54 - The First Step

**Third Person POV**

The breakfast table was eerily quiet and it was just Jason, Charlie, Kai, Ben, and Aurora. Grammy opted to have her breakfast in her room each day and the guys wanted to talk with Aurora alone. It had been three days since the great Grammy O’Donnell unleashed her wisdom on the five younglings.

Aurora spent much of the last few days reading in the library or taking walks in the garden with Grammy, building a nice friendship with the wise old woman. Aurora even convinced her new friend to sit with her in the second kitchen and Aurora fixed Grammy her signature burger. To say Melinda O’Donnell was impressed would have been an understatement. Melinda could see just how special this girl was, after all, she was still breathing and mostly unscathed even after all she did to awaken the beasts inside the four most ruthless and powerful mafia men.

The men had discussed the situation at nauseum the last few days about talking to Aurora and making amends. The words of Melinda O’Donnell rang clear in their thick skulls.

They all agreed instantly that she was there chosen one, not a toy. Their inner beasts full of desire and pure obsession took control and the guys allowed themselves to be blinded to the pain they inflicted.

So here they were, eating in complete silence. It was awkward for Aurora because she could feel the guys burning holes in her soul by constantly staring at her while she took her time to indulge in her meal. The guys stayed silent out of nervousness. Jason’s hands were sweaty, Charlie was bouncing his leg ferociously under the table, Kai was picking at his food and Ben was constantly drinking anything and everything, refilling his coffee cup for the sixth time.

Aurora noticed these little signs and finally had enough. So she cleared her throat getting their utmost attention. “Is everything okay?” She asked. She had no idea why she felt compelled to talk to them let alone be concerned for their weird behavior.

Jason took a deep breath and exhaled. He was about to say something he hasn’t said to anyone in years. “I’m…I’m….I’m sorry, Aurora. For everything terrible we have put you through. I’m…I’m sorry. We…we all are” There he said it and it strangely felt nice to him. The other three quickly nodded and each apologized too.

“That was painful to watch” Aurora said with a smile on her face and started giggling. The others joined in while Jason started rubbing the back of his neck.

“Thank you.” Aurora said, making Jason look up at her in shock. Aurora was smiling and her face was sincere. It was her turn to take a breath. “I can’t forgive you….yet.” she said simply but the guys heard her and were shocked. “BUT” she said a little more forcefully “your Grammy gave me a lot to think about.”

Jason added “yeah, she has a way with words. Always has.”

Ben cleared his throat this time, placing his now seventh empty cup of coffee down on the table. “We can’t start over and we can’t undo all the crap we put you through.”

“You killed my only friend. She was like a sister to me.” Aurora blurted out. This was the first time she confronted them. “I can handle everything else. The spankings, the chains, hell even that God awful dark room, but you killed someone I love. Why? When it was me who broke your rules, me who ran away, me who was your target. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!” Her voice was raised, her heart was hurting, tears were freely streaming down her face.
Kai came over and knelt down next to her chair, taking her shaking hands in his. She knew better than to let him comfort her but in that moment, that is all she wanted: comfort.

He kissed both of the tops of her hands before raising a hand to cup her cheek, using his thumb to wipe away a loose salty tear. Aurora surprisingly leaned into his gentle touch.

“What we did was unforgivable. I don’t want your forgiveness. I will spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you. We were blinded by our anger darling. I know I felt this crazy unrealistic, hell animalistic desire to utterly possess you from the moment I laid eyes on you, still do every second of every day. I am not a good man at all. I don’t deserve you, but now that I have you, I can’t let you go. I’m a selfish bastard just like the rest of these men and you my sweet Aurora, you are the light in our circle of darkness.”

Kai’s words hit Aurora hard. He admitted his wrongdoing. Out of everyone, Kai always seemed to be the biggest time bomb. You never knew what was going through his head. He was lethal to everyone, except Aurora.

Charlie cleared his throat, making Aurora and Kai snap out of their little serene moment. “Um, I know this may be a little forward, but um, would you be willing to go on a date with us?” His eyes were hopeful and as Aurora looked around the room, she saw the same willingness and desire in the other’s too.
Aurora took a moment to look at each of these men. They were not the big bad mafia dons in this moment. They were vulnerable and so the small little irrational voice told her to take a chance. She was curious about these men. She still didn’t know much about them so this would be an opportunity to learn more about them.

“Okay.” she said softly. If Kai wasn’t still next to her on his knee, he wouldn’t have heard her. He smiled brightly and stood up, kissing her forehead and mumbled a “thank you princess, you won’t regret it.”

Jason, Charlie, and Ben all had bright, hopeful smiles as well.

They ended their breakfast and escorted Aurora to the library and wished her a wonderful day. They decided to plan their date for the next afternoon. Jason told Draco when they went into their office and the guys spent the next two hours planning their date before they each were pulled away to conquer another mafia world issue.

*The next morning…*

The guys let Aurora have breakfast with Grammy while they had some of their men helping them outside putting the final touches on their ‘date’. The guards were thoroughly confused while Draco and Carson were excited for the Quad Dons to finally be showing a true interest in a woman.

It was now an hour before lunch time and they guys went back to their rooms to freshen up. Draco and Carson were given strict instructions not to disturb them unless the emergency absolutely needed them.

Aurora spent the morning in the Lavender Parlor with Grammy. They played a few hands of Rummy. Melinda was quite a gambler so Aurora had asked Charlie the night before if she could have a few dollars to play with and he gave her a $5,000 in cash he just happened to have in his pocket. Of course Grammy came with her own piles of cash and pretty soon, they were playing $100 a hand.

After about two hours, Aurora walked away with $7,000 dollars. Aurora asked Grammy to help her choose her outfit for the date since it was a big secret, she didn’t know what to wear. When Aurora and Grammy walked into her room, there was four wrapped boxes in golden paper and four different colored bows: red, blue, green, and black.

Grammy sat on Aurora’s bed as Aurora opened each box. The first box, with the red bow, was large and looked like a garment box. The card read from Jason. Inside was a custom-made Versace gold satin knee length tea dress, with pockets and a small golden chain around the waist. It had a little tool skirt underneath that poked out of the bottom of the pleats and it was so pretty!

The blue-ribbon box was smaller like a shoe box and that is exactly what it was. A golden Versace ankle book that had a two-inch block heel, also custom-made. This was from Ben.

The green bow box was from Charlie, and it held a gold and satin headband that was adorned with a row of clear costume jewels. Aurora thought it was cute and didn’t notice that the gems were actually diamonds. There was a matching set of diamond earrings.

Kai, the small black bow box, held a matching gold clutch purse that only Melinda realized was over $25,000. Aurora was oblivious to the price tags and just saw the gestures as sweet and kind. The guys spent close to $250,000 on her outfit alone, pocket change for them but if Aurora ever found out, it would stop her heart as no one ever gave her gifts, let alone very expensive ones. She would have insisted on returning them and keeping their money, hint why no one would dare correct her.

Grammy helped the young lady get dressed and beautified with simple makeup and curls in her hair.

Aurora walked out of her room when there was a knock at her door. Standing there were all four men, dressed in fancy suits without ties, their beautifully chiseled chests popping out of the top few open buttons, they oozed the term sexy. They were dreamy, steamy, and yummy. Their eyes popped and jaws dropped when sweet little Aurora walked out and Jason broke the silence with a simple “wow. You are… wow!” Aurora blushed and took Kai and Jason’s arms they held out for her and they all walked down the hall to their date.