Page 114 of Beautiful Deception

“Me or her?” Finn asks innocently as Inessa clutches her face.

“You,” I say to Finn. “You will not hit her.”

“But you just found out she’s been lying to you. We should kill her.”

“We are not doing that. But we are going to find her father and be done with him. I’m getting the justice owed to me.”

“Viktor, please,” Inessa sobs, still holding her red cheek. I try not to let the sight of her pain bother me.

I steel myself and storm out to my car. Both Finn and Inessa follow.

“What is going on?” Mrs. Green asks, running outside. “I keep hearing screaming.”

“Stay inside,” I bark at her as I get into my car. Inessa dives into the passenger seat while Finn gets into the back.

“I have to see this,” Finn says gleefully.

“Inessa, get back inside,” I tell her.

“No. If you’re going to kill my father, I’m going to be there when it happens.”

I stare at her for a long hard moment before I turn the car on. “Fine. This is your punishment for lying to me.”

I can feel her visibly recoil from me and I don’t care. She lied to me. She deserves this.

Finn is practically bouncing in the back seat as I drive to the motel. Fucker loves violence. It makes me hesitate for just a second if I’m doing the right thing.

But when I look at Inessa, I tell myself I am. I have been betrayed. She did this to me. She knew how I felt and still, for months, she never told me the truth.

How can I believe anything she says anymore?

How can I believe she isn’t just using me to gain money?

We reach the motel and I barely stop the car before I’m out of it and running towards the building.

“Room ten,” Finn tells me.

“Viktor, wait!” Inessa cries as I find the room and kick down the door.

What I find next surprises me. Gleb Petrov is tied to a chair. I remember his stringy, greasy hair. I remember the panic in his eyes when he failed to kill me. When I chased him down.

“Fucker,” I growl. This is Inessa’s father. It’s shocking to me how a man like him could have made Inessa.

None of that matters, I tell myself. What matters is that I’m here to kill him.

Chapter Seventeen

Inessa

Viktorisgoingtokill my father.

It’s the one thing I tried to avoid and was unable to. Fate has a way of catching up to you.

I stumble to a halt in the motel room when I see my dad is tied up.

“Your doing?” Viktor asks Finn.

“Yep. Spoke to the bastard earlier and he confirmed everything. Tied him up so he couldn’t leave.”

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