11. Chapter Eleven
Chapter Eleven
Finn
N ow that my bullet wound is fixed, I head back out to find Aiden. I need to see if he’ll lead me to Dante in a place where I can kill Dante without all of his guards around.
Aiden will surely have gotten Elena to safety somewhere but I know my brother. He’ll go to Dante soon enough. I go back to my brother’s apartment and wait and watch for him to return.
He eventually does.
And he doesn’t have Elena with him, I notice.
Must have put her in one of the safe houses he owns.
He’s really paranoid I’d kill her. Granted, I did threaten her life before they were married, so I can’t fully blame Aiden for being worried.
But it does sting that he’d think I’d hurt her now, especially since she’s pregnant.
Aiden is inside of his apartment for quite some time before he leaves in his car. Perfect. I follow. The downfall of Aiden is that he knows all of my tricks. He’ll know if he’s being followed so I have to drive as far back from him as I can get. It’s dark out now and that helps hide me.
Aiden eventually pulls up to a swanky lounge and goes inside. He must be meeting someone – Dante hopefully. Or Erik. I don’t really care. I just need to kill one of them.
I force myself to be patient and wait for the men to leave. If I go inside now and attack, it could cause more harm than good. Normally, I would do exactly that but with my bullet wound, I have to be careful right now.
After a few minutes, Aiden leaves… and right behind him is Dante. He has three guards behind him.
But this is my chance to attack.
I dive out of my car and start firing at them. Dante’s guards shove him behind them and fire back at me. I manage to kill two of them but Dante gets into his car and drives away, leaving behind his last guard, who I shoot, because I fucking can.
Aiden gives me a furious look before he drives away next.
Damn it. Dante never used to walk around with so many guards. Well, Aiden and I acted as guards of sorts for him for the longest time. I have to get him alone without all the guards and I don’t know how to do that. Dante is not going to risk dying now that he knows I’m after him.
And now I just played my fucking hand. He’ll be expecting me again. Fuck. Viktor is not going to be happy. Well, fuck him. I’m only trying to work with him again to gain power, not because I want to be fucking friends.
With a growl, I go back to the cottage. I need to rest and recoup.
But when I go inside, I can immediately tell that something is wrong. It just feels too quiet and empty inside. I rush up the stairs only to find the bedroom door wide open. I locked it. I know I did. So how did it get open?
Slowly, I step inside.
And instead of Aria’s pretty face staring back at me, it’s a man. An ugly, disgusting man.
Aria is nowhere to be seen.
“Who are you?” I demand.
“I was sent here by Jack Williams to finish the job.” He raises his gun and I dive out of the way right as he shoots.
The bullet hits the wall instead of me. I start firing my own bullets but the man dives behind the bed.
I keep firing until I run out of bullets.
Fuck. I used up most of them in my shootout earlier. I have more bullets downstairs.
I rush to the bottom floor and find my stash of bullets in one of the kitchen sinks. Heavy footsteps follow after me.
The hitman enters the kitchen and tries shooting me again but I duck behind the counter just in time. Fuck. Who is this guy? Jack Williams sent him obviously but I’ve never met this man. I don’t know his strengths or weaknesses.
And I still don’t know where Aria is.
If this man has her, I can’t just kill him. I need answers.
There’s a moment of quiet when he runs out of bullets. I shove another chamber into my gun and fire at him. The bullet hits his arm, knocking his gun out of his hand.
“Who are you?” I ask again as he clutches his bleeding arm. Good. I don’t like this fucker and I want him to hurt.
“Who I am doesn’t matter. You should just be concerned with the fact that I stole your little prisoner. Or should I say wife? Isn’t that interesting. I made her scream, you should know.”
A cold chill settles itself in my gut. It’s fear, I realize. Honest to god fear. It’s not something I ever really feel.
Except now I feel it for Aria.
“You’re out of bullets,” I remind him. “Whereas I have a whole arsenal back here.”
“So? If you want to see my little plaything again, then you can’t kill me. You’ll never find her. I’ll be back, Finn. That’s a promise.” He walks out of the house like he’s on a Sunday stroll to church.
Fuck. He’s right. I can’t kill him. I need to know what he knows.
The second he steps out of the house, I run after him. I can’t shoot him again or I could risk killing him. But I don’t have to shoot him.
I run up behind him and smack my gun to the side of his head.
But he doesn’t go down.
