Page 44 of Ruthless Desires, Vol. Two (Ruthless Desires Series Extended Editions #2)

Wren

I think I might have actually worn down the carpet in the living room from pacing so much.

For the umpteenth time, I check the clock. It’s been almost two hours since the guys said they’d be back. Maybe that’s normal, but I’m not sure. I don’t really know much about the inner workings of being a hitman, but I assume sometimes jobs take longer than anticipated.

Or they’re dead.

Just the thought has my chest tightening. I need them to come home safe. We got away with last night, but what if Ludo got angry that the guys showed up without Aubrey? Or what if they missed some key detail, and Huxley’s men got the better of them?

I pull out my phone. A couple days ago, I gave it to Ell, and he did a bunch of stuff to it. Mainly, he connected it to the house’s security system so I get alerts when someone comes onto the property. I check my notifications before the little bit of hope I was harboring deflates. Nothing.

I texted Rhett an hour ago. He always keeps his phone on silent even when he’s not working a job, so I knew I wouldn’t be disturbing him if he was in the middle of something. But it’s been long enough that I’m beginning to worry.

After opening my contacts list, my thumb hovers over Finn’s name. Elliot told me to call him if they didn’t make it back, but what qualifies as not making it back? In the grand scheme of things, maybe two hours isn’t that big of a deal.

Oh, fuck it, I need his opinion.

Finn picks up on the first ring.

“What’s wrong?”

I give him a quick rundown of the day’s events.

“It’s about two hours past when the guys said they’d be back. Is that—um, is that normal? For things to take longer than anticipated?”

“Sometimes,”

Finn says, “but… fuck. Two hours? And you haven’t heard from them at all?”

“No. I texted Rhett an hour ago, but I still haven’t heard back.”

I chew on my bottom lip while I wait for Finn to say something. When he doesn’t, I ask, “Do you think they’re in trouble?”

“They would’ve contacted you if they weren’t.”

My blood runs cold.

“I’m coming over,”

Finn says.

“Stay put, and don’t let anyone in the house except me.”

For the next twenty minutes, I do nothing but stand in the middle of the living room and stare at my phone. The air feels thinner, like someone sucked all the oxygen out of the atmosphere. I can’t catch my breath no matter how hard I try to.

The guys have always been open with me about the fact that they make mistakes. They may be excellent at their jobs, but that doesn’t mean they’re not human. The idea that this is the one that goes wrong, though…

it can’t be. It just can’t.

My screen lights up with a notification that someone is coming up the driveway. Hope floods my veins, but it dissipates as quickly as it came. If it was one of the guys, the notification would say so, but it doesn’t.

With a sigh, I move to the front of the house and peer out the window. Finn’s vehicle comes into view just as I receive an incoming call from him.

“Hello?”

“Can you open the garage door?”

“Um. Sure.”

I end the call and pull up the security app that Elliot downloaded the other day. It’s a little weird, being able to open the garage door with a tap of my finger, but maybe I’ll get used to it eventually.

By the time Finn has pulled in, I’ve made my way across the mansion and into the kitchen. The rumble of the garage door closing fills the empty house as Finn passes through the mudroom and into the kitchen.

His dark hair is disheveled, and his lips are pressed into a thin, straight line. Something glimmers in his eyes—concern, maybe?—but he squashes it quickly.

“Where’s the hard drive?” he asks.

“In the safe in Ell’s office, I think.”

Without another word, Finn spins on his heel and heads in that direction. I scurry to keep up, waiting for him to give me an explanation, but he doesn’t speak.

I frown as he punches in the code to open Elliot’s safe.

“What are you doing?”

“Making a backup.”

He grabs the drive, slides into Elliot’s chair, and logs onto his computer with a few strokes on the keyboard.

“And how do you know how to get into Elliot’s stuff?”

“I know how to get into all their stuff.”

Finally, he glances up.

“You don’t?”

In the back of my mind, a memory plays. Something about Oliver suggesting stuff like this. Updating emergency contacts, adding me to accounts, and making sure I could access everything in case something like this happened. Last I knew, the guys had started the process, but other things took priority.

“We were… working on it.”

“I’ll write everything down for you to memorize,”

Finn says absentmindedly. He’s already back to work, pulling a spare hard drive out of his jacket pocket before plugging both drives into the computer.

“Right now, we need to make sure this information stays safe.”

“Shouldn’t we try to find the guys? What if they need help?”

Finn’s expression is grim as he looks up from the monitor.

“It’s already too late.”

No. How could he know that? He can’t, right? Not for sure, at least.

But Finn nods toward Elliot’s second monitor, and hesitantly, I make my way around the desk.

He has a map pulled up, and there are three blue dots blinking on the screen. If I hadn’t spent so much time studying the blueprints, I probably wouldn’t recognize the building from a bird’s-eye view.

My blood pressure spikes.

“That’s Ludo’s mansion.”

“And those dots are their phones,”

Finn says.

