18. Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Eighteen
Aria
T he sight of Sal makes my entire body turn cold.
How did he find me here? Why didn’t Finn kill him when he had the chance?
My father’s guard shouts at him to lower his weapon and get on the ground but Sal just ignores him and fires off his gun. The bullet hits the guard right in the head, killing him instantly. Elena yelps and I nudge her behind me. Sal is here for me. I can’t risk her and her baby getting hurt.
Sal turns his eyes onto me. I’m brought right back to that moment when he tied me to his table and kept cutting me for hours. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to forget something like that.
“Hi, plaything,” Sal says.
“Stop,” my father orders. Sneaking a peek at him tells me that he doesn’t have his gun with him. He’s not the type of Mafia man to constantly carry one around but I know he keeps some guns in the house, specifically in the drawer by the TV. If I can just get to it…
But Sal has a gun himself and he’s a much better shot.
“What are you going to do about it?” Sal mocks.
My father puffs his chest up higher. “I am Elio Romano and this is my house. I order you to leave.”
“Or what? You’re going to shoot me?”
I lunge for the drawer by the TV and scramble to open it. The gun is front and center. Grabbing it, I spin around and point it at Sal.
“Stop,” I say. “Leave. Or I will shoot you.”
His smile will haunt me forever. “It’s cute that you think you can kill me.”
I pull the trigger.
Only to remember that the safety is still on and nothing comes out.
Sal throws his head back and laughs. “You don’t know how to use that thing, plaything.
I searched hard for you. When I heard that you were returned home to your daddy, I knew exactly where you’d be and I couldn’t wait to come and get you.
Did you like my entrance? I thought it had some nice pizzaz to it. ”
I undo the safety. “Stop talking.” And I shoot.
Except, my shot goes wide and hits the wall behind Sal and not Sal himself. I was never taught how to fire a gun in my defense. It’s a lot harder than it looks.
Sal’s eyes narrow. “You really thought you could shoot me, plaything? Well think the fuck again.” He starts to come closer to me but my dad rushes to Sal’s side and collides into him, pushing Sal to the ground. Sal flips my dad onto his back and starts punching him.
“Shoot him,” Elena whispers to me.
I aim my gun at Sal but my dad manages to shove Sal off him. If I try to shoot, I could accidently hit my dad instead. I’m not a good enough shot to risk it.
“Come on,” I say to Elena. “We need to get out of here.” I know that’s what my dad would want. I grab her hand and tug her towards the back door. Elena is able to move fast despite being at least four months pregnant.
I hear a loud crack from the living room and have to resist the urge to look back. My father will be fine. He’ll be fine. He’ll be fine. He has to. Because otherwise…
I wrench open the back door and practically push Elena into the backyard. I hear footsteps behind us, getting closer and closer.
“We can’t out run him,” Elena pants.
“We can and we will. Keep moving.” We make our way across the backyard to the fence when I feel something hard grab me from behind and throw me to the ground.
Sal stands above me.
He lands a hard kick right to my stomach.
“Aria,” Elena gasps, running towards me, then stopping when Sal sets her eyes onto her.
“Who are you?” he asks.
“Leave her alone,” I groan out.
He tilts his head to the side, eyeing her over. “A bun in the oven, I see. I like a plaything with a baby on the way. It’s fun to cut the baby out and toss it in the trash. I think I’ll do that to you too.”
Elena turns white. “Leave her alone.” Despite her obvious fear, she’s still being brave.
“I came here for Aria, but you can be my plaything too.” He rushes at her and slams his gun against her head, knocking her unconscious. He lets her fall right to the ground.
“Elena,” I say, pushing myself to my feet. The pain in my stomach is not going away.
“You can’t save your friend, plaything. Not when you both belong to me.” Sal brings his gun to my head and the last thing I feel before I pass out is a pain so intense, I’ll remember it even in darkness.
I wake up in a cold room. A basement by the looks of it. Made of concrete and practically nothing else. This isn’t a comfy basement to watch TV in. This is a basement where bad things happen, judging by the red stains on the floor.
I sit up with a gasp. My body isn’t tied up so at least there’s that. When I look to my right, I see Elena on the ground next to me.
“Elena.” I pat at her cheek. “Elena.”
Slowly, she opens her eyes. “Aria?” She tries to sit up but gets dizzy. “Woah.”
“It’s ok. You’re ok.” I can hear the false promise in my own ears.
“What happened? Where are we?”
“That insane hitman, Sal, kidnapped us. At least he didn’t tie us up. Not like last time.”
“Like last time? What happened, Aria?”
