Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
E ver since we skipped school and went to the park two weeks ago, Connor has been different.
It’s almost as if he’s distancing himself from me—although we spend just as much time sneaking around.
I’m questioning whether it’s in my head.
I’ve never been in any kind of relationship, and I’m not always known for being rational.
And when it comes to Connor, I’m definitely not being rational.
He is filling my every thought to the point that I think I might be obsessed. If I’m not with him, or at least looking at him from across the hallway in school, I’m thinking about when I can see him next.
Everyone believes I’m taking senior year seriously with all the time I’m spending in the library. They don’t know that the only thing I’m studying in there is Connor’s body. In detail.
I know that this thing between us is going to end. I’m not an idiot. I get that there is no future for us. Our families will never allow us to be together, and I don’t think I’d ever go against my family. Not for something so selfish.
For now, though, I’m going to enjoy him for as long as I can. He woke me up, and I’m not ready to go back to sleep yet. I’ve tried. I’ve looked at other people, waiting to see if my body would respond the way it does to Connor. It doesn’t work.
He tells me that we will figure out a way to get through it together. And I tell him he’s delusional and shouldn’t live with his head in the clouds. But I so want to join him there.
Every girl wants the fairy tale, right? Their very own Prince Charming? Well, I found mine. He just comes with the wrong last name. It’s easy to forget when I’m with him. It’s usually when we part ways that I remember why we need to be a secret.
“Earth to Aurora, hello?” My cousin Tilly snaps her fingers in front of my face.
“What?” I ask, shaking thoughts of Connor out of my head.
“Who is he?” She narrows her glare at me.
“Who is who?” I look around the shop’s interior.
“The boy on your mind.” She points to my face. “I know that look. I see it in the mirror when I’m thinking about Antonio.”
“Not all of us are stupidly in love, Tilly.” I scowl and walk towards the back of the store. I can’t tell her. She’s the good girl in the family, the one who never breaks the rules. Well, that was until she met her fiancé, who also happens to be a Don.
When she called me to go shopping, I jumped at the chance for a distraction. Connor went back to Boston this weekend. He wanted me to go with him but I couldn’t get away. Not with the extra security we all have on us at the moment.
Someone is attacking the family, and I’d be an idiot to put myself in a situation where I was vulnerable, and that’s what I’d be if I went to Boston with him. There’s also the fact I promised my mom I wouldn’t disappear or do anything dangerous while the oldies deal with the threat.
They don’t know who is targeting us, or at least they’re not telling me. The adults tend to keep family business to themselves. Which means, unless it’s something we have to know, we don’t know shit.
I wonder if Dante or Orlando have heard anything. They’ve been awfully close at school lately. I know they’ve been told to be. But honestly, if something were to happen, it’d probably be me either getting us into trouble or out of it. I’m good at both.
Picking up a dress, I turn to tell Tilly I’m going to try it on. Only to immediately drop the hanger. My feet are moving but I’m not fast enough. The sound of a gunshot deafens me. By the time I reach the guy holding the gun, I’m too late. He just shot my cousin.
My sweet, innocent, good cousin.
I reach under my skirt and take hold of my blade.
I don’t even think before my arm is lifting and my knife is slicing across his neck.
I smile when I see the first drops of blood spill free.
The gun in his hand clanks against the floor and his hand comes up to his throat. Dead eyes connect with mine.
Good, I’m going to be the last thing this motherfucker sees.
My foot kicks out at his stomach. He falls over and I jump on top of him, stabbing him over and over again until I hear her. Tilly making a whimpering sound.
I crawl off the asshole and over to my cousin. “It’s okay. Tilly, keep your eyes open,” I tell her, holding my bloodied hands over her open wound. “Someone call a fucking ambulance.”
I look outside. Where is the security detail? We had one of our soldiers outside the store and now he’s gone. What the hell is happening?
When the paramedics arrive, I breathe a sigh of relief. She’s going to be okay. I jump in the back of the ambulance with her. Both of the paramedics pale when I give them her name. Most people in this city know who my family is. Hopefully, it makes them work harder to save my cousin’s life.
I’ve locked myself in my bathroom. To say my parents are distraught would be an understatement. My whole family is in shock over what happened today. Tilly woke up, though. She’s going to be okay. Thank god. But the guy who shot her? He’s never waking up. I made sure of that.
My parents keep looking at me, waiting for me to break down or do something. The thing is, I don’t feel bad. I don’t feel anything. Actually, that’s a lie. I do feel something. It’s just not something I can tell them. They wouldn’t understand.
