Page 42

Chapter 41

Aria

W aking up hours later, the room barely lit from the glowing fire downstairs, I feel a slight ache between my legs, my body full of goosebumps as the breeze blows in from the window. I fully open my eyes, feeling a heaviness around my waist, looking down to see Tobias with his arms wrapped around me, sleeping peacefully.

It’s the first time we’ve had clothes on in hours.

I enjoy these moments, having time to run my fingers through his soft hair and watch him relax, not staring at him and wondering what thoughts are jumbling in his head. I run the pad of my finger along his jawline, tracing up and down his cheekbone and pulling away as he stirs in his sleep. A muscle in his face tenses and his dimple dents in, lips parting slowly.

Why does he need to be so challenged?

Why does he need to be a murderer?

"Stop touching my face," he groans as I run my thumb along his bottom lip, making me giggle. "What are you doing?"

"I like your face," I admit, laughing again as the corner of his lip curls up. "It's nice to look at."

"It's even better to sit on."

I slap his back playfully, and he shifts so he's beside me, pulling me into his arms as my head settles on his chest. I continue my exploration, tracing the ridges of his powerful muscles.

"Can I ask you something?"

I nod, and he holds me closer to him.

"If it's a girl, can we call her Lucy?"

I look up at him, my heart crushing and warming at the same time. "Lucy?"

"Yeah. Or we can double-barrel it or something. It's your call. I remember you told me if you ever had a kid, if it was a girl, you wanted her middle name to be Gabriella. Why not something like Luciella? I haven’t been able to stop thinking about that name."

I can't stop the smile pulling along my face, my body warming that he'd even consider names in the situation we are in. Why is it making me warm, seeing a fatherly side of him?

"I like that," I agree, repositioning myself so I'm straddling him, his hands on my hips. "What if it's a boy?"

"I don't know." He thinks, pushing his tongue into his cheek with narrowing eyes as he looks around us. "We could call him something like Colton or Ayden?"

"No," I reply, pressing my lips to his and leaning back up, my chin on my fists, elbows resting on his chest. "What about Kayden?"

He thinks for a second then shakes his head. "I'll meet you halfway and say...Kade."

I bite my bottom lip to try to conceal my grin, my eyes failing me as they dance. He notices my happiness, making him smile too."Kade it is. Kade or Luciella Mitchell."

"I love them," I say, and he nods, clutching my face in his hands.

"I love you . You’re everything to me. Are we forever, Aria?”

I should say no, but I smile. “Do you want us to be?”

“I love you more than life itself. I’d die for you if I had to.” His expression drops. “Will you show me how to be a good dad?”

My heart breaks for him in a way it shouldn’t. “Of course.”

He pulls me in so his mouth connects with mine, quickly but softly, our tongues in sync, groaning as I lower myself onto him. Only the sound of the crackling fire downstairs can be heard as we take it slow, our heads tilting to deepen the passionate kiss. The moon is shining through the window, making it easy to see the ocean blue of his eyes when I pull away.

"Aria..." He moves my hair away from my face, and I melt at how vulnerable he looks. "You're everything to me, you know that?"

I nod, because although he’s dangerous and unpredictable, I know I mean a lot to him.

"You're going to leave, aren't you?" he asks. “You're going to say this was a mistake, blame me, then fuck off out of my life."

I grimace at his seriousness as I sit up, his entire demeanour shifting to something unrecognizable from the happy father-to-be he was before. "What?"

"Come on, Aria." He moves to wrap his arms around the small of my back, sitting up, kissing me once on the lips. "Be honest. Are you going to run away with me? We can hide until everything dies down and be a family, the three of us."

I search his anxious face, my heart sinking at his hopefulness. "Tobias, I..." I'm stuck on what to say, my words falling silent.

"Look, I know things are pretty fucking crazy right now, and that's myfault, but I really want this with you. I want a chance at this. Let me at least try, Aria."

"You need help, Tobias, help I can't give you," I respond with a wrench in my throat. "Me being here and feeding into this obsession you have isn't making anything better. You can't feel those types of emotions, you really can't. If you come back with me?—"

He abruptly shoves me to the side, making me yelp as my body hits the mattress. Tobias stands, running his hand through his hair as he paces the floor. "I'm getting really fed up with people saying that shit. Who the fuck are you to say what I can and can't feel? Do you think I like worrying about you every single fucking second? Do you think I enjoy watching you have someone like Ewan near you?"

I get to my feet, heart hammering in my chest. "If you just let me help you, then maybe we have a chance."

What am I doing?

"You really think there is a chance for us?" Tobias closes the distance between us, his hands in my hair. "I’ve killed people, Aria. Everyone around me thinks I'm insane."

