Page 9

Chapter Nine

Aiden

I don’t even notice Elena run away as I punch Jack’s face over and over again. This fucking bastard tried hurting her. Raping her. I have done a lot of bad things in my life but that is a line I have never crossed and never will. Not even Finn has done it and he’s done even more bad shit than I have.

“Please,” Jack groans. I only punch him harder and he flops to the ground.

“Aiden. Come on,” Liam says, reaching out for me. I wrench away from him.

“I warned you about him,” I snap. “I told you I wanted him gone.” I should have trusted my instinct and took Elena somewhere else. I let my trust of Liam get the best of me.

This is why I never trust anyone.

The cold, dark room fills my mind. No. I push it away. That time in my life does not get a say right now.

“He’s my friend,” Liam objects.

“Who just tried to rape Elena.”

“And I am sorry about that. I didn’t know he was going to do that. But, you know… boys will be boys.”

“He’s a man, Liam. Not a fucking boy.” I kick Jack harder between the legs. He barely makes a sound from how badly I wounded his fucking face. Good.

“I’m just saying.”

I stare at one of my oldest friends. We were once all so innocent. As a hitman, I don’t really have the right to judge. I literally kill people for a living. But to see Liam act so blasé about Jack attempting to assault Elena is fucking wild. He’s no longer a kid.

And neither am I.

“Me and Elena are leaving.”

Jack lets out a strained laugh. “That bitch had it coming, the way she was walking around with those pants. They made her legs look too good. I couldn’t resist.”

Never in my life have I felt this sort of anger. Well, not since I was much younger and I saw my father lay his hands on my mom.

This fucker needs to die.

Something takes control of my body as I punch Jack again and again and again. I don’t stop, not even as my knuckles scream at me to. Not even as Liam screams at me to.

I don’t stop until Jack stops moving. Until he stops breathing.

His head flops to the side. His eyes are wide open – lifeless. He’s fucking dead.

My method for killing people is usually a gun. It’s quick and painless and fairly easy for me not to make a mess since I’ve gotten good at it. I have the serial number shaved off the bullets so no one can trace it back to me. I’m a demon in the shadows.

But this time, I’m a man who lost control.

Jack’s face is an ugly, disgusting mess. His nose is caved in. I wrecked his face so much, he’s barely recognizable.

Liam stares at me in horror. “What have you done?”

I lean back on my heels with a sigh. “I killed him.”

“I can see that. What the fuck, Aiden? You have to get out. I have to call the police.”

I lunge for him and wrap my arms around his neck. Liam struggles but he’s no match for me. He’s just a man whereas I’m barely human sometimes.

The crook of my arm is around his throat, suffocating him, until he goes unconscious. I don’t need him dead right now but… I’m probably going to have to kill him. I don’t want him going to the police. He doesn’t know I’m a hitman. It was better that way but now? Now it’s going to fuck me over.

So, the moment he goes unconscious, I hold onto his neck for longer. Liam was my good friend growing up. He was the best thing Finn and I had in our lives. And I’m having to end him like it’s fucking nothing. All for a woman who I shouldn’t care about and yet, unexplainably, I do.

When enough time has passed, I lower Liam to the ground and check his pulse. It’s not there. He’s dead.

Shit. None of this was supposed to happen. Now I have to clean up the bodies and hope this doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass. Liam and I haven’t seen each other in years. I’ve practically scrubbed myself from public record. Hopefully, no one will attach his death to me.

It’s then as I stare down at the two bodies I killed that I realize Elena isn’t here.

“Elena?” I run into the living room but it’s empty. I quickly check the whole house. She’s not anywhere. There’s only one thing she could have done: run.

So, I run out of the house. I’m glad for the cover of darkness because it will hide my features in case any neighbors decide to look out their windows tonight.

I keep running down the street until I see her. “Elena!”

She stops running and turns to me, her eyes widening as she takes me in. I wonder how I look: disheveled, blood on my hands, a crazed look in my eyes.

“What happened?” Her soft voice floats across the night air.

There’s no point in lying to her. “I killed him. I killed both of them.”

She sucks in a breath. “But Liam was your friend.”

“And he would have gone to the police if I hadn’t ended his life. It would have put us more in trouble. You know that. So, yes. I killed him in self-defense.”

“But he was your friend.”

“I don’t have any friends, Elena. I made sure of that a long time ago. He was just a friend once upon a time. And now, tonight, he got in my way.”

She visibly shivers. “You scare me.”

“Is that why you ran? You know it was a stupid thing to do. Finn could be lurking anywhere,” I hiss. “Or someone else could have hurt you. You shouldn’t have run. You’re safest at my side.”

“I was scared,” she practically sobs.

