Page 286 of Ruthless Desires: Vol. Two

“You don’t have to make excuses,” Elliot says on a laugh. “There’s a lot of us.”

“Told you they wouldn’t mind.” Sparrow smirks and elbows Finn.

“We’re going to a mansion?” Benny asks cautiously. “Mr. Holloway’s mansion?”

“No.” Rhett is sitting next to Benny, so he squeezes his arm reassuringly. “It’s our home.”

“We’re staying with you?”

“For now,” Andrew answers darkly, wiping off the relieved look from Benny’s face. “We still have to figure out how to transfer your custody to me.”

Rhett schools his expression immediately. None of us have talked about it, but I think we’re all on the same page. Andrew is too young—and much too immature—to take care of a twelve-year-old.

“We’ll get that sorted soon enough,” Elliot says. “For now, we can keep you both hidden and safe.”

Andrew doesn’t respond. I’m not really sure where his loyalties lie, although I don’t think they’re with Ludo anymore. That doesn’t mean they’re with us, though.

I exchange a suspicious glance with Rhett. Something is up with him. Whatever it is, Andrew had better not try to fuck us over.

I’m done with people trying to hurt us.

Chapter twenty-five

Rhett

After cleaning up from breakfast, we say goodbye to Aubrey and Sparrow. I hate how sad it makes Wren, but I’m hoping we’ll be able to cheer her up soon. Now that we’re free, I just want to put this all behind us.

Well, except torturing Ludo.ThatI plan to draw out for as long as I can. I won’t make it last forever—having him in the house will put a strain on all of us, I’m sure. But that doesn’t mean I’ll go easy on him.

He has a lifetime of pain to make up for.

Finn, Meredith, Oliver, and Elliot stay behind to deal with Ludo. I go with Wren to get the boys to the house. The plan is to keep them so distracted with getting their rooms ready that Benny doesn’t even notice the others bringing Holloway inside.

When we get to the house, everything looks fine from the outside. Makes sense—Holloway’s men at least know better than to draw unnecessary attention. Once we get inside, though, the mess is noticeable immediately.

All of the kitchen cabinets are open, although most of the dishes are unbroken, thank fuck. A couple chairs are knocked over, and the trash has been sitting for long enough that it smells awful.

The rest of the house is mostly the same. Ludo’s men broke a couple things, but for the most part, they were intent on looking for the hard drive. We can deal with overturned furniture and flipped mattresses without too much work.

“What happened here?” Benny asks as we make our way through the house.

“Ludo sent his men here to look for something,” I say.

“Did they find it?”

“No. Finn hid it elsewhere when we were taken.”

Thankfully, he doesn’t ask more questions about Holloway. I know he has them, but maybe the tiredness in my voice is deterring him.

There are two guest rooms on the first floor. They’re not technically bedrooms, but that’s what we decided to turn them into. Normally, Maria and Meredith spend Christmas Eve with us, and that’s where they sleep. I figure the boys can stay in them until we figure out how to deal with the custody situation.

It doesn’t even take an hour to right all the furniture in their rooms and show the boys around the house. When I hear the garage door opening, I take them into the library, where we stay until Elliot finds us.

He nods silently to me, signaling that Ludo is locked up again.

“The house doesn’t look too bad,” I say. “Not much of anything is broken.”

“I’m glad Finn had the foresight to collect our computers.” Elliot rubs his face. “Imagine if they’d stolen all of it.”