Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
L ove makes you do things you’d never thought possible. Like lie to your parents, your cousin’s parents, your entire family about what went down the night before. As soon as Aurora was gone, I called it in. I had to.
To say my father and uncle are ready to wage war is an understatement. Which is exactly why I told them some Albanian kid was responsible. I lied and said he got the jump on me before he ran out.
I can’t give her up to them. If I told them who really did this, they’d find her and they would do unspeakable things to her before they eventually killed her.
I can’t let that happen. No matter how much I hate her right now for what she’s done, there’s still an overwhelming need within me to protect her.
Which makes me hate myself. What kind of fucking cousin am I that I’m protecting Kenny’s killer?
Pathetic. I wonder if she planned this all along. Get me hooked on her, get me to let my guard down, and then pounce. Wouldn’t surprise me.
Well, joke’s on her. If she thinks this is over, she’s fucking delusional. This is far from over. My family might not know who did this, but I do. And in our world, there is only one way to settle a debt like this. An eye for an eye.
Luckily for me, Aurora has a shit-load of cousins to pick from. Any one of them will do. I’m not bothered. I might not want her to endure the physical torture of what my family would dish out to her. But emotional pain? That’s something she’s going to feel tenfold.
She once said that she didn’t feel anything before me.
That I woke her up. At the time, I thought it was sweet.
I thought it was an indication that we really were soul mates.
Now, I see that knowledge as my biggest weapon.
Something I can and will use against her.
I want her to feel the kind of pain I’m feeling right now, the loss.
I want her to suffer, but I also want her alive.
Which is fucked up, because I hate her. I want to hate her.
Kenny deserves to be avenged. His death will not go unanswered. I can’t let my feelings for Aurora get in the way of that, at least not completely.
“You doing okay?” My mom taps on the door.
“I’m alive, so yeah,” I tell her.
“What happened to Kenny… It’s not your fault, Connor,” she says, walking farther into my room.
She’s wrong. What happened to my cousin is entirely my fault. I was the one who brought Aurora around, even after seeing how unhinged she could be. Fuck, I embraced her craziness, loved it even. It’s my fault Kenny is dead. If I didn’t invite Aurora to that party, she wouldn’t have been there.
“This life, it comes with perks and it also comes with risks. We all know that our enemies reaching us is a risk,” my mom says.
“Is that what you’d say if it were me? If I were the one who was killed and not Kenny?” I ask her.
I think about all the times I’ve been alone with Aurora, about all the things I’ve let slide because I was fucking blinded by her. She stabbed me, more than once, and I thought it was hot. Maybe I’m just as insane as she is. I have to be, right?
“It is the life we chose,” my mom responds.
“You chose. I didn’t choose shite. I was born into it,” I remind her.
“You’re right. You don’t have a choice, Connor. I’m sorry about Kenny. It is a tragedy, but how we respond to this event will pave the way for our family in this city,” she tells me.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, your father, your uncle, the rest of your family is downstairs planning to carry out an act of vengeance for Kenny while you’re up here moping.”
She’s right. I am moping, because I just had my heart ripped out of my fucking chest. It might as well have been me in Kenny’s place. How the fuck do you go on living without a heart?
Or is it a gift? I could choose to embrace this pain, embrace the darkness and become the monster my family has always wanted me to be.
“You’re right.” I stand and kiss my mother on her cheek. “I’m being selfish when I should be thinking of Kenny. I’m going to go help Da,” I tell her.
“Good. I know it’s hard, Connor. But this is your destiny. The sooner you accept it, the better,” she says.
“I know.” Like I said, it’s not like I have much of a choice. I’m the fucking heir to the O’Malley family. It’s not something I’ll ever be able to forget.
Passing the bar, I scoop up a bottle of Jameson, remove the cap, and take a huge swig of the amber liquid. I was going to go and join my father’s meeting, but maybe finding somewhere to be alone with this bottle would be better.
“It won’t help, you know.”
I turn at the sound of my uncle’s voice. “It might,” I say, taking another swig.
“If I thought for a second it would, I’d be joining you,” he grunts.
Guilt eats at me. He just lost his son because of me and he doesn’t even know it. “You’re the future of this, Connor. Becoming a raging alcoholic isn’t in the cards for you.” He takes the bottle from my hands.
I don’t say anything. Because, well, what the fuck can I say? Nothing is going to make a difference right now.
“We have plans to hit them tonight. I expect you to be there. For your cousin,” he tells me.