“I don’t care. Don’t be stupid again.” Something within me takes over. Whether it’s because of the anger and adrenaline coursing through me when I murdered Jack and Liam or whether it’s just because Elena looks so scared and pretty that I just can’t help myself but I find my feet moving closer to her and next thing I know, I have her face between my blood-soaked hands.

And then I kiss her.

This is the last thing I should do. She is not mine. She does not belong to me.

But I just need to fucking kiss her like my life depends on it.

Elena stiffens for a moment before she relaxes into me. The soft sound she lets out makes me feel wild. If I had my way, I’d make her fully mine right in this moment.

I kiss her harder for just a second and then I step back. Elena’s eyes slowly blink open and she stares at me with shock and awe.

“What was that for?” she asks breathlessly.

“Just don’t run away from me again. Now come on. We have to get back to the house. I have to get rid of the bodies.”

Elena

When I see Liam and Jack, dead, on the ground, I can’t help but stagger back and clutch at my chest. Images of my dad dying right before me hit me like a tidal wave. Death. There’s too much of it.

Aiden doesn’t say a word as he gets to work. First, he finds a plastic tarp in Liam’s garage and places each of their bodies onto it. Then he rolls up his sleeves and grabs a handsaw – also from Liam’s garage – and begins to cut them into pieces.

I watch because I can’t look away. It’s the most vile thing I’ve ever seen. This is Aiden at his worst. This is the hitman I have to remember he is.

He kissed me. Why, I’m not sure and it doesn’t matter. What matters is I can’t let him get in my head. I can’t let my stomach flutter around him. I can’t let the fact that he’s only trying to save me make me like him.

He’s a murderer. He does it for a living. That makes him the worst kind of human.

Once Aiden finishes cutting the two men into pieces, he fully wraps them in the plastic tarp. I watch him carry the pieces to our car and place them in the trunk. Then he comes back inside and wipes the whole place down. It takes about an hour to fully get it clean. The entire time, I’m seated on the couch, frozen, watching him in both fear and awe.

My lips somehow still tingle from his kiss.

He slowly approaches me once he’s done. “We need to leave.”

“It’s the middle of the night.”

“We can’t stay here. If we wait until morning, the neighbors might notice us. If we leave in the night, we’ll have more anonymity.”

“Where will we go?”

“We’ll find a motel that takes cash. Come on. Let’s go.”

“And the bodies?” I can’t believe I just asked that.

“Once I get you situated at a motel, I’ll dispose of them. The Boston Harbor isn’t too far away.”

“Will this come back to you?” Not that I should care as I shouldn’t care about Aiden one bit.

He rubs the back of his neck. His hands are clean now, devoid of any blood. But those hands took two lives tonight like it was nothing. Aiden was only trying to protect me from Jack, and I am grateful for that, but it’s still unsettling how normal death is to him.

“No,” he finally says. “No one knows we’re here. You’re not in the system so any fingerprints you left behind won’t be discovered. Besides, I wiped down every table and wall and floorboard.”

“The bedsheets? My hair?”

“Hair is going to get everywhere. But I can wash the sheets if you like.”

“Yes,” I whisper. “Just to be on the safe side.”

That takes another hour for Aiden to do. Another hour of being in this house where he killed two people.

Then he’s done and tells me we really need to get going. So, I force my legs to move and I follow Aiden out to the car, where we drive around for another hour, searching for a motel that takes cash. We finally find one. It’s not in the prettiest part of town. Unsurprising.

“I’ll go inside and pay,” he says but I grab his arm before he can leave.

“I want to come with. I don’t want to be left alone right now.”

Aiden’s eyes say nothing as he nods. It’s like he’s become an entirely different person. One focused on finishing a task.

We approach the motel door when I notice a group of men hanging around near the side of the entrance. Bikers by their jackets and motorcycles.

Aiden wraps his arm around me and steers me towards the door, keeping his body between me and the other men. They don’t seem to notice us. Good.

The small front room of the motel stinks of cigarette smoke but I guess beggars can’t be choosers.

“One room for the night,” Aiden says.

“It will be forty dollars,” the man grunts behind the desk.

Aiden slides him two twenties and the man doesn’t ask any questions. He only hands over the keys and turns back to the small TV he has mounted on the wall. This is a man who doesn’t care about who comes through here. I wonder what a person has to do in life to get to that point.

We head for our room. On the way, a man lets out a loud whistle. Looking over my shoulder, I see that it’s one of the bikers. There are four of them, all leaning against their motorcycles and smoking cigarettes. I scrunch up my nose and keep walking.

“You don’t like what you see, baby?” A man calls out.

Aiden stops and a look of pure anger crosses his face. He’s already killed two men tonight. This cannot be good.

