“Seriously, all this I bullshit is getting annoying, Alonzo.” I don’t bother looking at the sound. At least she’s talking to me. “I told you to stay the fuck home, and I’m not rehashing that again. Do you want to know that you hurt me? Fine, you hurt me, but none of that matters. I don’t do second chances, Alonzo.”
“Technically, we weren’t ever together, so I think this is our first chance.”
Silence, and then something hard hits me in the back, sending me sprawling. I’m rolling fast, just in time to see Hades darting away, rushing into the brush once more. Guess I know how so many different noises are happening. I get to my feet, brushing myself off.
“Our first chance? I fell for you, you big-footed wart face,” she snaps, the first cracks in her armor showing. I still can’t see her, but anger means making mistakes. “And you strung me along. All because you wanted to find out what I was doing and who I was talking to. Then you realized I might be working with you until you found out who I knew. You weren’t long in correcting my assumptions.”
I wince. Damn it, she’s right. I did do all that. “I’m sorry, Aurora. I really am. I was… no,I aman asshole, but I want to fix it. I want to make things right.”
“Because you think you’re going to die, or that I am, and you want to have one less sin staining your soul in hell?” I turn now when I hear another noise directly behind me, and I let out a grunt of pain when I find Hades there again, and his big paws come up and slam me in the junk, making me fall.
What is the dog’s obsession with my nuts?
I wheeze, barely managing to breathe through the pain, and lift my head when I sense someone above me. I watch with wide eyes as a figure emerges from the shadows of the trees, in all black. Only the skin around her eyes shows, but they’re not the emerald green of Rori. Who the fuck is that?
I reach for my gun, cursing when I remember that Oleg stripped them from us when we got here. Fuck.
I freeze when the figure speaks. Wait, that’s Rori? A shiver of fear slithers down my spine, my aching balls forgotten. Nothing about her is recognizable, not even the way she moves. Seeing her this way, it’s a mindfuck all of its own.
“I…”
I can’t see her mouth, but from the slight crinkle of her eyes, I think she’s smiling. But it’s not a kind or funny smile. The dark eyes looking at me are cold, hard, and full of a danger that has me desperately wishing for any kind of weapon. I wouldn’t put it past her to try to kill me right now.
“If that’s what you’re looking for, Alonzo, you’re sorely mistaken. You won’t get it from me. I’ve already told you I’ll forgive you for what you said, but that’s where my forgiveness ends.” She crouches in front of me. Close enough, I can grab her, but I don’t move. I have no idea where Hades is, and I don’t need death staring me in the face and waiting to get me from the back too in the form of sharp teeth and strong jaws. “You seem tothink that this is temporary, Alonzo. That I’m going to go back to being the woman you supposedly fell for. That woman is dead.”
“No, she isn’t.” I stare at her, needing her to believe me. Needing her to realize how wrong she is. “That’s what I want you to fucking understand, Aurora. That part of you, that’s not an act. That’s the real you. I don’t know why you can’t see that.”
“It’s you that doesn’t see, Alonzo.” She gets back to her feet. “Aurora O’Brien was the woman I wanted to be. The one I dreamed of being as a kid, and when I had the chance to play her, I took it. I created a life that was exactly what I hoped it would be. But underneath all of that is this. You can’t be born in the dark and go fully into the light. The darkness will always lurk underneath. This time, it’s my choice to embrace it and use it to my advantage.”
I push to my feet, wincing at the sharp pang between my legs. “Fine, you want to say that you were acting. You think you were acting when you became friends with Sienna?”
Am I an asshole for using her best friend against her? Probably. Do I care? No fucking way. Whatever I have to do or use to get her to see my point, I will.
“My friendship with Sienna has nothing to do with anything.”
“Bullshit. It has everything to do with it, Rori. The two of you are best friends, and you were yourself with her. You wouldn’t allow yourself to be anything else. Maybe you didn’t tell her everything, but she was your best friend. Even if you let down your walls a little bit with me, you let them fall almost all the way with her.”
Am I jealous of that? Fuck yes, even if it is irrational.
“Alonzo, if you think you’re going to guilt me into whatever it is you want, you’re sorely mistaken.”
“I’m not trying to guilt you into anything, Aurora. You know I’m right and I can’t figure out why you want to keep fighting with me. Fine, maybe parts of you were acting, but this, thisisn’t you. Not completely. And you letting them brainwash you into thinking that you have to be anything other than what you actually want to be is only doing yourself a disservice.”
No reaction. “No one is brainwashing me, Alonzo, and I’m getting fucking tired of you acting like you know anything at all about me. I let you see the things I wanted about myself, and you tossed them back in my face. So I’m not going to pretend anymore. This is me. The—What did you call it? The assassin ninja spy? That is exactly who I am. Who I was born to be. Do you really think I haven’t spent years honing my skills, even without being around the Bratva or my father? You don’t just unlearn things. It served me well hunting down bounties. It served me equally well in training Hades and staying out of any law enforcement radar.
“Or maybe you’re just pissed that you’re starting to realize that a woman got the better of you. Something that’s never been done, I’d wager. You can’t just explain away who and what I am. You can’t put me under your protective wing because I don’t need you or anyone else to protect me. And you need to put me back in that role so you feel better about yourself. Either way, it’s time you started to open your eyes. This is me. The parts I allowed you to see are part of me, but they were an act all the same. You want me to fall into your arms, grateful that you’re here to save me. It won’t ever happen, Alonzo. You want to hang around and help with this situation, then you better start to realize that. I already told you I forgave you, but that’s where this ends. You and I, we are done.”
She steps back into the shadows, and it’s like she disappears. I can just make out her figure turning and moving through the forest, Hades bounding by me to follow. I stare after her, her words ringing in my head.
A part of me knows she’s right, but I don’t like it. And there is no fucking way that I’m done with her. But can I live it? Live with her this way?
I’m following her before I can convince myself it’s an insane idea. I need her to hear me out.
“Rori!” I call out, uncaring who will hear. I don’t bother with subtlety now, crashing through the woods to find her. “Damn it, woman, get the hell back here. We’re not done talking.”
“You just don’t know how to quit, do you?” Her voice comes from my right, but I’ve learned my lesson and I don’t follow her voice. Instead, I train my ear to the other sounds, listening, and finally hear the click of Hades’s nails sliding across the rocky parts of the ground behind me. I turn and see him streaking through the woods, and then I see Rori’s figure moving quickly through the trees behind him.
I move fast, launching myself at her, but she dodges me easily, making me trip and land face first in the dirt. Damn it.