The room is filled with steam. I’m not even in the shower. I’m sitting on the tile floor because I just wanted ten minutes of peace. Ten minutes where I can just be me without being looked at like I’m a bomb about to explode.
I wish I knew what a normal person would do in this situation. Would they cry? Would they say they were sorry? Should I do that? Pretend that I’m remorseful? Maybe then they wouldn’t look at me like I’m this monster.
I know they don’t mean to look at me that way, and that I could just be reading more into it than what it is. I can’t blame them. Their little girl is going around killing people. It’s a lot for any parent to accept. Even mine.
There’s a knock on my bathroom door. “Aurora?” my brother Enzo calls out from the other side.
Reaching up, I unlatch the lock and then the door opens. Enzo walks in, closing it behind him. He sits on the floor next to me.
“You doing okay?” he asks.
“Why are you here, Enzo?”
“Enjoying the steam room you have going on. You know, I bet if you asked Pops for a sauna, he’d put one in here for you. Probably save water,” my brother says, leaning over and nudging his shoulder with mine. “What’s on your mind?”
“You mean other than the fact that our cousin is lying in a hospital bed? Someone shot her, right in front of me, and I didn’t stop it,” I tell him.
“No one expects you to stop every bullet, Aurora.”
“I should have been closer to her. I walked to the back of the store. I should have stayed with her.”
“And then what? Have you both laid up in the hospital? It’s not your fault, Aurora.” Enzo wraps his arm around me, pulling me against him.
“I could have stopped it,” I whisper.
“Maybe. But we can’t live in a world of what ifs ,” he tells me.
I get what he’s saying, but it also doesn’t change what I know to be true. I could have stopped it. I know I could have.
“I don’t want you to put this on yourself. You’re a seventeen-year-old girl, Aurora. You should be out having the time of your life. Not fighting for it.”
“Are you saying I should be out partying and meeting boys?” I smile up at my brother.
“Fuck no, but you should be having fun,” he grunts. “Just without the whole boys thing.”
“Mmm, is that what you’re doing? Having fun? No girls?” I pinch his side, sitting up and forcing his arm to drop from my shoulders.
“There are no girls who matter,” he says. “Which is exactly why you need to stay away from boys. We’re not good people, Aurora.”
“Well, when you do find the one, she’s going to be lucky to have you.”
“I’ll be happy not finding the one,” he mumbles. “We could just live with Mom and Pops forever and continue to drive them crazy.”
“Do you think love conquers all?” I ask him.
“It could. I guess. I mean Lorenzo is still breathing against the odds. I really thought Kyla’s dad would have fed him to the pigs by now,” he says. Our older brother’s father-in-law is known for feeding his enemies to his pet pigs.
“It didn’t for Romeo and Juliet.” I sigh as Connor’s face flashes through my mind.
“That’s fiction. It’s not real life.”
“What if it were, though? Star-crossed lovers from warring families? Do you think they’d stand a chance?”
Enzo looks at me, like really peers deep into my eyes. I’ve said too much. He knows.
Shit! Abort! Abort! I don’t know how to backpedal so I freeze.
“Why are you asking me that, Aurora?” Enzo finally says after staring into my damn soul for what feels like forever.
“No reason. We’re reading the book in English class and I was curious.” I shrug. Good save.
Judging by the look on my brother’s face, he doesn’t believe me, though. “I think history would tell us that couples from warring families getting together never ends well,” he says.
“Yeah, you’re right.” I stand and wait for my brother to do the same. “Now, I really am getting in the shower, so you need to leave.”
“Do me a favor. If you start dating someone, let me know,” he says. “I don’t care who he is. I just need to know that he’s worthy of you.”
I nod my head in agreement, looking away because I don’t want to lie to him. There is no way in hell I’m sending a firing squad in Connor’s direction.
After showering, I towel dry my hair and walk out to my bedroom, freezing on the spot when I see someone sitting on my bed. Not just someone. But someone who really shouldn’t be in this house.
“Connor?” I look to my door. It’s closed.
“It’s locked,” he says.
“How? What? Wait… What happened? Are you okay?” All sorts of things go through my head. None of them good. Something happened to him. He needs to hide out. He needs help.
“I heard about your cousin. I came to see if you were okay,” he says.
He’s here for me? Why? I mean, coming into this house is like walking straight up to the devil and signing over your soul. He’s not getting out of here alive. Well, not easily anyway. And how the hell did he even get in?