Chapter 16 Aurora
SIXTEEN
AURORA
“That was wild.” Aurora couldn’t technically be breathless in this form, but the feeling of being unable to catch up consumed her all the same.
Gia’s relaxed expression turned dreamy. “Wild… Electric.”
“Yes, exactly. Electric.” A tingling sensation slid along Aurora’s spine, and she wanted nothing more than to cling to it. “As much as I’d love to strip you and do it all again…”
Gia’s face fell, her thoughts no doubt following Aurora’s.
Aurora pulled away ever so slightly. “Is it safe to stay here? What the hell happened? Who was that?”
Gia ducked around Aurora, avoiding her questioning gaze, and slid the backpack off her shoulders. The distance was jarring after being so close, but they couldn’t act like they’d hurried home for nothing but a good time, no matter how much they both wanted to.
“I don’t know if we’re safe here,” Gia admitted. “I…I’m going to go to the bathroom, and then we’ll talk.” She scurried away, disappearing into her room, the water in the bathroom running a moment later.
Fuck. Aurora was being a terrible lover. Especially if Gia was inexperienced. But this was an extenuating circumstance. Endless orgasms, pampering, and lazy pillow talk were not what you did after someone attempted to abduct you at gunpoint.
Really, Aurora shouldn’t have gotten so carried away. She never should have kissed Gia. But how could she not after experiencing Gia’s arousal, her longing, her desire? Especially after the perfect way it had echoed and encouraged her own.
Gia had looked at Aurora like she’d held all the answers in the universe. It was irresistible.
Gia returned from the bathroom and checked out the window rather than join Aurora.
She drifted over, needing some physical closeness even if Gia didn’t. “Who was that man?”
“Salvator. He works for my father.”
Aurora floated a few inches higher, relieved that Gia wasn’t playing coy. “And your father is…?”
Gia turned away from the window, her face blank and hopeless, devoid of all the beautiful life Aurora had seen moments ago. “Franco Balzano, head of the Ashton Lakes Italian mob.”
All righty then. That was… Huh. “I guess mob ties explain the cash.”
Gia’s expression darkened. “You’re right, I didn’t earn a dime of that money.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“No, it’s fine. I won’t lie. I’m not…”
Aurora waited, but Gia didn’t seem capable of bringing herself to say what she wasn’t. Aurora tried again. “I’m guessing your father didn’t approve of you coming here to claim Susan’s inheritance?”
It was the wrong thing to say. Gia’s dark expression twisted with worry. “I didn’t tell him I was leaving. Susan’s Lawyer, Edward Ramirez, and his friend Sam helped me escape.”
“The Lockwoods know you’re from a, um, crime family?” Was that what you called it?
“I don’t know about the Lockwoods.” Gia made air quotes with her fingers.
“Ramirez seemed to know everything Susan knew about me.” She refocused her gaze out the window.
“Susan was my biological father’s sister.
Except I didn’t know Franco wasn’t my biological father until Ramirez called to tell me Susan had died. ”
“Where’s your biological father?” Immediately, Aurora cursed herself for speaking without thinking. She’d never heard of Susan Lockwood having any family.
“Dead,” Gia said with even less emotion than before.
It was like she was shutting down, and Aurora wished she could rewind. Return to holding Gia close, and come up with a better way to figure out what happened next.
“My father, I mean Franco, killed Susan’s brother and my mother for having an affair. For trying to take me away. They tried to kidnap me. Or rescue me. I didn’t know any of it at the time. I was only five, and the day is a blur. But if I’d known, I wouldn’t have stayed. I shouldn’t have stayed.”
“Hey.” Aurora rested a hand on Gia’s shoulder, and she flinched. Aurora pretended that didn’t cut deep. “Slow down. You escaped, and that’s good.”
“When it was easy. Even before I found out the truth, I shouldn’t have sat around living off his money. I knew he killed people. Killing my mother and biological father shouldn’t have been different than anyone else.”
“Yes, it should. Of course hearing he killed your mother and a father you never knew would be different than knowing he was a killer in general.”
Gia shrugged, like she disagreed but couldn’t be bothered arguing. “I still stayed too long. And now they’ve found me.”
“I’m not letting them take you, Gia. Fuck. I’d like to see them try.” Aurora might not have her body or her magic. She might be up shit creek with her own problems, but no one was laying a hand on Gia, least of all the man who’d killed her family.