“Let’s just get to our room,” I say. “Ignore them. We don’t need to attract more attention.” After what Jack did to me, I’m just tired and scared and want to fall asleep.

He lets out a long breath. “You’re right.”

“Come on, baby!” the guy says. “Don’t be like that. Turn around and talk to me.”

Except, it’s not me who turns around. It’s Aiden. He storms up to the man and says, “Cool it.”

The man jerks back. “You cool it. I was just talking to the girl.”

“She’s not yours.”

A shiver goes down my spine. Does Aiden think I’m his? Why does that thought not bother me as much as it probably should?

The man shares a look with his friends and laughs. “Ok, buddy. It’s all good. Everything is good.”

“You’re damn right it’s good. Because you’re going to stop catcalling my girl. Now shut the fuck up before I make you regret it.”

When I first met Aiden, he was the opposite of Finn. Cool and collected. Stoic. Seemed unfazed by anything. But since he took me to protect me, I’ve seen a growing sense of fire within him.

“Oooh. So scary,” the biker mocks.

“Aiden, let’s just go. Come on.”

“Yeah, Aiden. Listen to your little bitch.”

At that moment, Aiden strikes the man down with a solid punch. The biker falls right to the ground, groaning and clutching his face.

“What the fuck?” another biker hisses.

“Do you want to get hurt too?” Aiden asks in a scary voice. The bikers share a look before they back off.

“Come on,” I say. “Aiden.”

Finally, he backs away from the men and we go into our room. It has two beds, so at least we won’t have to share one again. I’m a little disappointed by the thought. I can’t get our kiss out of my mind. It was my first and it was beautiful, albeit surprising.

“Those fuckers,” Aiden mutters, raking a hand down his face.

“Why do you let them get to you?”

“Normally I wouldn’t. I’ve put up with assholes before and I just walk away.”

“So what’s changed?”

The look he gives me makes my stomach flutter. “They were talking shit about you. I couldn’t let that stand.”

“You acted that way for me?” Why is my voice so breathless?

He sighs and slumps against the wall. “What a shitshow today has been. I was just trying to keep you safe and instead, that fucker Jack tried to hurt you. Are you ok? I never asked.”

“I never knew a hitman would care if I was ok or not.”

“I do care. Fuck knows why I care but I do.”

“I’m… I’ll be ok,” I answer honestly. “You stopped it before it could go too far. Thank you, for that.”

“I said I would protect you.”

“I know. But it was one thing to hear you say it, another thing to see you actually do it.”

“Actions speak louder than words,” he murmurs.

I turn to the beds and take in their gross green covers. The carpet is all stained with… well, I don’t really want to know. The walls could use a cleaning to. This place is gross but it’s all we have for the night.

“I’ll find us a new place tomorrow,” Aiden says. “I know you’re used to luxury.”

“I am.” No use in denying it. “But that doesn’t mean I was used to comfort. My mom made sure of that.”

“She was a real ass to you, huh?” He pushes himself off the wall and sets his backpack on the bed with a thump. I watch him dig out a fresh pair of clothes.

“She could be mean. Your mom was never like that?”

“No. My mom has always been sweet. She’s probably the only nice thing I have in my life.” His eyes find mine. “Well… until now.”

I flush, averting my gaze. “And your father? You said he was a deadbeat.”

“Among other things.”

My curiosity spikes. “What things, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Liked to kick the shit out of me and Finn. So that was fun.”

“Oh, Aiden. I’m sorry.”

“Well, it was what it was. He’s gone now. So, I don’t need to worry about him anymore.” He slips off his shirt, giving me a good look at his bare chest, before slipping on a new one. I can’t deny that my body likes what I see. It’s visceral.

“What happened to him?”

“When he got bored of beating me and my brother and mom up, he left. Finn wanted to go find him. Wanted answers so we eventually found him years later. Had a new family of his own. Fucker.”

I wrap my arms around myself, feeling suddenly very cold. “I can’t imagine that. Is that what you mean by gone? He just left?”

“No. He’s dead.” Aiden looks right at me. “Finn killed him.”

I shudder. “Right.”

“He did it because he was so pissed at what he had done to us. And then to leave us with all those scars and start a new family? It was too much to bear for Finn, so he killed our dad.”

“And you? What did you do?”

“I just stood back and watched it happen. I could have tried to stop Finn but I didn’t want to. I wanted our father dead just as much as he did. Soon after that, I pushed aside a lot of my emotions. It was just easier that way.”

It doesn’t escape my notice that this story is different from the one Aiden told me originally: that his dad died when he was a kid. I guess he wasn’t ready to talk about this then. I sit down on the gross bed and try not to think about how gross it is. “Is that when you met Dante?”

