Se connecterAurora POVI sit in the lecture hall with my notebook open and my pen resting uselessly between my fingers.The professor’s voice washes over me without meaning. Words drift past but my gaze keeps sliding to the window toward the outside world where everything that matters is happening without me.D
My chest tightens.“There you are,” he says as his gaze instantly finds me.“Here I am,” I smile as I cross the room to him, feeling drab in my school clothes next to him. “Where else would I be?”His hand comes to my waist like it belongs there—because it does. When he looks at me, the weight of ev
Aurora POV The hotel room smells faintly of oud and sandalwood, the most trendy and expensive perfume of the moment. This is the kind of place that knows it’s expensive and doesn’t let you forget it.I sit cross-legged on the edge of the bed in jeans and a sweatshirt, my dress hung carefully so it
Aurora POVThe coffeehouse smells like burnt espresso and pastries, like safety in the form of routine.I sit in my usual corner between classes, my back to the brick wall, the small round table pressed close enough that no one, not even my usual friends, can slide in uninvited. I am too distracted
Then she looks past Dominic and the body to the other older man standing waiting, his face full of resigned dignity so unlike what had been Francesco’s final moments.“Can Gianna’s father live?” she asks hoarsely, her soft voice barely reaching him across the empty space of the warehouse.The words
Aurora POVGianna is finally still.The pill I offered her dissolved beneath her tongue, and within minutes the sharp edges of her panic soften. Her lashes flutter as she slumps against the pillow, breath evening out, the fight draining from her limbs.I brush her hair back from her face with shakin
Aurora POVThe second the Jet’s wheels hit the tarmac, my lungs feel lighter.I didn’t realize how tightly I’d been holding my breath since that day at that restaurant when everything changed again. Since Alek had almost taken me with him before Dominic came and saved me. Since I thought Dominic mig
His head snapped around, hand brushing against the door to push it open. Right as he stepped back into the suite, he could already tell from Mikhail’s men, and his own, that something had happened.They forced a semi-circle around the couch where Gianna was. One of them—Romero—reached forward to gra
Aurora POVI’m sitting cross-legged on the couch, my phone resting like a live grenade on my knee.Dominic leans against the wall near the window, arms folded over his chest while looking like a stoic silhouette in the gray morning light. Romero is seated on the armchair opposite me, his own phone i
“I’ll try,” he mutters finally. “For you.”Relief slumps my shoulders.The hotel parking lot is quiet when we arrive back. Dominic kills the engine and sits there for a moment, staring straight ahead like he’s trying to burn holes in the windshield.“Come on,” he says before unbuckling and popping o







