Chapter 40

CHAPTER FORTY

Fred

If I got out of this, I would get a CT scan on my head. I'd been banged on my noggin too much lately.

I opened my eyes and I was in a room…definitely a basement. One look left and right and I could tell I was chained to a bed, and none of this was boding well for me.

"Good, you're awake." Aiden smiled above me.

"I've decided I hate you," I said.

He chuckled. "Boo-hoo…however will I recover?" He hit a button and the back of the bed rose, putting me in the sitting position.

My eyes widened to see Finn, Rowan, and Oscar tied up in front of me. They weren't in beds; instead they were in chairs.

"What the hell are you doing, Aiden?" Finn had a trickle of blood on his temple, but the other two just seemed to be exhausted.

"What I have to, Fred." He shrugged.

"You'll never get away with this. Do you think any of the shot-callers or enforcers are going to sit idly by and let you kill the highest-ranking members of the family and not come after you?"

He rolled his motherfucking stupid eyes. "Funny thing about that. See, Oscar here explained to me that support was everything. But with Sean alive and you, well, that would be hard. Everyone would flock over to you or him, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to sway them." He snorted.

"So you devised a plan to kill us all and come out of this the hero. The blank gun the detective found, it was to make it appear like you were being shot at too. You probably had blood bags attached to you or were planning to fall down, miraculously not getting hit. Then what, you'd be the only survivor and everyone would bow before you, and that would be that?"

He sneered. "But you had to change things up and not die."

"Oh, sorry about that."

He rushed over to me and wrapped his hand around my neck. He squeezed but not enough to stop my breathing, just enough for me to be uncomfortable.

"You never even wanted any of this. You wanted to walk away and honestly, I'd have let you but no, that's not how it worked. So I had to kill you and Sean…you were in my way!"

He released me and I cleared my throat. "Why Aine?"

He walked over to Rowan, who glared at Aiden.

"Aine was too smart. If she lived, she'd have figured it all out and while she may not have come at me on her own, she was smart enough to get others on her side…Haven Hart mostly. I couldn't have that." He smiled. "With my plan, everyone would see me as someone who tried to save you, even Zion, who would tell Vincenzo and I'd be thanked, supported, and have an army as I took my seat at the head of the table."

"How are you this delusional? My father always said you were smart, here you are…being all dumb."

He lifted his gun and, without hesitation, shot me in the leg.

"Fuck!" I shouted. It was as if fire was eating at my flesh and crawling up my bones. My damn mouth always got me in trouble.

"He did think I was smart." He came back over to me and pressed his hand on the wound. The pain was razor sharp, and I thought I'd throw up or black out…maybe both.

"Your father once told me he wished I was his son so that he'd be leaving his legacy in the hands of someone worthy." He removed his hand from my leg.

"Great," I hissed. "You should be so proud to have something in common with a psychopath."

"You're only alive because I need you to contact Albert and clear me of all of this. I was willing to war with the Bleeding Angels—no question we'd win, but the Fire Demons, no. He can fix things."

"Hold on." I shifted my leg, blood was oozing out of the wound at an alarming rate. "You want me to tell Albert you're a nice person so the ladies don't hunt you down?" I laughed. "After your spectacle at the train station?" Jesus, he was stupid. "Vincenzo isn't going to rest until you're dead."

The door opened and Declan, one of my shot-callers, entered.

"We just had a visitor, some woman asking for the old lady next door."

"Declan?"

He looked over at me and spit. "Fucking fairy."

I nodded. "Ahh, I see. So you turned Declan and his Manchester sector against me because I'm gay…gotcha. Who else is on your side, Aiden?"

He ignored me. "What did the lady want?"

"Said she had an appointment with her. I took care of it, but we gotta move soon. Finish up."

Aiden faced me. "Manchester was easy. Declan isn't a fan of the gays." He chuckled. "He recruited a few enforcers, Niall and Rooney, of course. A few of them kept Vincenzo and his guys occupied at the station while the others secured this place."

He had backing, but he was delusional if he thought it was enough. "I'm not calling Albert."

He nodded, lifted his gun, and shot Rowan in the head. Instant kill.

"No!" Finn shouted. "You motherfucking piece of shit, you're a dead man."

"You first." Aiden aimed his pistol at Finn.

"If you kill anyone else, I never speak."

"Make the call." He held out the phone, and I shook my chains.

"Would you like me to grab that with my tongue, you fucking moron?"

He gritted his teeth. "I dial, you talk."

"Fine." I gave him the number and after the second ring, Albert picked up.

"Yeah."

"Hi, Albert, it's Fred."

"What's up? You get that fuck, Aiden?"

I leveled my former driver with a glare. "Yup. Found him, and would you believe he's super innocent and isn't at all a baddie. Like he's just cotton-candy sweet. Bought us matching sweaters and everything."

"Fuck," Albert whispered. "He's got you, huh?"

"Seems that way. Hey when I'm dead, spread the word that Aiden likes to fuck goats."

"You…" Aiden disconnected the call and threw it, and it shattered when it hit the wall. "I'm going to enjoy this."

He gripped my neck again and this time squeezed until my breath was cut off. Darkness creeped in at the edges, and all I could think about was Vincenzo.

His million-dollar smile, the way every touch left a mark that sunk deep into my skin and tattooed itself to my soul. The taste of his tongue and the power it had to short-circuit my brain and calm the chaos.

How he truly saw me.

I could search the world ten times over and never find anyone who looked at me the way he did. Like I mattered, like I was precious and could do anything. How he saw in me the fighter and didn't ignore my vulnerabilities; instead he made me own them and see where they took me.

I'd miss him. I'd miss the unknown future. The hope…the dream.

I'd miss the happily ever after I had always wished I'd get.