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“And now I’m going to kill you because you did,” he says, his finger wrapping around the trigger.
Before he can pull the trigger, his other hand appears, slashing a knife across Erin’s throat. Erin drops to the ground, clutching at her throat as blood pours out of it.
My stomach is tossing and turning. I want to scream and cry as I watch my best friend’s life draining from her eyes.
There’s nothing I can do, though. She betrayed the family. She broke the most important rule of our lifestyle and she did it while knowing exactly what kind of man my father is. She has nobody to blame but herself.
“You’re dismissed,” Dad says as he looks up at me while his men grab the body. “And let this be a reminder of what happens to those who cross me. You may be blood, but blood who betrays me is no better than sewer water.”
I nod, keeping my face a blank mask. When I turn on my heel and stalk out of the room, I let the first tear fall.
It’s nearly impossible to hold myself together as I take the stairs to my room, my hands clenched into fists so tight my hands hurt.
The second my door is closed and locked behind me, I toss myself on the bed and mourn the one person in the world who knew how I truly feel about my life.
When the tears finally stop, I reach for the bottle of tequila I hid under my bed. I take a long swig before reaching inside a cut I made along the side of my mattress. The burner phone takes a second to find, but once I do, I stare at it, wondering if I should call Tyson or not.
His phone number is still etched into my memory.
If there’s one person who can help me get out of this life before it consumes me, it’s him, but the second I start thinking about turning against my family, all I can see is Erin’s face as the knife was dragged across her throat.
I take a deep breath and put the bottle back under the bed. The phone still sits on my bed as I get up and pace back and forth across my room. The walls feel like they’re closing in around me and I feel like I’m suffocating.
This house is a prison and it’s designed to keep me trapped, ‘safe’ where my father can keep an eye on me.
He used to talk about marrying me to one of his competitors and bringing the two groups together. There are still days that he speaks of it and I know I’m hardly anything more to him than a bargaining chip. His possession as he called me.
Loyalty to the family above all else, Aria,I think as I step out onto the balcony.
The sun is shining overhead and the birds are chirping. It’s as if they don’t have a single care in the world. Nothing can bother them.
Watching the landscape around me and the peace that it portrays, I know that my gilded cage has now been permanently closed.
Watching a bird fly by, I can only wish I was as free as the birds.
4
TYSON
The part of my job I hate the most is the constant phone calls.
Jameson is the kind of man who calls whenever a new case is dropped on his desk, or whenever a thought about an old case strikes him. Because, of course, if he’s awake and thinking about it, I have to be as well.
However, when I roll over and grab my ringing phone – barely registering that it’s well after midnight – it’s an unknown number that’s flashing up on the screen.
I consider ignoring it and going back to bed, but the ringing doesn’t stop. I get the sinking feeling that if I don’t answer it, the person trying to call me will just keep calling until I do.
“It’s the middle of the night,” I say instead of a greeting as I answer the call.
“That didn’t seem to bother you two nights ago,” Aria says, amusement in her tone. “In fact, I think you were demanding that I call your name.”
“Only when you came,” I say before instantly regretting it.
Sleeping with her had been a good time. It’s something that I would like to repeat but it’s not going to happen. I’ve been following her for the last two days and I knew that she was close to agreeing to work with me to bring her father down, all she needed was the final push.
When I heard the rumor that her father killed her friend this morning, I thought it might have been the final push she needed but she lasted over another twelve hours before breaking down and calling me.
“Why are you calling me right now?” I ask, my tone gruff.
