“Hello, Shayna.”
“Fiore,” I whispered.
“Climb in. We need to talk.”
“I don’t have a choice.”
I felt the gun press against my ribs.
“No, you don’t,” Fiore said. “Get in the fucking vehicle.”
I climbed into the back of the SUV. I sat there and stared forward at the remains of the cabin.
My eyes filled with tears.
Not for Finn, no. But for Cormac. The poor guy was dead. For what? For nothing. He didn’t deserve that kind of death. He had come to the cabin, drunk, to be with his best friend. To be with a man he considered a brother. He had been sleeping on the couch, sleeping off the booze.
Now he was dead.
Just. Like. That.
I wiped tears away and took a shaky breath.
“It’s okay,” Fiore said. “It was all meant to be like this.”
“No,” I whispered. “It wasn’t.”
All the men returned to the SUV. The driver had been the guy who grabbed me. The two men who surveyed the rubble sat in the passenger seat and crammed next to me, respectively.
“I can’t trust a man like Finn,” Fiore said. “He was a great fighter and he’ll be hard to replace. But what he finally gave me is what I’ll remember him by.” Fiore then reached a hand and touched my stomach. “Right? Do you still feel it?”
That was my saving grace, for the moment.
So I nodded.
Fiore had no idea the wrong man was killed. He had no idea that Finn was still alive and hiding.
“Good. Good, Shayna.”
“What are we doing now?” I asked.
Fiore smiled big. “First, we’re going to go make a lot of money. Do you know how?”
“No,” I said.
“I booked a fight for Finn. And there’s way too much opportunity to bet for him to win. But I put a lot of money on him not winning. No matter what. And since a dead man can’t fight…”
My stomach felt sick. “Oh.”
“And once we’re done making all that money, Shayna, we’re going to go visit someone.”
“Who?”
Fiore smiled even bigger. And he gave away something I never saw coming.
“We’re going to visit Zander.”
39.
(Finn)
I hated to do it, but I couldn’t fucking move. For a second I thought about pushing back and climbing out from under the truck at the front. Then I was going to crouch down and make my attack when the guys came by. But then I heard one of them say something about finding the body.
I was the body.
They were looking for me in the rubble of the cabin.
So I stayed under the truck.
When the two guys made the discovery, they assumed it was me.
My heart was ripped from my fucking chest. I stared at the two men as they gave thumbs up, waved, made confirmation that I was dead. They weren’t fucking looking at me though, were they? They were looking at Cormac. My brother. My boy. My best damn friend in the world.
I made fists and put them to the ground. I pushed hard, lifting myself up a little. Small rocks tore into my knuckles. I wanted to rush out from under the truck and attack. Someone had killed my best friend. My brother. The only man I knew that would give his life for me.
And he just did.
Because the two men walked away from the remains of my cabin.
I slowly turned so I could see out from under the truck. I had to be careful not to push my luck and get caught.
I saw someone with Shayna.
She was at a big black SUV and was forced into the vehicle. The other men climbed inside and the vehicle started to leave.
Watching that SUV drive away was hard.
Who had Shayna? Who would do this to my cabin?
There were only two people.
Zander. Or Fiore.
I got out from under the truck and stood up. I brushed myself off of the dirt and dust. I didn’t want to look back at what used to be my cabin. My hands were tight into fists and I stared. I thought. I tried to seek logic.
You know the logic, Finn. You fucking know it…
“Fiore,” I whispered.
That’s the only thing that made sense.
Was it coincidence that Shayna was out of the cabin when it blew up? It felt too planned. Like someone wanted Shayna out and me inside. Whoever blew it up thought I was still inside. They saw Shayna standing at the tree. They didn’t see me because I was under the truck, checking it for a bomb.
Why would Zander want Shayna alive?
Maybe he wanted to take her and punish her. Torture her.
But why kill me so fast? Why not take me and torture me too? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to keep me and Shayna alive? Zander could then go after Fiore using me and Shayna.
Shayna was saved. On purpose.
Why?
Simple.
The baby.
Fiore thought Shayna was pregnant. So he killed me and took her. He knew I loved her. He was mad at me for his daughter having some kind of crush or something on me. The guy was insane. Completely insane.
And now he had the woman I loved. The woman who could really be carrying a life inside her.
I took one step and stopped.
That’s when I looked back.
My eyes filled with tears.
~