Chapter 96

Dominic POV

She was sitting there beside him with her arms folded protectively around her body, eyes fixed on some invisible point outside the window in front of them.

The longer he stared at her, waiting for her to say something, the more he dwelled. All he could see was her face in the back of his mind—the look she gave him before he left for the warehouse. The tension in her shoulders, the way her voice trembled when she told him to be careful.

He’d thought she was scared for him.

Now he knew better.

The pieces had fallen together one by one as Romero spat out his distaste for her on the drive to the hotel.

Aurora had betrayed him. Sold him out in the worst way by handing him to an enemy who would have gutted him without blinking with nothing gained out of it in the end. She had no reason to trust Alek would’ve given her whatever it was she traded his life for.

Gianna, most likely.

Dominic knew he should feel anger. Rage, maybe. A sharp, cold sense of vindication for Alek’s plans being thwarted at the last moment.

But instead, all he felt was heartbreak.

It shouldn’t have surprised him. This was the same woman who had spat fire at him when she finally had gotten the courage to blackmail him back, the same woman who’d been strong enough to claw her way out of his father’s grasp by the skin of her teeth.

She had once been meek but had slowly started to grow a backbone over the months since he’d first met her. After months of breaking down her walls, after all the nights they shared together and those soft, tender moments, he had let himself believe.

Believe in her.

In them.

Now he wondered if that was the biggest mistake of his life.

The city had long fallen away behind them after he parked in an abandoned lot outside of the city. Out here, they were swallowed by endless trees and overgrown fields. The silence felt deafening the longer they sat here in silence.

He didn’t look at her.

Couldn’t. It hurt too damn much.

“Why?” His voice was low, raw.

The question hovered between them like smoke from a dying fire.

“I… couldn’t.”

“You couldn’t what?” He said through gritted teeth.

“I couldn’t let you die.”

That had him shaking his head. What a piss poor excuse. Not to mention it made no sense. Why set him up only to turn around and take it back? “Why? After everything… Why?”

“Because I—” She cut herself off, her mouth slamming shut.

She turned to him then, and the look in her eyes made his stomach twist. Not with sorrow or remorse, but with something else entirely: anger.

“You want to know why?” Her voice cracked, rising with each word. “Because you left me no fucking choice.”

Dominic blinked, caught off guard.

“You forced me into this,” she went on. “You pushed and pushed until there was nothing left of me but a version of myself I don’t even recognize anymore. You broke me, Dominic. You dragged me into your world, and your filth with your bloodstained games. So don’t you dare look at me like I’m the villain here.”

His brow furrowed, his heart pounding so hard it hurt. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about!” she shouted. Tears streamed down her cheeks, but her hands balled into fists, shaking with rage. “Don’t lie to me anymore. I know you sold Gianna to Alek.”

The words hit him like a sledgehammer to the chest.

What?

She saw the confusion flash across his face, and it only seemed to fuel her fury. “Alek told me everything that first day he landed in the States. How Gianna was your bargain for killing your father. How this entire rescue mission is nothing but a charade you’re putting on to ease your own guilt. You put her in this position in the first place, Dominic. You.”

Dominic sat frozen, the weight of her accusation settling like lead in his gut.

“Is that…” His voice faltered before he caught himself, forcing it steady. “Is that why you left the country?”

“Yes!” she screamed. “Gianna and I—we just wanted to live freely. To get away from all of this. But you wouldn’t let us. I refused to let my best friend be sold off like I was to your father.”

The words sliced him open.

Sold off.

Like she was nothing more than currency and she thought he was capable of doing the same to Gianna.

He reached for her face suddenly, cupping her wet cheeks in his hands. She flinched at the contact, her tear-streaked eyes wide with surprise.

Then his mouth was on hers.

It wasn’t gentle or tender—it was desperate, fierce. A clashing of two people teetering on the edge of their own destruction.

Aurora tried to push him away at first, her hands pressing weakly against his chest, but something in the force of his kiss broke her resistance. She sagged against him, clutching his jacket like it was the only thing keeping her from unraveling.

When he finally pulled back, their foreheads pressed together, his breath came ragged. “You’re wrong. You’re so damn wrong.”

Aurora shook her head, her tears dripping onto his hands. “Don’t… Don’t lie to me, Dominic. Not now.”

“I’m not lying.” His thumbs brushed her cheeks, wiping the tracks of her anguish away even as his own chest felt like it was splitting open. “I never had a hand in Alek’s decisions.”

“Stop—”

“The original bargain was use of some of the Guerrero ports to run shipments. And a small portion of the city to set up a hub for his business. That’s it. It never included giving him Gianna. Never. He saw her during the assassination of my father and had to have her. He first brought up the idea when I went to visit him in Russia to thank him for carrying out the execution.”

Aurora froze. Her lips trembled. “But Alek… he said—”

“Alek’s a liar,” Dominic growled. “He twisted this like he twists everything. And you believed him over me.”

Her breath came in short, broken gasps. She swallowed, her words coming out in shallow gasps. “You… You really didn’t?”

“No.” His hands tightened against her face, as if he could hold her together by sheer will. “I swear it on everything I have. I would never have traded her because I know how much she means to you. I would never jeopardize what we have over something like that.”

Aurora stared at him like she didn’t know whether to believe him or not, her whole world had tilted on its axis.

“You swear it?”

“Yes.” He said with finality.