Chapter 86
Aurora POV
The room is too cold.
Not physically, I’m actually sweating through my shirt, but the atmosphere freezes the air in my lungs. I sit stiffly at the end of the long table, eyes darting between the men surrounding Alek and me—his inner circle.
His monsters.
They look like soldiers who never left the battlefield. Scarred, stone-faced, hungry for blood.
I’ve been around dangerous men my whole life, but this? It’s on a whole other level entirely. These are the kinds of men you don’t try to charm or outwit. You just do exactly what they tell you and pray it’s enough to keep you alive.
And if that’s not enough, you beg until your voice grows hoarse and hope for the best.
Alek is calm, eerily so, sitting at the head of the table like a king in his war chamber. “Now that you have agreed to the arrangement we will be discussing the details you are to obtain for us and how that will be done.”
My mouth is dry as I nod, too afraid to speak. Beside him, one of his men slides a cheap, black burner phone across the table toward me.
I don’t move to grab it yet.
I can’t, I’m too frozen in fear.
“This is how you will contact me,” Alek continues, settling back into his chair leisurely. “Text only. Use codenames. If this phone rings, you answer it. No exceptions. If you are in a room with Dominic, figure out a way to dismiss yourself and then answer the phone. If I have to call twice… well, let us not go down that road.”
His smile is filled with venom when it tugs at his lips.
I finally reach for the phone, my fingers brushing against the table’s grainy surface as I take it with a trembling hand. It’s already loaded with contacts when I unlock it and pull up the apps available on it.
I catch a glimpse of some contacts already labeled like “Important” and “Answer Immediately”.
“When you are back with Dominic,” he adds, “you will need to give us tangible proof on what information you gather. I want to know who his allies are, what kind of weapon flow he is working with. Anything that will help us unravel his organization. Photos need to be taken and sent to me, along with recordings of any conversations you overhear.”
“And if I don’t get anything useful?” I ask, voice barely above a whisper.
Alek doesn’t even blink. “Let us worry about crossing that bridge when we get there, yes? I have confidence you will deliver exactly what I am asking for.”
My stomach drops.
This deal only works if we get results. Make no mistake, Aurora. Whatever loyalties you previously had to the Guerreros before this need to be buried. This is business. You want your freedom? Get me what I want and you will have it.”
I nod again. “I understand.”
“Good.” He smiles, lacing his fingers together on the table. “Now go say your goodbyes. We will stage your ‘escape’ tonight.”
I shove away from the table and stand up too quickly. My knees wobble, but I manage to keep them from buckling by forcing my feet to move forward.
As I turn to leave, one of the men chuckles low under his breath. “She won’t last a week.”
My fingers clench tightly around the burner as I’m escorted out. I don’t look back at any of them. I doubt I’d see any sympathetic faces among them anyway.
I’m taken back to the other side of the mansion where my and Gianna’s rooms are. She’s in mine when I slip inside of it, pacing. She jumps when the door shuts and then slumps with relief when she sees it’s just me.
“Well?” she asks, voice strained with anxiety. “What did he say?”
I sink onto the edge of the bed, tossing the burner phone on the blanket between us. “They gave me the mission. He’s waiting till tonight to let me out so until then, I guess I’m kind of limbo. Which feels… I don’t know, worse somehow.”
Gianna sits next to me, grabbing my hands to squeeze them between her own. “Do you think… you’ll be able to contact me at all? I just… I want to make sure you’re alright. If I don’t hear from you, I’m going to start thinking the worst has happened and that’s going to drive me off a cliff.”
“I’ll try. Let’s program our numbers into each other’s burner phones so we can check-in. I want to hear from you too. Leaving you alone with Alek makes me nervous. I know he’s promised a bunch of times that he’ll respect you and not do anything nefarious but these guys are fucking criminals who can change their mind in an instant.”
She blows out a breath. “Good point. He has been wining and dining me. I wonder if he’s expecting me to ask to stay with him once this is all over.”
I blink, surprised.
I hadn’t thought about that. So far, Alek has been adamant about keeping his promise with letting us go. Which could still be the case technically. However, if in the back of his mind he’s expecting to win Gianna over and talk her into thinking she wants to stay, then he gets the best of both worlds
Toppling the Guerreros and a new bride.
“Well, let’s not worry about that right now,” I say, slipping off the bed to grab the burner phone Camilla gave me out from where we shoved it under the mattress. “He can try and win you over all he wants. As long as he sticks to his word about letting us go, who cares.”
“True.”
After exchanging numbers, I shove the first burner phone back under the mattress and set the new one on top of the dresser.
Outside, the sky is already starting to fade into a pink-y orange. Soon, darkness will fall and this plan will be set into motion. I’m simultaneously ready and not—a horrible combination considering how much my gut hurts from the pit forming there.
“Be careful. Please.” Gianna tells me.
I force a small smile. “I will.”
As much as I can be, at least.
And now, we wait.
Dominic POV
It was late afternoon by the time the twins arrived, tired but sharp-eyed.
Romero was already up and strategizing with Dominic, the tension between them from their last fight now entirely buried under the urgency of figuring out their next moves. It felt like old times, piecing together a complicated puzzle.
“We tracked some movement from the mansion we believe he is staying at while on the plane,” Luca said, tossing a folder onto the bed. “Unmarked vans coming and going, a few known Russian foot soldiers spotted. No sign of Alek himself, however but this place fits his profile. Quiet and isolated. Easy to keep two women trapped.”
Dominic thumbed through the surveillance photos on the tablet Luca then hands him, his jaw tightening. The mansion is as large as it is opulent looking from the outside—loud money showing off its worth with none of the subtleties of a more refined taste.
Honestly, it reminds him a lot of the Caruso’s family estate.
How fitting for Aurora to have been taken and brought back to a place like that.
“We need a plan. We can’t storm in with just the five of us.” Romero said, taking the tablet from him to thumb through the photos too.
“I’ve already made some calls,” Dominic replied. “I’ve got reinforcements en route. Ex-military, ex-cartel. They owe me favors.”
Romero raised a brow. “How many favors do you have?”
“Enough,” Dominic said. “And if not, I’ll make more.”
They mapped out the possible exits, calculated entry points, and discussed how to extract Aurora and Gianna without tipping off Alek too early. It was risky, but they were short on time.
Then, Dominic’s phone buzzed, his eyes dropped to the screen—an unknown number.
He frowned. “Who is this?”
There was a long pause on the other end before a breathy, familiar voice answered. “Dominic?”
His heart stopped. “…Aurora?”
“I… can’t talk long,” she whispered. “I think they’re watching me.”
Panic bubbled in his chest, tempered only by the fact that she was alive. He was already moving toward the door, keys in hand for his rental parked in the garage downstairs.
“Where are you?” he demanded.
A small hiccup escaped her. “I-I don’t know. I got out. I’m at a payphone… I ran as far as I could…”
“Stay right where you are. I’m having the twins trace your call. I’ll be right there. Don’t hang up.”
