19. Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Nineteen
Aria
T he only advantage that Elena and I have over Sal is that there’s two of us. But I can’t ask Elena to put herself in harm’s way when she’s pregnant. So it’s going to have to be up to me to get the jump on Sal.
“Stay there,” I tell her as I hide behind the wall so when Sal comes down, I can try attacking him. Elena remains in the middle of the room.
“What if this doesn’t work?” she asks.
“It’s our only play. Sal is evil. He hurt me once before. He’ll do it again. So we have to be ready for him.”
“Hurt you how exactly?”
I don’t dare tell Elena how Sal murdered a woman and her baby. That is the last thing she needs to hear right now.
“He cut me. But I won’t let him do that to you. Now, just stay there.”
Footsteps bang on the upstairs floor. Sal is home. He’s confident that he can hurt us. That we’re his playthings. Maybe he’ll be underestimating us.
He walks around upstairs for a long time, or it just feels like a long time since I’m so nervous, before he approaches the basement door. It creaks open.
“My playthings?” he asks, coming down the stairs. “Why are you being so quiet?”
I motion to Elena to speak.
“Uh, we’re scared,” she says. The obvious quiver in her voice tells us that she really means what she says. I just hope I can keep her and her baby safe.
I was raised to be the center of attention. Spoiled and self-centered. But now I have to be selfless. I have to put myself in harm’s way to save Elena.
“You shouldn’t be scared,” he says, getting closer to the bottom step. Closer to where I’m hiding. “I’m only going to make you bleed a little.” He laughs at his own joke. Bastard.
He reaches the bottom step. Just one more and I’ll be able to pounce on him. I have no weapon but hopefully I can grab one of his.
“You are so… pregnant,” he says. There’s desire in his voice. It makes me want to vomit.
Elena runs her hand over her belly. “Please let us go. My husband will want to kill you. He’ll make you regret taking me.”
“I doubt your husband can do anything.”
“He’s Aiden Murphy.”
I can feel Sal’s surprise even though I can’t see him. Just one more step and I can attack.
“Aiden Murphy? Well, who would have thunk it? Two of my playthings married to the Murphy brothers. I met Aiden once. He wasn’t very intimidating, I’m afraid to say. Your threat doesn’t scare me, plaything. Now where is your other plaything? I want to get a good look at both of you.”
“She’s hurt,” Elena says, not looking in my direction once. Good. We went over this. If she looks my way, it will alert Sal to where I am.
“How did she get hurt?”
“By trying to break out through that window.” She points to the window in the opposite direction of me. “She fell down. She hurt her ankle.”
“She’s being awfully quiet.”
“She hit her head on the way down. I haven’t been able to wake her up. She’s over there.” Thank goodness the basement is dark. It will help conceal me.
Sal finally takes the last step into the room. “Well, that’s inconvenient. I want my playthings to be fine so I can hurt them myself.”
I take in a deep breath and jump right onto Sal’s back. Judging from the way he tenses, he wasn’t expecting me to do this.
“Oh, there’s my other plaything,” he says, trying to grab at me but I wrap my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. He digs his fingernails into my legs but I ignore the pain. It’s nothing compared to how he made me feel when he strapped me to his table and cut me.
“Grab his gun,” I tell Elena, tightening my hold onto Sal.
Elena tries to grab the gun by his waist but Sal keeps spinning around, trying to shake me off.
“You’re a strong little plaything, aren’t you.” He chuckles. The sound sends shivers over my body. “I wasn’t expecting that. You’re so tiny.”
“Adrenaline,” I grit out, keeping my hold on him. Elena tries going for the gun again but she can’t reach him. “Just run! Elena, run!”
She hesitates before running towards the stairs.
“Not so fast, little plaything.” Sal reaches for his gun but I dig my nails into his throat, making him yelp and jerk back.
Elena makes it to the top of the stairs and shoves the basement door open. A flash of light hits my eyes before the door closes behind her. She made it out. Thank god. Now she can go get help.
If I don’t die first, that is.
“You little bitch,” Sal hisses, trying to buck me off. I hold onto him with all of the strength I possess. I keep digging my nails into his throat until I draw blood.
It’s satisfying knowing I can make a man like Sal bleed.
The only problem is that in my efforts to hurt him, I loosen my grip. He grabs my legs and yanks me off him. My back slams against the hard concrete, knocking all the air out of me.
Sal stumbles back and wipes at his throat. “Impressive, plaything. Not many people can say they’ve made me bleed. Well, not anyone alive that is.”
I push myself up to a seat. “If you’re going to kill me, just get it over with. Stop yapping like a little bitch.”