“He went after Finn but found me instead. He tortured me for hours until Finn could find me. This is the man who Finn saved me from. But he’s back now. He wanted me so he took me and unfortunately, he took you too.”
She runs her hands over her belly. “My baby.”
“Is it ok?”
“I have no idea. I feel fine but… My head hurts a little.”
“Probably from when he pistol whipped you, fucking asshole.”
“We need to get out of here. He didn’t tie us up so that has to be a good thing.”
I grab her face. “We can try. I will not let him hurt you and your baby. If given the chance, you make a run for it and leave me behind.”
“But -,”
“No buts. The only way we get out of this is if our husbands know where we are. If you can escape, take it. Leave me behind.”
“But he’ll kill you.”
“He didn’t kill me before. Hopefully he won’t get the chance before Finn and Aiden find us.”
Elena gasps. “You’re so sure they’ll find us but our husbands are mad at each other. They won’t work together to find us. I know Aiden. He’ll think he can do this on his own.”
“And I know Finn. He’ll think the same thing. Let’s just hope one of them finds us before…” I shake my head. Now was not the time to get all doom and gloom. “Sal didn’t tie us up. Let’s look around and see if we can get out of here.”
There’s a door at a the top of a set of stairs. We tiptoe our way up but of course the door is locked.
“You don’t know how to pick a lock by any chance?” I whisper.
She shakes her head no.
We head back down into the basement, trying to be quiet in case Sal can hear us. Drawing attention to ourselves right now is not the way to go.
There’s a small window in the basement.
“Here.” I grab some boxes to stand on and try to pry the window open but it won’t budge. “Damn it.”
“You couldn’t have fit through there anyway.” With a sigh, Elena sits on the ground. “We’re screwed, aren’t we?”
“When did you get so defeatist?”
“I guess pregnancy changes a person.”
I sit down beside her. The concrete floor is practically ice on my butt. “I will get you out of here, Elena. I promise.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep. But I do appreciate your tenacity. Your fierceness.”
“If we can’t escape, then we fight. That’s what we do.”
She makes a show of looking around the room. “With what? What can we use against a man like him? What if he comes down here with a gun?”
“We still have to try. Look around the room.”
After a few minutes of doing that, it’s revealed that there’s nothing we can use as a weapon. No screwdriver. No hammer. No shovel. Nothing.
Elena begins to hyperventilate right before her tears come. “We’re going to die in here. My baby is going to die.”
I want to stay strong for her but I’m starting to think we won’t make it out of this. Instead of trying to convince Elena to be strong, I wrap my arms around her and give her a hug. Comfort is all I can give her.
She’s right. I can’t make false promises.
Aiden
When I return to Elio’s house after an hour, I’m surprised to see the door swinging wide open. Instantly, I’m on edge.
I draw my gun and inch my way to the house. Everything is fine, I tell myself.
But when I step inside and find Elio on the ground… his neck twisted around at an odd angle, I know everything will not be fine. Elio is dead.
His guard is lying next to him on the ground with a bullet hole through his head.
“Elena! Aria!” I search the entire house but they’re not there.
Shit. Did… Finn do this?
He would want Aria back. I know my brother. When he sets his sights onto something, he struggles to let go. But would he really hurt Elena? Aria was convinced Finn didn’t want to go after Elena any more but…
He killed Elio. But why? Aria wouldn’t be happy if her dad was dead.
What the hell is Finn doing?
I should call Dante and tell him what’s happened. If I was a better employee, I would.
But I’m a brother first. I want to find Finn and get answers. If I find him, hopefully I’ll find Elena, unharmed.
Finn is a hard person to track. There is one person I know he’ll come running for.
I show up at our mom’s house about twenty minutes later.
“Aiden,” she says when she opens the door, giving me a large smile. “I wasn’t expecting you?”
I brush past her into the house. “Is he here?”
“Is who here?”
“Mom. Finn. Is he here?”
“No. I haven’t seen him in… a long time.”
“I know you met Aria, Mom. I know he introduced you to her.”
“Oh. Should we sit then?”
I shake my head. “There’s no time. Do you know where he is? This is urgent. He kidnapped my wife.”
“Elena?” Slowly, she shakes her head and slumps into a kitchen chair. “No. I can’t believe it. He wouldn’t hurt her, not when she’s pregnant. I know my son.”
“Do you? Because right now, he has my pregnant wife and he just killed Elio Romano. He is driving us straight into a war. He is making everything worse. Finn is a madman. He may be my brother but he is fucking insane. If you know where he is, I need to know right now.”
“So you can kill him?”
“So I can get my wife back.”