Page 296 of Ruthless Desires: Vol. Two

Rhett’s gaze travels from Wren to me to Oliver before he dips his head. “Fine,” he says softly. “I texted Finn last night. He’s working on learning Richard and Corinne’s schedules so we can get him at the right time. I’m thinking a staged suicide makes the most sense.”

“And what about Andrew and Benny?” Oliver asks. “They’re still missing according to the authorities.”

“That I haven’t figured out yet,” Rhett says. “I’m trying to give the boys time to decide if Benny is okay going back to Corinne after Richard is dead.”

“You think that’s a good option? We could—” I stop.

Could we?The four of us haven’t discussed it yet, but if Benny doesn’t want to live with his mother, maybe he could live with us. If we’re all on board, that is.

“We could what?” Rhett asks. “Take him in? How? Corinne has legal custody, and it doesn’t sound like it’ll be easy to prove that she’s an unfit parent. I’m not sure sheisan unfit parent.”

“But what if he wants to live with you?” Wren’s voice is soft as she looks at Rhett. “He seems to have really taken to you.”

“I… I don’t know.”

“Regardless,” Oliver says, “he has to go back to Corinne at some point. We can’t keep him here forever. He needs to go back to school, back to his friends. It’s not like we can hide him for the rest of his life.”

That seems to both relieve Rhett and worry him.

“So we wait a week or two until after Richard dies,” I say. “And then we send in an anonymous tip. We can hide the boys somewhere and let the cops find them.”

Rhett frowns. “And what do they say? That they were kidnapped for no reason?”

“It worked when I had to pretend I was kidnapped,” Wren says. “I wasn’t much help in providing information since I just told the cops I didn’t see or hear much of anything. I don’t think the case ever went anywhere.”

“The police will have questions,” I say, “but they won’t have any way to get answers. They’ll hit a dead end almost immediately upon questioning the boys.”

Oliver leans back in his chair. “Sounds like it’ll work to me.”

“We have time to iron out the details,” I add. “Especially since we’re killing Richard first. We’ll want to wait a while before sending the boys back. If the events happen too closely together, the authorities could suspect a connection—and that Richard’s suicide is staged.”

Nodding in agreement, Rhett says, “A week at least.”

“And what about Ludo?” Wren asks, glancing between us. “How long are we keeping him alive?”

“I don’t know.” With a sigh, Rhett rubs his face. “Until it feels like enough, I guess. Or until we can’t take it anymore.”

“I haven’t heard him at all,” Wren says. “I guess I expected some yelling or something, like how it was with Jordan.”

Oliver shakes his head. “Ludo is in a soundproof room.”

“Soundproof?” She raises her eyebrows, but then she smiles. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

Standing, Rhett scoops up his mug and empty sandwich wrapper. “We should check on him.”

“Where is he?” Wren asks. “The basement?”

I stand, too. “Yeah, but not where you’ve been. We’ll show you.”

“I’ll stay up here,” Oliver says quickly. “You know, in case the boys wake up.”

Rhett pauses as he sets his mug in his sink. Before now, Oliver has never expressed a desire to avoid this part of our plan. He’s been excited about it—we all have.

They still don’t know what Ludo did to him,I realize. I haven’t told Rhett or Wren, and Oliver understandably hasn’t wanted to talk about it.

“All right.” Moving back to the table, Rhett leans down and kisses Oliver’s cheek. “Whatever you need.”

At that, Oliver visibly relaxes. He turns his head and brushes his lips against Rhett’s. I drop my gaze, guilt twisting up my insides. There’s no denying that this is entirely because of me. I was foolish, and Oliver paid the price for it.