to twist my gut with dread.
Before anyone can catch me, I slip quietly back to my room, closing the door behind me. Pressing my back against it, I sink down onto the floor in front of it.
None of this is good.
The problem is there’s no real way out now. I’ve already played my hand and Dominic his, our pieces falling as they did and causing a ripple effect that now may bury us both. While I don’t regret what I did by blackmailing him, I really wish he waited to formulate another plan than the one he secured with the Russians.
But then again… if he hadn’t I would’ve been forced to sleep with Leonardo.
“Damn it,” I mutter to myself.
Either choice would’ve fucked me.
And now Dominic’s proposal looms over me. I’m trapped between two terrible fates—caught in Dominic’s ruthless ambition and my own family’s desperate maneuvering now that they’re connecting all of the dots.
Gianna was right: I need a plan. Something, anything, to protect myself and those I actually care about.
A headache is beginning to bloom at my temples.
A soft knock on my door snaps me from my spiraling thoughts. Lifting myself up from the floor, I grab a hold of the handle to yank open, surprised to see Gianna on the other side of it.
Without a word, she slips in past me, waiting until I’ve sealed us both inside before talking.
“Hey… Jeez, what happened? You look like you’re about to throw up.”
“I overheard something downstairs.”
Gianna grabs my arm to pull me over to my bed. “Tell me everything.”
I relay every detail I heard—the speculation about the Russians' attack, the suspicions of Dominics involvement in it and my father’s growing unease at the threat the Guerrero family is now posing against us.
Gianna listens intently, her eyes growing wider and more worried the more I spill.
“I know if he goes down he’ll drag me right with him.” I let out a sigh, running a shaky hand through my hair. “He’s not going to fo down alone, especially since I’m the reason he went the route he did to take out his father. I’m worried your father is going to become collateral damage if Dominic discovers my father’s inner circle knows too much.”
“Shit,” she mumbles.
My entire body begins to shake. Panic grips me tight, nearly choking the wind out of me. “What do we do?”
She grabs my hand tightly, grounding me. “Okay. Okay. Take a deep breath, Aurora. We’ll figure this out.”
I try but it feels impossible. Dominic is so unpredictable that it’s causing my thoughts to race no matter how focused I try to be on one singular point. His sudden silence on top of it is only creating more anxiety now that I have no idea what he’s up to.
Usually he’s blowing up my phone by now with some kind of wild demand. But since dropping me off at my family’s estate, it’s been crickets.
“Listen to me, Aurora. You need to talk to him. Get him to tell you exactly what he’s planning so that way if he is starting to grow paranoid, we can stop it before he pulls another Russian mod job.”
I shake my head. “I can try but I can’t promise he’ll actually be upfront with everything. The only reason I found out his original plan is because I managed to guess it and he didn’t bother denying it since he thought I was too weak to do anything. Now that he knows I’m also capable of blackmail, he isn’t going to act so dismissive.”
She stares at me for a long moment. “Well… that means we need to get creative again. We figured out his plan once, why not do it again? We know his patterns now.”
My eyes widen. “That was a fluke.”
“No way.” Her hands tighten around mine again. “We’re smart. You are smart, Aurora. You’re the one that put all the pieces together in the first place. That wasn’t just because you got lucky.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, willing away the tears burning behind them. “I just wish things were different.”
Gianna sighs softly, wrapping an arm tightly around my shoulders. “I know. But we’ll get through this together. No matter what happens next. Okay?”
I nod weakly, letting her comforting hug wash over me. I’m tangled deeper in Dominic’s dangerous web than ever before.
And no matter how this ends, there may be no escaping the aftermath of fallout will inevitably happen.
