Page 44 of Beautiful Revenge

“Do you, Finn Murphy, take Aria Romano, to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

“I do,” Finn says with so much smugness, it almost makes me slap him.

“And do you, Aria Romano, take Finn Murphy, to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

“He’s forcing me into this,” I blurt out. “I don’t want this.”

Finn tightens his hands on my own. “Aria. You will do this.”

“Or what? What will you do to me? You need me to hurt Dante.”

“Or I could kill your father.” He says it so easily, like it’s nothing more than just breathing to him to talk about killing another human being.

I know Finn is right. He almost killed my dad last night. I cannot let that happen.

“Fine,” I spit out. “I’ll marry you. I do. I’ll marry him.”

The priest looks uncertain but when Finn flashes his gun again, the priest quickly finishes up the ceremony.

And it’s at that very moment that the church doors burst open and Dante, Matteo, and Aiden walk on in.

“Stop this fucking madness,” Dante growls, raising his gun.

“How did you find us?” Finn asks.

“You weren’t making it a secret, going around town, buying a wedding dress and wedding rings. We tracked your car, Finn. We found you here.”

“Mmm. Well, that’s a problem isn’t it? So, if you’re going to kill me, then kill me.” His eyes land on his brother. “But if you didn’t have the balls to once before, you won’t have them now.”

“He doesn’t need to do it,” Dante says. “I do.”

Finn grabs my arms and pulls me in front of him. “If you shoot, you’ll be shooting her too.”

“Seriously?” I ask. “You’re using me as a shield? How much of a coward can you be?”

“Dante won’t shoot you,” he murmurs into my ear. “This is the only way I’m making it out of here alive. It’s not cowardice.”

“Looks like it to me.”

Finn smirks. “So, Dante, want to shoot now?”

Dante hesitates, then lowers his gun. “Let her go, Finn.”

“Or what? You’ll kill me? We’ve seemed to establish that you suck at killing me. So, why don’t you quit posturing. I justmarried Aria. She’s mine now and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Why are you doing this?” Aiden asks. “Are you that hurt that I fell in love and married Elena?”

“I’ve got a woman of my own now.”

“Finn,” Matteo says. “We used to be friends. Just let Aria go and we can be friends again.”

“Bullshit. You’ll kill me.”

“You don’t think you deserve it?” Dante asks. “After all the shit you’ve pulled? Why are you trying to hurt me now, Finn?”

“I’ve been trying to hurt you for a long time. When I worked with Viktor. When I killed Ivan Romanov just to fuck over your peace deal with Erik. We were friends, Dante, but you sided with the fucking Russians and I just couldn’t have that.”

“If you had just agreed to work with me, then none of this would have happened. You wouldn’t be fighting so hard for your life right now and you know it. Just let Aria go and we can try again.”

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