Chapter 50
The wine cellar, Kitty and Antoinette’s Airbnb, West Hollywood, Los Angeles
I head back to the villa after I’ve spoken to Travis.
There’s something in the wine cellar I need to deal with.
I’ve grabbed a knife from the kitchen.
Something small and mass-produced.
It’s not ideal.
I wanted to take my time with this kill. I wanted to really make him suffer.
But now, it just needs to be quick.
He’s still curled up in the corner when I turn the cellar lights on. He doesn’t even turn to look at me this time.
Is he dead already?
No, I can see him breathing.
‘Aidan,’ I say but he doesn’t respond. ‘Aidan. I’ve got some water for you.’
That gets a response.
A grunt.
It’s not easy for him to move with his wrists and ankles cable-tied but he tries to shuffle himself into a sitting position.
He doesn’t manage it the first time and rolls back onto his side.
He’s persistent though and tries again, using the wall to lever himself up.
It’s painful to watch. So painful that I almost offer to help him.
But then I remember that he left Tor unable to help herself after he attacked her.
How he didn’t even call an ambulance, just fled the country instead.
I go from wanting to help him to wanting to kick him.
So I do.
But he doesn’t even give me the satisfaction of a wail of pain. He just gives me a look like he’s some injured pet and I’ve hoofed him for lols.
Surely I can’t have broken him down this easily.
‘You said you had water?’ he croaks, eyeing the knife in my hand.
He sounds so pathetic that I sigh, tuck the knife into the waistband of my shorts and trudge back up the stairs into the kitchen and fill a Stanley with water from the tap.
He can think of it as a kind of last supper.
I take it back down to the cellar and crouch down, near enough that I can hold the straw to his lips but far enough that he can’t head-butt me should he get any ideas.
He doesn’t make any attempt to lash out though.
He just gulps the water through the straw like a dying man. Which is quite fitting really.
‘Thank you,’ he says when he’s finished.
‘That’s okay.’ I stand up and slide the knife out again.
‘Wait,’ he says and I look at him through narrowed eyes. ‘What are you going to do with me?’ There’s a tremor in his voice and it’s real fear.
Good.
‘Why?’ I say. ‘Are you scared?’
‘Look at me, Kitty,’ he says in a pitiful voice. ‘Of course I’m scared.’
‘It’s what you deserve.’
‘I’m sorry for what I did to Tor. I really am.’
This is the first time he’s admitted it. That he hurt her. I’m not sure I believe the remorse though.
‘Why did you do it? Why did you hurt her like that?’
He looks down at his bound ankles, like he can’t bear to hold eye contact with me any longer.
It looks like shame.
A fresh pang of pity pricks at me.
I shake it off.
I need to remember that Aidan Ward is a manipulator and a liar. Not only that but he’s literally trained in psychology. He wants me to feel sorry for him. He thinks that if he calls me by my name and reminds me that he’s human then I won’t be able to kill him.
Well, he’s wrong.
And he’s not human.
He’s a monster.
I walk over towards him, the knife glinting under the single lightbulb.