He gives me a curious look. “No. We met Dante years later. Finn killed our dad when we were twenty. After that, we got working for the Irish mob. We are Irish after all. Made sense. Our dad owed some big hotshot Irish mobster some money. He wasn’t happy that we killed our dad before he could get his money so he made us work for it. That’s how we became a part of this world. It’s how we started killing people for money. We learned the skills.”

“Who was this mobster?”

“His name is Patrick Sullivan. He’s still in charge of the Irish mob.”

“How come you and Finn don’t work for him? Why Dante?”

He sighs deeply and sits down on the other bed. “Because part of his training method was locking us up until we almost starved. It was to make us stronger. He wasn’t wrong. My brother and I did become stronger under his tutelage. He was like a new father figure for us. But Finn wanted to go off on his own and I wasn’t ready to let him go so I followed. We ended up working with Dante because he felt more like a colleague than a boss. And now Finn has gone and fucked that up too.” He falls onto the bed. “My brother has been a cause of chaos in my life and I can’t seem to stop it.”

“You could let him go,” I offer.

“I could. But he’s my brother. We’ve been through too much together for me to just abandon him. Dante wants him dead. Erik, Viktor, every other Bratva man wants him dead. Now they’ll want me dead too for kidnapping you.”

“I’ll just tell them you’re trying to keep me safe from Finn. They won’t kill you for that.” The thought of Aiden dying scares me. It also saddens me.

“I don’t think they’ll care. It doesn’t matter why I took you. The point is: I took you and your fiancée will be angry and will want you back. He’ll kill me to get you back. That is if he can find us.”

I curl into a ball. Everything feels heavy all of a sudden. “Aiden, what’s your plan? You’re doing this to keep me safe from Finn but you also don’t want your brother to die. So, what’s going to happen? Either Finn finds me or…”

“Or I kill him?” he asks tightly. “I can’t kill him, Elena.”

“Is he worth all of this? All this running and fighting?”

“He’s my brother. He’s worth it. You don’t have siblings. You don’t understand.”

“I understand pain,” I snap. “When Finn murdered my father right before my eyes.”

Aiden gives me a guilty look. “I am sorry about that.”

“I don’t want you to be sorry. I want you to keep me safe. I want Finn dealt with. I want…”

“What?” he asks softly.

“I just want to feel like I have a home,” I admit. “I don’t have that with my mom. I had it with my dad but now he’s gone.”

He gets off the bed and comes over to mine. I look up at him. Neither of us move for the longest moment.

Then Aiden speaks. “I will figure out what to do. I might not have it all figured out right now but I can promise you one thing: I will keep you safe. No matter what it takes.”

“Why do you care? I’m just a Bratva girl. You grew up with the Irish Mob. You worked for Dante – head of the Mafia. You should hate me. Hate that I’m Russian.”

“I should. But then I never really gave a fuck about arbitrary divides.”

“What do you care about then?” I ask, feeling my heart beat faster.

“I care about protecting you. You never deserved what my brother did to you.”

Sweat pools on my skin at the same time that I feel cold. “You’re a hitman, Aiden. If someone had paid you to kill me, would you have done it?”

“Yes,” he says without hesitating. “I would have. But I’ve gotten to know you and I wouldn’t kill you now.”

“Why not?” I whisper. The words feel scary. Like a secret that should never be spoken.

“Because you have a sadness to you. You’re too sad and lonely to kill.”

“Your brother did that to me.”

“I know. That’s why I’m trying to make it up to you by doing this.” He opens his arms to indicate the room around us. “It’s why I’m trying to protect you. I will find a new place – a safehouse – you can stay in until I convince Finn to back down. Once I do, you’ll be safe.”

“Do you honestly believe you can get Finn to back down?”

For the first time that night, he hesitates. “I will try.” He clears his throat. “Now, I have to go dispose of Jack and Liam. I’ll probably be an hour or so. Keep the door locked. Don’t answer it for anyone.”

“How can I let you know if something goes wrong? I don’t have my cellphone.”

“I’ll get us some burner phones for future use. But for now, just stay here. For me, ok? No running again.”

“I won’t run.” Not with those bikers out there. After what Jack just did to me, I don’t have the strength to deal with anything more.

Aiden’s eyes soften. He’s a handsome man but he becomes beautiful when he lets go of some of the tightness in his face. “I’ll be back in an hour.”

He opens the door and then I hear the sound of something cracking and he stumbles back inside. Quickly, I sit up.

The sound of men laughing permeates the air. The bikers. One of them punched Aiden in the face. It’s the one who Aiden punched earlier.

“We didn’t appreciate you making a fool out of us,” the biker says. “So, we’re here to return the favor.”