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Chapter Three

Aiden

F inn and I agree to meet Dante at one of the many restaurants he owns. He’s waiting for us in a back booth, looking understandably pissed.

“Give the girl back,” Dante growls.

Finn only laughs as he grabs a breadstick from the basket in the middle of the table and begins to rip it in half. “Why would we do that?”

“Because I said so and you work for me.”

“Is that so?”

Dante’s face grows darker. “I pay you.”

“And so do a lot of other people. We were making a good living before you hired us.”

“And you’ll make an even worse living after I fire you.”

Finn drops the breadstick onto the table. “Why don’t you want this? Ivan tried to kill you.”

“Yes. And I could have killed him. I had the chance to but I didn’t take it because I chose not to murder him.”

“For Nadia,” Finn sneers.

“Yes, for Nadia. I kidnapped her and look where it got me: I was almost killed. By some grace of God she saved my life and now we’re married. That marriage is the only thing keeping the peace between me and Erik. This is a good thing for the business. We can grow more rich than we ever thought possible. Don’t ruin this. Everything can be solved if you just return Elena to her father.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then don’t be surprised when Erik and Viktor find you and murder you for it.” He slants his eyes towards me. “Both of you.”

“It was Finn’s idea,” I mutter.

“But you went along with it. You always follow your brother, Aiden, but you don’t have to. If you think this is wrong, then just return Elena.”

“And then what?” I ask. “Finn will just try to kidnap her again. He’ll still go after Ivan. There’s only one solution.”

“Which is?”

“Kill Finn.”

Dante sits up straighter in his seat while Finn shoots me a glare.

“You’re not serious,” Finn says.

“Of course not. You’re my brother. The last thing I want in this world is you dead. But you know it’s true,” I say, turning to Dante. “Or you can join us and revel in the chaos and say fuck it to the Russians.”

“And just give up any power I could have by working with Erik?” Dante asks. “No.”

Finn leans back in his seat, looking like he doesn’t have a care in the fucking world. “How much power do you really have with him?”

“Don’t,” Dante growls.

“It’s a valid question. You will always be second place to Erik Koslov if you work with the Bratva. But if you go against them, you could be the most powerful Mafia man in the city.”

“Or with Erik by my side, I could be the most powerful Mafia man in the city,” Dante counters. “Listen. I don’t love working with Erik. He tried to kill me years ago. I still kind of hate him. I only put up with him because he’s Nadia’s brother-in-law. But it’s a smart deal. We each gain something from it.”

“As long as Erik never tries to backstab you,” Finn says.

“So that’s what this is about? Backstab the Russians before they get the chance to backstab us?”

Finn shrugs. “Pretty much.”

He shakes his head and laughs more to himself. “I am curious. Why go after Ivan and Elena? Why not go after Erik and Anya? Erik has tried to murder me in the past just like Ivan has.”

“Because it’s not fun to kidnap a pregnant woman,” I say, cutting my brother off before he gets the chance to speak. “Maybe for Finn it is but not for me. I had to draw the line somewhere. So, next in line was Ivan and Elena.”

“And you had fun kidnapping her?”

“I did,” Finn says.

Dante looks at me. “And you?”

I don’t say anything. The truth is: I don’t fully agree with this kidnapping. I would have much preferred just to kill Ivan and been done with it. Instead, Finn and I now have fucking baggage. We have to keep Elena hidden. We have to keep Elena fed so she doesn’t die. We have to keep an eye on her so she doesn’t run. It’s a lot more work than I wanted.

I’m content just to do my job and call it a day but for Finn, nothing is ever good enough.

Dante nods like he knows what I’m thinking. “Just let the girl go.”

“Or?” Finn asks.

“Or I’m going to have to kill you.”

“Both of us?”

“No. Just you Finn. Aiden can live. He doesn’t piss me off like you do.”

