Chapter Six AURORA #2
"No no no no no!" I dropped. My hands hit blood. Warm. Sticky. Too much. There was too much. "Oh my God, Sergio! Sergio…"
People screamed around us. Men shouted. Weapons came out. Bodies moved. Chaos erupted. But I couldn't hear anything. Couldn't process anything. Because Sergio wasn't moving. Because blood kept spreading beneath him. Because…
Warm fingers wrapped around my wrist. I froze. Slowly looked up. The stranger crouched beside me. No. Not the stranger. The Devil.
The man who ruined me. The man who had kissed me. The man whose hand I'd held.
He brushed blood away from my cheek with his thumb. Slowly. Tenderly. Like we were alone. Like he hadn't just murdered my fiancé. Like he hadn't destroyed my life.
His eyes dragged over my face. Possessive. Hungry. Obsessed. And terror hit me so hard I stopped breathing.
"No," I whispered.
His eyebrow lifted slightly. "No?"
I started backing away. Shaking violently. "Fuck this."
His smile widened. Then he stood. And lifted me into his arms. I screamed. Kicked. Hit his chest. "LET ME GO!"
Nothing. Not even a reaction. Like I weighed nothing. Like this had always been inevitable. Like he'd already decided I belonged to him.
The cathedral blurred around me through tears. Chiara screaming my name. Leo fighting through men. Sienna crying. People running. Sergio's body lying in blood… Oh God. Sergio.
"No!" I screamed again.
Then I felt warm lips brush softly against my temple. Terrifyingly gentle. "Too late, little troublemaker."
And he carried me out of the cathedral while the world burned behind us. The second we stepped outside, cold air hit my face. Not cool. Cold. Sharp enough to sting.
I sucked in a ragged breath and regretted it.
Everything smelled wrong. Smoke. Gunpowder.
Burnt metal. Fresh blood. Rain hanging somewhere in the clouds overhead, waiting for permission to fall.
Behind me, the cathedral erupted. Screams echoed through the open doors.
Women crying. Men shouting orders. The frantic pounding of footsteps against marble.
The entire world seemed to be splintering apart. And somehow the Devil walked through it all without breaking stride. Like chaos bent around him. Like destruction followed him so often he'd stopped noticing it.
My veil streamed behind us, dragging through blood-stained marble before catching on the wind. The white fabric snapped violently through the air.
A few minutes ago I'd been a bride. Now I looked like something dragged out of a nightmare.
The cathedral steps had become a battlefield. Bodyguards shoved guests toward waiting vehicles. Armed men poured from every direction. Black SUVs screeched across the street. Tires screamed. Doors opened. Weapons flashed beneath jackets.
Everywhere I looked, people were moving. Running. Reacting. Panicking. Everyone except him.
He remained perfectly calm. And then I saw it. Parked at the bottom of the cathedral steps. Waiting.
A black motorcycle. My stomach dropped so hard it physically hurt. Santino didn't react. Didn't even look at me. He just kept walking. The motorcycle grew closer.
"No."
This time he glanced down. Dark eyes. Completely calm. Completely unbothered. Like he hadn't just murdered my fiancé in front of five hundred witnesses. Like he hadn't shattered my life in less than thirty seconds. Like this was a normal afternoon.
"Aurora Ventura,” he said. “I finally know your name now. Would you like to know mine?”
I didn’t.
“It’s Santino,” he smirked. “I’m Leo’s cousin. Would you like to go for a ride?”
"No."
"We don't have time for this,” he smirked.
"I am not getting on that thing,” I insisted.
His gaze moved slowly over me. The massive wedding dress. The layers of lace. The crystal-covered bodice. The ridiculous six-inch heels. The veil. Then back to my face. "You don't really get a vote."
Rage exploded through me. Pure molten fury. I shoved both hands against his chest. Hard. Nothing happened. Nothing. It felt like trying to push over a stone wall.
"I hate you."
His mouth twitched. Not a smile. Not quite. Something worse. "I know."
"I mean it,” I reminded him. “I’ll never bend to you.”
"I know that too."
The next words came out shaking. "You killed Sergio."
Everything changed. The amusement vanished. The tiny trace of humor disappeared. Something colder slid into his expression. Something dangerous. Something that reminded me of the man standing in the cathedral holding a gun.
For one long second he simply stared at me. Then he said quietly, "Get on the bike."
Fear slithered down my spine. Because I remembered exactly what I'd seen inside the cathedral.
The smile. The obsession. The certainty.
This wasn't the man from the club anymore.
This wasn't the stranger who teased me over drinks and made ridiculous bets.
