9. Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
Aria
I hear Finn leave in the night. The small cottage reveals every sound.
Of course, I use that as my excuse to try and escape but the door is locked. Finn locked it, that asshole.
With a sigh, I slump onto the bed. Some wedding night. I was forced into this marriage and now I’m alone in the room, naked, feeling more lonely than I have in a long time. I grew up with people surrounding me. I grew up being the center of attention.
But now I don’t have my father or Dante. I don’t have any of my friends. I just have Finn and he’s doing strange things to me.
Tonight, I wanted him to touch me. It was for a brief moment but it was there. Why was it even there? I hate him. I despise him. I can’t let myself have feelings for him.
And yet, he is my husband. I’m stuck with him now unless Dante can kill him and so far, Dante has proved that he cannot kill Finn. He’s like a serial killer from a slasher movie. He just keeps coming back even when you think you’ve killed him.
I shiver. It’s cold in the room.
My eyes land on a dresser. Going through it, I see that it’s full of men’s clothes. Finn’s clothes. I grab a t-shirt and slip it on. It goes all the way down to my thighs. The rest of my clothes are downstairs but I can’t get to it when the door is freaking locked.
I find a pair of boxers and slip them on. They’re way too big on me so I use a string from a pair of sweatpants and tie it around the boxers, keeping them in place. There. At least I have something protecting me.
With nothing else to do, I get into the bed and try to sleep. I need all the strength I can get if I’m going to have to deal with Finn. He’s a man you cannot drop your guard around.
I just manage to fall asleep when the door downstairs bangs open, making me jerk upright in bed. Finn’s footsteps are heavy on the floor as he barges into the room, breathing heavy, a crazed look in his eyes.
“What?” I ask.
He doesn’t say anything as he looks down at me. I inch closer to the headboard. What is he going to do? Finally kill me?
Then Finn sucks in a breath and gets his breathing under control. “I was hired to kill a woman tonight.”
I go still. There it is. The reason I cannot care for Finn. He is a murderer for money. He has killed innocent people because assholes hired him to.
“Don’t you want to know more?” he asks.
“Why? You just told me you killed another woman tonight. What more do I need to know?”
“I didn’t say I killed a woman tonight. I said I was hired to kill a woman tonight.”
I frown. “Ok? So… what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that the woman was young. Sarah Williams was her name. I snuck into her house and when I saw her, she looked a lot like you. Young like you. And she had a baby with her.”
“And?” I whisper, hating how weak I sound but there’s no other way to sound when Finn is telling me he killed a baby.
“Her husband, Jack, hired me to kill her. Guess she comes from money and he wants it.”
“That’s terrible. Killing your own wife for her money.”
“He didn’t even kill her. He sent me to do that.” He approaches me and it takes everything inside myself not to recoil. “What do you think I did tonight?”
“What do you mean?”
“I was hired to kill that woman. Jack never told me they had a baby. What do you think happened?”
“You killed her. You were hired to.”
“And the baby?” He leans over me so I have no choice but to lean back. “Do you think I killed a baby? It was a girl. Sarah was playing with her daughter in the living room. That’s where I found them.”
“Why are you doing this? Are you trying to scare me?”
“I am. You need to be scared of me, princess. I’m a man who does bad things.”
“I know. That’s why I hate you.”
“Then why did you seem to lean into my touch tonight? When I took your wedding dress off.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“But you do. We both knew. We both felt it. There was a moment between us. Did you consider letting me touch you? Fuck you?”
“No,” I gasp.
“No? Tell me the truth, princess.”
Lying to Finn never ends well so I force the truth out. “Maybe for a moment. But it was a moment of weakness. You’ve gotten into my head. I don’t want to be with you.”
“So, you would be upset if I held you down and fucked you right now?”
“Yes.”
He nods. “That is the truth. But what if I told you I didn’t kill that woman? What if I told you I didn’t kill that baby? What then?”
“But you did kill them. And besides, you don’t win brownie points for not murdering someone. That’s not how that works.”
“But I’m a hitman. And if a hitman doesn’t kill someone he was hired to kill, isn’t that a good thing? Doesn’t it show growth? Wouldn’t that make the man worthy of his princess’s touch?”
“Why are you talking like this? What’s going on?”
With a sharp inhale, he backs away from me, raking a hand down his face. “I was sent to kill Sarah Williams tonight. I had my gun trained at the back of her head and if I had pulled the trigger, she would have died. Her baby would have died.”
I clutch the blanket to my chest. Finn is scaring me. I’ve never seen him this frazzled and shaken up before. Normally, he’s so confident.