Finn smirks as he shifts in his seat. “The thing is, neither me or my brother are going to die because you’re going to come around to the idea of this plan, Dante. You’re going to get your ultimate revenge on those fucking Russians. And you will become King of New York and you’ll know that we helped you get there.”

“I’m already the king.”

“Are you?”

Dante looks like he wants to lunge across the table and strangle the life from Finn. “I am not going to risk my wife’s life by plunging us back into a war. Give the girl up.”

“No.”

“I’m going to have to kil you Finn.”

“Then you’ll never find where she is.”

Dante opens and closes his mouth. He knows Finn is right. “What can I do to make you change your mind?”

“Nothing.” Finn slides out of the booth and motions for me to follow. “Either join us or know that you’re a pussy whipped little bitch who would rather protect his precious wife than gain power.”

That finally pushes Dante over the edge. He lunges at Finn but Finn has his gun drawn before Dante can reach him.

“I wouldn’t,” Finn murmurs, waggling his gun.

“You wouldn’t kill me.”

“I don’t want to. I believe in you, Dante. I believe in what you can achieve. You just have to have the strength to do it. And if you can’t achieve it, then maybe I will. Come on, Aiden. I’m sure Elena is missing us by now.”

Finn saunters away while I slowly get out of the booth.

“Aiden,” Dante says. “Give the girl back. You know it’s the right thing to do.”

“I’m a hitman, Dante. When have I ever done the right thing?” It’s the honest answer even as I follow my brother and feel the smallest twinge of guilt in my stomach.

Elena

The shower tiles are cold against my skin. The dress my mother made me wear has a low back to it so there’s nothing protecting my skin there. If I was in the dress I picked out, I at least would be more covered.

I wonder if my mom is even missing me. She might be relieved to never see me again. Or she’s upset she doesn’t have anyone to criticize.

With nothing to do and nowhere to go, I just sit in the shower until I hear the brothers return. The sound of their voices in the hallway makes me scramble to my feet.

“Brought you food,” Finn says, throwing a sandwich at me. The contents of it fall onto the shower floor. Meat and cheese and lettuce.

“I made that,” Aiden says with a sigh.

“Well, now she can eat it off the floor if she wants.”

I instantly begin to cry. The cruelty inside Finn is like nothing I’ve ever encountered before.

“Poor baby,” he mocks. “You know, you could have it a lot worse. You could be naked in that cold shower.” His eyes light up. “That gives me an idea.”

“What are you doing?” Aiden asks as Finn approaches me.

“I’m curious what she looks like under these clothes.” He grabs my short sleeve and rips it down. I gasp and back away but there’s nowhere for me to go.

Finn’s laugh is especially cold as he rips my other sleeve off. The top of my dress falls down, exposing my bare chest. This wasn’t the sort of dress I could wear a bra with. My small chest is on display for these hitmen.

Finn doesn’t stop as he rips my dress the rest of the way off. The only thing covering me is my underwear.

“Get a good look, Aiden,” he says, stepping back. “She’s a lot more sexy than I thought she’d be.”

“Please,” I sob. I can’t hug my arms around myself with my one hand chained to the handrail.

“Stop begging,” Finn snaps. “It’s pathetic. You’re pathetic just like your father is. He tried to kill Dante in a cowardly fashion. Are you a coward too, Elena?”

“Please.” It’s all I can say. No other thoughts filter through my mind. I just want to be away from here and back with my father. “Please.”

“I think I forgot something.” Finn grabs the waistband of my panties and rips them down. “That’s better. Turn around so I can see your ass.”

“No. Please. Please.” My entire body is shaking. I’ve never known fear like this.

“Turn around,” Finn snaps, reaching out for me.

Except his hands never touch me…

Because Aiden grabs his brother’s arm and nudges him back. “Enough.”

Finn stares at his brother in shock. “What do you mean ‘enough?’ It’s not enough. She needs to be punished. We could have so much fun with her.”

“I don’t care about fun. You’re just torturing this girl. I don’t find that fun.”

