6. Chapter Six #2
He shrugs. “You don’t look kidnapped to me any longer. If you can pay for a room, you can use the phone.”
“Seriously? Then can you call a ride for me? I need to get back home. Please.”
“Paying customers only.”
Fuck this. I’ve been kidnapped, almost raped, and almost killed all within the past couple of days. I am done playing around.
I grab the man by the shirt and yank him towards me. “I am in danger. A very dangerous man is out there looking for me right now and if he finds me here, he will kill you and no I am not exaggerating. Just call for a ride. Please.”
“Fine. Whatever.” He grabs his phone and calls a cab for me.
“Thank you,” I mutter. Asshole. “Can I stay in here until the cab comes?”
“Sure. Whatever.”
I keep away from the front window in case Finn is out there looking for me right now but I keep my eyes planted on the window so I can see the cab the moment it arrives. I need to get home as soon as possible. My father and guards will keep me safe. I’ll be ok. I can do this.
The car finally arrives after fifteen minutes and I quickly get inside, telling the driver my home address.
“That’s almost an hour away,” he grumbles. What is with these men?
“I’ll pay you when we get there. Just drive.”
Without any more complaints, he takes me back to my house. Miraculously, we don’t encounter any problems on the way.
The moment I see my house, I know I could cry. “Listen, I don’t have any money on me but my dad is rich. He can pay you. I’m just going to run inside and be right back. Ok?”
He looks uncertain but what else can he do?
I run up to my door and pound on it. I’m expecting to see my dad’s face on the other side but it’s Aiden who answers. For a moment, I’m afraid. What if he’s here to take me back to Finn?
And then I remember that Aiden has worked for Dante and Erik for over a year now. He’s on my side.
“Aria. Get inside. Quick.” He shuts the door behind me. “Is Finn with you?”
“I escaped. I need to pay the cab driver.”
“I’ll do it. Wait here.” He hurries outside.
My dad comes running down the stairs and wraps me in a hug before I can even process it all. “Aria. You’re home. You’re home. Alive. Safe.”
I cling back to him. “I’m safe now. I made it.”
Aiden comes back inside and motions us away from the front door. “What happened? Did Finn let you go?”
I scoff as I pull away from my dad. “I escaped. Finn made a mistake. He forgot to lock me back up. I made it back home. I’m not even sure he knows I’m gone yet.”
“That doesn’t sound like my brother,” he says, frowning. “He only ever does anything with a reason.”
“He was… distracted.”
“Distracted?”
“He, uh…” I look at my dad, knowing this is going to make him upset.
“He invited some men over and one of them tried to hurt me. Finn beat him up, and then left to deal with the rest of them. He seemed upset. I… I’ve never seen him like that before.
Granted, I’ve only spent two days with him but in those days, he had never acted like he had until that moment. ”
“Huh.” Aiden looks contemplative.
“What?”
“Nothing. Just… I know my brother. He never gets distracted. He loves chaos but he doesn’t make mistakes. The fact that you were able to escape means he let you go on purpose.”
“Which means we could be in danger here,” my dad exclaims.
“Or… Finn got distracted and made a mistake.”
“Why do you make it sound like that’s a problem?” I ask.
“Because that’s just not the brother I know. I know how to handle Finn but if he’s changing then… I’m not sure how I’ll be able to handle him then.”
Elio shakes his head. “All that matters now is that Aria is back home, safe and sound. Aiden, please stay. We can use all the help we can get in case your brother comes back.”
“Will you be able to kill him?” I ask Aiden. “Kill your brother?”
“I’ll do what I have to.”
“That wasn’t an answer.”
He sighs. “He’s still my brother but I will not let him hurt you again.”
“Good. Do that. I’m tired. I’m going to take a shower and then I’m going to bed.”
“You don’t want to talk about what happened?” Dad asks.
“No. Not tonight. Besides, I’m not sure you’re ready to hear it. I just want to sleep in my bed knowing I’m safe again.”
I leave the two men to deal with Finn if he shows back up. Hopefully Finn will see that I’m a lost cause and let me go.
I never want to see him again.
At least that’s what I tell myself. Because the other deep down dark part of me wants to see him again and that’s something that can never happen.
Finn
The moment I return to the cabin I know I fucked up. Aria isn’t here.
Because I forgot to tie her to the bed.
Shit, shit, shit. I let my anger over what Zach did to her get to me. I made sure to track down Zach last and murder him. The other men were easy too. I know where each of them live. I just showed up at their houses and bang, bang. They were dead.
Easy fucking peasy.
Except, I forgot about Aria. That never happens to me. I never lose sight of a mission. So why the fuck did it happen now?
The girl means nothing to me. It doesn’t matter if I got upset that Zach tried to kill her or that Jed stuck his dick in her face. She means nothing.
So then why did I get so upset? Why did seeing her afraid and in pain make me see red?
