Page 64 of Intense (Beneath The Blaze #3)

FINN

Song- Control, Halsey

I blow out a breath as I attach the nipple clamps to her rosy buds. Part of me wishes we were just playing this for fun.

That I could have my wicked way with her in these rooms and see how many times I could make her scream for me.

She cries out a little once they’re attached. I drag my chair over, watching the monitor get faster as I sit beside her and pull out my phone. I hesitate over the video before pressing play.

Our wedding day.

A moment she doesn’t remember.

A day that I will never forget.

I look down at my tattooed wedding ring, and it hurts. A pain I’ve never felt before. It’s so fucking alien it makes my skin crawl. Yet, it’s not something I want to stop.

She takes in a shaky breath.

“I didn’t know you had this,” she whispers.

“I have secrets of my own, temptress. Just like you do.”

Her eyes fill with tears as if she’s finally figured this out. I let it play out, our drunken laughs as we say our vows.

And then the kiss. The way she looks at me. The way I’m looking at her, like she’s the most important person in my life.

Fuck. I think she was.

Our first kiss will forever be etched into my memory. I instinctively brush my finger over my lips. Watching how she touches me, and I don’t back away, I don’t freeze up. It’s like her touch was meant to be on me.

“Til’ death do us part—those were the vows we said to each other, correct?” I say coldly.

She nods, tears streaming down her cheeks now. I take in a deep breath. This is it. The real Finn she gets to see.

I lean in closer.

“So that means you either tell me the damn truth or this room becomes a morgue for both of our bodies.”

She flinches away from me, tugging at the chains on her wrists.

“Finn. What do you mean? What’s going on?”

I chuckle in response. She will soon realize her mistakes.

“I mean, if I have to kill you, temptress, then I won’t be able to live with myself. So, we either both survive here, or we both die.”

Death doesn’t scare me.

But loving Stephanie does. That petrifies me.

I said this marriage would be my first and my last. It seems I can predict my future better than I thought.

“Say it with me, love. Til’. Death. Do. Us. Part.”

She whispers it back to me and I pull away from her.

“Would you like to hear the rules of this room?” I ask.

She closes her eyes and I shake my head, grabbing her jaw.

She doesn’t get to hide from this. From me.

She pushed me this far. Let out the monster I never wanted her to fucking see.

“No. You will not take your eyes off me,” I growl.

I’m stern, but it’s important.

This is our make or break.

My make or break.

I pick up the remote and press the button that sends shocks to her nipples. Her back arches, and she lets out a scream.

“I said, do you want to hear the rules of this room?” My voice is louder. Harsher.

My patience is wearing thin.

“Yes!” she cries out.

I push my chair away, and it clatters onto the floor with a crash as I stand.

Her heart rate is screaming.

And everything inside me is raging.

“I ask questions, you answer. For each lie, your punishment gets worse. There are no limits here. Life or fucking death. It’s only the truth that can save you.” I lean over her, gripping her throat so we’re nose to nose.

“Remember who you’re talking to now. I’m not your husband anymore.

I’m the decider on whether you go straight to hell.

This isn’t a fucking game, there are no illusions.

You should never have trusted me. Now, you get to see the man you really married, and I want you to show me who you really are, Stephanie Miller. ”

“Finn, please.”

I squeeze her throat tighter, stopping myself from taking it too far.

“Begging for mercy won’t work now. Play the game.”

I release her and stand, straightening my shirt and shrugging off my suit jacket. I turn slowly back to face her.

Panting, petrified. Looking at me like I am a fucking monster.

Good. She’s understanding that she hurt me.

“Question one. Tell me about your first murder,” I say bluntly, not mincing my words.

Her eyes go wide, the tears slipping down her cheeks.

“You’re punishing me for doing the same thing you do?” she spits back.

I let out a laugh that echoes around the room.

“No, love. That isn’t it. Answer the question.”

She closes her eyes, and I hit the button, shocking her again.

“Fuck. Fine!”

“He was my first boss at the strip club. The one who groomed me into being his prized possession. The one who ripped everything from me.” She all but screams the words.

