Chapter 83
Dominic POV
His heart sank as he watched Aurora climb into Alek’s car from just outside the hotel’s lobby.
She didn’t look back at him… not even once.
The sight of her retreating figure as she’d been escorted out of the conference room, the deliberate way she refused his outstretched hand, played in his mind like a reel stuck on loop.
Every slow step she took away from him carved another gash into his chest, each one deeper than the last. Dominic stood there, jaw locked and fists clenched, trying to school his features even though every part of him wanted to run after her, to grab her, to demand answers she clearly had no intention of giving.
Why?
Why the hell did she leave?
Why had she stayed so deathly quiet during their meeting instead of running over to him and begging him to save her?
None of it made sense.
Just a week and a half ago, she had been curled against his side, laughing at some sarcastic comment he’d made about the wedding menu. They’d laid in bed together, discussing vendor options while still half asleep and throwing out half the ideas because he couldn’t see them saying “I do” over cheap chicken marsala because she wanted to keep things low-key.
They were planning a life. A future.
His throat felt like it was lined with glass as the car pulled out of the hotel drive and disappeared into the midday traffic. Dominic stayed rooted in place, the taste of betrayal thick and bitter on his tongue.
Maybe Alek had gotten to her like he suspected. Lured her to Mexico for some reason—threatening Gianna or something equally heinous.
It was the only theory that made sense.
Alek was a snake, a patient one, and Dominic had already humiliated him once when he refused the deal without ceremony. If Alek had contacted Aurora and Gianna in secret before they’d run away to Mexico, whispered promises of freedom in their ears, it was possible one or both of them believed it and took him up on his offer.
Still, for Aurora to choose Alek over him…
Dominic clenched his jaw tighter and turned back to head into the hotel. He needed answers but none were coming, not tonight. Not without Aurora here to give them herself.
With a sigh heavy enough to crack his ribs, he booked a room at the front desk and headed up to it once the money was exchanged and the key handed over. The walls felt haunted when he finally shut himself inside of it.
He threw his bag onto the bed and collapsed into the chair in the corner of the room, running both hands down his face.
What had he done wrong?
He tried to retrace everything in his mind on the plane ride over here—every conversation, every glance, every shift in her behavior right before she’d drugged the twins and ran—but nothing stood out.
Sure, things had been tense lately with Alek appearing, demanding Gianna be handed over to him. There were arguments and the usual chaos that came with this life. But they were getting better.
Weren’t they?
He’d given her his mother’s ring, a symbol of his devotion to her. He’d opened up in ways he never had before with anyone else. He’d started to believe, dangerously and foolishly, that they could actually make it work. That maybe, just maybe, Aurora could be the one thing in his world that earned his loyalty not through brute force but through love and companionship.
Clearly, he had miscalculated.
Somewhere along the way, he had lost her.
And he had no earthly idea on how he would be getting her back.
That night, Dominic lay wide awake for hours staring at the hotel ceiling.
His gun rested on the nightstand beside him. He hadn’t touched it since placing it there, but its presence was oddly comforting. A reminder that no matter how out of control things felt, he could still protect something—if not Aurora, then at least what was left of his crumbling empire.
Eventually, sleep claimed him but it wasn’t at all peaceful.
He dreamed of Aurora, though not the version he knew. Not the woman with fire in her eyes and a heart as golden as the sun.
No, in the dream, she was cold, cunning, her mouth curled in a smirk as she slipped poison into his wine. She stood beside Alek in that nightmare, whispering things into his enemy’s ear, her hands soaked in Dominic’s blood as he gasped for breath and reached for her, begging for mercy with his dying breath.
He jolted awake with a choked gasp, drenched in sweat, the sheets tangled around him like restraints.
For a long minute, he just laid there in the dark with his heart pounding, trying to shake the remnants of the dream from his head.
She wouldn’t do that. She couldn’t.
Could she?
A sharp knock at the door tore through the silence.
