25 - Dinner with the Enemy

**Aurora POV**

It’s been a few hours since I wrote in my diary for the first time. It definitely helped me more than I thought it would. I put it inside the nightstand, and I am now wasting away watching Netflix. I am binge-watching The Great British Bake Off because hello, incredible bakers and I totally have a small crush on Paul Hollywood! It’s more of a ‘please let me watch you in the kitchen’ cooking crush, not really a ‘I want to get in your pants’ crush.

Anyway, I am just sitting on this big luxurious bed, enjoying watching Paul demolish all hopes and dreams of amateur bakers in the dreaded bread week when I hear the locks on the door click.

I sat up a bit, thinking it was just Autumn, but boy did I get some heart palpitations when in walked ALL FOUR mafia Dons, the badass assholes themselves: Jason, Charlie, Kai, and lastly Ben.

“Hey princess,” Jason smirked. “Going anywhere tonight?” He added, and all the guys chuckled.

HAR HAR HAR. “Nope” I quipped back “But don’t quit your day job. You’re comedic timing needs a lot of work.”

The guys just rolled their eyes and proceeded to take various positions around the room. Kai and Ben sat on one of the sofas in the room whereas Charlie walked to the armchair that Autumn had one of the guards move closer to my bed so she could sit with me. Jason had to audacity to pick up my sock covered and chained feet and then sat on the bed, placing my feet on his very toned lap. The bed dipped slightly with his weight, and I felt really uncomfortable.

I tried to move my legs off of him, but he kept a firm grip on my ankles and slowly rubbed the tops of my shins.

There was a bit of awkward silence before Charlie cleared his throat and in a very nice sultry voice said, “How are you sweetheart?”

Okay this is ridiculous! “First of all, I am not, nor will I EVER BE your sweetheart!” I began by pointing my finger at him. “Secondly, what do you want me to say? I’m just peachy pie Mr. Dupont?” If I could put a scale on the sarcasm, it would be through the roof! The men just looked at me with amused expressions on their face and I just huffed in annoyance and folded my arms over my chest, looking down at my legs.

“Mrs. Piedmont told us you were well behaved.” Jason said softly, still rubbing my legs.

“Mrs. Who?” I said in confusion. And then it all made sense and I made an ‘o’ shape with my mouth. “You mean Autumn?” It was more of a question to myself but Jason nodded all the same.

“She’s a great lady” I stated. And it was one hundred and fifty percent true. “Yes she is!” Charlie chimed in. “She is like a mother to all of us. She is the only one that can literally light a fire under Jason’s ass and get away with it.” I heard Ben say and the other guys, including Jason all nodded in agreement and chuckled. I couldn’t help but chuckle too.

That woman really is spectacular.

The chuckles turned to silence and then I heard a soft but stern “Aurora.” I looked up to Jason who was looking at me. “Are you going to try to escape again?” I had to think for a moment about that one. I knew that after the last stunt I pulled, they were going to make it near impossible for me to do it again. Besides, I figured there were other ways to piss them off. I finally shook my head ‘no’ shyly.

“Words Aurora” I heard Kai demand.

“No” I said again, still shy and looking down at my lap feeling really small in the presence of God like giants.

“Okay. We will give you another chance. I think you have realized some of the consequences for defying us. We don’t trust you though. So we decided that we will let you out
of your room and your chains during the day. You are free to roam the house as long as you promise to be a good girl. There are some rules you are going to follow, understood?” Jason stated.

I had a mix of emotions, but right now I wanted out of this room so badly!

Knowing they wanted verbal confirmation, I nodded and said “Yes, I understand!”

“Okay. Good. Rule one is fairly obvious, do not try to escape. Rule two is do not leave the compound. Rule three, be a good girl. Be kind, considerate, show manners and be respectful. And lastly, you have a curfew at nine o’clock each night unless one of us gives you permission.”

“Ok,” is the only response I give. I just wanted out of this room and out of these chains.

Ben gets up and crosses the room. He enters my closest while Jason pulls a small toothpick shape key from his pocket. He inputs the code, which of course is conveniently inconvenient to my eyes so I can’t see the four-digit code and before I know it, the padded cuff is off my ankle. Jason rubs the area briefly until Ben returns with a nice formal gold sequin dress and matching gold flats.

They all get up, leaving the garments on the bed and heading to the door. “Get dressed. You have 20 minutes. You are joining us for dinner.” Charlie said and they rushed out the door, the three locks clicking softly as soon the door closed.

The dress was beautiful. It had three finger width shoulder straps with a very low V-neck cut that would give a perfect view of the valley between my breasts because I couldn’t wear a bra with this dress. Luckily there was some built-in cups. It was floor length with a small slit on the left side that looked to go maybe knee length. Without putting it on I knew it would be a snug fit. Good thing I had already taken my bath today.

I quickly got dressed and now that I didn’t have the chain, I was free to waddle into the bathroom and make myself presentable. I found makeup and hair products. I decided to put my hair in a simple half-up style and applied just some black eyeliner, black eyeshadow for a smokey look, a little blush and pink lip gloss.

I heard the door open, and I came out of the bathroom to see the two giant mountain guards inside the room. I slipped on the shoes and walked over to them. They ushered me out of the room and then walked me down the golden and red corridors, down the stairs and then to the massive football size dining room again. Inside there were all the same men as before and one empty seat on the right side of Jason.

The quiet chatter stopped when I walked up to the table. Jason stood from his chair and offered me his hand. I took it with reservation but figured it was probably smart not to provoke the beast, yet anyway. The other men all stood up from their chairs while Jason walked me over to my seat. After I sat down, Jason helped push in my chair. “You look breathtaking” he whispered in my ear as I sat down. I said a simple thank you and then all the men proceeded to sit after Jason. He was back on his throne like chair, sitting like a king.

Dinner was promptly served. Tonight was a beautifully plated 12 oz filet mignon steak that had a decent crust and was cooked to be medium. It was cut like butter and was topped with butter too. There was sticky rice and a grilled vegetable medley of baby carrots, squash, and leeks. I was served ice water.

I kept my head down and focused on my food. The men were all in different conversations. I heard Jason talking about some shipments headed to Peru and paying off the coast guard patrol when they get into the Mexico waters. He assigned Thomas to oversee the exchange and he has to leave on Thursday.

I switched my hearing to Ben and Charlie who were talking to two men I still didn’t know their name, but they looked Slavic and had those Eastern European accents. They both had lots of tattoos poking out of their shirt collars. I didn’t hear the whole situation, but something caught my attention and I spoke up before I realized what I did.

“What if you take your Quarter two profit margin and reinvest into the marketing campaign and push ad pop ups in all the social media outlets catered to your lacking demographic?”

The entire table went silent. One of the Slavic men looked at me like I had grown three heads and the other had a face full of anger and disgust. But Charlie had cocked his head and looked intrigued. In fact he asked me “please explain further.” He wasn’t playful but serious, and now it was clear I was talking to the CEO of Dupont Enterprises.

I gulped the invisible knot in my throat. Oh me and big mouth!