Gia’s hopeless expression didn’t change. “They will try, Aurora. I might be useless to Franco, but he won’t let me go. Not when my disappearance could make him look weak.”
Aurora fumed, ice surging through her soul. Unless? She’d teach Franco a lesson straight from Hell for making Gia believe crap like that. “He’s just a goon with a gun.”
Gia scoffed. “Don’t underestimate him. Franco has an army of goons with guns.”
“So? You’re a witch, surrounded by other witches. The Lockwoods will help you. I know they will. I’m surprised Susan didn’t rally them to get you sooner. I know I said they aren’t fighters, but they’ll do anything to protect their own, and you’re their family.”
Gia remained unmoved. “Apparently, Susan tried to contact me. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter.”
“Okay.” There was a long pause. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?”
Gia’s expression pinched, and she looked away.
“Because I’m not good like you. I’m complicit in everything my father has done.
I never did anything about it. I ate food bought with blood money, lived in his mansion full of pretty things, let him care for me when I was ill.
He killed my mother, and I accepted his sanctuary like a fool. ”
“Like a fool? You were a child. His actions aren’t your responsibility.
Even after you became an adult. I don’t believe for a second you could have stopped him on your own.
It wasn’t solely up to you to do something.
You might not have been bound like me, but humans don’t need magic to control one another. I’m not better than you, Gia.”
“But you fought back.”
“No. I never stopped my family doing a damn thing. Not to others in my coven and not to anyone else. The reason the Thornfields don’t have a stronger foothold in Shearwater Landing, enslaving humans or other witches, is that a bigger, badder coven of vampires is in power. It’s nothing to do with me.”
Gia choked on air, her eyes going wide. “Vampires?”
“Don’t get distracted.” Aurora floated closer, and Gia didn’t flinch. A small relief. “I’m saying, all I could do was escape. Neither of us is complicit for not being able to stop the people who held us prisoner.”
“But I didn’t try. You literally left your body to get out. I waited for the perfect opportunity to land in my lap.”
Aurora fixed her with a hard stare. “To me, it sounds like you discovered a truth that had been hidden from you, and you reacted to a new situation. That’s perfectly reasonable.”
Gia rubbed her temple, and Aurora took advantage of her lack of argument. “There’s nothing wrong with needing help. What do you think I’m doing now? I took a risk and ended up needing help as much as ever. I don’t see why either of us should have to do anything alone.”
“You don’t need to do this alone.” Gia rubbed her head again and walked over to the coffee table to grab one of her pill bottles. “I feel terrible. It’s sickening to think I lived there for twenty years after he killed her. And I…I think my brother knew.”
Fuck. His betrayal seemed to hurt Gia as much as what her father had done. At least from what Aurora was picking up. “You have a brother?”
Gia swallowed a pill, chasing it with the dregs in a nearby water bottle. “Yeah, he’s older. Heir to my father’s empire. But Marc was always kind to me. God, that sounds pathetic.”
“Gia, stop judging yourself. Latching onto kindness in a toxic environment is survival. Not pathetic.”
Gia tossed the water bottle away. “Sure, but I’m furious about all of it.
And, I don’t know, it’s easier to be angry at myself because at least I have control over fixing me.
Of being a better person. I can’t fix what Franco did.
Can’t make my brother care about anyone but himself.
I can’t bring my mother back, and I can’t make Franco remorseful for what he’s done. I can’t take him down.”
Aurora wanted to ask why not. Gia had such potential and an impressive amount of magical power.
More than Aurora had, even with her body.
But this wasn’t about fighting or magic.
Not right now. “You don’t have to stop him.
You can escape and take back your life. Those aren’t small accomplishments.
It’s all I ever planned to do. I didn’t plan to come for my family when I was free. I was never looking back.”
Gia chewed her lip. “Same. I planned to sell up and disappear, but now it’s too late.”
Aurora wished Gia had asked the Lockwoods for help. They could have helped her deflect pursuers with magic before it had gotten to this point. “How did they find you?”
“Franco knew who my biological father was. It wouldn’t take a genius to look into his extended family and find Susan. But I thought I had more time. No one knew what I’d discovered, and I hoped Franco wouldn’t put it together right away. He must have been waiting for something like this to happen.”
“Well, Franco and his goons are in for a rude awakening. We used magic against them today. They’ll be pissing themselves. Confused. Running scared.”