Chapter 27
The rain had started like a warning; soft at first, like the hush of a secret, before it broke loose and battered the windows like it wanted in.
I stared at the box in my hands. Of course it was from Dominic. The man was subtle like a grenade.
Still, I smiled. I loved that I could get under his skin.
I tore it open. Inside: the new batch of weapons. Flawless. Naturally. I wouldn't expect anything less from a mafia king whose ego was engraved in gold.
But there was a note.
I unfolded it slowly, half-expecting a severed ear.
"Keep questioning me, and I'll start thinking you want my attention. You're doing a good job getting it."
– D
I crumpled the note, heart pounding. "AHHHH!" I screamed, tossing the shipment on the table. I was seething with anger.
I slammed the last report on the marble table in my room and dragged a hand down my face.
"Asshole," I muttered, picturing Dominic's infuriating smirk as he questioned the quality of the weapons, I'd had the nerve to return.
"You dare question my standards, Ara?" His voice, always a shade too calm, still echoed in my mind.
Well, yes.
Yes, I dared. And if he had any more messengers shot in my name, I was going to send him a box of bullet casings with a note that said, 'Try again, old man.'
No. Not that.
That nickname dug into me. Made me remember Sanaa.
It made me remember when I still thought I was free.
Maybe if I never left the mafia, maybe none of this would've happened to her.
I kicked off my heels with more force than necessary, the silence in my room broken by the dull thud of leather hitting tile.
My entire body ached, shoulders, feet, and even my jaw from holding in all the things I wanted to say to Dominic today. I'd nearly spat it out right there in the hall.
I slammed my bathroom door and cursed under my breath.
"Coward. Murderer. Snake."
I repeated it like a chant while washing my face, trying to scrub the past off my skin. But no matter how clean I got, the filth of that man's betrayal clung to me like a second skin.
I walked into my room, halfway through drying my face when I heard it.
A knock.
No, more like a tap. Like fingertips brushing glass. Then a thud. Then silence.
I turned sharply to the window, lightning illuminating the figure drenched in rainwater, perched on my sill like a phantom.
Another thud. And then—
"Aurelio?" I muttered, half in disbelief, walking cautiously toward the sound.
The curtains fluttered, then parted slightly. There he was. Drenched.
His clothes were soaked, curls flattened, eyes darker than I'd ever seen them.
I opened the window only halfway. "What the hell are you doing climbing windows like we're fifteen?"
He didn't answer. Only looked at me, not with that usual smirk or smug half-grin, but like something inside him had cracked open and spilled into his chest.
"I had to see you," he said.
"No." I folded my arms. "You had to text. Or call. Or walk through the front door like a normal person. We’re not engaged yet and you’re crossing boundaries."
"I couldn't." His voice cracked. "If I did, I wouldn't have come at all."
There was a kind of desperation in his voice I wasn't used to. Not from him. Not from Aurelio Laurent Kashani, who owned every room he walked into and laughed at consequences like they were beneath him.
Not the Billionaire who paid off my blind date so he could talk to me.
Still, I stepped aside. "You've got five minutes before I change my mind."
He climbed in, dripping water on my rug. I shoved a towel into his hands and turned away, pretending not to notice the way his hands trembled.
"You're lucky I'm tired," I muttered, flopping onto the bed. "Otherwise, I'd have let you freeze out there."
No response. Just quiet movement. Then, a shuffle. The mattress dipped and I looked down.
Aurelio sat at the edge of my bed, then leaned forward slowly, like he was afraid he might break apart if he moved too fast.
We didn't speak for a few minutes. The storm outside wailed like a ghost forgotten.
Then: “My father compared me to him again."
I looked up. "Dominic?"
He nodded. "Always Dominic. Even when I try to do things differently. Especially then. I could burn down a city and he'd still say, 'Dominic would've done it better’."
"He said Dominic was smarter. More disciplined. That he 'knew how to win’."
His laugh was sharp, bitter. "Imagine that. The son of a brother he hated was still worth more than the child he bore with a woman he loved."
I sat up straighter. He still wouldn't look at me.
"Why come here?" I asked softly.
Aurelio glanced at me, eyes heavy with something raw and unfamiliar. "You're the only thing I got on my own. No one handed you to me. No one told me to want you. That was all me."
You don’t have me yet, I wanted to say. But I kept my mouth shut.
Silence ballooned between us.
"I don't want to be compared to him anymore," he said. "I don't want to feel like I'm playing a game I already lost."
And then he did something that made my heart stutter.
He laid down. Head on my lap.
Aurelio Kashani: Mafia royalty, insufferable flirt, ruthless strategist, curled into me like a boy who hadn't been held in years. Starved of affection.
He wasn't trying to seduce me. This wasn't about dominance, or territory, or games. He looked… tired.
I froze.
My hands hovered, unsure of what to do. Then slowly, I let my fingers graze his wet curls. Just once.
He didn't move.
"Stay," I whispered. "But only tonight."
"Good," he murmured, voice fading. "One night's all I need."
That silenced me.
I woke up before him. Which was disturbing, considering the human furnace curled under my blanket.
Aurelio laid still, breath soft. Curls a mess. Peaceful. Unfamiliar.
The pillow wall I'd built between us had held. Barely.
I stretched, slid out of bed, and made my way to the kitchen. Hot Water. I needed it intravenously.
Then, voices.
Loud. Tense.
I padded toward the hall, mug in hand. And stopped cold.
Aurelio and Zorian stood in my hallway, face to face, jaws tight, eyes sharp.
"Touch me again, and I'll put you in the ground," Zorian warned, his voice low and even.
"Funny," Aurelio sneered. "You act like you belong here."
"I do. More than you think."
"She's my fiancée, you fucking bodyguard."
“Future fiancée you mean, don’t get ahead of yourself,” Zorian spat.
I stepped between them like a storm.
"Back. Off." My voice cracked like thunder.
They froze.
"This isn't a schoolyard. And I'm not your prize. Either cool down, or I'm putting both of you on the next shipment out."
Silence.
But they didn't move. Only glared over my shoulders, like predators marking territory.
I rubbed my temples. Because clearly, I needed more drama in my life.