“You kill people for a living, Aiden. Don’t pretend you’re better than I am.”

“I never said I was. But there’s a difference between killing a fucker because his abused wife hires us verses torturing an innocent woman.”

“But just look at her. She has a hot little body.”

“I am looking at her and all I see is a scared girl. This isn’t fun,” Aiden says. “We gave her food. We’re keeping her prisoner. Let’s just leave it at that.”

“No.” Finn tries to touch me and I stumble back with a gasp. My foot slips and I slide right to the ground, landing on my backside hard. Pain ricochets up my body.

“Enough,” Aiden says, getting right into Finn’s face. “Enough. Just leave her be. Unless you want to kill her.”

I look up sharply. No. They can’t kill me. Please, please, please.

Finn’s face becomes contemplative like he’s actually considering it before he looks at me with a huff and walks out of the room.

Aiden doesn’t go like I thought he would. Instead, he turns back to me. Unlike his brother, he doesn’t rake his eyes over me in a crude way. But his eyes do darken.

“Get dressed,” he says.

“He ripped my clothes,” I say through my tears.

Aiden sighs and leaves the room before coming back a moment later with a large t-shirt. “Put this on.”

“I can’t.” I shake the handcuff.

After a beat, Aiden offers me his hand. The last thing I want is to touch him but I do need help getting up so I take it after a long moment of contemplation. The first thing I notice about Aiden’s hand is how warm it is. Then I notice how large and strong it is. Lastly, I notice how steady it makes me feel.

“Can I trust that you won’t run the second I unlock that cuff? Because you’re not going to make it far.”

“I won’t run.” I know Aiden is right. There’s no way I could get past him and Finn in the other room.

His fingertips brush my wrist as he unlocks the cuff. I shiver.

“Here,” he says in a gentler tone as he slips the long black t-shirt over my head. It lands by my knees. “You might want to put your underwear back on too. I don’t know what my brother will try to do.”

Quickly, I slip them on. I can feel Aiden watching me the entire time. When I look up at him, I see that his expression is unguarded for just a moment. I see pity and… something else I can’t place.

Then Aiden re-guards his expression. “At least you won’t be as cold in this.”

“How did you know I was cold?”

“You were shivering. It was obvious.” He speaks in such a matter-of-fact way. I wonder if anything ever gets him riled up.

“Why did you stop your brother from hurting me?”

“Because I didn’t agree to kidnap you just so he could hurt you.”

“Then why did you agree to kidnap me?” This is such a strange conversation to be having with my captor.

“Because what Finn wants, Finn gets. And he wanted to make your father regret ever hurting Dante in the first place.”

“Did Dante ask you to do this?” Because the Dante I’ve seen since marrying Nadia has shown he wants nothing but peace. Kidnapping me goes against that.

Aiden turns his back to me. “Enough questions. I didn’t stop Finn so we could chat. I’m not your friend.”

I flinch. “You’re confusing.”

That makes him turn back to me. “How so?”

“You helped kidnap me and yet you don’t want to hurt me. That doesn’t make any sense. If your brother had never wanted to do this, would you have done it anyway?”

“No,” he answers simply. “I wouldn’t.”

“But you kill people for a living. What’s the difference between that and kidnapping someone?” I wrap my arms around myself. Aiden still hasn’t put the cuff back on me and I have no desire to point that out to him.

“There is no difference except that kidnapping someone is more of a hassle. And I don’t like a hassle. Now, eat up. You don’t want to get hungry.”

“Can you get me something new to eat that hasn’t been on the floor?”

Aiden sighs and inclines his head. “All right.” He leaves without another word and doesn’t lock the door behind him.

My hands are free. I could leave right this moment. But I know I could never get past Finn or Aiden. I need a plan.

My eye land on the toilet, more specifically the tank lid. Walking on tiptoes, I go over to it and gently lift it off. It only makes a tiny sound but I hope that neither brother can hear it.