The pain ripping through her.

I nod with a smirk.

“Good girl. Keep going, I want all the details.”

She lets out a shaky breath. The monitor is screaming and only fueling me to push harder. How far can I go?

At what point will I switch out of this? She can’t save me from myself now.

No one can.

“I saved his life on the operating table; I knew who he was. And then, I saw you in the locker room, and you said something along the lines that he was a sex trafficker and I let him live. I couldn’t stop thinking about the other girls he’s hurt or will continue to hurt.

So I went back in, and I put air in his line. ”

She’s speaking so fast she’s almost out of breath.

“How did it feel?” I ask.

“Freeing. Liberating. Really fucking good.”

Her eyes lock onto mine.

She’s just like me.

It’s haunting.

“And that’s why you didn’t stop? You like to play God? Is that what it is?”

She shakes her head.

“You think the justice system would care about a stripper? Really? And something from years ago? These men are more powerful than that. They’re like you. I let them manipulate me, I was stupid for that. I was desperate to be better than my parents.”

I grit my teeth, her words jabbing me in the heart.

That desperation is real, it’s fucking raw. I get it. None of these deaths bother me.

Except the one that put me in a cop car.

“They’re nothing fucking like me,” I spit back.

“You’re a fucking monster, Finn.”

Now that really gets me laughing.

“Coming from our very own resident Doctor Death.”

I shake my head, picking up the scalpel from the side.

“Tell me about the others. How many more have there been?”

She sucks in a breath as I brush the blade along her throat. I assess her, the way her body is trembling in fear.

“Ten?”

She says it as if it’s a question.

“You don’t keep count? Don’t lie to me.”

“Ten,” she says more confidently.

“The others, who were they?”

I continue to drag the metal along her skin, down her stomach.

“Either men I recognized from my past or assholes like the one who you beat the shit out of at the club. Men who don’t understand the word no.”

I bite back a grin.

I like this side of her. This murderous one. Who strongly believes what she’s doing is right.

And in my book, it is. I’m fully behind it.

I’d encourage it.

It’s everything I would want in a wife.

But the betrayal—that is what is fueling me.

“Tell me about the man you killed in the hospital recently. I’ve never killed at work, Stephanie. Ever. It’s too risky. Yet, you did it again. Why?”

She pauses, her heart rate dramatically climbing.

There is no rhythm to her kills. Her first one was in the hospital, yet it seems she then went back to the strip club to find the other victims. She’s clever enough to know not to do it at work.

That she would get caught. Yet something made her be reckless. That isn’t my Stephanie.

“I knew him from before,” she says quietly.

I arch a brow, turning the dial up on the remote and pressing it. Her back arches and she screams out.

My cock fucking twitches, and my heart breaks all in one.

“Do you remember the fucking rules?” I spit.

“Y-Yes.”

“You didn’t know him, did you?”

Backing away from her, I go to my jacket and pull out the watch that the twins have recovered from her house.

I hold it up in front of her face with a wild smirk.

“This man was not part of your history. Was he?”

She shakes her head.

“W-why do you have that? Are you trying to blackmail me?”

Interesting. She knows I’m rich. I don’t need money. Yet, that is her first instinct to assume.

“No. That isn’t my style. I like to extract the truth. So tell me. This is the one opportunity to save your life.”

I stare into her soul, letting her know I’m not bluffing.

“I didn’t know him.”

I pick up the chair and turn it around to straddle it.

She watches nervously as I run the flat end of the blade across my hand. Processing. Making her wait.

Letting her think about her next move.

Slowly, I bring my gaze back to hers. Those blue eyes full of fear, full of sadness and regret.

“W-what do you know, Finn?” she asks quietly.

I shrug.

“You tell me what you think I know.”

I drag my finger across her lip.

“Life or fucking death, love. I’m prepared to fucking lose it all if you are.”

I already have.

There isn’t any going back from this.

My mask has slipped. She’s seen the real me. She knows too much.

I am unlovable.

I am a fucking psychopath.

And I don’t see a way back from this.