Page 45 of Ruthless Desires, Vol. Two (Ruthless Desires Series Extended Editions #2)

Elliot

The taste of failure is bitter on my tongue as I pace around my room. My cage.

It’s been over twelve hours since Holloway’s men locked us up. Night has come and gone, but I haven’t slept.

How can I?

In every possible way, we’ve failed. I’ve failed.

Not only were we unsuccessful at exacting revenge on Ludo, but we lost each other, too. Now we’re trapped. Trapped, stuck, and helpless, caught up in the web that Holloway so cleverly weaved together. We don’t even have a clue of how long we’ll be alive for.

My only solace is that it doesn’t seem like Holloway was able to capture Wren. As far as I can tell, his team didn’t even make it back after they left last night. I’m hoping Wren and Finn got away unscathed and that they’re already deep in hiding.

As for me and the guys…

How can I get us out of here?

My mind wanders to Oliver. His soft sobs drifted through the walls last night, and each one was like a stab to the heart. I’m worried about Rhett, but I’m worried about Oliver more. He doesn’t have access to his meds, and considering our situation, this will be so much worse than when he stopped taking them last time.

Lightly, I knock on the wall that separates me from Oliver. We can’t talk—Ludo and his men have made that very clear—but we seem to be able to manage this.

After a few seconds, Oliver knocks back.

Is this what we’ve been reduced to? I can’t even tell him I love him?

Overnight, the disbelief I felt has morphed into a burning rage. At Holloway, yes, but more so at myself. I’m the one who let this happen. I got so caught up in fooling Ludo that I didn’t realize he fooled me.

It was a naive mistake, and it’s cost us everything.

I hear footsteps in the hallway. A couple seconds later, my door opens, and Ludo steps in. Axel is right behind him with his dark hair pulled up into its usual bun.

Ludo’s gaze travels over my body, leaving icy dread in its wake.

“Well, you look like shit.”

I don’t respond. Don’t even blink.

With a heavy sigh, Ludo steps forward. His hands are in his pockets, and he’s watching me lazily.

I’m not a threat to him. Not anymore.

“I just want to know,”

he says after a minute.

“Was it worth it?”

“You know the answer to that.”

Ludo’s lips curve upward in a smug smirk.

“I want to hear you say it.”

I press my lips together. He’ll have to force the words out of me.

But Ludo just sighs. His annoyance is there, hidden beneath a layer of indifference that I know is completely fake. If there’s one thing I know about Redback, it’s that he’s a prideful bastard. Our betrayal cut him deep.

“Why don’t you cut the act and tell me where my hard drive is,”

Ludo bites out.

“Aubrey didn’t tell us who she sold it to.”

I don’t elaborate. Can’t. We have to stick with the story I told yesterday—that we helped Aubrey steal the hard drive and get off the property. Nothing more. It’s not even that far off from the truth.

She may not have sold the hard drive, but we really don’t know where she is. Obviously, Ludo isn’t buying it, but I’m not sure how else to sell the story, either. If I give more details, it’ll be obvious I’m lying because Rhett and Ol won’t be able to give the same information.

“Awfully convenient, don’t you think?”

Axel says. His arms are crossed over his broad chest, and he’s staring down at me like I’m nothing more than gum on his shoe.

“You forget that I know you, Hayes,”

Ludo says.

“You like to be in control—to be the planner. There’s no way you don’t know all the details.”

I shrug.

“Or maybe I trust Aubrey. I was right to do so—she followed through on her end of the deal.” A truth.

Ludo’s scowl sends satisfaction rippling through me, but it’s short-lived. He has an offer ready before I’ve even taken a breath.

“Tell me where the drive is, and I’ll let Benny go.”

Tempting—if I actually thought he’d follow through. For a brief second, I’m glad Rhett isn’t here. If Ludo presented him with that proposition, he’d have a much harder time turning him down.

“I don’t know where it is,”

I say.

“Nor do you have my trust.”

“Did I ever?”

“Does that matter now?”

Again, Ludo sighs. He shifts his feet, his irritation getting harder to hide with every passing second. He has us cornered, but he’s as well and truly fucked as we are. All his secrets are on that drive.

I didn’t have time to look through all of it, but I saw enough. Ludo has woven an intricate web of lies, deals, and secret alliances. He’s gone behind the backs of his so-called partners to make sure he always comes out on top.

It’s all cleverly done, I’ll give him that. But now that the threat of exposure is constantly looming over his head, he’s as desperate as I am. There’s no way I can tell Holloway where the drive is, so my best option is to continue feigning ignorance. Hopefully he’ll fall for it at some point.

