Page 63 of Broken Princess

I have information your guest needs to be aware of.

As I’m reading, another text comes through with a time and an address.

Rubbing my face, I mentally rearrange my team’s day—I had already decided who was going where tomorrow, but Manny’s a priority.

See you there.

I throw my phone on its charger and rub my hand over my face again. How the fuck are we supposed to take on Salvatore-fucking-De Luca? We are four men. Four men and a fucking strong woman, but five against the full force of the De Lucas?

It’s like I can hear Sin’s voice in the back of my head. One step at a time. First Marco, then we see where we are.

Channelling Sin helps. He’s not just my oldest and closest friend, he’s my brother. Fuck, they all are. It’s my job to make sure they’re safe. Whatever we do, my primary objective is to protect them. It’s a responsibility I take very seriously and one I feel for Aurora, too.

I will never forgive myself if anything happens to any of them.

Their safety will always be at my sacrifice.

That’s the last thought in my head as I finally surrender to sleep. It’s always my final thought, and it always will be.

CHAPTER THIRTY

AURORA

Ifeel warm, cosy, and content. I refuse to open my eyes on the off chance that what I think happened with Nico and Benedict last night turns out to be a dream. I’m praying that the pressure I feel engulfing me is their hot and hard bodies pressed against me.

“I know you’re awake, phoenix,” comes the low growl at my back that can only belong to Nico. Cracking open one eye, I find Benny sleeping soundly at my front.

“Good morning, sir,” I say as I turn slowly to face the man who owned me in every sense of the word last night.

“Benny sleeps like the dead, especially when he’s had his cum sucked out of him by a mouth as wicked as yours.”

I can’t help but blush at Nico’s sinful words and I hide my face in the pillow, embarrassed by how much I enjoyed being degraded between these two men.

“You looked stunning taking his cock. No shame here. You were spectacular.” His fingers grip my jaw, turning me to face him. “How do you feel this morning?”

“Good, sir.”

“Do you trust me, phoenix?”

I never trusted Max. I knew from the second I laid eyes on him he was beyond any level of danger I had ever experienced. He wasn’t a walking red flag—he was the embodiment of evil.

But Nico, staring into his midnight blue eyes, I feel a pull to him like a moth being drawn to a flame. Only I have no fear that Nico will destroy me. He is not some raging fire that will burn me. Trusting him feels natural.

He would never hurt me, not one of Enzo’s men would. I feel it with every cell in my body.

“Yes, sir.”

“Fuck, I love to hear you call me that.” The smile that radiates across his face is a rare treat. For all the hours I have spent with Nico while recovering, I have rarely seen a smile like this given freely to anyone other than Benedict. It ignites a hope within me that I can inspire a fraction of what he feels for Benny, for me.

“Is that smile for me, Aurora?” he asks, running his thumb over my lips and catching on my dimple.

I can’t speak. Words evaporate on my tongue before I can force them out.

“I wasn’t expecting you, phoenix. You came out of nowhere.”

“Why phoenix? Why do you call me that?” I ask.

His expression becomes thoughtful as he replies, “Because the other night, I watched you resurrect yourself before my eyes. When we found you, Max thought he’d destroyed you, but in that room, the way you decimated Carlo… you literally bathed yourself in the blood of your enemy and were reborn out of rage. To witness it was a privilege. You rose out of the ashes of your past life, little phoenix.”

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