12. Chapter Twelve
Chapter Twelve
Aria
S al returns.
It’s been hours and I knew this moment would come but I was hoping I had more time. I was hoping Finn would find me.
But I’m starting to realize that Finn doesn’t know where I am. He’s not coming.
Sal approaches me with a shit-eating grin. “Want to know where I just was?”
I don’t say a word. He’ll tell me no matter what I say and I don’t want to get into trouble and say the wrong thing and make it all worse.
In a quick motion, he whips out his knife and presses it to my face. So far, he hasn’t cut my face, only my body. “Do you want to know where I just was?”
“No. But you’re going to tell me.”
“I am going to tell you. I was on another job. This time, a woman hired me to kill her husband. Apparently, he’s abusive and she felt like she couldn’t get away from him.
How noble. I killed the husband. I got the fireplace going and warmed up the fire poker.
” He pauses for dramatic effect. “And then I shoved it right up his ass while he was still alive. You should have heard the screams that left him. Mmm. It was delicious.” He licks his lips like he’s just eaten something tasty.
Fortunately, he pulls the knife away and slips it back into his pocket. “What do you think of that, plaything?”
I strain against the cuffs around my wrists. “I think he deserved it if he was abusing his wife.”
“Wow. Didn’t except that from you, plaything. I thought you were more innocent than that.”
“I believe in justice being served. You just served it.”
“But you didn’t think that when I killed Sarah Williams and her baby.”
“Because the baby never did anything wrong. Sarah was innocent.”
“How did you know?” he asks. “She could have been cheating on her husband or gambling away money.”
“None of that warrants getting brutally murdered.”
“But abusing someone does?”
“Yes,” I answer honestly. “If you hurt people with your fists, then you deserve to get hurt back. But Sarah’s baby never harmed anyone. You’re a monster for doing that to her.”
“I’m just a man with a job. How does that make me a monster?”
God, this man is crazy. He doesn’t even realize how wrong he is.
“You want to know what else I did?” he asks.
“Tell me.” Maybe if I keep him talking long enough, he won’t hurt me again. Some of my cuts have dried up but a few are still open and trickling blood. I can’t take anymore.
“I went to the wife who paid me to kill her husband. She paid me incredibly well. But you see, I don’t like to leave witnesses behind.
Especially when they’re cunty women who think they can murder their husbands without consequences.
So, I took that same hot poker and I shoved it right up her cunt. Then I killed her.”
The terror coursing through my body is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. It’s wild and intense. There’s never a moment of peace.
“But she was your client,” I say. My voice sounds scared. It never sounded scared when I was with Finn.
“She was. But I don’t like it when women hire me to kill men. I mean, I kill the men because it’s fun but I think it’s fucked up that a woman could have that kind of power to kill a man.”
“But if a man does it, it’s ok?”
“Of course. Men are supposed to be in power. You women are our playthings.” He runs his hand down my face and I resist the urge to jerk back. “You are at our mercy.”
“So, a man can hire you to kill his wife and you approve but if a woman does it, then it’s a death sentence for her? That’s fucked up.”
He rips his hand away like I’ve burned him. “It’s not. It’s just the natural order of things. Women deserve to die for being cunts.”
“But if no more women existed, the human race would end.”
“And I would laugh on top of all the bones.” He pulls his knife back out. “Now, shall we resume what we were doing before?”
Oh god. I can’t take it. The cuts he’s given me have been shallow but now I’m worried he’s going to cut deeper until I’ll die.
“I want to keep talking to you,” I blurt out. “I want to know what’s on your mind.”
“Oh.” He puffs out his chest. He likes it when I stroke his ego. “Well, I can tell you what’s on my mind as I cut you.”
“No. No!” I buck and pull at my restrains but I’m stuck. Sal presses his knife to my shin and cuts a line right down it. It burns. I bite down my scream.
“Death by a thousand cuts is a very painful way to die,” Sal murmurs like we’re in a museum and he’s commenting on the beautiful artwork.
“I never hired you to kill anybody. I don’t deserve this.”
He places the knife to my throat. “Just by being a woman you deserve this.”
At that very moment, his phone rings. “Ah.” He pulls the knife away and answers his phone, turning his back to me.
“Yes. Got it.” He hangs up. “Well, it’s your lucky day, plaything.
I have another job I need to get to. But I’ll be back in a few hours.
I’ll leave you with this.” He cuts down my stomach and stops right above my pubic mound. “As a reminder of me.”
