Page 223 of Ruthless Desires: Vol. Two

There was a part of me that wanted to delay getting the butterfly tattoo until the guys are safe, but then I realized I couldn’t wait. In a way, it helped me feel closer to them again. I’m not sure how else to explain it, other than it felt right.

It took some convincing to get Finn to let me leave the farmhouse, though. He’s been adamant that I stay hidden, and getting my tattoo has been the only exception so far. I think a part of him understood that I needed to do it. Underneath his grumpy, hard exterior, he has a heart, so we took some extra precautions for the appointment.

Once I’ve rubbed the lotion in, I move toward the kitchen to make some coffee. On my way, I pass the dining room, and I find Finn poring over a laptop. The room is dark, but the screen illuminates his pale face. His hair is mussed, and the bags under his eyes are concerningly darker than they were a few days ago.

“Hey. You want some coffee?” I ask.

He doesn’t respond—doesn’t even blink.

“Finn.”

Nothing.

With a sigh, I flip on the light switch.

“FUCK!” Finn cringes and buries his face in the crook of his elbow to shield his eyes from the light. “What the hell, Wren?”

“You weren’t answering me. Did you even go to bed last night?”

“What time is it?” Lowering his arm, Finn squints at his phone. “Shit. I thought it was, like, two.”

“You have a clock on your laptop.”

“I hid it. It was annoying me.”

“You didn’t hear Maggie whining to go outside?”

At that, he jumps to his feet. “Fuck.Fuck.”

“I let her out.” Tiredly, I lean against the doorframe. “I can feed her, too. You should get some rest.”

“Yeah, I just have to…” Finn’s gaze drops to the program he has pulled up on his laptop, but then he shakes his head and closes it out. “Never mind. It won’t do any good.”

“What?”

“I was gonna check the security footage at the house again, but it’s no use. Even if Ludo sent another team to look through everything again, they won’t find anything, nor does it really matter.”

Slowly, I nod. We’ve both been monitoring a variety of things since the guys were captured. Refreshing Aubrey’s social media, re-checking messages with Sparrow, etc. Nothing particularly helpful—it feels like we’re treading water.

“I’ll keep working,” I tell him. Last night, I was going through some of Holloway’s books, and there were some records that confused me. Initially, I brushed it off as me not being smart enough to figure out the numbers, but I want to double-check. “Maybe I’ll find something.”

“Yeah,” Finn mutters, but his tone isn’t convincing.

I get it. We’ve hit dead end after dead end, and we’re no closer to bringing the guys home. There’s so much on the hard drive, and there didn’t seem to be a good starting point. We still have an overwhelming amount of folders and files to look through.

It’s been a week since Ludo took Elliot, Rhett, and Oliver. As far as we can tell, he’s keeping them at his mansion, but we could be wrong. Our only indicator is that’s the last place we were able to track their phones to before they went offline. It’s possible Ludo is keeping them elsewhere, but if that’s the case, he hasn’t been going to see them.

Since I have to stay in hiding and Finn refuses to leave me alone, we’ve had to call in help. Sparrow has been happy to do whatever she can. She has a large network of people who owe her favors, and she wants Ludo dead just as much as the rest of us.

With her on our side, we’ve had a team of people discreetly watching Holloway’s mansion, so we know he hasn’t left since the wedding. He can’t. To everyone outside his inner circle, he’s happily on his tech-free honeymoon far from Philadelphia. We were able to get confirmation that he’s still here, but he’s keeping a low profile until the “honeymoon” is over.

Axel, however, has come and gone quite a bit. A couple nights ago, one of Sparrow’s people tailed him to a motel. Elliot was with him, and according to Sparrow’s report, he killed three people. We aren’t sure why, but I know Ludo had plans to force the guys to do certain jobs for him. I bet that was one of them.

“Were you able to get any sleep?” Finn asks. “No offense, but you look like shit.”

I snort. “Don’t look in the mirror, then.”

He grunts in response, shooting me a grumpy glare.