Chapter 34

“It was words that I fell for. In the end, it was words that broke my heart.” ~ Lang Leav, Memories. 

**| A U R O R A |**

My eyes slowly fluttered open as I stared blankly at the ceiling without bothering to look around. Not less than three seconds ago, I came to my senses, and I was already in denial. Not wanting to see, feel, or think.

I didn’t need to look around to realize where I was. It was Sam’s room, and I was lying on her soft Queen size bed because the nauseating aroma of coconut and vanilla assaulted my nasal passages.

The woman has an unhealthy attachment to strong fragrances.

“How are you feeling?” Sam appeared in the periphery of my vision as I winced and tried to avoid.

Pity was something I refused to accept in any circumstances. Even when I turn ninety and fucking invalid. And if I ever live up to that age. But not now, not today.

“Aurora, please talk to me,” she implored.

I figured that just like every Romano in this house, she can’t take a damn signal and shut up. So I shoved the covers and pushed off the bed. “I am a little tired, and a hell lot pissed with the people stabbing me behind my back.” I grabbed a scrunchie from the bedside table and tied my hair in a high ponytail before tucking the gun behind my back. “Thank you for asking.”

Sam bit on her lips as she looked up with her soft apologetic baby blues. “I wanted to make sure that you were in the right sense when you confronted him, Aurora. I wanted what was best for you.”

“Right sense?” I scoffed. “You want me to keep my calm after I have seen? Marco went out and fucked behind my back. But of course, you will take his side, and why won’t you?”

“What is that supposed to mean?” She offended.

“It means fucking nothing.”

I tried storming out of the place because I could not tolerate this self-expressive session, the same reason I hated going to a psychiatrist after recurring nightmares from prison two years ago. Sammy was insistent, but it was Marco who was stepped up and outright rejected.

Sammy’s voice tiptoed after me as I reached for the doorknob. “Aurora, I get it that you are hurting and—”

“And what?” I snapped, spinning around. “Am I supposed to forget what I saw? Sam, I was sick worrying if he made it out alive or not while he was out there…getting a blowjob…and…”

My fingers squeezed the doorknob I was still latching onto, and I had a feeling it would break under pressure.

“I am sorry. I am so, so sorry…”

Sam walked up to me and pulled me into a tight embrace, and for once, I accepted it. It wasn’t until she hugged me that I didn’t realize how badly I needed it.

I pulled back slowly, even though she did not let go out of my hands. “I offered to go with him, maybe just as a backup…” I whispered, confessing. “but he made a stupid excuse and sent me here. And I was an idiot not to see through the lie.”

She shook her head calmly. “There is no excuse in the world for what he did with you, and I would probably take an axe to his balls one day for hurting you. But before that, I want you to talk to him. Not for him, but for you and your sanity.”

I sighed heavily, trying to assemble the chaos in my mind. My insides were already a maelstrom of new information and realizations, and any more speculation would just blow me off. Maybe Sam was right. Maybe I should give him the benefit of the doubt for once. Marco deserved it.

Otherwise, we would have a lifetime to hate each other.

“Okay.” I let out another heavy sigh. “I will let him have a say first.”

Sam nodded, her eyes locked with mine as if she was trying to communicate with me at some level.

“What now?” I asked.

“Marco is here,” she revealed carefully, like tiptoeing around eggshells. “With Viktor. Do you want to see him now?”

Did I? The answer was both yes and no.

“Yeah.” I breathed. “I want some answers only he can give me. I promise I will try not to lose my cool.”

Her face beamed. “I am so proud of you.”

Don’t be, just yet.

**V I K T O R**

Just the mere sight of him spiked my temper. Off the top of my head, I could think of a hundred ways to torture him, but he did not care. The motherfucker sat in my house, in my office, drinking my scotch and wasting my time. And if that wasn’t enough, he was sulking.

Marco had toppled the entire sanity of my house and sat on the couch like an indolent lord of a castle.

“Are you going to talk or just sulk and waste my time?” I snarled.

His eyes were still closed, head leaning back while he lazily rolled the frosted glass in his hand.

“I swear, Marco if it weren’t you and someone else, I would not have bothered to have this talk. I would have pulled a gun and shot between the eyes but not before I cut off that problematic dick that got you high and mighty.” Still no response.

You got to be kidding me.

“I am talking to you, motherfucker!” I pulled out my gun and shot at the couch as the bullet grazed a few away inches away from his head. But Marco did not even fucking flinch. Damn his reflexes!

Ralph has shot so many blanks at him over the years that the fucker did not even cringe at the sound of pop anymore.

His eyes opened slowly as he brought the glass to his lips and sipped. “Antonio.”

“What?”

“Giovanni had a meeting with Antonio the day before yesterday. We need to look there for the ledger,” he muttered without making eye contact.

I just could not take it anymore. I abandoned the chair with force as it toppled back and stomped over to grab him by the collar. “Are you fucking kidding me right now? I am not talking about the goddamn ledger, Marco!” I yelled in his face, but still, there was not a speck of emotion in his eyes.

Did he just shove his brain up his ass?

He calmly untangled my hands from his collar. “Then we have nothing to talk about if it isn’t about business.”

