Page 111 of Scars Run Deep

“I’m fine. I was just dealing out justice.”

“Vengeance.”

“No.”

“Absolutely. You know it too. Denying it will just worsen it, Aurora. You need to recognize the dangerous path you’re venturing down. It’s the only way you’ll be able to turn back around in time.”

“I’m fine as is.”

I tightened my grip on her arm in my urgency. “You’re not.”

She glared at me, then stared at my hand on her, restraining her.

“I can handle the dark just as well as you can. Little beast, right? You wanted me to be like you.”

“You need to walk the line, not do as I do. You can delve into it, but that’s it. You can’t live there entirely.”

“Or what?”

“Or you’ll become a shadow. Like me.”

Caleb jogging up the hill toward us brought our conversation to an impromptu halt.

He looked between us, clearly picking up on the tension.

“Sorry,” he told me. “I need to head out, get them situated. But we need to go over the specifics for taking the last dollhouse. I can’t risk stepping into Hexwood House, considering it’s still technically considered Infidels territory, so it’s gotta be now to go over the plans.”

“It’s fine by me,” Aurora said. She glared at me. “We were done here anyway.”

In the next beat, she spun on her heel and took off back to the house.

I watched her go, gritting my teeth.

This didn’t bode well.

Not at all.

16

~Aurora~

Ronan really was a sweetheart.

He’d offered to stay after hours at Fusion just so I could pick up my last paycheck without encountering anybody, or any obstacles in doing so. Just so I could actually come in quietly, grab it, then meet Killian in the parking lot in the next ten minutes for that race home on our Harleys that he’d been so excited about.

As I approached the backdoor, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

I tensed, worried it was Asher again.

Ever since that incident a couple of nights ago, he’d been checking in with me non-stop, despite me telling him that I was okay now, back to my right mind now we were away from the situation. It had just been a slipup. Nothing more. I was fine. And I would be fine with this last takedown, the big one.

I pulled my phone out and opened the text.

Uncle Drew: Hey, cupcake. How you doing? What’s the verdict on you coming here for Christmas? Time’s coming up fast.

Shit.

With everything that had been going on, I hadn’t responded yet.

---