Chapter 73

Aurora POV

I wake up to the sound of heavy knocks banging against my door. It startles me into sitting up quickly and ripping the covers off of my body, my legs wobble as I stumble out of bed and over to the door.

The sun blinds me, coming in from my uncovered window. Judging by how warm the rays are, it has to be at least around ten in the morning.

The moment I open the door Gianna barrels her way inside, swinging it shut behind her. Barely a moment passes before she bursts into tears, her whole body shaking giving me less than a second to catch her when her knees give out beneath her.

She’s a little too heavy for me to carry over to the bed so eventually we end up sliding down to the floor together.

“I can’t—I can’t do this,” she gasps. “Aurora, he said he’s going to take me to Russia alone and leave you here. H—he took me out to breakfast this morning and told me. What are we going to do?”

Her voice cracks on the last word, and I can barely hold it together myself. Because what do I say to that? What do you say when your best friend is sobbing in your arms about being forced into a life she didn’t choose, all because someone powerful decided she looked like something worth collecting?

“I know,” I whisper, pulling her tighter. “I know exactly how you feel. This is what it felt like when I was stuck with Leonardo. I’m so sorry you’re going through this.”

Gianna lets out a hollow, bitter laugh. “I used to think you were exaggerating. I mean, not really in a mean way… but I didn’t get it. Not until now.”

“Well,” I murmur dryly, brushing her hair back from her damp cheeks, “now you do. Welcome to the club. I know it’s a shitty one to be apart of.”

We sit there for a while, the silence broken only by the sound of her sniffling. I feel horrible for not having some kind of solution for her. With the guards no doubt right outside the door, we’re trapped in this gilded cage with threats disguised as hospitality.

There’s nowhere for us to go, let alone escape alive. If either of us were to try and leave this place, we’d most likely end up with a bullet in our backs.

Once Gianna calms enough to breathe again, I grab her by the shoulders, digging my fingers into them in order to help ground her. “I’m not letting him take you to Russia.”

She snorts, eyes still glassy. “How the hell do you plan to stop it? Did you stash a glock in your bra or something?”

“No,” I mutter. “But we still have time. They’re not leaving today. If that was the plan, he would’ve never brought you back here, he would’ve just put you on a plane and left. So, that means whatever business he has in Mexico is going to take at least another day or two to finalize. Until then, we need to come up with a plan.”

Gianna wipes her cheeks with the backs of her hands. Her normally no-shits attitude has been completely washed away—something I’m not at all used to seeing. She’s supposed to be the strong one out of the two of us.

Without that brazen attitude, I’m not sure what to do.

“We need help.” I murmur.

“From who, Aurora? Like hell we’re calling Dominic. He’ll kill us the second we’re within eyesight. I doubt he’s going to take you leaving lightly. He’s probably pissed as hell.”

“You’re right. But he wasn’t who I was thinking about. Maybe Stefano can help us.”

Gianna blinks. “How?”

“If we can get in contact with him, he could try to negotiate with Alek. Talk him into some deal. It’s worth a shot, even if it’s a long one.”

She’s quiet for a moment, her eyes hollow. “He’s just one man, Aurora… he doesn’t have the kind of army Alek has even if he somehow gets your father to agree to making some kind of arrangement. These Russians seem to be far more resourceful. I mean… look at it this way: Alek has now traveled to two different countries looking for me.”

She has a point. A man that dedicated, or rather obsessed, is a dangerous one. I’d seen it plenty of times with Dominic when his mission to kill his father was all consuming. Whatever Alek sees in Gianna, he wants. Badly. And he isn’t giving up with a simple ‘no’.

But either way, we have to try. I’m not letting all of this effort of escaping one nightmare and being dropped into another when we were so damn close to freedom let it convince us that it would be better to sit here and take it than actually trying to fight back.

For once I refuse to be a damsel in distress. “That may be true but he, and the rest of the Carusos, have resources. If there’s anyone that has the balls to stand up to Alek or even try to strike a deal with him, it’s our syndicate.”

“I don’t know…” she whispers.

“I know it’s risky. But it’s all we’ve got right now.”

Gianna wraps her arms around herself, thinking.

I watch her, knowing that look in her eyes. It’s the same one I remember seeing in the mirror after Leonardo first put that ring on my finger and told me how he couldn’t wait to own me forever. It’s fear, yes, but also humiliation… helplessness.

That aching, pitiful knowledge that soon, your life will no longer belong to you.

It’s a terrifying reality to come to terms with. Which is exactly why I refuse to let her go through it.

“Let’s try to fix this,” I say. “Let me try.”

She’s quiet for a long while. When she does finally speak, she does so with a soft sigh. “How are we going to get into contact with him? I doubt Alek is going to let us have access to a phone. These guards also don’t strike me as the type to fold for a girl batting her lashes at them like the twins.”

True.

So, that means we’ll have to get creative.

“Let me worry about that,” I say, grabbing her shoulders again. “For now, if Alek takes you out again, do everything you can to make sure his plans for putting you on a plane are delayed. Fake sickness, pretend to have a fainting spell. Whatever you need to do, do it.”

Gianna lets out a slow breath, nodding. “Okay. I will.’

“Good.”

Now I just need to uphold my end of the deal.