Page 20 of Their Deviant Love
“No, it refers to the thought that people have a hundred ways of learning, a hundred ways of understanding and doing, and school systems tend to only use one of those. The traditional school system isn’t set up to make every student succeed, because they don’t allow every student to shine in their own way,” he says. “You are not stupid, Aurora. You just weren’t given the opportunity to shine like you should have been.”
“Well, I, for one, hope that our children inherityourway of learning and not mine,” I tell him.
“I hope our children are mini versions of you because you are fucking perfection.” Connor reaches out and pulls me into his arms. My head rests on his shoulder.
“You want little girls?” I ask him.
“I want as many as we can possibly have,” he says.
“You do know girls like me…dateboys like you, right? You want your daughters dating bad boys, Connor?” I do my best not to laugh when I feel his body tense.
“Our daughters will be homeschooled, and they won’t be going to any parties where they meetboys like me,” he says it like he’s got it all figured out.
“Sure. Well, I hope we have one of each.”
“You only want two kids?”
“I don’t really want to be pushing anything out of my vagina, but I think two is a good number,” I admit. “But this isn’t happening for a really long time. I like us being just us.”
“Me too,” Connor says, pressing his lips to the top of my head.
It doesn’t take much longer for him to drift back off to sleep. I stay right there in his arms, not wanting to move. I send a little prayer up to whomever is listening that he’s okay. That whatever tests the doctor is doing are all going to come back normal and he really does just have a case of the man flu.
As I lie here, I envision our future together. Two kids. One boy, one girl. We live in Boston. Connor runs a bunch of successful legitimate businesses, including the one he and I talked about. Designing weapons and gadgets does sound like something I would want to do. Something Icoulddo. I’m sure whatever I come up with I’ll find a way to test them out on my brothers or cousins. Market research is important after all.
I think we are going to be happy. We are going to get our own fairy-tale ending.
I really do wish I could call Dante. He would know what to do right now. How I could help Connor deal with the information he found. Figure out how to use it to his advantage to get him out of his family’s organization.
Chapter Ten
Aurora misses her family. I can see it on her face. I hate that I’m the reason she’s away from home. I need to figure out how to get us back to The States without a fucking target behind us. At least those bounties died along with my father. That’s something.
Aurora is sitting on the deck, looking out over the ocean. We’re waiting for the doctor to turn up. Dr. Morgan called andsaid she was on her way, and Aurora started panicking over all the worst-case scenarios.
I pull out my laptop and fire it up, connecting to the internet and then going through a VPN server to hide my location. Then I open the secure chat line I have with Patty and read the messages he’s sent through.
Patty:
There’s a deal that was meant to go down in New York with the Albanians. Your father had arranged to sell them something. Haven’t figured out what yet.
Patty:
Holy fucking shitballs! I got it. You need to call me ASAP.
Patty:
This ain’t no fucking joke, C. Call me now!
Fuck…
I look out to where Aurora is on the balcony. I hate hiding shit from her, but until I know what the fuck Patty is talking about, I don’t want her overhearing the conversation. Before I can message or call him back, there’s a knock at the door. I close the laptop and slide it under the bed as Aurora walks in from the deck.
“Whatever it is, I will find a doctor who can fix it. We will fix it,” she tells me.
“Aurora, you need to calm down. I’m fine.” I stand from the bed.
“Calm down?Seriously, you could be dying.Wecould be dying and you want me to calm down?” She shakes her head and storms towards the door.