Once I have it in my hands, I position myself in the corner of the bathroom so when Aiden comes back, he won’t see me right away. I can use this against him. It doesn’t matter that he was nicer to me more than his brother. Both of them are evil.

I wait for my moment.

Aiden

I assemble another sandwich for Elena.

“What are you doing?” Finn asks.

“You threw the other sandwich at her. It’s the least I could do to get her a new one.”

“Have you gone soft?” He grabs the sandwich and throws it in the trash.

“Now that’s just a waste of good food.”

“We can afford it. And I saw you go and get a t-shirt for her. What the hell are you doing? We’re not running a charity here. This isn’t some nice bed and breakfast. She doesn’t get comfort. She’s our prisoner.”

“Finn, this is stupid. We should just return her to her father. That’s what Dante wants.”

“I don’t give a fuck what Dante wants.”

I look at my brother in all of his anger-filled glory. He could accomplish so much in this world if he wasn’t hell-bent on revenge all the damn time.

Whereas I’ve given up hope of ever getting revenge for the wrongs done to me. Images of a cold dusty cement room enters my mind and I promptly push it away. Now is not the time to think about that.

I am who I am now and that’s all that matters.

“What are you going to do, Finn? Keep her locked up forever? She’ll be found eventually. You saw what happened with Dante and Nadia. He was smart until he wasn’t. She was found and he was tortured. It was only by some miracle he got to marry her and survive with his life intact. I doubt that will happen for us. I, for one, happen to like my life.”

“Do you? Because you never smile. You rarely have fun.”

“Our definitions of fun are different.”

He crosses his arms and stares me down. “I’m doing this for power. The more scared those fucking Russians are, the better in my book. So, we’re keeping the girl and she doesn’t get nice sandwiches.”

“I’m going to give her one. You’re not the boss here.”

“Says who?”

“Says me,” I respond flatly. “We’re brothers. We’re equal. So if you don’t want me giving her a sandwich then you’re going to have to stop me.”

Finn narrows his eyes but he doesn’t move. Despite how chaotic and angry my brother can be, I know he loves me just like I love him. We’re bonded forever, even if we’re fucked up.

“That’s what I thought.” I quickly assemble another sandwich. “I’m giving this to her. Don’t get in my way.”

I head back to the bathroom with Finn following. The second I open the door, I know I made a mistake.

Elena isn’t in the shower… because I forgot to re-cuff her wrist.

Then a sharp pain hits me right between the shoulder blades and I stumble forward, dropping the new sandwich. When I turn around, I see Elena standing there, holding onto the tank lid from the toilet.

“What the fuck?” Finn snarls, watching everything. He rushes towards Elena but she swings out with the lid and manages to smack him on the arm. “You little bitch. You could have killed my brother with that thing.”

She tries to drop it on Finn’s foot but he jumps back, giving her an opportunity to run from the room.

Finn doesn’t hesitate to chase.

I shake off the pain in my body and follow. If Finn catches her, I’m sure he’s going to hurt her and I can’t let that happen.

I’ve killed women in my past and I never hesitated. If someone paid me to kill Elena right now, I would. But no one has paid me. And there’s just something about Elena that makes me feel bad for her. Maybe it was the way she cried, or how vulnerable she looked naked, or…

It doesn’t matter. What matters is I need to stop her from leaving and I need to stop my brother from doing something he can’t take back.

Elena almost makes it to the door when Finn grabs her around the waist. He raises his hand to hit her but I grab his arm and shove him back.

“What the fuck, Aiden?”

I pull Elena into my arms and ignore her struggles as I look at my brother. “I got this.”

“You’re the reason she wasn’t locked up.”

“I’ll fix it. Nothing bad happened.”

“Nothing bad happened? If she had used that thing on your head, you’d be dead right now.”

“But she didn’t and I’m not. So stop acting like a fussy baby.” I lift Elena over my shoulder and bring her back to the bathroom. She kicks and fights but she can’t win. She doesn’t have the strength.