This wasn't the man who danced with me. This was something else.
Something far more terrifying. The mask had hidden less than I'd thought.
Santino swung one long leg over the motorcycle. Then reached for me. I tried stepping backward. His hand closed around my waist. Firm. Certain. Unavoidable.
A second later I was lifted effortlessly into the air. I barely had time to gasp before I found myself sitting sideways across his lap. The motorcycle shifted beneath us. The engine cold. Silent. Waiting.
I tried climbing off. Absolutely not. His arm wrapped around my middle. Steel. "Aurora."
"NO."
His mouth brushed my ear. The scrape of his stubble against my skin made me flinch. "Keep fighting, little troublemaker."
Heat shot through me. Not attraction. Definitely not attraction. Pure homicidal rage. I twisted violently. His grip tightened. Then he reached into his jacket. My heart stopped.
A black leather strap appeared in his hand. For a moment I couldn't understand what I was seeing. Then horror flooded through me. "What is that?"
No answer. He threaded the leather around my waist. Slowly. Methodically. Like he'd done this before. Like he'd planned it. Then he looped the other end around himself. My pulse slammed against my ribs.
The buckle clicked. A sharp metallic sound. Small. Quiet. Devastating. My entire body went rigid. "No."
Another adjustment. The leather tightened.
"No, no, no." I stared downward. Stared at the strap. Stared at the impossible reality of it. I was attached to him. Literally attached. Bound to him. Like luggage. Like cargo. Like something that belonged to him. Panic hit so hard my vision blurred. "Oh my God."
Behind us, doors slammed. I looked up. And finally noticed the convoy. At least a dozen SUVs. Maybe more. Black. Armored. Dark windows. Every single one filled with armed men.
An entire army waiting patiently behind their devil king. Waiting for me.
The realization made my stomach turn.
This wasn't impulsive. This wasn't madness. This wasn't some spontaneous act of obsession. This had been planned. Every second. Every route. Every vehicle. Every man. Every escape path. Everything. The realization was somehow worse than the murder. "You planned this."
Santino reached up and adjusted my veil. The gesture felt horrifyingly intimate. His fingers brushed my hair. My shoulder. My neck. "Yes."
One word. No apology. No shame. No hesitation.
My throat tightened. "How long?"
For the first time, something dark flickered behind his eyes. Something possessive. Something that made my pulse skip. He started the motorcycle. The engine roared to life beneath us.
The vibration shot through my body. Through my thighs. Through my spine. Through him. His chest pressed firmly against my back. Solid. Warm. Immovable. Then his mouth brushed my temple.
The exact same place he'd kissed me inside the cathedral. "You didn’t leave me with much time after we met."
My stomach dropped. Because deep down, I already knew. The moment he'd looked at me in that club. The moment he'd first spoke. The moment he'd smiled. The moment he'd kissed me. None of it had been chance. Not one second. I swallowed hard.
My voice came out barely above a whisper. "What happens now?"
For the first time since the shooting, Santino smiled. Slowly. Possessively. Terrifyingly. Then one arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me tighter against him. "So many things, Aurora."
The motorcycle launched forward. I gasped. The city exploded into motion. Wind tore through my veil. The cathedral vanished behind us. Buildings blurred into streaks of gray and gold. My wedding dress spilled over both sides of the bike like liquid moonlight.
And behind us, the convoy followed. Escorting me toward whatever nightmare waited at the end of the road.
I should have been thinking about Sergio. About the blood. About Chiara. About Matteo. About Sienna. About Leo. About escape. About survival.
Instead, against all logic, against all reason, against every sane thought left inside my head… I became aware of one horrible thing. I could feel Santino's heartbeat. Steady. Strong. Relentless. Directly against my back. And somehow it felt exactly like the look he'd given me across the cathedral.
Certain. Absolutely certain. Like he wasn't taking me somewhere. Like he'd already arrived. Like this wasn't a kidnapping at all. Like he'd spent a week hunting something he'd lost.
And now that he finally had me in his arms, nothing on earth was ever going to make him let go.
The city disappeared slowly. Not all at once. Not in some dramatic movie moment. Little by little. Glass towers became office buildings. Office buildings became neighborhoods. Neighborhoods became winding roads lined with ancient trees. Then even those disappeared.
The farther we rode, the quieter the world became. The roar of the motorcycle swallowed everything. The wind stole every thought before I could finish it. My veil vanished somewhere behind us. One second it had been wrapped around my shoulders. The next it was gone.
Lost to the highway. Lost to the wind. Lost like everything else.