Page 38 of Beautiful Revenge

I smirk. “It’s because you can’t. You could never kill me.”

“And you could never kill me. That’s why we keep ending up in moments like this. Neither one can pull the trigger.”

“I am getting the girl back, Aiden.”

“You’ll have to kill me first.”

“Fine.” I whip out my gun and shoot. The bullet hits the wall beside Aiden’s head but it’s enough to make Aiden jerk to the side. I run right at him and tackle him to the ground. We punch at each other, each one of us getting a swing in.

When one of us gets on top, the other one quickly gains power and so on and so forth.

Neither one of us will stop.

But we just can’t seem to kill each other.

I land a hard blow to Aiden’s nose and his head hits the floor. He’s alive but he’s not moving.

“I’m taking her back,” I spit out. “You could never stop me.” I whip him across the head so he goes unconscious. He should be fine as long as he gets to a hospital. I was always the better fighter between the two of us.

I head upstairs and am confronted by Elio on the landing. His own gun his drawn and he doesn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. The bullet hits my arm, knocking me back, but I’ve always had quick reflexes.

I fire my gun and Elio gets hit in the leg, knocked to the ground. I stand over him and kick his gun away. “Do you want to die? Because I will gladly fucking kill you.”

“No!” Aria shouts, running out of her room. She’s in a silky nightdress, looking utterly delectable. My eyes zero in on the bruises around her throat. “Don’t kill him. Just take me back, Finn. Take me and spare my dad.”

“That’s fine. I was going to take you back anyway. But I don’t appreciate men shooting at me. Your father deserves to die on principle.”

Aria steps in front of her dad. “If you kill him, you’ll have to kill me too. But you need me so just take me with you. Just do it.”

I stare at the bravery on Aria’s face. The fierceness. How similar she is to me. Staring down into the barrel of a gun and not even blinking in fear.

“You’ll go without a fight?” I ask her. I need to get her out of here as soon as possible before any more men arrive.

Or before Aiden wakes back up.

“I will. Just spare him. Please.”

I contemplate the offer. It would be so easy to say ‘fuck it’ and kill Elio anyway just because I can.

But then Aria will put up a hell of a fight which will make getting her out of here hard.

And she’ll hate me for it.

I shouldn’t care what Aria thinks. I don’t care what Aria thinks.

And yet… for some reason, I don’t want her to despise me. Hate me? Sure. But despise me… no. And killing her father would make her never forgive me. I learned that from Aiden’s wife, Elena, when I kill her dad.

“Fine. Let’s go.” I put my gun away but I grab Elio’s for good measure.

Aria doesn’t look back at her dad as she follows me downstairs.

“Aria, no!” he cries out, chasing after us. I punch Elio in the face, sending him sprawling to the ground.

Aria gasps but other than that, she shows no fear. Good girl.

She sticks to her word and doesn’t put a fight as we go back to my car.

“You really thought you could get away from me?” I ask as I drive away.

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