I can’t help but notice how nice her legs are as they swing by my face. I also couldn’t help but notice how sexy her body was when she was naked.

But none of that matters. I’m not here for sex. I’m just here to make sure my brother doesn’t get himself killed.

I set Elena onto her feet and cuff her wrist back to the handrail.

“Please,” she begs.

“I was getting you a sandwich,” I tell her. I don’t scream or hiss. My tone is perfectly neutral. “But you made me drop it.”

“Make her eat it off the floor,” Finn says from the bathroom doorway.

“Finn…”

“No. You.” He points at Elena. “You’re in big trouble. I wanted to make your father suffer by kidnapping you but I have a better idea now. I’m going to make you suffer by killing your father once and for all.”

My heart rate spikes. Killing Ivan is something we cannot come back from. It will lead to another war… unless Dante kills us to protect himself. Protect his alliance with Erik.

Me and Finn are fodder in this game. We don’t mean anything. If he does this, he is asking to be killed.

Elena surges forward but the cuff around her wrist jerks her back against the shower wall. “Don’t. Please.”

“I don’t take kindly to people who try and hurt my brother.” He storms out of the room.

Elena looks at me with her large, sad eyes. “Aiden. Please. Please. Don’t kill my father.”

“It wouldn’t be me doing it.”

“Then stop your brother. Please.”

I have to try – not for Elena’s sake but for Finn’s sake. I hurry out of the room and grab Finn by the shoulder before he can leave the house.

“Let’s think about this. The girl was just trying to defend herself. I don’t care that she tried to hurt me. Don’t kill Ivan.”

“I’m going to kill him.”

“Dante will be pissed. He’ll kill you for going against his orders. I won’t be able to protect you.”

“Do you think I need protection? Aiden, I’ve been living my life how I live it for a long time. I’ll be fine.”

“You’re going to die.”

“Not if you help me.”

Damn him. He’s not wrong. When me and Finn team up, we’re an unstoppable duo. If I want to make sure my brother doesn’t die, then I need to go with him.

Because the only other way to stop Finn would be to kill him myself and I’m not about to do that. That would be an impossible task for me.

“Let’s get it over with,” I sigh.

“Great.”

Finn and I drive to Ivan’s house. The brownstone looks like any other brownstone on the street. There’s a guard out front. Not surprising. Ivan probably knows we’re coming for him.

“Let’s do this.” Finn isn’t subtle with his approach as he jumps from the car and runs towards the guard, firing at him. A bullet lands in the man’s head before he even has a chance to react.

I quickly follow.

Finn kicks down the door and runs inside. I cover him as two guards come running towards us. We kill them with relative ease. We’ve been killing people since we were teenagers. It’s what we were trained to do.

A female scream comes from upstairs.

We run to the voice and find Elena’s mother and father huddled together in the master bedroom.

“Don’t kill us,” the woman sobs. Viktoriya, I believe her name is.

“We don’t care about you,” Finn snarls, pointing his gun at Ivan. “We want your husband.”

“I’ll make a trade,” Ivan says quickly, standing up and wrenching away from Viktoriya as she reaches out for him. “I’ll offer my life in exchange for my daughter’s. It’s a fair trade. It’s me you want anyway. Not Elena. Please.”

“I don’t make deals with pussies.” Finn grabs Ivan and pushes him towards me. “Let’s get him in the car.”

I nod at Viktoriya. “What about her? She’ll call for help the second we’re gone.”

“I guess we could kill her.” Finn raises his gun but I step into his path.

“I’ll handle this.” I wrap my arms around Viktoriya’s neck and tighten them until she passes out. She’ll wake up in a few minutes but by then, we’ll be long gone.

Finn and I get Ivan into the car and drive back to the house Elena is in.

“What are you doing?” Ivan demands.

“Taking you to your daughter,” Finn says. Except he doesn’t say it to comfort Ivan. He says it to scare him.