Dominic’s eyes flicked toward the clock—barely six in the morning.
His scowl was immediate.
He had told the front desk not to disturb him. If some bright-eyed receptionist was standing on the other side of that door with a breakfast tray or a complimentary bag of toiletries, he was going to make them wish they hadn’t been born.
After rolling off the bed, he stalked to the door and yanked it open, already half-snapping, “I said no disturbances—”
To his surprise, it wasn’t one of the hotel staff standing in front of him, it was Romero.
Dominic froze, blinking.
Romero stood in the hallway in a dark coat, dark circles under his eyes and a grim expression like he hadn’t slept at all on the trip over here.
“The fuck are you doing here?” Dominic asked, voice still gravel from sleep.
Romero pushed past him without invitation, waiting until the door was shut behind him before speaking. “I came because I still think you’re being an idiot.”
Dominic didn’t bother replying, he just dragged a hand down his face and moved back toward the chair.
Romero stayed standing over by the door, arms crossed.
“You left in such a rush, you didn’t bother taking anything with you to protect yourself,” Romero said after a beat, glancing over at the gun still sitting on his nightstand. “What were you going to possibly do with that against an entire Bratva?”
Dominic glared at him. “You here to deliver a lecture? Save yourself the trouble and walk back out that door if that’s the case”
Romero ignored the bite in his tone. “You know I’m right, Dominic.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed. “Romero, I don’t have the patience for this. What did you really come here for?”
He sighed. As he moved away from the door, he uncrossed his arms. He settled down onto the edge of Dominic’s bed, not commenting on the tangled state he’d left the sheets in. “Did you at least find the girls? Or are you still looking for them?”
“Alek and I arranged a meeting. He brought Aurora with him to show he hasn’t harmed her. That was earlier today.” Dominic replied.
Romero nodded. “And?”
Dominic looked away, jaw tight. “He wanted to strike a new deal. Fifty percent of the city and a seat within the Guerrero’s inner circle.”
His eyes went wide and then narrowed. “Tell me you didn’t agree to that.”
“I told him no.”
Romero’s silence said enough. Even if he hadn’t known his second like the back of his hand, the heavy silence settled over them was enough to speak volumes: Romero was relieved and still angry they were even in this predicament to begin with.
Dominic stood and began pacing, dragging a hand through his hair. “Something is going on with them—Alek and Aurora, I mean. Maybe Gianna too. She hardly looked at me the entire meeting. Almost like he threatened her. It has me wondering what else he’s threatened her with.”
Romero pointed out. “She didn’t look like she was being dragged onto a plane at the terminal, though. They both looked quite willing to go. And as far as the CCTV goes, no one was at the airport when they landed to pick them up. If you’re suggesting Alek threatened them into coming here, it doesn’t add up. Why not force them to go to Russia where he has the homefield advantage?”
That… had him stopping in his tracks.
If Alek really had gotten to Aurora or Gianna, he wouldn’t have bothered wasting the energy to talk them into going to Mexico. If he truly offered them some kind of reprieve from whatever manufactured horror he’d told them would soon become their fate if they stuck by Dominic’s side, then he would’ve also talked them into heading directly to him.
So, did that mean Aurora did leave to escape him? But why? What had he done wrong?
“Maybe… I was wrong about her,” Dominic said quietly.
Romero gave him a long look. “You think she’s turned?”
“I think…” Dominic hesitated. “Perhaps there are things about her that I don’t know as well as I thought I did.”
Romero didn’t offer comfort. He never did. But him being here was enough. Dominic wasn’t the type to seek out soft, warm connections. He needed someone strong and steady to hold him up.
“If she’s playing us, we’ll find out soon enough,” Romero said. “If she’s in trouble, we’ll find that out too.”
Dominic nodded but his stomach twisted with unease.
For the first time in years, he realized he didn’t know if he wanted the truth or if he was afraid of what it might be once it finally reared its ugly head.
