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Finn lets go of my hand and stands up. “I should go find Sal and kill him before he can do anything else to you.”
“Don’t go,” I blurt out. I blush when he gives me a curious look. “If you leave, I’m worried he’ll find me. I’m safest when I’m at your side. Just stay with me for the night. Please. I can’t be alone right now.”
“I really want to go kill him.”
“I know. And I want you to kill him. But just… right now, can you stay with me? Put aside your need to kill and just be with me?”
Finn stares at me with unreadable eyes for a long moment before he nods. “Ok, princess. I’ll stay with you.”
He carries me into the bedroom and sets me gently onto the bed. After a beat, Finn gets into the bed with me. We lie next to each other but what I really want is to feel his arms around me, so without a word, I grab his arm and wrap it around my body and close my eyes. Finn doesn’t move a muscle.
Eventually, sleep takes me while I’m in the arms of my kidnapper.
Chapter Thirteen
Aria
Waking up in Finn’s arms doesn’t feel as weird as it should. It actually feels really nice.
And that’s the scary part.
What happened with Sal has already changed me. I feel it deep within my core. Finn is the one who saved me from him. I can’t just forget that fact and yet, at the same time, Finn is the reason I was in that cottage for Sal to take. Finn is a hitman who didn’t do his job leading to Sal coming after him and finding me. I should blame Finn for it. He deserves it after he kidnapped me and forced me to marry him.
But… I can’t seem to find it within myself to hate him.
The urge to snuggle deeper into his arms is strong. Why am I fighting so hard against Finn? He is my husband now. I could choose to be happy with him.
He’s still at war with Dante which means he’s still at war with my father. That’s the problem. If he wasn’t at war with them, then I could consider the possibility of allowing myself to be happy with him.
Finn is handsome. He’s charming in a dangerous sort of way. He makes my stomach flutter. He makes me want to live for once in my life.
A life with Finn would be exciting and exhilarating and interesting. But it would put me at war with Dante and my dad and I can’t stand for that. I don’t want to live my life on the run. I want stability. I want both my family and Finn but if I have to choose only one, I’m choosing my family.
I can feel the cuts all along my body. Sal’s mark on me is going to last a long time. I want to be there when Finn kills him so I can see the fear in his eyes. I want him to suffer like he made me suffer.
That’s the dark part of me that is drawn to Finn. That part of me that is all right with murder under certain circumstances. I meant what I said to Sal when I said that a man who abuses his wife deserves to die for it.
I look over my shoulder to Finn behind me. He looks so peaceful when he sleeps, like the weight of the world is completely gone. He has made so much trouble for himself. If he just let bygones be bygones then he could have found peace with Dante again and I wouldn’t be in this predicament.
But then I probably never would have been in a position to start to care for him.
As if he can sense me looking at him, Finn blinks open his eyes. “Hi, princess.”
I can’t keep the blush off my face. “Hi.”
“Admiring my good looks?”
“Never.” But there’s no anger in my voice. It dawns on me that part of our relationship is to tease each other. I’m flirting with a man who’s a hitman. Never saw this day coming.
“How are you feeling?”
The fact Finn even asks is what’s shocking to me. He cares enough to ask. It’s so different from the Finn I first met. He’s changed within a short time frame.
“I can still feel some of the cuts,” I admit. “But I don’t hurt as much. Sal didn’t get the chance to…” I can’t even finish that sentence. I’m grateful in some ways that Sal wanted to draw out my torture. It meant Finn could save me in time before he could do irreparable damage.
Finn’s eyes darken. “I will find him and kill him. And I will make it hurt.”
“Good,” I say honestly. “I want it to hurt. And I want to see it.”