“Well, right now, I am talking about that overeager dick of yours that led us into this mess. Giovanni is dead, and Aurora is an inch away from killing you.”

A small flicker of emotion came and went, and then Marco went back to his stoic mode. He reached for the bottle on the table and poured himself another glass. “If your idiot brother would have come to me rather than trying to dick me over, we would not have this mess in the first place, Viktor. So go yell at him and leave me alone.”

“Don’t you dare blame Dominic!” I seethed. For the first time, I will admit that Dominic did something remotely decent.

A small scoff huffed his breath. “For a man who whored his entire existence, Dominic is trying to be the saint now. Save me the sacramental shit, Viktor. Who I sleep with is none of his business or any one of yours.”

I barked a caustic laugh. “So she was a whore to you, huh? She let you tie her up, beat and fuck her at your whim, and now you moved on to another piece of meat?”

His fingers clutched the glass tighter, hissing low. “Enough.”

“I sent Aurora to you when I was seventeen, and you feasted on her. She was fucking seventeen, asshole!”

“Enough!”

He threw the glass to the ground before landing a punch on my ribs. And as he went for the second blow, I blocked his hand and knocked his nose.

“I gave her my word! I told her that she’d be safe, you fucker!”

Marco spat blood on the ground. His eyes were blazing with fire. “Spare me the sermon, will you? You wanted a strong, invincible soldier, and I gave you that. I trained her, shaped her, and made her the monster you needed. So do not fucking tell me that you did her any good. You are as much a selfish bastard as I am.”

Gritting my teeth, I shook my head. “Aurora was worried…last night. The moment we gave her the news of what happened at the club, she was ready to bring down hell for you. At some point, I thought she’d just kick our asses to get to you.”

Every one of us could see how faithful she was to Marco. At times, I was convinced that her loyalty inclined more towards Marco than my family, and I’d be lying to myself if I’d believe anything otherwise. She was fucking in love with him. If I could see that, who had never remotely felt anything for anyone, why the fuck couldn’t Marco see it?

The cold indifference returned his features, and he turned his face away. “She deserves better than me.”

“I can’t believe you’d pull out this cliche card. What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Nothing is wrong with me, asshole. I am trying to do the right thing.”

“Right thing for whom?” I charged at him and pushed. “Clearly, not the right thing for Aurora.”

To my surprise, Marco didn’t retaliate at all and only stumbled a few paces back. “I am not the right choice for her.”

When I had told him the same thing years ago, he shoved my advice aside.

“And you realize it now, after trying out all the kinky shit with her and having your fill? Marco, you were a lot of things but not a narcissistic asshole.”

“Will you stop fucking meddling? You have an empire to build, Viktor. You worry about that and let me deal with my own shit.”

He turned and prepared to leave, but I caught his shirt and spun him around. My hands clamped down on his shoulders, trying to communicate from a brother to another.

“Marco, what’s going on?” I earnestly asked because this behavior did not make sense to me. We were Made Men, not psychopaths. “I have known you practically whole my life, and I can say that there’s something you are not telling me. This isn’t you, man.”

He shrugged off my hands, scowling. “Aurora needs to get her head back in the game because she is slipping. And the only she can do it is when I am out of the way. My job is done. For fuck’s sake, I am not her fucking boyfriend to coddle and indulge her.”

“Then what are you to her?”

“I am the man who taught her how to kill and maim.”

“And to fuck,” I added. “What are those dominant shit, then?”

“Aurora is no submissive, Viktor,” he glared. “You and I, we both know that. It was just…sex, and it’s over now.”

Kill. Me. Now. “I shouldn’t have sent her to you. I shouldn’t have…Fuck.”

“Yeah, I told that to you a hundred times, but nothing gets through that thick skull of yours, you arrogant prick. Now, do you want me to get that ledger, or you want to waste time, both yours and mine, with the nonsense discussion?”

Honestly, I wanted to take a brick to his head now.

“So Aurora is nonsense to you now?”

“Viktor, if you are done whining, then I have more important things to do now other than worrying about Aurora. She is pissed, I get it. When she calms down, send her home, and I will deal with it. Besides, it wouldn’t be the first time that I have to deal with her childish tantrums.”

Talking to Marco was like…interacting with someone with an alternate personality from another fucking dimension. To hell with him.

“You are making a mistake,” I warned, though in vain. “Big fucking mistake.”

His gaze locked with mine, hollow and dispassionate. “Aurora was a mistake. But I have realized that now and I have moved on.”

Shaking my head, I looked away and over his shoulder and froze. Sammy stood in the doorway, looking livid, and beside her was Aurora. She looked…frozen in time and empty. No emotions, no movements. It was only her eyes that were trained on Marco.

For a first, I felt *guilty*.

I felt guilty for indirectly causing Aurora this pain.

Marco whirled around, as shocked as I was, but it was too late.

Sammy titled her head, motioning for me to leave. “Viktor, c’mon.”

I nodded stiffly, buttoning up my blazer and hissing low for Marco’s ears. “I don’t care how you sort this mess out, but if I come back and find my office vandalized, brother or not, I will hang you by the balls.”

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