Pure anger courses through his eyes. “I don’t like that, my little plaything. Little girls should be seen and not heard.” He gets on top of me and wraps his hands around my neck. I try to fight him but he’s so much stronger than I am.
“Oh no. I’m not going to kill you,” he says. “I’m just going to make you pass out. I have so much planned for you, my plaything.”
Darkness hedges in at the sides of my vision. I know when I wake back up, I’ll be strapped to Sal’s table again. I’ll probably die this time.
I guess I’ve had the chance to live. I’ve made love and been married and faced heartbreak all rolled into one. If I’m going to die, at least I had all of that.
The darkness finally overtakes me.
Finn
The first place Aiden and I look is Sal’s house but he’s not there and neither are the women.
“Fuck,” Aiden says, running his hand down his face. “Where the hell could they be?”
“Sal must be hiding them somewhere else. He probably has multiple properties.”
“It could take forever to find them all and we don’t have forever.” He sticks his finger in my face. “This is your fault.”
“My fault? How the fuck is this my fault? I didn’t ask for a crazy hitman to steal both our wives.”
“You pissed him off. He’s after you. That’s why he went after Aria. Elena just happened to be there. You brought him into my wife’s life.”
I roll my eyes. “Brother, I did not ask for Sal to be in anyone’s life. Trust me on that. You want to hate me? Fine. I deserve it. I’m man enough to admit it. I see that now. For the longest time, I thought you fucked me over. And in a way, you did.”
“Finn,” he scoffs.
“But,” I continue, “I fucked you over too. I made you afraid. Of me. I broke the trust between us. That was on me. I’ve seen that now.”
Aiden gives me a wary look. “Have you? Really?”
“I have a wife now. I never thought I would meet a woman who could make me feel the way Aria has made me feel but… here we are. Aria has my fucking heart, brother. I see now why you fought so hard for Elena. I’m doing the same with Aria. I get it. And I’m…” I inhale deeply. “I’m sorry.”
“Did you just have an aneurysm? A stroke? Are you sure you’re my brother?”
“Take the apology, you ass. I just want to get Aria back.”
“And then what? Are you still going to go after Erik and Dante? Because they still want you dead. I was supposed to kill you the next time I saw you.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because you’re not the one who stole my wife. And… you’re still my brother, despite it all. Tell me. What happens after you get Aria back? Dante will not let you keep her. Not unless you agree to work with him again. And even then, things will be tense. Erik just might kill you anyway.”
“Viktor-,”
“You really think Viktor gives a fuck about you?”
“Of course not. I know he doesn’t care. He wants power as much as I do. He’s my only play still. The only one who won’t kill me on sight.”
“No,” Aiden says. “I won’t kill you. I’ve never been able to.
Finn, come on. Make peace. Promise to stop causing problems. If I tell Erik to keep you under observation for a while, he might just let you live.
Especially if you help me save Elena. You know he sees Elena as a sister in a way.
I’ll tell him you saved her. He just might be willing to work with you again.
But you have to work with us. If you want to be with Aria, it’s your only play. ”
“Seeing as we haven’t even saved Aria and Elena, the point is all moot, isn’t it? We don’t know where they are.”
“Then we keep looking.”
We leave Sal’s house and start heading back to Aiden’s car – I let him drive since he insisted – when I hear screaming coming from the house next door.
Aiden and I share a look before we run towards the front door. He pounds on it. “Is anybody home? Does anybody need help?”
“Aiden?” It’s Elena’s voice through the door. “We’re stuck inside. I can’t get the door open. It needs a key.”
So, Sal had them hidden in plain sight right next door.
“Back up,” Aiden tells Elena. “We’re going to get you out.”
“Ok,” she says, her voice fainter.
Aiden and I nod and at the same time, shoot at the lock on the door. It bursts right open and we kick the door in.
Elena immediately runs into Aiden’s arms. “You came for me. How did you find me?”
“None of that matters right now,” I snap. “Where’s Aria?”
Elena cringes when she sees me. “What is he doing here?”
“Elena,” Aiden says in a soft voice. “Where’s Aria?”
“Down in the basement. With him .”
“Go wait in the car,” Aiden tells her and she doesn’t hesitate to leave the house.
Aiden and I head for the basement door. I wonder what I’ll find down there? Aria alive? Or… I don’t want to even think it.
We kick the door down and run down the stairs, only to stop when we see… nothing. No one is down here.
“Elena said she was down here,” Aiden says.
“Unless she was wrong,” I growl.
“My wife isn’t fucking wrong.”
“Check every space.”