Instead, he spins back around and punches me right in the fucking eye.
Shit, that’s going to leave a bruise. I punch back and soon, we find ourselves in a fistfight.
There’s something so intimate and personal about a fistfight.
I love getting close enough to see the fear in the other person’s eyes as I hurt them.
Except, with this man, there is no fear in his eyes. Only glee. It’s a lot like me. I fucking hate him.
He lands a kick to my leg and it buckles, sending me towards the floor. He lands a good punch to the side of my head. Dizziness takes over.
“Stay down,” he says. “I have plans for you.”
I raise my gun. “I will shoot you. I don’t fucking care if you’re the only one who knows where Aria is. I will kill you.”
He raises his arms out wide. “Then shoot.”
If I shoot him in the stomach or chest, it’s for sure going to kill him. But I want this man to feel a little bit of pain so I aim my gun towards his shin and I fire.
The scream that leaves him as his leg buckles is so fucking satisfying. This fucker thought he could come into my home and steal my girl? No.
He limps away to his car and drives away. That’s fine. I want him alive so I can get answers.
But I know I can’t do this alone. I’m going to be need resources for finding Aria.
That means I need to go back to Viktor empty handed and ask for his help. Fuck me. This is the worst fucking day of my life.
Viktor’s guards let me up to the front door – sans gun of course – and Viktor motions me inside after he opens the front door. I haven’t stepped foot back into his house since he tried to kill me about a month ago, when our partnership ended.
“Well?” he asks. “Is Dante or Erik dead?”
“Not yet but I’m working on it.”
“Then why are you here?”
I sigh. “Aria has been kidnapped. By another hitman.”
Viktor blinks then… “What?!” His voice echoes through the cavernous entranceway. “You lost her? You fucking lost her.”
“And I need to get her back.”
“I told you to let her go but instead you fucking married her. It’s all everyone is talking about.”
“How did you find out? Only Dante, Matteo, and my brother were there when I married her.”
“Because I have contacts everywhere, Finn. One of them overheard Matteo talking about it. You married her? Are you insane?”
I tamp down my annoyance and focus on the issue at hand: finding Aria. “This is good. If we have her, we have control over Dante and you know it.”
“I don’t approve of torturing girls to get what I want. I would have found another way to hurt Dante that didn’t involve hurting Aria. And now you say she’s been kidnapped by someone else?”
“Yes. Some psychopathic fucker. I don’t know his name. I’ve never seen him before until he showed up at one of my houses today and tried to kill me.”
“Did you kill him?”
“I tried but I need him alive to find Aria. I don’t know where she is.”
“We need to get her back. If Dante finds out you lost her, he won’t hesitate to come attack either of us. The only thing that was keeping him at bay was the fact that you had Aria. He wouldn’t want to risk hurting her.”
“You’re worried Dante would hurt your wife and sister?”
Viktor sighs and runs his hand down his face.
“I’m not sure. I asked Dante and Erik to keep this war between us men and not interfere with the women in our lives.
We all agreed. I have to hope Dante sticks to that.
But he’ll kill you for sure when he finds out you don’t have Aria. He’ll think you’re free game then.”
“Then help me find her.”
“And when we do, you return Aria.”
“Why? She’s our best bargaining chip.”
“So we can come up with a solution that benefits us all,” he says.
“I don’t want to be in an alliance with Erik and Dante.
Not after how they fucked me over. But I do want some sort of peace for the safety of Inessa and Julia.
We could guarantee that by giving Aria back.
It wouldn’t be an alliance treaty but it could be a call for peace.
A call to respect each other but stay out of each other’s lanes. ”
I stare at him in confusion. “That’s what you really want? I thought you wanted them both dead.”
“I do. But if we can’t kill them, then this is the next best course of action. So either kill Erik and Dante or find Aria and return her.”
“I need help finding her,” I admit. “I have no idea who that man was. I have no idea where he could be keeping her. I need your help, Viktor.”
His eyebrows raise. “Are you actually asking me for help? You? The great Finn Murphy.”
“You want her found too, so help me. She’s innocent and I know you have a soft spot for innocent women. Help me find her.”
“Fine. I’ll do it but not for you. I’m doing it for her and for what she can do for us. I have friends in the police department that can give me access to CCTV footage. We can start to look around the area of where your hitman attacked you.”
“Good. Great. Do that.” I head for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“I have someone I need to talk to.”
Jack Williams is easy enough to be found.