Page 12 of Watch Me Burn

AARON

I f I could go back in time, knowing everything I know now, would I change any of it?

That question is going to haunt me for the rest of my probably very short life.

Some choices mark you forever, carve themselves into your bones until you can’t remember who you were before you made them.

Caterina closes the terrace door behind us with a soft click, sealing us into this private hell.

“You planned this whole thing,” I say.

“Actually, no.” She moves to the railing, the city lights casting her in silhouette. “This one was actually my father’s idea.”

“And you just went along with it? Agreeing to marry a man you’ve been tormenting for months?”

She turns, moonlight catching the planes of her face, illuminating something almost vulnerable before it vanishes. “I don’t really have a choice in the matter.”

“Bullshit. You always have a choice.”

Caterina shakes her head. “You serve the family at all costs. That’s how this works. How it’s always been.”

This is insanity. I’m seriously contemplating marriage to my fucking stalker. Yet beneath the anger, beneath the fear, a twisted part of me feels a thrill.

A disturbing excitement that sickens me.

“So you’re going to give up? Roll over and play dead?”

She sighs, her shoulders sagging briefly before she straightens. “You don’t know Giovanni like I do. Defying my father isn’t courage, it’s suicide with extra steps. Trust me, I’ve tried.”

“I don’t believe that for a second. What’s your real angle here?” I take a step closer, invading her personal space. “You could have had me killed months ago. Instead, you’ve been playing this sick cat-and-mouse game. Why?”

“I couldn’t just kill you.”

“Why not? You seem to enjoy killing everyone else.”

“Maybe I thought I might need you for something later.” A smile plays at the corners of her mouth, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “I have my own reasons for keeping you breathing.”

“And what happens when those reasons expire?” I press, watching her face for any tell.

“Everyone’s useful until they’re not, Aaron. But I wouldn’t worry about that expiration date just yet.”

“Your missions,” I say, studying her reaction. “Your little nighttime hobbies.”

“What exactly do you think you know about that?” Her voice carries an edge I haven’t heard before.

“Enough to know you’re not the dutiful daughter your father thinks you are.” I take another step closer, enough to see the flecks of gold in her eyes. “You use his connections to find your targets, but you choose them yourself. Men who you think deserve punishment.”

“Well, color me impressed,” she says lightly, but her fingers tense against the railing. “You’ve been doing your homework.”

“Know your enemy and all that.”

She laughs, and the sound is surprisingly genuine. “And here I thought I was the predator in this relationship.”

“You’re not the only one with secrets, Caterina.”

The use of her real name changes something between us, makes this confrontation more intimate, more surreal.

“So what now, fiancé?” She closes the small gap between us, so close that the smell of her perfume—jasmine and something metallic—clings onto my skin. “Do we play happy couple until you figure out how to escape this mess?”

“Do I have any other choice?”

“There’s always a choice. Didn’t you just lecture me about that?” Her voice drops to something almost seductive. “Say no. Walk away. Give him the drive. See how far you get before his people catch up with you.”

“That’s not a real choice, and you know it.”

“Then I guess we’re getting married.” The words hang between us like a death sentence wrapped in wedding lace.

Jesus Christ. Kill me now.

“To you? I’d rather be dead.”

Her face hardens. “Keep refusing, Aaron, and you’ll get exactly what you’re asking for.”

For a moment, we both stand there in the silence, recognizing something equally terrifying: we’re reluctant allies now, forced together by a common enemy. It’s completely fucked up, but it’s true—she’s no longer just my stalker.

She’s about to become my partner in survival.

“Your father can’t just decide this. There has to be another option.”

“You think I want this any more than you do? To be chained to a man who’s become a liability to my family?” Her voice cracks slightly. “To me? To be bound to anyone?”

“Don’t you, though? Isn’t this exactly the kind of control you get off on?”

Her jaw clenches sharply, nostrils flaring with undisguised anger. “If you think I wanted this—wanted him to control every aspect of my life—you’re even more naive than I thought.”

“Then talk to him. Make him reconsider.” I run a hand through my hair, pacing the small terrace. “You’re his daughter. He’ll listen to you.”

“There is no talking Giovanni Mortelle out of anything once he’s made up his mind.”

I’m about to completely lose my shit.

“So that’s it? We just accept this insanity?” I turn to face her. “I hate everything about you. The idea of being married to you just?—”

“Spare me the dramatics,” she interrupts, rolling her eyes. “I’m not exactly thrilled about tying myself to a man who could expose everything I’ve worked for with one phone call to the wrong people.”

“Then we both refuse. Together.”

“And we both die. Tonight. Is that really what you want?”

I grab her wrist without thinking, feeling the rapid pulse beneath my fingers, her skin burning hot against mine. “Don’t play games with me. This isn’t some weird seduction scene, it’s war.”

Caterina actually smiles, leaning into my grip instead of pulling away. “Funny how thin that line can be sometimes.”

Refusing Caterina means Tristan dies. It means Zoe becomes collateral damage in a war she doesn’t even know exists. Mortelle has already proven he won’t hesitate to eliminate anyone who gets in his way.

“Why don’t you just put a bullet in my head right now and be done with it? Isn’t that what you do? Eliminate problems?”

“You’re not the kind of problem I eliminate,” she says, tilting her head slightly. She gives absolutely nothing away.

“No? Then what exactly am I to you, Caterina?”

She hesitates, and for just a moment, her calculated poise cracks, revealing something raw and unguarded beneath. “I honestly don’t know anymore.”

That was unexpectedly honest. Brutal in its simplicity.

And it’s making me realize there might be no other way out of this nightmare. If I want to protect the people I love, save Tristan’s life and keep us both breathing...I might have to marry this woman.

