“I wanted her to know what it was like to wish you could just die and not have to live another day with the person you’ve become.” I almost tell him I didn’t know that I loved her. But I change the words as I add, “I didn’t know that I cared for her. Not until she came here.”
She gave me a new reason to live. Not only all those years ago when she saved me, but also this past month when I finally got her beneath me.
The silence stretches between us and it feels suffocating. I’ve never felt shame for what I’ve become, because everything I am and everything I’ve done is for the three men who stand in front of me, judging what I’ve told them.
“And Stephan?” Declan asks. He’s the only one of the three who didn’t know why I was letting Aria kill him. He didn’t care to know, like so many other things he’d rather not be aware of.
“He raped and murdered her mother. She cries at night in her sleep because of him.”
The dark pit of sadness that narrowly exists within me expands at the memory of the first night I realized the power he had over her. “I had to give her this,” I explain and my last word hisses from my lips.
Jase is the first to nod in agreement, followed by Declan and then, finally, Daniel.
“They’re all going to be coming for us now,” Daniel says, but this time his voice welcomes the challenge. The moment of wondering what my brothers think of me, what they think of her, ends as quickly as it came.
I answer Daniel the only way I know how. With the only acceptable answer there is.
“Let them come.”
Chapter 3
Aria
I don’t know how long I’ve been shaking. My hand trembles as I reach for the faucet and turn the scalding water even hotter. My skin is bright red, but I can’t feel anything. Everything is numb and out of my control as I lean against the tiled wall. My knees quiver and my body begs me to heave. The heavy diamond on the necklace ever present around my neck hits the tile of the stall and I hold on to it as if it can save me or take me away.
Is this what it feels like to kill someone? I’ve only seen two people die in front of me before.
My mother was the first. And the second ruled my life until the fateful day Carter changed my life forever.
I remember thinking about that second time when I watched someone’s life being taken in front of me, right as I stood at the side of the bar. Completely unaware that when I entered, my entire life would change forever. I just wanted my notebook back.
I suck in a deep breath of the hot steam as I lean my head back against the tile and close my eyes. The memory takes me back to only weeks ago, but that memory is far better than the reality of my bloodstained skin.
Shoving my hands in my pockets to keep them warm, I let my fingers trace over the keys to my car. It’s the only weapon I have.
And keys are a weapon. I’ve seen someone slice a hole in a guy’s throat with a key. I stood there numbly as the man’s hands tried to reach his neck, but my father’s men gripped his wrists and pulled them behind his back. Blow after blow, each one puncturing his skin as he was restrained and unable to defend himself.
A chill flows over my skin at the memory and it takes me a minute to realize I’m not breathing.
I remember the sound of sneakers kicking small rocks across the pavement. The sound of the busy street at the other end of the alley.
Three men my father employs were supposed to be escorting me back home from the studio I wanted to rent, but they decided to take a detour.
And I stood there in shock; it all happened so quickly.
Mika was with me then. His thin lips tipped up into the evilest smile I’d ever seen. That smile held pure joy. Joy at my shock? Or my horror? Maybe my pain, because I knew the man they’d killed.
Mika’s dark black hair was slicked back. His beard was shaved off and it was only stubble that caressed his skin that night. Conventionally speaking, Mika’s a good-looking man with a deep, rough voice that can bring any woman to her knees.
But I’ve seen who he really is. And knowing he’s the man I’ve come to see and make demands of, sends a spike of fear through me.
But I won’t let anyone steal from me. I can’t let them push me around and let them think I’m weak. And like my father says, it’s time for me to demand respect. It’s what the Talverys do.