I don’t have the fucking answer for that. What I do know is I need to get Aria back. If I’m going to hurt Dante, she needs to be in my clutches. I’ll have nothing to use against Dante if I don’t have her.
I know exactly where she’ll be going.
I drive back to New York and wait outside her brownstone. Eventually, a cab pulls up to the house and she gets out. I could have taken her right then and there but I’ve chosen to wait.
I want to make a spectacle. It’s a favorite pastime of mine.
I wait until it’s early in the morning. Aria will be asleep in her bed still. Elio will probably be so exhausted from staying up all night waiting for her to come back home that he’ll be off his game. There aren’t any guards out front. What are they waiting for?
Surely they must know that I’m coming back for her.
So what do they have waiting for me in that house?
I approach the house anyway and kick down the door. Stepping inside, I come face to face with my brother.
Aiden is standing in the foyer, his gun raised, ready for me.
Of course it would be Aiden. There’s no one else that can rattle me the way he does.
Well, not until Aria. She’s rattled me when I least expected it.
“You are not going to get her, Finn,” Aiden warns.
“Then shoot me.”
Aiden doesn’t move an inch.
I smirk. “It’s because you can’t. You could never kill me.”
“And you could never kill me. That’s why we keep ending up in moments like this. Neither one can pull the trigger.”
“I am getting the girl back, Aiden.”
“You’ll have to kill me first.”
“Fine.” I whip out my gun and shoot. The bullet hits the wall beside Aiden’s head but it’s enough to make Aiden jerk to the side. I run right at him and tackle him to the ground. We punch at each other, each one of us getting a swing in.
When one of us gets on top, the other one quickly gains power and so on and so forth.
Neither one of us will stop.
But we just can’t seem to kill each other.
I land a hard blow to Aiden’s nose and his head hits the floor. He’s alive but he’s not moving.
“I’m taking her back,” I spit out. “You could never stop me.” I whip him across the head so he goes unconscious. He should be fine as long as he gets to a hospital. I was always the better fighter between the two of us.
I head upstairs and am confronted by Elio on the landing. His own gun his drawn and he doesn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. The bullet hits my arm, knocking me back, but I’ve always had quick reflexes.
I fire my gun and Elio gets hit in the leg, knocked to the ground. I stand over him and kick his gun away. “Do you want to die? Because I will gladly fucking kill you.”
“No!” Aria shouts, running out of her room. She’s in a silky nightdress, looking utterly delectable. My eyes zero in on the bruises around her throat. “Don’t kill him. Just take me back, Finn. Take me and spare my dad.”
“That’s fine. I was going to take you back anyway. But I don’t appreciate men shooting at me. Your father deserves to die on principle.”
Aria steps in front of her dad. “If you kill him, you’ll have to kill me too. But you need me so just take me with you. Just do it.”
I stare at the bravery on Aria’s face. The fierceness. How similar she is to me. Staring down into the barrel of a gun and not even blinking in fear.
“You’ll go without a fight?” I ask her. I need to get her out of here as soon as possible before any more men arrive.
Or before Aiden wakes back up.
“I will. Just spare him. Please.”
I contemplate the offer. It would be so easy to say ‘fuck it’ and kill Elio anyway just because I can.
But then Aria will put up a hell of a fight which will make getting her out of here hard.
And she’ll hate me for it.
I shouldn’t care what Aria thinks. I don’t care what Aria thinks.
And yet… for some reason, I don’t want her to despise me. Hate me? Sure. But despise me… no. And killing her father would make her never forgive me. I learned that from Aiden’s wife, Elena, when I kill her dad.
“Fine. Let’s go.” I put my gun away but I grab Elio’s for good measure.
Aria doesn’t look back at her dad as she follows me downstairs.
“Aria, no!” he cries out, chasing after us. I punch Elio in the face, sending him sprawling to the ground.
Aria gasps but other than that, she shows no fear. Good girl.
She sticks to her word and doesn’t put a fight as we go back to my car.
“You really thought you could get away from me?” I ask as I drive away.
“I hoped,” she mutters.
“Can’t blame you for trying but you sure did make my night a whole lot harder, you know that?”
“Good.”
“I need to make sure you never leave me again. I need to hurt Dante in a way that will never hurt him like this.”
“How?” she asks warily.
An idea hits me. It’s crazy and something I never would have considered before. I’ve always hated the idea of being tied down by a woman.
But if I want to hurt Dante there’s a surefire way to do it.
“We get married.”
Aria stares at me for a long moment before she speaks. “Did you say…”
“I’m going to make you marry me,” I say as the idea forms itself in my mind. “That’s perfect. That will make you mine. And Dante will not be able to stop it. Mafia men honor a marriage. He’ll know he’s lost you forever if we get married.”
“No,” she whispers.
“Yes. It’s the perfect idea. Buckle up, Aria. We have a chapel to get to.”