Chapter 25
B olts of lightning crack through the darkness, thunder rolls over the top of the house, and the windows shake from the wind.
I really fucking hate storms. I’ve never liked them.
I’m not about to tell Aurora that, though.
I push my irrational fears down and pretend that I’m completely unbothered by the weather.
“You think this is like an omen or something?” Aurora says while staring out the window. I’ve asked her numerous times to move back away from the thin layer of glass that separates her from the uprooted tree I can already picture flying through the air.
“What are you talking about? And for the love of god, get away from the window.” I stand and walk over to her.
“The storm. Is this the universe’s way of telling us we’re doomed? We just got married and now it’s storming,” she explains. “That can’t be a good sign.”
“Since when did you believe in signs?” Taking hold of her arm, I drag her over to the sofa.
Her body falls on top of mine, and she shrugs. “I don’t know. It’s just… everything is against us being together, Connor. What if we’re not actually meant to be together?”
“Well, fuck, babe, it’s a good thing I already got you to marry me then—if you’re having second thoughts so soon.
There is no out of this, Aurora. And you and me, we are meant to be together.
To hell with what the universe says. To hell with what other people say.
” My arms tighten around her waist as I tug her closer.
“I’m not having second thoughts. I just think if the universe is against us, your family is against us, who else do we have to fight to be able to live in peace?”
“Peace? You really think that exists in the world we were born into?”
“It can.” Aurora nods.
“I’ll take your word for it.” I don’t think peace is a possibility for us. There’s always something. There’s always someone looking to take what you have. There’s always a fight.
“Do you think they’ll stop looking for us? Your family?” she asks.
“No.” There is no chance in hell that my parents will stop hunting us down. “But I’m not going to let them win, Aurora. We are coming out on top of this. Promise me that you will fight for us. You will do whatever it takes for us.”
“I…” Aurora pauses, her gaze shooting past me. I reach up and tilt her face back until her eyes meet mine.
“Promise me, Aurora, whatever it takes,” I urge her.
“I can’t,” she says.
“What? Why the fuck not?”
“Because I can’t kill another one of your family members, Connor. I know you’ll never forgive me for Kenny, so what the hell chance do we have if I killed your father? Or your mother?” She shakes her head from side to side. “I’m not doing that to you. Or to us.”
“Listen to me very carefully. If it’s a choice between you or them, always choose you, Aurora.
” I don’t want my parents to die. I especially don’t want to be the one to end their lives.
But I mean what I say. I will choose the woman I love.
I have to. They’re my family, but Aurora’s my wife.
Maybe not in the legal sense, but in every way that matters to me. And I will always choose her.
“I can’t, Connor,” she says.
“Yes, you can. And you will. What do you think I will do to them if they kill you? If you gave them that opportunity because you didn’t want to hurt my feelings?
Guess what? You dying? Yeah, that’s not going to hurt my feelings, Aurora.
That’s going to break my fucking soul. And if it’s at the hands of my parents, I promise you I’ll be taking them to hell with me. ”
“You don’t mean that. They’re your parents, Connor. They might not agree with us, or me. But they love you. You’re their heir. They’re not going to give up on you.”
I want to tell her she’s wrong. My parents have already given up on me.
They put a fucking price on my head, made it known to the whole family that I’m a traitor.
They’ve made me enemy number one. I haven’t told Aurora, but I don’t think I’ll ever be safe from the family.
Even if I find and end my parents, it doesn’t end with them.
I’ll never be able to be Connor O’Malley again.
It’s going to be a life filled with alias after alias, a life of running.
But it’s a life I will happily live as long as I have my girl by my side.
“It’s you. It is always going to be you. Don’t forget that,” I say before pressing my lips to the middle of Aurora’s forehead. “Now, Mrs. O’Malley, we should eat. Food.”
“I probably should have told you how bad I was at cooking before you married me, huh?” She smirks.
“You think it was a secret?” I laugh. I’ve seen her try to cook.
“It’s a good thing we can afford to hire help once we’re off this island.
I promise you will never have to cook a meal in our forever home.
” Standing up, I make sure she’s balanced before letting go of her and heading towards the kitchen.
“Where is this forever home going to be?” Aurora calls out after me.
“Wherever you want it to be,” I call back.
“Mmmm… what if I said I wanted to return to New York?” she asks.
“Then I won’t stop until we can safely do that.”
“You hate New York,” she tells me.
“But I love you, and if you want to live there, then that’s where we will live.”
“I think you can go to Harvard and make smart friends in Boston. And I can… I don’t know… figure out how to be a wife. Maybe I’ll learn to cook.”
“I’ve told you before I don’t need to go to Harvard, and you are the smartest person I know, Aurora. I also don’t need friends. I already have the best one.” I wink at her and then open the fridge.
I don’t even know if we’re going to graduate from high school at this point. I did the rest of the classwork her father sent us. But I have no idea if it was passed on to the school or how he’d even get them to agree to letting us graduate without taking our finals.
“We could always start our own business. Work together,” I suggest.
“What would we do?”
“What’s the one thing in the world you love?” I ask her.
“That’s easy. You.” Aurora smirks again. “And as much as I know you’d go for a pretty penny if I whored you out, I’d have to kill every woman who wanted a night with you.”
“I’m flattered, but not me. Knives, weapons. That’s what we should do.”
“Like, underworld weapons?”
“No, legit- world weapons.” I know we’re never going to escape our roots.
We are always going to be children of the criminal underworld.
We will always have blood on our hands. But if I can get her away from that shit as much as possible, then I’m going to.
It’s the only way to keep her safe. “We can have a legit business together, Aurora. We can design and sell our own weapons. You name it, we can have it made.”
“Okay.” She smiles. “I like weapons. But what about Harvard? That’s your dream, Connor.”
I shrug. “I’ve got new dreams.”
“We can do both. A Harvard business degree will go a long way if we want to run our own empire.”
“We have time to hash out the plans,” I tell her.
“I’m going to go shower while you cook whatever it is you’re cooking,” Aurora says.
“Okay.” I look down at the vegetables I’m chopping. I’m only making an omelet, but the thought of joining her in the shower is way more appealing. The fact that I know if I do follow her, it will only be longer before she eats is what stops me.
After plating up two omelets, I peer down the hall.
“Food’s ready,” I call out, only to realize there’s no way she can hear me over the storm and the running water.
So I make my way down to the bedroom and push the door open. The bathroom door is closed too. Which is odd. Aurora never closes the door. Then again, I’m usually in there with her.
My stomach twists. Something isn’t right. I rush to the bathroom door and push it open. Steam fills the space. But that’s not what has my heart racing. It’s the broken window, and the fact that my wife is not in here.
“Aurora!” I run outside, right into the storm. It’s dark, but I don’t stop. Then I hear it, the sound of a chopper. A minute later, I see it in the sky before it flies right over me. “Fuck! No!”
My screams are swallowed by the thunder.
I run back inside, stopping in my tracks when I spot an envelope with my name scrawled across the front in my father’s handwriting. He was here. My father was here, and now he has her.
Fuck! My fist flies through the closest wall.