“So either they’re having a long conversation with Ludo about their next steps—in which case, one of them would’ve texted you an updated arrival time—or he’s found them out somehow. In which case…”

“Don’t,”

I whisper.

“Please don’t say it out loud.”

A vein pulses above Finn’s right eyebrow.

“Run me through everything that happened yesterday. Don’t leave anything out—not even the tiny details.”

As I do, his expression goes from a light frown to a disturbed one. It more or less sends any hope I have left down the drain.

“As far as you’re aware,”

Finn says once I’m done explaining, “Axel had no prior reason to suspect you or the guys?”

“Correct. According to the conversation Oliver overheard, Axel’s accusation of us being Ludo’s rat was only because we were present during Aubrey’s attempted kidnapping. Oh, and that I got close to her.”

“Odd,”

Finn murmurs.

“You’d think he would spend his energy on more likely suspects.”

He only sits with the thought for a moment before moving on.

“You’re sure you’re not forgetting anything?”

“Positive. Running into Axel was the closest I got to getting caught.”

“Hmm.”

Finn narrows his eyes.

“It’s possible someone saw you but you didn’t see them. Or maybe Holloway’s aversion to technology is all a ruse, and he caught something on camera.”

My eyes slide back to the monitor.

“How do we know for sure? That they’re in trouble, that is?”

Finn checks his watch.

“Honestly, I’m surprised we haven’t gotten confirmation yet.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve never met Ludo, but I’ve learned a lot about him through the guys. He likes to draw out his punishments. For the guys, that means hurting Rhett’s brothers, torturing the three of them, and…”

“Hurting me,”

I finish quietly.

Finn nods solemnly.

“I’ve been waiting for you to get a text from one of the guys’ phones luring you to Ludo’s mansion. But nothing’s come through, right?”

“Right.”

My knees feel oddly weak, so I lean against the desk.

“Is there any chance you’re wrong? That maybe they’re just too distracted to text me?”

“They wouldn’t forget.”

“But maybe—”

“They wouldn’t forget.”

Finn’s voice is firm, and I almost miss the undercurrent of irritation.

“Has there ever been a moment where they didn’t consider how their actions would affect you?”

All the air rushes from my lungs. He’s right. Since day one, they’ve always made sure to take my wellbeing into account.

“We can find them, right? We can find a way to get them out of there?”

“Right now, we need to focus on your safety,”

Finn replies.

“That and making sure this information stays in our hands.”

I perk up.

“Can we use it? Could we blackmail Ludo into handing the guys over?”

Finn shakes his head.

“Ludo would only retaliate. Either by killing one of the guys or Andrew or Benny.”

“Then what can we do?”

I ask desperately.

“Wait.”

“For what?”

A ping sounds from my pocket, and Finn’s gaze locks on my phone as I check the notification.

Unknown vehicle detected in driveway.

“That,”

Finn says.

When I look up from my screen, he’s already out of the chair. He places the original hard drive back in the safe and slips the other into the inside pocket of his jacket.

“You know who it is?” I ask.

“We’ve already been over this,”

he says impatiently.

“Hurting you hurts the guys. You’re a sitting duck—or, you would be if I wasn’t here.”

My eyes widen as I glance out the window. It doesn’t face the front of the house, so it doesn’t do any good.

“He’s coming for me.”

“I’m going to need you to stay calm,”

Finn says as he drags me through the house.

“We’ll see how large the team is that he sent and come up with a plan from there. Most likely, it’s small. No one’s expecting you to put up much of a fight.”

The house is mostly dark, but the nightlights the guys bought illuminate our path well enough. Once we’re near the front door, Finn peeks out the window. He swears under his breath.

“There are three men.”

He pulls a knife from his pocket and presses it onto my palm.

“You’ll need this.”

“W-what?”

I can’t help the way my voice is laced with panic as Finn stoops down and pulls a second knife from his boot.

“Just listen. We don’t have a lot of time.”

He pushes me so I’ll be behind the door when it opens.

“Wait until all three of them are inside. It’s dark enough that they won’t see us. I’ll take the guy in the back, and you take the middle one. You’ll have to—”

“What about the guy in the front?”

“Shut up, Wren,”

he hisses.

“I’ll handle him once I’ve taken out the first guy. But I won’t be able to help you, okay? We need to keep one of them alive to try to get any information we can. I can kill the first guy quickly, but subduing the third and keeping him conscious will take me extra time. You have to act fast, and you absolutely cannot hesitate.”

Heavy footsteps sound on the sidewalk that leads to the front door. Oh my god. Oh my god.

“Stay low,”

Finn tells me quietly.

“You’re going to use the knife to cut as hard and deep as you can at the back of his leg. Get the back of his knee or his Achilles tendon, okay?”

“Okay,”

I whisper.

“He’ll fall, and then you need to slit his throat. Hard and deep, okay? Don’t leave any chance of survival.”

