Chapter 20
RORI
Days Later After Note With Chameleon Title Was Found in Little Dove:
“You’re not doing it. I fucking forbid it!” Alonzo barks furiously as he grabs my arm and pulls me into his room. A room that once was a place that I loved to be in, and now just reminds me how stupid I was. I really don’t want a constant reminder of it.
Not to mention, I’m pissed off that he thinks that he can forbid me to do anything.
Like he has any say over my life. He’s the one who has spent the last few days making it perfectly clear that he doesn’t want anything with me.
From me. He’s only interested in keeping me under his thumb so he can control me and seem like the good guy to everyone else.
Then there’s the whole him trying to control Hades part. That alone makes me want to hurt him. That stunt he pulled earlier, ordering Hades, was the last straw. Now he wants to pull this shit?
Fuck him. The hurt I’ve been burying builds higher, but I stamp it down as I face the furious man in front of me. His face is flushed with anger. “Did you hear me, Aurora? I forbid it. You are not calling them. You are not putting yourself in danger. Ever.”
That does it. I don’t bother to hold back my fury anymore. The man is delusional if he thinks I’m going to step back and take this.
“You have no say over my life, you over-grown ape!” I scream. “You think because we fucked once, that gives you any right? You took it back! You regretted it! You don’t get to change your tune now!”
His face flushes a dark red, the cords in his neck straining with the anger pouring through him.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this angry, but I don’t care.
“This has nothing to do with what happened between us. This has everything to do with you being an idiot and trying to play hero. How the fuck do you know these people?”
“I already told you that it’s none of your business. The only thing you should be doing is thanking me that I might be able to stop whatever is being planned before it happens.”
“Thank you?” He gives an incredulous laugh. “You want me to thank you for proving everything I’ve been thinking all along? That you can’t be trusted? You’ve been working with them this entire time, haven’t you?”
I narrow my eyes. “With who?” I already know I’m not going to like where this conversation is heading. A sense of dark dread builds.
“Don’t play dumb now. Fuck, I knew you were hiding shit. I fucking knew it. You tried to pull me in, seduce me so that you could weasel your way in. This has nothing to do with helping Sienna and everything to do with you seeing an opportunity and taking advantage of it.”
Ice fills my veins. That’s what he thinks? “I think you need to start using your big boy words, Goliath, because right now you’re talking out of your ass and not making any sense. I sent Sienna to Alessio. To you. I told her to let you help her.”
“You really expect me to accept that, knowing full well that your family is attached to a Russian crime syndicate, you have nothing to do with them? One of the families in this city is Russian. You could be working with both of them so that the Russians have the numbers and strength to take us all out.” He sneers.
“And what better way than to sleep with one of the men closest to the family, try to get them to spill anything that might help you. You’re their puppet, and you’ve been letting them pull the right strings so you could get what you needed. ”
Any love and hope I had that Alonzo and I could ever fix whatever it was between us dies instantly. It turns to ash, and I can feel the walls I’ve built for so long slipping. The urge to hurt this man is fierce. The anger is bone deep.
After everything, this is what he thinks of me?
Thinks that little of me? Fuck, I really am an idiot.
Trusting this man, telling him things I haven’t told people in a long time about myself, not even Sienna, and thinking that I was working toward building something with him.
The entire time, none of it was real to him.
He was testing me. He was suspicious, ready to pounce the moment I slipped up. To him, this is that moment. Instead of seeing that I’m putting my life on the line for him, for his family, for the women who have become some of my closest friends already, he sees someone willing to sell them all out.
That I would betray them so terribly.
“Fuck you, Alonzo. You can believe whatever the hell you want, but the only thing that you’re going to see is that you’re an idiot.
If I were working with the fucking Russians, they would have already stormed this place, killed you, and taken the women.
Instead, I’m the one who is going to stop them from doing that by dealing with the assholes they’re trying to use to make that happen. ”
“Are you really, or are you just going to tell them that we’re on to your plan and now you have to change course?”
“At this point, I don’t give a fuck what you believe. Leave me the fuck alone. You and I, we’re done. Don’t speak to me, don’t come around me, you arrogant son of a bitch. So fucking suspicious of everything and everyone.”
“What, so you can latch yourself onto someone else?” he sneers. “What? You think you can seduce them and—”
Crack!
The slap of my hand across his cheek echoes in the room. He stares at me, shocked, even as I move to the door. “Fuck you, Alonzo.” My tone is cold and icy. I might hate him for thinking so little of me, for hurting me that badly.
I leave, heading back down the hall toward my new room. If Alonzo has any sense, he won’t follow me. Not when I’m so angry I might kill him.
When I enter my room, I shut the door, locking it, and turn to look at Hades, who is waiting for me. He bounds over to me, nudging my hand and whining. “I’m alright, baby,” I assure him, trying to calm the shaking in my body.
Finally, I sink to the floor, my back to the door, wrapping my arms around Hades’s neck when he sits next to me. He rests his head on my shoulder, his own small version of comfort.
Alone, the burning in my gut makes its way up my throat, making my nose and eyes sting. I squeeze my eyes tight, trying to keep the tears at bay. He doesn’t deserve them.
I never should have given him that much power over me.
Let him in or give him any piece of me. He doesn’t deserve them, especially when he doesn’t know the real me.
The one I was contemplating trusting him with.
The pieces I gave him, those were just the start.
Eventually, I might have given him the rest.
The parts that I now know he can never know. Not if I don’t want to end up dead.
A harsh knock on the door jolts me, but I don’t move. I just grip Hades tighter.
“Rori,” Alonzo calls, frustrated. “Rori, we need to talk. Open up.” More knocking.
“Rori, I know you’re in there…Look, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said any of that.
I don’t…I don’t believe any of it.” He gives a heavy sigh.
“I’m sorry, orsetta. Please. Let’s figure this shit out.
I don’t want to worry about you in danger. It makes me crazy.”
I want to laugh in his face. Does he really expect me to believe any of that bullshit? He’s just trying to save face so that I won’t go to his father or Pietro. Or keep any of the information to myself. And does he think using that cute little nickname is going to soften me?
Just hearing it makes the tears fall. How did we get to this? How did we go from him calling me his little bear, a nickname Sofia explained to me when I asked, making me feel special, to him accusing me of being a Russian spy?
His apologies are too little, too late. Alonzo and I are done, and that means in every way I can manage. Whatever bullshit apology he’s planning, he can take it and shove it up his ass. I’m done.