Page 55 of Beautiful Enemy

Anya runs towards the back of the house and looks out a window. She blanches. “They’re dead.”

I look to see what she’s pointing at. Three other guards are lying on the ground by the side of the house, all with bullet holes in their heads.

“How?” Anya whispers.

“Finn must have gotten here before I did. He must have killed them. He’s a hitman, you know.”

“I know. I had my own run in with him back when I first married Erik.” She clutches me close. “Ok. So we have no guards. Finn’s trying to get inside.”

“Call Erik.”

“He’s too far away. He’ll never make it in time. But I’ll call him.”

The front door bangs open, causing Anya to drop her phone. Finn’s footsteps are like the clanging of a death toll.

“We have to fight him,” Anya says, tugging me behind her as we run into the kitchen. She grabs a large butcher knife and brandishes it before her.

Finn finds us like that. “It’s cute that you think you can use that against me.”

With a snarl, Anya swipes it at him but he only grabs her arm and pulls her against him, taking the knife out of her hands and placing it against her throat.

“I will kill her,” Finn warns. “But if you come back with me and Dante, I’ll let your sister go.”

“He’s just going to kill me anyway,” Anya says. “Don’t go with him. Please Nadia.”

He starts to draw the knife along Anya’s neck.

“Stop!” I scream. To his credit, Finn pauses. “I’ll go with you. I never should have left Dante. Just don’t hurt my sister. Please.”

Finn shrugs. “See? You didn’t have to make it hard at all.” He starts to let her go, then at the last second, pulls her back against him. “On second thought, it would be more fun just to kill your sister right now.”

Anya’s eyes plead with me to run. If I leave my sister behind, I might be able to save myself. But then I’ll have to live without Anya. I know she would never stop fighting for me just like I’ll never stop fighting for her.

Another set of footsteps sound out throughout the house. Dante runs into the kitchen. It takes him just a couple of seconds to process what is going on. “Finn, stop.”

“But you want this bitch to hurt. Killing her would do that.”

Anya whimpers. I’ve rarely seen my sister look so afraid. She’s been my protector for all of my life.

But now it’s my turn to protect her.

“Please. I’ll go with you.” I say this to Dante. “I will. Don’t let him hurt Anya.”

Dante looks right back at me, anger and confusion written in his eyes, before they soften. “Finn, let her go.”

“Dante-,”

“Finn,” he barks. “Let her go. We need to get the fuck out of here before Erik returns.”

“How do you know he’s not here?” I ask.

“Care to explain?” he says to Anya.

With a deep sigh, she says, “Because Erik would be right here fighting for me if he was home.”

Dante points at her. “Bingo. So Erik isn’t here but I doubt he’ll be gone forever. All I want is Nadia. I don’t want Anya dead, Finn. If Anya is dead, then I can’t hurt her by using Nadia against her. Use some fucking logic.”

Finn glares at Dante before he slowly lets Anya go. She rushes to my side but Dante runs over to me and pulls me away from her.

---