Page 53

Chapter Nine
Aria
Ihear Finn leave in the night. The small cottage reveals every sound.
Of course, I use that as my excuse to try and escape but the door is locked. Finn locked it, that asshole.
With a sigh, I slump onto the bed. Some wedding night. I was forced into this marriage and now I’m alone in the room, naked, feeling more lonely than I have in a long time. I grew up with people surrounding me. I grew up being the center of attention.
But now I don’t have my father or Dante. I don’t have any of my friends. I just have Finn and he’s doing strange things to me.
Tonight, I wanted him to touch me. It was for a brief moment but it was there. Why was it even there? I hate him. Idespisehim. I can’t let myself have feelings for him.
And yet, he is my husband. I’m stuck with him now unless Dante can kill him and so far, Dante has proved that he cannot kill Finn. He’s like a serial killer from a slasher movie. He just keeps coming back even when you think you’ve killed him.
I shiver. It’s cold in the room.
My eyes land on a dresser. Going through it, I see that it’s full of men’s clothes. Finn’s clothes. I grab a t-shirt and slip it on. It goes all the way down to my thighs. The rest of my clothes are downstairs but I can’t get to it when the door is freaking locked.
I find a pair of boxers and slip them on. They’re way too big on me so I use a string from a pair of sweatpants and tie it around the boxers, keeping them in place. There. At least I have something protecting me.
With nothing else to do, I get into the bed and try to sleep. I need all the strength I can get if I’m going to have to deal with Finn. He’s a man you cannot drop your guard around.
I just manage to fall asleep when the door downstairs bangs open, making me jerk upright in bed. Finn’s footsteps are heavy on the floor as he barges into the room, breathing heavy, a crazed look in his eyes.
“What?” I ask.
He doesn’t say anything as he looks down at me. I inch closer to the headboard. What is he going to do? Finally kill me?
Then Finn sucks in a breath and gets his breathing under control. “I was hired to kill a woman tonight.”
I go still. There it is. The reason I cannot care for Finn. He is a murderer for money. He has killed innocent people because assholes hired him to.
“Don’t you want to know more?” he asks.
“Why? You just told me you killed another woman tonight. What more do I need to know?”
“I didn’t say I killed a woman tonight. I said I washiredto kill a woman tonight.”
I frown. “Ok? So… what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that the woman was young. Sarah Williams was her name. I snuck into her house and when I saw her, she looked a lot like you. Young like you. And she had a baby with her.”
“And?” I whisper, hating how weak I sound but there’s no other way to sound when Finn is telling me he killed a baby.
“Her husband, Jack, hired me to kill her. Guess she comes from money and he wants it.”
“That’s terrible. Killing your own wife for her money.”
“He didn’t even kill her. He sent me to do that.” He approaches me and it takes everything inside myself not to recoil. “What do you think I did tonight?”
“What do you mean?”
“I was hired to kill that woman. Jack never told me they had a baby. What do you think happened?”
“You killed her. You were hired to.”
“And the baby?” He leans over me so I have no choice but to lean back. “Do you think I killed a baby? It was a girl. Sarah was playing with her daughter in the living room. That’s where I found them.”