Blood in the Water | 18+

𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘍𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘯

𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

"You know Coppola," I sighed, leaning back in my desk chair, one hand on the back of Aurora's head while I talked to her father on the phone, "With the amount you've been calling me recently, I'm privy to believe you're in love with me."

Angelo didn't say anything for a long few moments, and then I heard him let out a resigned sigh, "I'd like to request a meeting on neutral grounds," I was playing with the tips of Aurora's hair, studying her sleeping face, "To discuss the terms of Aurora's returning to her family home, I have the money that is owed, and I'm exhausted of burying my men, we can come to an agreement we're both happy with."

"No."

Angelo seemed stunned, nothing coming through the speakers for minutes before I heard him let out a breathless groan, "What the hell do you mean no? She's not yours Steve, she's my daughter and I'd like her home."

"No, and it's because you don't see her as your daughter," Aurora blinked awake, her gray eyes bouncing around the room to locate where she was before she settled against my chest again. "You see her as property, you could bring me triple of what you owe me and I still would not hand her over like you want me to. She's here until she doesn't want to be here anymore, she will not be sold to the highest bidder. Aurora's life is hers, if she wants to come home by all means I'll bring her, but until I hear those words from her, she will be safe here at my home, with me and my men."

"She'll never love you, Rogers," I felt my chest tighten at that statement, she may never love me, and that's fine because I'll never love her, I don't love anyone. It's easier to let go if emotions aren't involved. But I liked the idea of Aurora falling in love with me. She was the sunshine I was lacking in my life, but I wasn't naive enough to believe that she would, there was only so much darkness that sunshine could lighten, and I was an eternal pit of it. It was easier to not love anyone, to close that emotion completely off. I couldn't hurt anyone, and no one could hurt me where it mattered most. My heart had frozen over, it was rarely warm, but Aurora was cracking the ice that surrounded the organ. And I knew she was when Angelo's words actually caused pain. A feeling I wasn't used to. "You're a monster, we both are, we don't get love. If you take any of my words with a grain of salt, let them be these, she's too pure for this world, I'm doing what I have to do to keep her safe."

"You don't have an idea of the word," I spoke through gritted teeth, feeling Aurora push up on my chest, her gray eyes searching my face with concern. "You don't know what that word means. You're trying to hand her over to people who will destroy her."

"I'm handing her off to people who have the means to protect her."

I laughed, a bitterly cold sound that made Aurora flinch, only relaxing when one of my hands came up to cup her cheek, my thumb trailing across the soft skin. "If that's what you have to tell yourself Angelo to deflect your guilt, by all means, keep spewing that bullshit to anyone who will listen," Aurora's eyes fluttered shut, leaning further into my touch, and my heart clenched again, the softness surrounding the ice and making me curse myself. I made her feel safe, and I found myself enjoying that I did. She was never meant to get past a simple infatuation, she was meant to find her way here, and instead, I found my way between her thighs and ruined myself while ruining her. I couldn't love another person, not after Peggy, not after losing my mom. One more loss and I would lose the remainder of the kindness I harbor, which was already a small amount. "Stop contacting me Angelo, I mean it. You've started this war, it will end with one of us dying, and I don't see it being me."

"She'll never forgive you if you kill me," Angelo tried to drive a knife in, but I put my armor back up, there was no way I would show Aurora how it hurt me, how she held my heart without me meaning to let her take it.