When I don’t say anything, he can read my response through my facial expression, that I might agree with everyone else.

He screws his face up. "You know I'm not." He steps away from me, his rapid blinks and clenching and unclenching his fists having me backing away. "You know I'm not," he repeats before he slaps himself across the face, hard. "She fucking knows I'm not." He slaps himself again. "Get away from me, Aria."

"What?"

His fist slams against the wall. "Leave!" he roars at me, making me jump. I frantically put on my clothes while he hyperventilates in the corner of the room, muttering under his breath.

I stand in the doorway, seeing him relaxing a little. "Tobias?"

He doesn't respond, but his knees hit the floor as his head falls into his hands. "I can never be with you, can I? We can never be a real family because of me."

Feeling the crushing sensation in my chest, my lip trembles. "We need to think about our child, Tobias. We can't be on the run with a baby. Let's try to work something out, find out what your options are," I lie, attempting to keep him as calm as possible. "I'll do anything I can to help."

I kneel next to him, my hand on his back, rubbing in circles to comfort him.

"What are my options?" he asks, turning to face me with bloodshot eyes. "What can I do?"

"Come back with me, get the help you need. It's the first step to you getting better."

He shakes his head and drops it onto my shoulder. "I can't, Aria. They'll lock me up, and I'll never see you again. Is that why you're here, to take me back?"

I shake my head. I feel his panic, his hands in my hair as his forehead rests against mine, uttering no repeatedly. I'm not sure what's happening, but the quick bursts of breath and rapid blinking starts again.

"Why did you come then?" I hear his voice breaking, and he loudly gulps. "Fucking hell, Aria. You're messing with my head so damn much."

I curl my fingers around his, urging him to move away from me, my lips parting at his watering eyes. "We can do this together. We can prove to everyone you aren't a threat," I say, flinching as his head snaps up at me abruptly.

I stand back from him as he grabs at his dark strands, watching as he tries to control his breathing, his face reddening.

"Are you okay?" He looks like he's losing it, like he's about to blow the fuck up. I need to get the hell away from him. I watch as he slaps the side of his head repeatedly in rage, keeping my eyes on his as I move to create more distance between us. "Tobias?" I falter in my steps, undeniably scared of this version of him. "Are you okay?" I repeat.

"Am I okay? Of course I'm not fucking okay. You're trying to take my kid away from me, and it's not even born yet! How did Ewan even put up with you for so long? Oh, wait..." He hits the side of his head harshly and walks until he's in my face, spittle running down his chin with blazing eyes. "He looked elsewhere.”

"Stop it," I beg him, taken aback by his outburst. "You need to calm down, Tobias. I'm not taking anyone away from you, and I'm not with Ewan."

I wince as he grips the sides of my arms, pulling me to his chest as he whispers maniacally in my ear. "You're taking Aria away from me, Doctor. And I will kill everyone close to you if you do. I will destroy everything around you if you keep Aria from me."

Every single ounce of blood leaves my face, shivers taking over me as darkness consumes his eyes. "Don't do this."

"Maybe Ewan will be my first target." He shrugs dismissively, scrunching his nose, his fingers bruising the skin of my arm as I struggle to free myself. "Is that enough to convince you to stay?"

I try to tell him to release his hold, that he's hurting me, but he's completely gone from the room; although his body is right in front of me, he isn't here. I'm not sure who the hell this is, but he's scaring me, hurting me, and I feel obliged to raise my knee as quick and hard as possible to strike him between the legs.

He falls to the ground in a grunt, and I run in panic, leaving him in a heap as I search for the bedroom down the hallway. I slam the door shut, my heart racing as I push a dresser in front of the door. I feel tears falling down my face, fear for my unborn baby coiling in my gut as I hear his footsteps coming closer, Tobias' voice urging me to stop being this way.

I cry out as he begins to pound against the door, the dresser rattling with each hit. My body shakes, panic rising within me as I search the room for something to defend myself. "It's me, Tobias. It's Aria!"

"No," he shouts, the dresser moving aside as the door flies open. I scream and move to the opposite side of the room, hugging my hands to my chest. "Aria loves me. Aria would never leave me. You..." He paces until he's in front of my shaking form, pointing in my face. "You are not the woman I'm in love with. You need to be taught a lesson, Doctor. No one takes what's mine."

"Tobias, please, stop this. I am Aria! You're scaring me," I whimper, reaching forward and grabbing his face. "Look at me!" I yell at him, his emotionless expression making the blood run cold in my veins. I slap him, hard, attempting to knock him out of whatever trance he's in.

He doesn't react. All he does is move my hands away and steps back. I watch as his jaw clenches, his eyes searching the length of my body. "I want her back."

