Page 24 of His Deadly Devotion
My gaze flicks between Aurora and her brother before I turn back to Levi. “Get her everything but that fucking pill.”
“Excuse me? No, you don’t get to decide what weapons I can and can’t have.” Aurora’s voice rises, her icy stare now fixed on me.
“I do when you plan on using one of them on yourself. In what fucking universe do you think I’d be okay with that?” I ask her. I keep my tone level, calm.
“In a universe where it’s my body, my choice,” she throws at me.
At this, I laugh. “Not when it’s a matter of you living and dying. You can yell at me all you want,mo mhuirnín. You are not taking a cyanide pill.”
Aurora ignores me and turns to Levi. “Get me the entire list.”
“If I find out you gave her one of those pills, what happened in Dublin will look like a picnic when I’m through with you,” I tell Levi. “And you…” I point at Aurora. “You don’t ever fucking give up fighting. We don’t do that.” Then I turn and storm out of the kitchen.
I need air. Space. The thought of Aurora giving up and not fighting is not sitting well with me. I always thought she’d fight until she literally couldn’t anymore. I never pictured her as someone who would take the easy way out.
I find my way outside. The backyard looks like a botanical garden. I think I can even see a hedge maze in the distance. I drop down on one of the deck chairs and look out, already fucking sweating because this country is like a fucking sauna.
“You know, I’ve never seen anyone talk to my sister the way you just did and walk away unscathed.” Lorenzo falls ontoone of the deck chairs next to me. “Except my parents and grandparents.”
“I knew she didn’t have knives on her.” I laugh. “She threw a throwing star at me once for talking shit to Dante. Then made me meet her in the library right after so she could stitch me up.”
“And you let her?” Lorenzo raises a brow.
“There’s not much I wouldn’t let her do.” I smirk.
“Asshole,” he grunts. “How’s the shoulder?”
“Fine.”
“You do realize she’s in there right now convincing Levi to get her all sorts of shit?” Lorenzo asks.
“He won’t give her anything. I’ve told him not to.” I shrug.
“What makes you so sure of that? Aurora can be scary when she wants to be.”
“Because he doesn’t want to face what I’d do to him if he was the reason I lost her,” I reply. I’m still fucking fuming at the thought of Aurora taking her own life, of giving up fighting if she were in a situation where she had to fight her way out.
I get it. I’ve seen it. There is only so much you can do, especially when my family is involved. I’ve never seen one person escape their particular form of torture. But Aurora is different. I have to believe that she’d survive anything. She’s strong and fearless. And she’s skilled. She isn’t a helpless mafia princess. So why the hell would she want the option to give up?
“She wouldn’t give in, you know. She might think she’d need an escape, but Aurora won’t ever stop fighting,” Lorenzo adds like the fucker can read my mind. Without another word, he stands and walks back inside.
I hope he’s fucking right. Because if my family does get their filthy fucking hands on her, she’s in for the fight of her life.
A vibration in my pocket has me pulling out the burner phone. “Patty,” I answer, bringing the device to my ear. I get up and walk farther into the garden, away from the house.
“How are your balls?” he asks me.
“You worried about my balls?” I laugh.
“When you have a girlfriend with a stabbing kink, yeah,” he says in a serious tone. Aurorahasstabbed me twice. Maybe she does have a stabbing kink. “What’s happening?”
“Word on the street is there’s a price on both your heads, attached or not attached. What the fuck were you thinking running off?” he hisses.
“I was thinking of saving my fucking girlfriend’s life,” I growl. “What are they planning? Where are they?”
“Where are you?”
“Away.” As much as I trust Patty, I’m not risking Aurora’s life by verbalizing our location to anyone.