“I’ll be there,” I agree. “What’s the plan exactly?”
“The Albanians had a royal wedding today, one of the boss’s daughters. We’re going to make sure she has a honeymoon she’ll never forget. Or survive,” he says.
And this is exactly why I didn’t give up Aurora. As much as I hate her right now, I know I couldn’t stand back and watch her be tortured and killed. Is it fair to let an innocent woman take the brunt of my family’s wrath?
No, but if it’s between a stranger and Aurora, well, just like my last name, it’s not much of a choice.
She’s going to haunt me forever. I’m never going to be free of the hold she has on me. Hate and love… it’s a fucking fine line.
“Stay close,” my father tells me.
I look at him. He has never shown concern for my welfare, and that whole stay close thing is an oddly concerning thing for him to say. “Okay?” I question.
“We just lost one kid, Connor. I do not want to be burying another.”
“Don’t worry, Da. I’m not going anywhere,” I reply with a smirk.
My stomach is rolling, and it’s taking everything in me not to fucking throw up right now. We make our way into the hotel, and a minute later, we’re pushing our way inside the honeymoon suite. The naked couple in bed blissfully unaware of the horrors they’re about to encounter.
If I were a better person, I’d call this off, tell my family I made a mistake. That it wasn’t the Albanians who killed Kenny…
Her face pops into my mind. Aurora. If I don’t give them someone to target, someone to blame, they won’t stop looking until they find the person responsible. And I know they will. They’ll find her, and it’ll be Aurora being grabbed. It’ll be her screams in my ears.
“I’m going to fucking kill you,” the guy two of my father’s soldiers just dragged out of bed yells.
“That will be a bit hard, lad, considering you won’t be alive too much longer,” my father says.
“What the fuck do you want? Don’t touch her.” The poor guy focuses on his new bride, who is being tied down, spread-eagle on the bed, completely naked. Tears fall down the side of her face, and my uncle shoves a piece of cloth in her mouth, muting her cries for help.
“You took something from me. Well, your family did. And you are going to be the one to pay for it. First…” My uncle stands from the bed.
He starts undoing his belt, slowly dragging it out of the loops of his trousers.
“I’m going to make you watch as I take the thing you love most in the world.
” He then brings the leather belt down onto the woman’s stomach, and screams fill the room.
Her body writhes on the mattress but there is nowhere for her to go.
Everything blurs. Her face is replaced with Aurora’s, her body one I know so well. And I watch as the belt rains down on her, hitting her thighs, her arms, her breasts.
Closing my eyes, I inhale. It’s not Aurora. It’s not her.
When I open them again, I steel my expression and force myself to watch. This is my fucking fault too. There is no one to blame for these people enduring my family’s cruelty but myself.
“Stop! I’ll give you whatever you want. Just stop,” the guy cries out.
My uncle laughs. “There isn’t anything you have that we want.”
My father walks behind the man, grabbing hold of his hair and forcing his face up. “Watch… The fun part’s about to happen,” he says and then nods towards one of his soldiers. “You first.”
The sick bastard smiles like he just won a prize. “Thanks, boss,” he says, unbuttoning his pants. My gaze goes from the guy in the chair to the woman in the bed. I try to think about what I would do if I were in this situation.
Would I watch as the love of my life got brutally raped by a dozen guys?
Fuck no. Which is exactly why I’m standing here, watching a completely innocent woman get violated in the worst possible way.
The guy, though? Her husband? He watches without making a single sound.
He doesn’t plead for her or himself. He’s accepted their fate.
He knows neither of them is making it out of this room. He’s dissociating. Smart.
Two hours later, they finally let the woman die. My father is the one to do it, slitting her throat. That’s when her husband decides to scream again. It’s a feral sound, as if someone is burning him from the inside out.
I know I’ve already said it, but I hate her. Aurora. I hate her for making me have to watch this. I hate her for making me have to choose between her and two innocent fucking people. I fucking hate her for making me fall in love with her.
My phone vibrates with an incoming message.
SB:
How long do I have before they come for me?
My brows draw down. Why the fuck is she messaging me? And now?
Me:
They will never know it was you. I made sure of it.
SB:
Thank you.
Me:
I didn’t do it for you. Lose my number.
I didn’t lie to my family to protect Aurora. I lied to protect myself from having to watch what they were going to do to her. I did it for me . Because I can live with a lot of things, but watching her die? I can’t live with that image in my mind.