Can I do that? Can I kill someone?

Fuck, it’s self-defense, Wren. You have to. This is what you prepared yourself for.

“Wren,”

Finn whisper-shouts.

“I’ve got it.”

I step back and lower myself into a crouching position.

As we listen to them pick the lock, I carefully open the knife. My heart has never beat this fast before.

“You’ve got this,”

Finn whispers to me.

“Just don’t think too hard about it.”

Lucky for me, I don’t have time to think too hard. The door flies open, and three men run into the dark room. Finn grabs the last guy just as I slash the back of the second one’s leg. He cries out before falling to his knees.

My hands are shaking, but I don’t stop. I scramble to my feet, grab his hair from behind, and yank him backward. The knife slides across his throat much easier than it did his leg, and I shudder as blood spurts onto my hand.

“Motherfucker,”

Finn grunts.

“Wren, get the lights.”

I do so as quickly as I can. The lights illuminate a chilling scene—two dead men, blood everywhere, and Finn wrestling with the third guy, who’s on top of him.

Shit. He’s fighting for the upper hand, but he’s struggling.

I don’t even think. I just grab a vase from a small shelf by the door, dump out the water and flowers, and smash it over the guy’s head. The porcelain shatters as he cries out. The impact isn’t enough to knock him out, but it still disorients him.

Finn dismounts him, rolls to his feet, and pulls out his gun in a matter of seconds.

“Stay down,”

he grunts.

“Wren, get something to tie him up with.”

“Got it.”

I pick my way across the room, careful not to step on any of the shards littering the floor.

My heart sinks. That was one of Oliver’s favorite vases.

As I run upstairs, I set the thought aside. We can get him a new vase, but right now, I need to focus on helping Finn.

I grab a couple bundles of rope from Elliot’s room and dash downstairs. Finn is still holding the man at gunpoint.

“Tie him up,”

Finn tells me.

I start off cautiously, half-expecting him to attack me at any moment. But apparently, having a gun pointed at his head is enough of a deterrent. He doesn’t resist as I tie his feet together and then bind his hands behind his back.

“Look,”

the guy says, “I’ll tell you everything I know. You don’t have to hurt me.”

Finn’s eyes narrow, and he doesn’t move to lower his weapon even though the guy is restrained now.

“What’s Holloway’s plan?”

“All I know is that we were told to bring her back to his mansion.”

He nods to me.

“It was supposed to be an easy job. We thought you were alone.”

My stomach flips at the realization that I almost was alone. What would’ve happened if—

Stop. Thinking like that won’t do any good.

“Is that where Ludo is keeping the guys?”

I ask.

“At the mansion?”

“I don’t know. I wouldn’t keep them in the place I sleep, but maybe that’s Ludo’s plan. He has the manpower to have them under lock and key.”

“What’s he planning on doing with Rhett’s brothers?”

The mention of Benny and Andrew causes an unbearable ache to bloom in my chest. Rhett got the closest he’s ever been to being united with his brothers, only for Ludo to tear them from his grasp.

Finn’s voice fades. We were all so close. With the hard drive in our hands, everything was supposed to go smoothly from here. But now, I don’t know anymore.

As tears prick my eyes, I take a step back. My heel hits the arm of the man I killed, unmoving yet still warm. I stumble away, and my stomach turns as I stare at the bodies. Blood pools from underneath them, seeping into the wooden flooring.

Two minutes of planning and one of action—now I’m a killer.

A shiver runs up my spine. Taking that man’s life was so… easy.

I’ve never thought of humans as fragile. A single person can accomplish so much and accrue so much power that they almost become invincible. But all it takes is one properly placed blade, and everything comes crashing to the ground.

My gaze drifts across the room to my knife. At some point I dropped it, although I don’t remember when.

“… please just let me go. I don’t know anything else. I’m just a low-level grunt, that’s all.”

My attention snaps back to the interrogation. I didn’t realize I zoned out.

“You were going to kidnap me and bring me to a man who wants to torture and kill me, and you think we’re going to let you go?”

“I…”

His voice is weak, and his eyes turn pleading as he realizes he doesn’t have a good excuse. “Please—”

“Do you have any more questions for him?”

I ask Finn without breaking eye contact.

“We’ve gotten everything out of him that we’re going to,”

he replies.

A familiar feeling creeps through me. The first time I felt it, I’d just woken up in a hospital bed to find the man I feared most standing over me.

Back then, I dismissed it. Now, it’s so strong that I couldn’t ignore it if I wanted to.

I move across the room slowly, still not taking my eyes off my would-be kidnapper. He swallows audibly as I stoop down and retrieve my bloody knife.

Rhett once told me they’d burn the world to the ground if they ever lost me. At the time, I believed him. I still do. But what I didn’t realize then—or until right now, really—is that I’ll do the same to get them back to me, too.

I love them so much it hurts.

And nothing—fucking nothing—will get in the way of me bringing them home.