Page 14 of Late Night Talking
I’m grinning like mad when I let myself into the apartment. Bonnie is already gone, but there’s evidence of her everywhere I look, a fact that gives me pause. Is she going to be okay when I leave? I can wait until the end of the lease, but I want to move into Finn’s house as soon as possible.
I’m still thinking about this as I take my dress into my room and hang it in my closet. I don’t really have time for a shower, but I figure I have time to freshen up a little. I turn, snatching up my makeup kit as I go, but just before I reach the hallway, a figure steps out of the shadows and blocks my way.
I gasp and stumble backward, tripping over my own feet and almost falling over. Ethan steps into the room, moving slow and purposeful, his face full of anger. He’s supposed to be on a plane to California. He’s not supposed to be inmy home.
“You know,” he says as I feel around on my bed for my phone. But I’m fairly certain I left it in the living room, and he’s standing between me and the door, a formidable and unmovable force. “At first, I was fine with the idea of you leaving me. To be honest, I’ve always thought you were kind of boring. But you have a nice ass, and you’re a good fuck, so I figured why not?”
He takes another step into the room, and I back up, trying to get to the window. Maybe I can signal Finn’s driver. Maybe I can get him to call the police. I move slowly backward through my bedroom.
“But then I was sitting in the airport this morning, and out of curiosity about the piece of shit who cost me a bonus that I deserved, I did a little research on Finn Casey, and do you know what I found?”
My back hits the window, and I turn, seeing the lights of the cars down below, but before I can make any gestures, I’m grabbed from behind and dragged back into the center of the room.
Ethan has a hand over my mouth and his arm wrapped around my middle. “I said,” he growls in my ear, “do you know what I found? I found you. Did you think that you would be able to hide that you were with him?”
I twist and try to get his hand away from my face, but he’s holding on tight and backing us out into the living room. I have no idea what his plan is, but maybe if I get to the living room, I can get my phone.
“From what I can make of the story,” he goes on as we move out into the hallway and inch into the living room, “the two of you broke up a while ago, but he showed up back here recently. I’m guessing that as soon as he made a reappearance, you went right back to fucking him.” His voice ratchets up a notch in apparent anger, and he throws me down hard.
My head hits the corner of our coffee table, and I see stars. I’m not far from the door, not even far from my phone, in my purse at the end of the couch, but I can’t move. My head feels like someone put it in an oven and set it to broil. I try to get up onto my hands and knees, but I feel like I’m going to puke.
“What the fuck is that?” Ethan shouts from behind me, and I have no idea what he’s talking about until he grabs me, forcing me up onto my knees and reaching for my hand. My ring. He’s going for my ring. He gets his fingers around the band, but I ball my hand into a fist and try to jerk away from him.
“No!” I scream, the haze behind my eyes clearing. “Don’t fucking touch it!”
He’s trying to pry it from my finger, but I wriggle away from him, trying to crawl to the other end of the couch, where my phone is just sitting in my bag.
“Does he know you’re a fucking whore?” Ethan says, and before I can get halfway to my bag, he’s got a handful of my hair and has yanked my head back. “Bet you never told him that, huh? Just like you didn’t tell me. Makes sense though. You always did act like a slut.”
I try to make a grab for my bag, but even with my arms stretched as far as they can go, as long as Ethan is holding onto my hair, I can’t reach it.
And then, Ethan wraps his arm around my throat. He starts to speak into my ear. “Assholes like Finn Casey always get what they want. They get what they want, and they step on men like me while they get it. And I’m done with that. He can’t fucking have you.”
His words are punctuated by the tightening of his arm around my throat. Oh God. He’s going to kill me. He’s actually going to kill me. I scratch at his arm and fight to get my elbow into some sensitive part of his body, but I can’t breathe, and the stars are back, pushing in at the edges of my vision. I reach back and try to scratch at his eyes or pull his hair, but he has me in an intense hold, and the fight is starting to go out of my body. I’m trying to suck in air, but I can’t get anything.
And then Ethan flinches, letting up just enough for me to get in a little oxygen, and I hear the cocking of a gun as Ethan’s whole body goes still.
“Take your fucking hands off my wife.” Finn’s voice travels through the room like a tremor, and Ethan lets me go. I fall onto the ground and cough and gasp for breath, scrambling to get as far from him as I can, my back against the wall, before I turn to see what’s happening.
I see the gun first. Finn has it pressed against the back of Ethan’s head, his hand steady. Ethan’s face is red and sweaty, his breath sawing out of him as he trembles. He has his hands up in surrender. A true coward. All confidence until he has to face the music.
“You won’t do it,” Ethan says, but I see the way his hands shake.
I haven’t looked at Finn’s face before this moment. I’ve been too distracted by the movement, the breathing, the pounding in my own head. But I look at him now, at how there’s anger etched into every line of his face as he looks down at Ethan, his hand tight on the gun. God, why does he have a gun?
“Finn,” I whisper. I can’t do much more than that. When I try, it feels like my throat is being torn apart piece by piece. Finn doesn’t look at me. He’s too wrapped up in his anger, too caught by whatever he’s thinking about doing to Ethan.
“You severely underestimate my feelings for the woman you were just crawling all over like a fucking animal. Is that what you do to women when they don’t want you?” Finn’s voice is cruel, but I can’t even blame him. If I was in his position, if I was the one with the gun, would I do the same thing? Would I have to war with myself to keep from killing Ethan?
“Finn,” I say again, but it’s like he’s in a trance. I don’t know what to do in this moment other than sit here and watch things play out. I see Finn’s finger move on the trigger, and I shake my head. He can’t. I don’t know what will happen to him if he kills Ethan, but I know we won’t get to be together. We won’t get to have a beautiful wedding and a beautiful life.
“She wanted me just fine until you came back,” Ethan says, and I flinch at his words. “Maybe she just wants whoever will have her.”
At this, Finn digs the gun harder into the side of Ethan’s head, and in that moment, I realize Ethan was right. Finn won’t do it. If he wanted to shoot Ethan, he would have done it by now. But that’s not Finn. Sure, Finn gets angry, but he’s not a killer.
“Finn,” I finally choke out, my voice loud enough to get his attention. His blue eyes shoot to me, and he seems to make out the shape of me for the first time. Fear and worry cross his features before he straightens them again. I know he wouldn’t have let even that slip if Ethan was able to see him.
Finn’s eyes travel to my face, taking in every inch of it, and I see the barrel of the gun shift, dropping by a centimeter. “What did he do to you?” Finn whispers, and at first, I think he’s talking about the pressure I can still feel around my neck, the way my throat burns. But his eyes are up at my head, and when I lift my fingers to touch the spot that’s pulsing with pain, I realize I’m bleeding. It’s dripping down my cheek.