“But I saw her. I saw that baby. Jack never mentioned a baby, that fucker. I don’t kill children. You might think I’m some terrible asshole – and I am – but I draw the line at kids. It’s the one thing that would make you happy, I’m sure.”
“So, you didn’t kill the baby,” I say with a release of breath. Thank god for that.
“I didn’t kill the baby.” He gazes at me with so much intensity, it leaves me breathless. “I wasn’t hired to kill the baby but I was hired to kill the woman. Sarah.”
“Did you?” From the way he’s speaking, I can’t tell if he did or not.
Finn huffs. “What the fuck is happening to me, princess? What spell do you have over me?”
“Spell?”
“Maybe you’re not a princess. Maybe you’re a witch in disguise who casted a spell over me.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Just speak straight.”
“I didn’t kill her.” He bows his head, like he’s ashamed of that fact.
I stare at Finn for a long time. Here is this man, a hitman, who kills people for a living. I know he killed that female doctor a few days ago. I know he’s capable of murder without even blinking.
So why is he acting like this?
“Why?” I whisper. “Why didn’t you kill her?”
“I thought you’d be happy.”
“Of course I’m happy. But I don’t understand why you didn’t do it. You .”
He looks me right in the eye as he answers. “Because she reminded me of you.”
Something flutters in my stomach. It’s both a heavy weight and a release from the weight. Finn’s words will change us. I know it.
I just don’t know how.
“Why did she remind you of me?”
“Blonde hair. Young. Innocent. For the first time since I’ve become a hitman, I… couldn’t do my job. I couldn’t kill her. I left her there in that house with her baby none the wiser I was even there.”
“And the husband?”
“I came straight here after I left her house. But I’ll have to kill him. He’ll probably just send another hitman after his wife and child. But then again, that’s not my problem.”
“How can you say it’s not your problem? He hired you. You need to end this.”
He quirks an eyebrow. “Are you suggesting I go murder someone?”
“The man who wanted his wife and baby dead? Yes. I think you should go kill him. I have no sympathy for men who hire a hitman to do his dirty work. Who wants his wife killed for her money. A man like that can rot in hell.”
“And what about a man like me?”
“You know you’re going to hell, Finn. I don’t need to tell you that.”
He smirks. “True.” He sits down next to me and slowly, his hand reaches out to cup my face. I don’t move an inch. “I don’t know why I spared her. Why do you have this effect on me?”
“I have no idea,” I answer honestly. Finn and I are so close. He could kiss me if he wanted to.
“I went against what I normally would do. Because of you. Maybe I should kill you just for that.”
“You won’t and we both know it. It’s why you couldn’t kill Sarah Williams tonight.”
He swipes his thumb along my cheek. “I’m never kind to anyone. I either kill or fuck or… well, that’s about it. I don’t have a good moral center. Not since my dad beat it out of me.”
“But you have your mom. You told me that.”
“She’s the only one I ever show kindness to. Until… you.”
I gasp. Finn cannot speak to me this way. Full of softness, like he wants to show me tenderness. I’ve held firm in the notion that he’s evil and I need to escape him.
But if he starts showing me kindness…
If he starts sparing peoples’ lives…
Then I have no idea how to feel. It goes against the man I’ve known who kidnapped me.
“I’m shocked you’re even telling me this,” I say.”
“Me too. Trust me, princess, if anyone is shocked, it’s me. I wasn’t going to tell you the truth when I came back here. I was going to tell you I killed that woman and her baby.”
“Why?”
“So you’d be scared of me.”
“But you changed your mind. Why?”
“I have no fucking idea. I came into this room and I saw you and…” He lets my face go and stands back up. “Fuck.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m glad you told me. I’m glad that you didn’t kill Sarah and her baby.”
“Don’t look at me like that,” he growls.
“Like what?”
“Like I’m good. I’m not good.”
I scoff. “Trust me, Finn, I know you’re not good. I’m just… surprised by what you’re telling me. That’s all.”
He stops pacing around the room and eyes me over. “Are you wearing my shirt?”
“I don’t have any other clothes. It was in the dresser.”
“You’re wearing my shirt.” He leans back over me. I try to stay seated upright but my body falls back onto the mattress as he keeps towering over me. “You look good in my shirt.”
My cheeks turn warm. I’m not the kind of woman who blushes. Blushing is for shy people and I’m not shy.
“But I know for a fact that you look better without it.” He yanks the shirt right off me. “You’re wearing my boxers too?”
“It’s all you had in there.” I don’t cover my bare breasts. Let Finn see for all I care.