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“I didn’t know they would go after Mateo! I swear to God I didn’t know. I thought we were just running jobs for extra cash. I would never have helped them if I knew they were gonna kill Mateo.”
“Holy fuck, you weren’t wrong. This one is an idiot. I knew Mateo liked to keep him close so he could better manage him, but I didn’t realise it was because he was a fucking liability anywhere else in the organisation. Fuck me,” Manny huffs out running a hand over the back of his neck and nodding to Stefano.
Stefano has squeezed off a shot between his eyes before Tony even realises he’s been judged and found wanting. The silencer doesn’t do a lot, bearing in mind the acoustics of the parking garage and the sharp clang of the trunk closing is just as loud.
“You need more before we can act on this,” Stefano chimes in. “Before, we had to keep our mouths shut because we didn’t know what had happened to Mateo. It would have caused tensions in The Syndicate. But this? We tell the family this now, it will cause an outright war. We need to know what the fuck the De Lucas end goal is, and we need to know who the fuck we can trust.”
“Your only lead outside the De Lucas is Marco. You can go after him with my blessing and any resources I can provide.” He pauses and leans in to shake his hand, but grabs Enzo’s forearm, forcing Zo to reciprocate in some sort of secret handshake that denotes a sacred accord. “But if you can’t get him to talk or get any tangible proof of this plot you suspect, you’re on your own. You don’t have long, because we now have two Bianchi capos and a don MIA with no way to explain it. Whatever you do, it has to be done quickly.”
“I am at your disposal. Whatever you need, I will make it happen,” Stefano says. I’m not sure if he’s talking to Enzo or me, or both of us. But his support feels like a facsimile of the way my father used to comfort me. It’s not the same and it should make me feel uneasy, but instead I sink into that feeling and let it surround me like a warm blanket.
“Thank you, Stefano,” I lean in and hug him. I feel his chin rest on my head as his arm bands around my shoulders, squeezing me slightly too tight as he whispers, “I’m sorry we failed you. You shouldn’t have been in his clutches to begin with.”
I lean back and hold his gaze. His words were just for me. I know there’s more I need to ask him, but with an almost imperceptible squint of his eyes he tells me now is not the time.
Manny steals me from Stefano’s warmth, and I’m wrapped in a hug that’s about as reassuring as a steel trap. “I’m so sorry for your loss, princess.”
Zo hears the word and watches me carefully, expecting me to freak the fuck out. That word only incites a boiling rage that makes me want to grab Manny by the hair and introduce his nose to my kneecap. Plus, I’d probably tear any remaining stitches I have, and I’d rather not deal with a tongue lashing from Doc Em if I can avoid it.
I step back and naturally seek Enzo. He doesn’t touch me, he simply stands at my shoulder.
“Thank you. I know you both had great respect for my father. I’m sorry I couldn’t stop Max—but I will stop him now.”
Nodding one last time, Stefano and Manny retreat to their car and Nico appears, pulling Stefano to one side. Nico hands him something, and Stefano nods before turning back to the car to catch up with Manny.
“You’re driving,” Zo grunts at Nico before opening the rear passenger door and ushering me in, following me into the back seat.
As we head home, I replay our meeting, processing what they said, how they said it. Trying to think of the next step and how we best go after Marco. More information is necessary before accusing the De Lucas of anything.
Outside the new normal of the safe house, everything feels so surreal. In the space of a few weeks, my entire world has shifted on its axis. One that is no longer a living hell, a victim to my tormenter. My world is now centred in a very different reality, protected by men who have pledged to help me avenge my father. I crave their protection and comfort. All I want is to go home to them all, because here in the outside world without them all at my side, I have to be a very different version of myself.
The Aurora Max brutalised was broken. The Aurora that woke up surrounded by Zo and his team, is healing. The Aurora that had to explain how her father was slaughtered? She’s not quite ready yet.
It was difficult to say everything without breaking. But it had to be done.
The sooner we return home, the better.
I need… to go home.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
NICO
When Sinclair first mentioned the assignment, it sounded like it would be more fun. Or maybe I just heard the words morgue and break-in and made a false assumption. In reality, it’s cold-as-balls in this freezer, and if I can’t find the bodies we’re looking for soon, I may end up losing one of them to hypothermia.
Since we returned from the meet, Aurora has been withdrawn. Seeing her retreating into herself, unsettles me so when Zo asked Benny and me to run this assignment for Sin, I asked if I could bring her with us. She seemed reluctant to leave the house, but after the incentive of being able to dust off her lock-picking skills and the promise that she didn’t have to wear the wig again, we eventually convinced her to leave Sick Bay.
Aurora headed straight for the file room when we got here. She’s trying to see if there’s anything in the physical files we didn’t get from hacking the digital ones. Fuck knows where Benny is, but I’m guessing he’s running a perimeter sweep while I’m stuck staring at corpses. I hear a metallic snick of the door as it opens and the gentle padding of feet that are way too light to be Benny’s. I go to duck down behind the gurney but stop as a familiar, soft voice calls out my name.
“You done already?” I ask Aurora as she approaches me, her petite yet sumptuous frame concealed by oversized clothing. I lent her one of my black hoodies and a baseball cap to keep her at least partially disguised. She looks like she’s playing dress-up, the hoodie stopping just shy of her knees, and the sleeves so long the cuffs act like mittens. It has me biting my cheek in frustration, knowing she’s wrapped up in my clothes. All I can do right now is try to suppress my cravings for this vicious little thing, but some dark possessive side of me revels in the fact that she chooses to wear my gear more than anyone else’s, and it’s not like it’s because it fits better.
I’m the tallest of the team, and anything of mine practically swallows her whole. Aurora’s almost a foot shorter than my six-foot-four frame, yet when I think back to the strength she channelled in the interrogation, there’s nothing small about her. She projected an air of power so irrepressible she appeared godlike in her command of Carlo and Tony. Not small, or fragile, or weak. Aurora dominated the room.
She’s breathtaking, but… she’s not mine. I need to get out of here. I need to find Benny. I need what’s mine and I need it now.
“Yeah, the files aren’t there, it’s annoying as fuck.”
“Help me find these two bodies, and then we can get out of here. We only need to see the marks. They probably won’t even be a match.”
