Page 33 of Beautiful Revenge

He gives me a pointed look. “I think you know what I’m going to do.”

“Kill them,” I whisper. “Why not just kill them here before they left?”

“Then I would have had a lot of blood to clean up and I actually want to get a good night’s sleep for once. I’ll be back in a few hours.” He leaves without looking back at me to go kill his friends.

If Finn is capable of killing men who he considered friends, then he’s more than capable of killing me. I need to be on my toes with him. I cannot let what I felt for just a moment happen again.

Finn is not on my side. He saved me from a purely practical standpoint.

There is no fucking way I am falling in love with my kidnapper. I would rather kill myself than let that happen.

Finn

I fucked up tonight. I never should have invited those fucking idiots over. Aria could have died. When I saw Zach choking her, it did something strange to me.

It made me…feel. Feel more than I have in a long time.

Most of the emotion inside of me is anger, and while I did feel that when I saw Zach choking Aria, I also felt something else.

I felt worried. I imagined Aria dying and I realized I didn’t want to lose her. I wanted to protect her. Fuck. What the ever living fuck is happening to me? I do not care for women on an emotional level. I fuck them and I leave them and call it a day.

But I never fall in love.

It’s why it hurt so much when Aiden betrayed me by falling in love with Elena. I think I was partly jealous that he was experiencing something I would never get to experience.

I wanted to protect Aria tonight. I don’t know what to make of it but I know it can’t be good.

Chapter Six

Aria

The moment Finn leaves, I realize he made a mistake. The cabin isn’t reinforced like the other house was, meaning, when I open the door, I’m able to walk right outside. He forgot to tie me to the bed.

It’s shocking to realize that Finn made a mistake. He must have gotten distracted with what happened that he forgot all about me.

Well, that’s good enough for me.

I leave the cabin but there’s no car I can use so I know I’ll have to walk until I can find someone to help me. The thought of hitchhiking sounds horrible but if I have to do it, I’ll do it. I just hope I won’t find myself in another bad situation.

The longer I walk, the more clear it becomes to me that I really am in the middle of nowhere. A long road covered by woods on each side is the only thing I see. I stay on the edge of the road in case Finn comes back. I can run into the cover of the trees. But I also don’t want to get lost. I need to find a house, a town, something to help me.

I walk as fast as I can without pushing my body too hard. I haven’t had much to eat these past few days – the little bit of food Finn finally gave me was not very filling. I know he’s trying to make me weak so I can’t fight back. I just want to return home and be done with Finn forever.

I want to forget about the strange moment we had after he saved me from Zach. It meant nothing. He means nothing to me and I mean nothing to him. That is something I can never forget.

Hopefully Finn will be gone for most of the day dealing with all the men at the party. But there’s another problem that arises as I walk: it’s starting to get dark outside. That’s only going to make everything more dangerous.

A coyote could get me. Or I could get lost and wander forever until I died of starvation.

I have to keep my head. I am Aria Romano. I do not give in to my fear. I have survived being in Finn’s clutches for the past couple days. If I can do that, I can survive anything.

A car starts to come down the road. The urge to run out and ask for help is strong but what if it’s Finn? Or someone worse?

I dive towards the trees and watch the car go by. It’s not Finn’s car when I can see it better. Damn it. In the dark it’s hard to make out cars when their headlights are so bright.

I’ll just have to keep walking until I find the nearest town. I know we passed through one on the way here. But it could take me hours and I’m not sure if I have hours. Not when Finn realizes I’m gone and goes looking for me.

I pick up my speed just a little bit.

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