The cut isn’t deep, thank god, but it burns. I’m going to be covered in small scars after this. I’m going to be ugly. The only thing I had was my beauty and now Sal is trying to take it away from me.
He leaves the house with a whistle like it’s a normal day off to work.
I desperately try to get out of my cuffs but they’re too tight. There’s no way I can cut them. I’ve never felt so powerless before.
Finn
I arrive at the house of the address Aiden gave me. It’s a simple, nondescript house. It blends in with every other house on the street. Does the hitman I met earlier really live here? I would have expected some freaky torture gothic mansion for how evil he was.
I knock on the door. If he doesn’t own the house anymore, I don’t want to kick the door in and scare some random family. While that would be funny, I don’t want more attention drawn to myself at this moment. My mission is to find Aria. Nothing can get in the way of that.
No one answers.
I try to peer through one of the windows but the blinds are drawn. I can’t see in. “Is anybody home?” I ask, then strain to listen.
It’s then that I hear a muffled sound, liking someone talking.
So, someone is inside. But is it Sal or is it just some innocent person watching TV who doesn’t want to answer the door?
I knock again harder. “Is anybody home?”
I hear it again. The sound of someone talking. Or… someone screaming.
Fuck it. If Sal doesn’t live here, then I’ll just deal with the consequences of breaking into someone’s house.
I kick the door open and burst inside.
That’s when I see Aria, handcuffed to a table… bleeding.
Shit. I keep my gun up in case Sal appears and starts shooting me.
“He left,” Aria tells me. “He’s not here.”
I rush to her side. “Aria? Fuck. What did he do to you?” Her body is covered in shallow cuts. Dried blood is crusted to her body. It’s all on her legs and stomach and arms. She’s fully naked. That fucker thought he could do this to her.
“Just get me out of here,” she sobs. I’ve never heard her sound so afraid before.
I try to get her handcuffs off but it requires a key. “I’m going to have to pick these. It will take a moment.”
“What if he comes back?”
“Then I’ll kill him. Don’t worry.”
She lets out a slow sigh. “Ok. Ok.”
I rummage around the kitchen until I can find something to use to pick the lock – one of the drawers has a couple of small nails. Perfect.
“How did you find me?” Aria asks as I get to work on the cuffs.
“My brother. He gave me this address. He’s met Sal once before.”
“So, you told your brother that you lost me?”
“I had to. Even if it meant fucking up my plans, I had to find you, princess.” I get one of the cuffs undone and start work on the next one.
She runs her hand over her throat. “He was going to kill me, Finn. He’s been torturing me for hours.”
“I’m here now. I’ve got you.” Shit. I’ve never comforted anybody ever before. What the fuck has gotten into me?
“He kept cutting me,” she whispers. “He told me he killed Sarah and her baby. The ones you spared.”
“I figured they were dead.” Her second handcuff pops open. “When Jack told me he hired a new hitman to come after me, it wasn’t hard to figure out what Jack and Sal had done.” I turn my attention to the cuffs around her ankles.
“You spared their lives and those two men just went and ruined it. Sal is pure evil. He’s crazy. The things he told me…”
“What?” I get the cuff around her ankle off. Now, just one more left.
“The way he tortured them. He shoved his finger down that poor baby’s throat to get her to stop crying before he killed her. That’s so wrong.”
Finally, I get her last cuff undone and pull her into my arms. She breaks down into tears. I’ve never seen Aria this vulnerable before. I’ll admit – it scares me and I don’t scare easily.
“I was terrified I was going to die,” she sobs into my chest, clinging to me. I never thought Aria would seek me for comfort. It feels good to be her protector and savior, instead of her enemy.
“I’m going to kill that fucker for hurting you.”
“Just get me out of here. Please. Before he comes back.”
A part of me wants to stay and wait for him to return so I can shoot him right in the fucking head but I know Aria is right. I can’t focus on killing Sal when I’m worried about Aria. I need to get her to safety.
“I’ve got you.” I carry her out to my car. When I try to put her into the passenger seat, she clings to me harder. “You have to let me go, princess. If we want to leave, you have to let me go.”
Slowly, she uncurls her fingers from my shirt.
I can’t take her back to the cottage. Sal knows about it. I have another safe house not too far from here that we can go to.
Aria stops crying the further we get from the house until she looks nothing but numb. She’s so still, I’m not even sure she’s breathing for a moment.
We arrive at the new safe house – some simple ranch house I bought years ago – and I get her inside.