A woman who’s essentially a stranger to me, except for one chilling fact: she’s a cold-blooded killer with what seems like an unmistakable thirst for violence that borders on sexual for her.

Marriage. What a fucking joke. Vows mean nothing. Promises break like glass. Love is an illusion people use to justify bad decisions.

But being forced into a sham marriage built on threats and blackmail? That’s a new kind of cruel I never saw coming.

“I can’t believe we’re actually considering this.”

Caterina looks effortless, almost at ease. If this were another life, if I were someone else, maybe I’d find her irresistible right now. Maybe I’d get her to come home with me tonight.

But not in this life. Not this version of me.

This version of me hates everything about the woman standing in front of me.

“We’re choosing survival over pride,” she says simply.

“Since when do you give a shit if I survive?”

She shrugs like my continued existence is barely worth commenting on.

“So what is this, then? A marriage or a ceasefire? A honeymoon or a countdown to betrayal? That’s your brilliant solution?”

“Maybe not against each other,” she says carefully, like she’s testing the words. “Maybe...parallel to each other.”

Is she actually suggesting some kind of alliance?

“And how many secrets can one marriage hold before it implodes?”

“You’d be surprised what arrangements can survive when both parties benefit from the arrangement,” she responds, never breaking eye contact.

“Your father?—”

“Is not me,” she finishes firmly. “Remember that, Aaron. It might be important later.”

“Right. Maybe you’re actually worse than he is.”

She laughs, stepping closer once more. “We each have our reasons for being in this position. Maybe marriage gives us both cover we couldn’t have otherwise.”

“Cover for what?”

She doesn’t answer, just reaches up, adjusting my bow tie with careful fingers. Her casual touch sends a shockwave through me. “For better or worse.”

I catch her wrist, holding it in place. “If you think this means you’ve won some kind of victory?—”

“Oh, Aaron. No one wins in a game like this. We just try to make it out alive with most of our pieces intact.”

The moonlight catches her eyes, turning them almost golden. For a moment, I almost forget what she is, who she is, and what she’s done.

Almost.

“I don’t like you,” I say, my voice coming out rougher than I intended.

“Good,” she replies, not missing a beat. “That’s honest. It’s pure. I’d rather have that than your indifference. Besides, I know you want me.”

I release her wrist as if burned, stepping back. “You’re completely insane.”

“Am I?” She raises an eyebrow, looking amused. “Your body betrays you every time we’re close. I can see it, feel it. The way your pulse quickens, your pupils dilate.” She moves forward, eliminating the distance I’ve created. “The way you’re looking at me right now.”

She’s right. The same electric charge that crackled between us in the parking garage is here now, amplified by the insanity of our situation.

“This will never work. People will see right through us,” I say, grasping for any rational objection.

“It doesn’t need to work perfectly. It just needs to keep us both alive.” She reaches up again, this time tracing the line of my jaw with her fingertip. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll even enjoy being married to me.”

I catch her hand again, but this time I don’t release it. Instead, I pull her closer, until we’re chest to chest. Her heartbeat hammers against mine.

“If we do this,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper, “you need to know something. I will find out what’s on that drive. I will discover why Tristan is willing to die for it. And when I do, I’ll use it to free us both. Even if that means bringing down you and your father’s entire empire.”

“I’d expect nothing less from my husband.”

Husband.

What an absurd, cruel word. A cosmic joke.

The ultimate cover for two people drowning in secrets, bound not by love, but by necessity. A contract sealed in blood, not vows. A partnership forged in lies, not devotion.

It’s not like I believe in marriage anyway. People making promises they can’t keep, pretending love lasts forever when it usually dies within a few years. But this? It should never be forced like this on anyone.

And once we step into it, there’s no way out.

Unless one of you kills the other.

“I need to talk to Tristan,” I say, stepping back.

Caterina nods, the mask of cool indifference sliding back into place. “Don’t keep my father waiting. He hates that.”

“I’m well aware,” I grit out, already annoyed by her.

I move to the door, then pause. “One more thing. Zoe stays out of this. After tonight, you cut ties with her completely, or the next body in your little shipping container will be yours after I slit your throat.”

Caterina laughs. “Don’t make threats you can’t enforce, Aaron. It makes you look weak.”

“It’s not a threat. It’s a non-negotiable boundary.”

A half-smile forms. “Midnight, Aaron. The clock is ticking. Choose your prison carefully.”

I leave her on the terrace, the weight of my impossible choice crushing down on me with each step I take.

Marriage to a killer.

Death for me and Tristan. Possibly everyone else I love too.

The options replay in my mind like a sadistic carousel, never stopping, never offering relief.

There is no good choice, no escape route.

My breath comes shallow, hands trembling—not from fear, but from rage. At her. At myself. At this goddamn corner I’ve been forced into.

I just need some time. Time to think. Time to plan. Because if I don’t say yes, then there is no way for me to get us out of this mess. If we die, or worse, if we get taken, I can’t save us. Everything ends. No second chances, no redemption, no revenge.

I’ve worked too hard, sacrificed too much in my life to lose it all because I won’t bend. My need for control isn’t worth Tristan’s life. It isn’t worth the lives of everyone I’ve sworn to protect.

Sometimes victory doesn’t look like winning. Sometimes it looks like living to fight another day.

And God help her when that day comes.

Whatever I choose at midnight won’t matter.

Because after tonight, nothing will ever be the same.

Not for me. Not for any of us.

Mortelle has just made the worst mistake of his life. Because if marriage to Caterina is the cost of survival, I’ll pay it. But when the moment comes—and it will—I won’t hesitate to burn her and her father’s entire world down around them.

If I could go back in time, knowing everything I know now, would I change any of it?

No. Some fires need to burn. Some enemies need to be kept closer than friends.

And some marriages are made in hell.