Both our heads snap to the side in the direction of a door opening, a voice yelling at Tobias.

Justin's voice.

Tobias' words from earlier rattle in my mind, that Justin isn't a fan of me. The relief that fills me is quickly replaced with immense fear, enough to make my tears fall faster, my body to shake harder.

Tobias huffs, running his hand down his face in frustration. "Fucking hell."

With his fingers curled around my wrist, not painfully but enough to show force, he tugs me out of the room and in the direction of Justin.

"Wait, no... You said he doesn't like me." I panic, trying to pull away from him dragging me down the steps into the main room. "Please, let me go."

He releases me, blocking me from running out of the room by colliding with his chest. Justin has his back to us, setting aside a shovel, a torch, money, and an axe from a rucksack. I feel myself die inside, my breaths coming out in hard bursts as his whistling halts.

Panic starts to rip through me as Tobias pushes me towards him, and as soon as his hazel eyes land on me, he shakes his head. “You’re an idiot,” he tells me.

I turn quickly to Tobias, my eyes pleading with him. "Don't do this," I cry. His face darkens, his eyes void of all emotion. Bile stings my throat, vision blurring as my heart accelerates to an unhealthy pace. I open my mouth to beg, to somehow make him snap out of it, to make him realize it's me, but he jerks his neck to the side in dismissal. "Please, Tobias," I whimper.

“Can’t believe Aria actually showed up. Dumb bitch.”

"This isn't Aria,” Tobias says, and I stop breathing.

"Can we get this over with? We can just torture the information out of her, or maybe just kill her," Justin says. "The only reason we're still here is your little infatuation with the whore." He looks at me with disgust, waving his knife around. "Tell him where Ewan is so we can get to it already."

Ewan?

My confusion makes Justin laugh. “You didn’t really think we were going to leave without dealing with your boyfriend, did you?”

I feel a tear trickle down my cheek as Tobias smirks at Justin, chortling and rolling his shoulder with his rapidly blinking eyes on me again. "She is a whore, Aria isn't. Ewan isn’t any of their boyfriend."

"Whatever," Justin retorts, shaking his head at his manic friend. "So, Aria isn't Aria. Then who the fuck is she?"

Tobias releases me ever so slightly, frowning at Justin, who backs away. "I don't know who the hell she is, but she isn't Aria. And I'm not leaving until I have her!"

When he turns back to me, I see the faltering in his expression, my Tobias trying to push through, to snap himself out of whatever is going on. "I need Aria," he tells me, lowering his voice to a desperate whisper. "You have no idea how much I need her. Do you at least know where she is?"

Justin wiggles his finger next to his head in a circular motion, rolling his eyes, referring to Tobias as a lunatic behind his back before sliding off the counter.

I shake my head when he pushes me for a reply, wincing as he pulls my hair tighter, anxiety riddling me as Justin approaches on the left, swinging the knife in his hand. " Or ...we can just kill you," he says with a shrug. "I don't mind. Then we can leave already."

"The baby," I whisper, my lip quivering as I flatten my palm over my abdomen protectively. "Tobias...the baby. Please, let us go."

"Who cares if she’s pregnant?" Justin asks Tobias in disgust, grimacing at him. "Just kill them both so we can be on our way. You don't need them."

I feel my heart sink as Tobias shakes his head, sniffing, the anger on his face evident. "Aria's carrying my child, not her. It's not mine."

“Why are you doing this?” I ask, tears streaming down my face. “Please snap out of it, Tobias. Please.”

Justin flips a knife in his hand. "Can we kill her and leave? The cops are probably tracking her car."

"Tobias..." Whimpering with a shaky bottom lip, I feel immense fear, the feeling multiplying as Tobias stays silent. "It's me."

He shoves me forward. "Kill her."

As soon as the words drop from Tobias' mouth, my brows knit together in confusion, and before I can even respond or beg him, I feel a sharp, painful sting just above my hip, blistering shocks travelling down my leg and up my side.

I look with wide eyes and a shuddering body, seeing the knife piercing through my skin, shoved in until the hilt, followed by Justin's lips coming to my ear. "You don't deserve to be a mother anyway."

He pulls the blade out abruptly, making my body horribly convulse and fold. I gasp, my breathing completely halted as I drop to my knees, holding my hand to the gaping wound.

Tobias stands back, his eyes wide as he looks from me then to Justin holding the bloody weapon, running his finger up the soaked metal, coating his skin in red as he inspects it.

"Tobias," I choke, attempting to lean forward and grab his hand for help. "Please."

Time stands still, and I see my entire life flash before my eyes for the second time before I hear sirens, and both of them vanish.