“I’m not lying to you,”

I say, enunciating every word.

“Aubrey didn’t want us to have any information. That way, you wouldn’t be able to learn anything if something like this happened. I thought it was a smart idea.”

Axel narrows his eyes as he scrutinizes my expression. Just as he opens his mouth to speak, Ludo cuts him off.

“I’ve sent men to search your house. They’ll find it.”

“What about the men you sent last night?”

I can’t hold back the slight taunt in my tone.

When Ludo doesn’t respond immediately, relief billows through me. I already had my suspicions when I saw a team leave last night and not return, but this confirms it.

Wren is safe. We told her to contact Finn if something went wrong, and he won’t let anything happen to her. Not again.

It also means that, most likely, the hard drive isn’t even where I left it. We need it, and Finn knows the code to the safe. He probably grabbed it before he and Wren ran. I hope.

“What happened to my men is none of your business,”

Ludo snaps.

“I will find Wren, and when I do, you’ll regret ever getting involved with her.”

“And in the meantime?” I ask.

“In the meantime,”

he bites out, “you’ll do exactly what I tell you to or suffer the consequences.”

There it is. I haven’t forgotten that Holloway’s original plan was to use Benny as leverage. We haven’t known what for, but I have a feeling that’s about to change.

“And what exactly are you going to have me do?”

He smiles.

“What you’re best at.”

It’s what I expected, but still, it doesn’t add up. Until the wedding, he trusted us, so why use Benny as leverage?

Unless…

My chest tightens. “Who?”

“You’ll learn that when the time comes.”

I’m in no position to demand answers, so I turn away. Irrational ideas fill my head—ones of taking both of them on at once and killing Ludo here and now. It’d never work—they both have weapons, and my lack of sleep only puts me at more of a disadvantage.

Ludo moves toward the door, but then he stops. When he turns around to face me again, he’s schooled his expression. The previous frustration and anger are long gone. “Why?”

he asks.

“Why’d you do it?”

I shrug.

“Same reason we took jobs from you. The money was good.”

He narrows his eyes.

“You’re really going to stick with that?”

“We have no reason to lie.”

“But you have no reason to tell the truth, either,”

Ludo replies, his voice much louder than it needs to be.

“Well, you don’t. I need you and Rhett in good condition. Oliver, on the other hand…”

The air rushes from my lungs.

“What are you going to do to him?”

Ludo chuckles, and his smile sends a chill down my spine. He doesn’t say anything, instead opening the door and stepping out.

Panicked thoughts race through my head. I’m moving before I can stop myself, but Axel steps in front of me, blocking my path. His jaw is set, his expression hard, but there’s no pleasure in his eyes the way there is in Ludo’s. When he places a hand on my shoulder, his grip is firm but not forceful.

“You know better than this,”

he says lowly.

“Get some sleep, Hayes,”

Ludo tells me boredly.

“You’ll need to be fully rested for your first job. Trust me, you won’t like what’ll happen if you fuck it up.”

Releasing me, Axel spins on his heel and exits the room. The door slams shut behind him and Ludo, leaving me with my hands balled into tight fists. I don’t move—don’t make a sound—as I listen for them to open Oliver’s door. Instead, their footsteps recede down the hallway.

Are they not going to ask him the same questions they asked me? Ludo said he would. It would be stupid not to.

Although…

Ludo knows about Oliver’s anxiety. For the last portion of our conversation, Ludo raised his voice much more than he needed to. I thought he was trying to intimidate me, but maybe it was so his voice would carry into Oliver’s room.

When he said he didn’t need to keep Oliver in good condition, my thoughts immediately went to the physical. But Ludo has the power to do twice as much damage if he lets Oliver sit in fear and dread first.

Holloway is fucking with his mind.

Goddammit. Going off his meds so abruptly is bad enough. Why this, too?

I have to get him out of here.

Ludo said I’ll be going on a job. It’s not freedom, but it’s as close as I can get. If I can find a way to contact Finn, I could…

Could what? You can’t do anything until Benny is safe.

For a split second—one that immediately fills me with shame—I wonder if Rhett would forgive me if I let his brothers die. It would be so much simpler if I only had to focus on me, Ol, and Rhett. But I can’t. Even if I was sure Rhett would forgive me, I can’t leave two kids at the mercy of the cruelest man I’ve ever met. I refuse to stoop to Holloway’s level of selfishness.

No. It has to be all of us, and it’s on me to figure out a way to get us out of this before it’s too late.