Page 64 of Beautiful Revenge

The door unlocks and opens.

“Ready to apologize for locking me back in here?” I ask, hands on my hips, ready to chew Finn out.

Except… it’s not Finn who enters the room.

It’s a man I’ve never seen in my life before. He’s youngish, probably in his thirties, with a nasty scar across his forehead.

I gasp and step back on instinct. “Who are you?”

“Who are you?”

“I live here. You just broke in so you need to explain yourself.”

“But you were in a room with a locked door on it.”

“Who are you?” I demand.

“I’m Sal. I was hired to come find Finn Murphy. Do you know who that is?”

“No,” I answer. For some reason, I don’t want to trust this man. If he was hired by Dante, then he’d know who I was. “Who hired you?”

“A man named Jack Williams. Name sound familiar?”

Jack… oh shit. Jack Williams was the man who hired Finn to kill his wife and baby. But Finn didn’t do that.

“What happened? Who are you?”

“Jack wasn’t happy about Finn not completing the job so he hired me. He wants Finn dead for stealing his money. But he never mentioned you to me.”

“That’s because I’m a prisoner of Finn’s. Can you help me? I was kidnapped by him.”

“You were?” There’s an eagerness in Sal’s eyes that I don’t like. “Oh interesting. Finn refuses to kill a woman and her child and yet kidnaps a young girl. Make that make sense.”

“Did…” I lick my lips and Sal’s eyes zero in on the movement. “Did Jack also hire you to…”

“To kill his wife? Yes he did. And I killed her and that baby too. It just wouldn’t stop crying. It got on my fucking nerves so I blew its brains out.”

All my insides drop right to my feet. This man is bad. Dangerous. So is Finn but at least Finn has qualms about murdering babies. This man doesn’t.

“She,” I say before I can stop myself.

“What?”

“The baby. She was a girl.”

“I don’t fucking care. She’s dead now. I’m here to kill Finn but he’s not here. Do you know when he’ll be back?”

“He… should be back soon.” Finn could be gone for hours for all I know, leaving me alone with this madman. “How did you find this place?”

“Jack lives in the area. He told me he hired Finn based on his location. That he was somewhere nearby. Jack told me he saw the car Finn had used when they met up and I tracked it here. I have contacts that let me get ahold of security footage. It made it easy to find this place. But I guess I was too late. I just missed him, didn’t I?”

“I guess so. So, you might as well leave and come back later.”

“Oh no.” He chuckles but there’s no humor to it. “Why would I leave? I’m right where I want to be. Clearly, Finn will come back if he’s keeping you prisoner. I’m curious. Why is he keeping you prisoner?”

I don’t trust this man but I have to make sure he doesn’t hurt me. “Do you know Dante Moretti?”

“I’ve heard of him. Mafia guy. Never met him.”

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