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“No, it’s not. He hates me.” More tears fall down my cheeks.

“I’m going to fucking kill him,” Dante grunts.

“No, you can’t touch him. I love him.” It feels good to say it aloud to someone. It would be better if it wasn’t because it’s the end of our story.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Love makes you do things you’d never thought possible. Like lie to your parents, your cousin’s parents, your entire family about what went down the night before. As soon as Aurora was gone, I called it in. I had to.

To say my father and uncle are ready to wage war is an understatement. Which is exactly why I told them someAlbanian kid was responsible. I lied and said he got the jump on me before he ran out.

I can’t give her up to them. If I told them who really did this, they’d find her and they would do unspeakable things to her before they eventually killed her. I can’t let that happen. No matter how much I hate her right now for what she’s done, there’s still an overwhelming need within me to protect her.

Which makes me hate myself. What kind of fucking cousin am I that I’m protecting Kenny’s killer?

Pathetic.I wonder if she planned this all along. Get me hooked on her, get me to let my guard down, and then pounce. Wouldn’t surprise me.

Well, joke’s on her. If she thinks this is over, she’s fucking delusional. This is far from over. My family might not know who did this, but I do. And in our world, there is only one way to settle a debt like this. An eye for an eye.

Luckily for me, Aurora has a shit-load of cousins to pick from. Any one of them will do. I’m not bothered. I might not want her to endure the physical torture of what my family would dish out to her. But emotional pain? That’s something she’s going to feel tenfold.

She once said that she didn’t feel anything before me. That I woke her up. At the time, I thought it was sweet. I thought it was an indication that we really were soul mates. Now, I see that knowledge as my biggest weapon. Something I can and will use against her. I want her to feel the kind of pain I’m feeling right now, the loss. I want her to suffer, but I also want her alive. Which is fucked up, because I hate her. Iwantto hate her.

Kenny deserves to be avenged. His death will not go unanswered. I can’t let my feelings for Aurora get in the way of that, at least not completely.

“You doing okay?” My mom taps on the door.

“I’m alive, so yeah,” I tell her.

“What happened to Kenny… It’s not your fault, Connor,” she says, walking farther into my room.

She’s wrong. What happened to my cousin is entirely my fault. I was the one who brought Aurora around, even after seeing how unhinged she could be. Fuck, I embraced her craziness, loved it even. It’s my fault Kenny is dead. If I didn’t invite Aurora to that party, she wouldn’t have been there.

“This life, it comes with perks and it also comes with risks. We all know that our enemies reaching us is a risk,” my mom says.

“Is that what you’d say if it were me? If I were the one who was killed and not Kenny?” I ask her.

I think about all the times I’ve been alone with Aurora, about all the things I’ve let slide because I was fucking blinded by her. She stabbed me, more than once, and I thought it was hot. Maybe I’m just as insane as she is. I have to be, right?

“It is the life we chose,” my mom responds.

“You chose. I didn’t choose shite. I was born into it,” I remind her.

“You’re right. You don’t have a choice, Connor. I’m sorry about Kenny. It is a tragedy, but how we respond to this event will pave the way for our family in this city,” she tells me.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, your father, your uncle, the rest of your family is downstairs planning to carry out an act of vengeance for Kenny while you’re up here moping.”

She’s right. I am moping, because I just had my heart ripped out of my fucking chest. It might as well have been me in Kenny’s place. How the fuck do you go on living without a heart?

Or is it a gift? I could choose to embrace this pain, embrace the darkness and become the monster my family has always wanted me to be.

“You’re right.” I stand and kiss my mother on her cheek. “I’m being selfish when I should be thinking of Kenny. I’m going to go help Da,” I tell her.

“Good. I know it’s hard, Connor. But this is your destiny. The sooner you accept it, the better,” she says.

“I know.” Like I said, it’s not like I have much of a choice. I’m the fucking heir to the O’Malley family. It’s not something I’ll ever be able to forget.