Chapter 65

Aurora POV

I can’t move.

I can’t breathe.

All I can do is slowly raise my head from where I’ve huddled into Gianna’s side and watch as the man I trusted and the man who just promised to collect my best friend like she’s an important package stare each other down. Dominic’s jaw is locked so tight I can see the vein pulsing in his neck.

Alek, on the other hand, looks like the complete opposite: calm, collected and effortlessly dangerous.

Neither makes a move but the tension in the room is nearly suffocating.

“Apologies for not calling when I landed,” Alek says eventually, glancing between the three of us. “As you know, sometimes itineraries can get quite disjointed.”

Dominic remind eerily silent

When Alek turns to Gianna again, he wears that same tight smile plastered across his lips. It sends a chill racing down my spine. “I look forward to hearing from you soon, krasavitsa.”

I feel her trembling next to me.

Alek finally turns and heads for the door, Dominic following closely behind him along with the three men who had been guarding the door.

The second the door closes behind them, I spring into action. I grab Gianna by the shoulders and shake her once, just hard enough to jolt her out of the frozen stupor she’s sunken into.

“We need to go,” I hiss. “As in right now.”

She blinks at me, pale and shaken. “What—?”

“Now, Gianna.” I cut her off. “Pack your things and hide them under your bed. I already have the documents. Camilla gave them to me yesterday.”

Her confusion is evident on her face. “I thought you didn’t want to leave?”

I pull her to her feet and begin shoving her down the hallway. “I’m not letting that psychopath buy you. We leave as soon as they take their eyes off us.”

Gianna snaps out of it almost immediately. She turns and nods her head once at me, fear being quickly replaced by determination. “Okay… Okay, I’m with you.”

I squeeze her shoulders. “I’ll handle Dominic. You go to your room, lock the door, and don’t come out. Pretend like you’re thinking about his proposal.”

She swallows hard. “Do you think Dominic will leave us alone long enough to escape?”

“I don’t know,” I admit. “But we have to try. I’m not letting that guy have you.”

Gianna grabs my hands and squeezes them once before bolting into her room. I hear the door to her bedroom shut and the quiet click of the lock settle into place. The silence feels louder now than any shouting ever could.

God, what the hell do we do now?

Rage burns inside me. It’s a pure, seething burn that coils in my chest like a live wire. How could he do this? How could Dominic promise Gianna to that man without even telling her? Without telling me?

After everything… after all of his so-called honesty and what I thought were major steps in a different and more healthy direction, this is what he was hiding?

The ring on my finger feels like a lie.

I look down at it and something inside me twists.

It sparkled so beautifully this morning, catching the light in a mesmerizing way. I’d smiled when I first saw it, actually believing that he could be capable of something real.

Of change.

Of choosing something other than power and vengeance.

But now it feels disgusting. This ring feels like ownership. A brand he’s placed on me to stake his claim just like he’s done so many other times before when he’d used me for his own gain. I want to rip it off and toss it into the trash.

Is it even his mother’s?

There’s nothing that’s come out of his mouth that I can trust or believe.

Now I have to play smart. Smarter than I’ve ever been before without getting caught in the process by a man always ten steps ahead. I have to pretend, just like Dominic’s been pretending this entire relationship. If he can act like he cares while selling my best friend off to a bratva kingpin, then I can act like I still trust him.

Like I still love him.

Dominic doesn’t think rules apply to him. He never has. Not with me, not with Gianna, not with anyone.

He thinks he can go over everyone’s head and handpick someone’s future. He believes everyone, including the people he claims to care about, are just pieces on a board he gets to move. He sees the world in terms of control and what he can do to leverage it.

I should have seen this coming.

All he ever promised me was that he wouldn’t blame me or my family for his father’s death. That was it. Nothing more, nothing less. He never guaranteed our safety after the fact and never promised he wouldn’t use the people I love as pawns in a future scheme.

It’s on me for believing him to be any different than the monster he’s always shown himself to be.

Now Gianna is may pay the price for my stupidity.

By the time Dominic finally returns, the front door clicking shut behind him, I’ve already made my decision.

We’re leaving. We’re going to take everything Camilla gave us, and we’re going to disappear before Dominic ever knows what hit him. We’ll run far enough that he won’t be able to find us. Far enough that Alek won’t either.

But first, I need to lull him into a false sense of security. I need him to believe nothing’s changed and that I’m still all in or else he’s never going to leave me out of his sight.

It may kill me but this is something I have to do. For not just my sake but for Gianna’s too.

Dominic walks into the room wearing an apprehensive expression. The worst part is he’s so believable. He looks remorseful and a little worried. He looks like that lost little boy I thought he was this morning when he’d told me about the ring that now burns like acid against my skin.

He looks like Dominic.

That alone infuriates me more than anything.

He should look like a monster. Actually, he should feel like one by his presence alone. Instead, he comes over and crouches in front of me and rests his hands on my thighs. He looks up at me with that pinched expression, searching my face while he watches me.

“Don’t believe anything Alek said,” he says quietly. “Whatever he told you is a lie.”

I stare at him for a moment, bile curling in my stomach.

Then I move, throwing my arms around his neck and pressing my face to his shoulder in order to squeeze him tight. He exhales slowly against me, a soft sound of relief that sickens me, as his hand comes up to rest along my back.

He thinks I believe him.

Good.

He wraps his arms tighter around me, one hand sliding up to the back of my head as he holds me close and kisses the top of my hair. It’s such a careful, practiced move but now I see it for what it is—another manipulation tactic, a performance.

Just like Gianna warned me about.

I let myself melt against him, making my voice sound small and shaken. “I’m glad you’re back.”

I lie that he buys easily. “I will always come back to you.”

From this moment forward, I don’t believe anything he says ever again. But I’ll pretend. Long enough to get Gianna out and to save us both.

Once we’re gone, Dominic Guerrero won’t see me ever again. He might be powerful and smart but he forgot one very important thing: you don’t mess with the people I love and expect me to take it lying down.

I’ll make him regret ever betraying me.