Page 109 of Vicious Arrangement
He grins, and there’s a slight dimple and I suddenly know why he looks familiar even though I don’t know him.
“I’m Noah’s brother.”
I try to regulate my breathing. I tell myself the date, my name. I go through all the things they do to see if someone’s concussed. But I need medical attention. Even if I’m not, I could have a fractured skull. There might be brain swelling coming on. I’m about to lose my shit and my mind, so I start counting backwards.
Then I force myself to look at him. Two eyes. One nose. One mouth. If I could make him hold up fingers for me to count, I would.
“Noah,” he says gravely, “did a bad, bad thing. He told the mafia where to find me. What kind of brother would do that? No wonder his grandfather hated him and our father wanted him dead. He’s a monster, and he’d going to pay for it.”
I debate holding back the sob that’s rising, but I let it out, tears spilling. Let him think I’m weak. If I can buy a moment of sympathy, maybe I can talk him down. “W-what are you going to do with me?”
He sits on the end of the bed and slips a hand under the blanket and up my leg to my thigh.
“That’s up to Noah,” he says, stroking my flesh and making my stomach turn. He inches up a little higher. “He’ll either pay the money I rightly deserve, or I’ll hand you over to the mafia to settle my debt. I imagine a pretty little thing like you will do well in an auction.”
The hand slides a little further, stopping at my upper inner thigh, just shy of my panties.
“An auction?” Nausea rocks me hard.
Aaron nods. “There are a lot of sick people in this world, Aria. People who’ll pay a lot of money for a pretty thing like you. Shit, girl, you look untouched. I know you’re not. I saw you have an appointment with a lady doctor. Did Noah knock you up? A pregnant girl just might fetch a lot more than even a slightly touched one. You’re probably up there with a virgin or underage.
“There are people who’ll pay through the nose to do horrendous things to you. Things that’ll make you wish you were dead. But they wouldn’t allow that. No fun in the dead for that lot. They’ll just make you wish it, and they’ll keep using you and hurting you until they’re done. Then they’ll give you to the ones who like the dead to play with.”
He squeezes my thigh hard as he leans in. “Some like to paralyze you so you feel everything they do to the dead before killing you. Just so you know.”
Aaron squeezes a little harder, then lets go and gets up.
He’s so pleased with himself that I can barely look at him.
“I can’t believe I ever tried to convince Noah to give you a chance. You’re a coward. Noah’s right, you’re nothing but a monster, just like your father.”
He spins, eyes blazing as he launches himself at me, hands locking around my throat as he cuts off my air. “You have no idea what you’re fucking talking about. You don’t know my life or what I’ve been through. That fuck Noah has everything and I have nothing. Nothing!”
Tears scald my skin as he chokes me, and I try to fight him, but I can’t. His restraints bite into my flesh, holding me fast. I can’t breathe, and the world’s going dark, but I croak some words out.
“I’m no good to you dead.”
They reach him because he lets go and slaps me so hard across the face that my ears ring.
“You stupid, ugly fucking cunt. Rich bitch who’s gonna deserve everything she gets. I hope they give me a go on you. I’ll fucking cut off your tits, you stupid bitch.”
Bile, bitter and thick, fills my mouth, and I swallow it down, past my now-raw throat.
But the panic’s still in my veins, hammering at me with frantic wings. I need to get out of here. I have to. I don’t think I’m going to survive the trip to his nasty friends. He sounds like everything Noah told me about his father, but with all the staggeringly horrific pieces he left out restored, and somewhere in all of this, my heart aches for little Noah.
I have to get out. I’ll die otherwise.
But there’s no way out. The ties are too strong.
Noah’s the only person who can help me, and I pray that he somehow finds me and gets here in time.
Chapter Thirty
NOAH
I madeit back before six.
The thought keeps going over and over in my head, a useless broken record.
