Page 4 of Scars Run Deep

“A guard against becoming true monsters,” I realized aloud. I shifted on the chair and sat forward, my hands dropping between my legs. “You know, that care and emotion can also become twisted. We can be so determined to protect those we feel that for that we’re willing to do anything, cross any lines, and commit any despicable acts, just to safeguard them.”

“We’re not just talking about your mom here, are we? It’s Aurora. I saw the way you and Asher were with her earlier. You’re not just a team on this mission.”

“We’re not.”

She grimaced. “You need to focus on your mom.”

“What?”

“Aurora doesn’t belong here. She wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place, and she can’t remain. Not with the three of you.”

“Is that a threat?”

“It’s a wakeup call. You don’t need her now. Her part concerning the mission is done. She made it possible for you to reach out to me, to acquire the intel you needed. The rest can be done without her. It will have to be.”

I ground my jaw. “She’s not going anywhere.”

“Carson wants her,” she went on, determinedly. “He’s just biding his time. There’s something in the way, something he’s waiting on. I don’t know what. Not yet. But either way, he will come. He’ll take her. And there is no doubt in my mind that he will absolutely destroy her when he does. She needs to disappear as soon as possible. You all need to let her go.”

My gut twisted.

My whole body tensed.

“I can’t do that,” I croaked out, unsteadily.

“If you want to keep her safe, you’ll have to,” she said, sadly.

I turned away, scrubbing my hand over my face.

Letting Aurora go?

I couldn’t even begin to comprehend it, to think of it as an actual option, something that I could actually bring myself to do.

She’d become… so much to me.

To all three of us.

It was true that just by being in our orbit, it meant danger. We were the fucking Infidels of the Hexwood Faction, for fuck’s sakes. The things we did, that we had to do… she hadn’t even seen the half of it yet, because other things had taken precedence.

With this mission, though, it put that danger into a whole other bracket. And, yeah, learning of the sick interest that Carson had in her took that up several more notches.

But Aurora wasn’t some clueless party.

She wasn’t a damsel in distress. She could hold her own.

And, she had come to us, wanting to be a part of it.

Fuck it, she was one of us now.

That was a done deal.

It wouldn’t change.

It couldn’t.

Letting her go wasn’t an option.

And she’d feel the same way.

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