Page 57 of Ruthless Desires, Vol. Two (Ruthless Desires Series Extended Editions #2)

Wren

The porch swing sways slightly as Aubrey and I slowly catch up over coffee. The morning air carries a chill to it, but with the blanket settled over our laps and hot mugs in our hands, we’re staying warm enough.

Last night, Aubrey and I only talked for a minute before Finn forced us to go to sleep. I was so tired that I don’t even remember climbing into bed.

Sparrow agreed to bring Aubrey back on two conditions. First, that she stays with Aubrey at all times, and second, that Aubrey doesn’t risk going out in public. When Aubrey found out what happened, she was more than happy to comply with those.

“I’m happy Finn asked Sparrow if I could come back for you,”

Aubrey says as she places one of her hands over mine. She has her curls up in a cloud-like bun, although she left some out to frame her face.

My heart warms. I didn’t realize he’s the one who made this happen.

“How was Elliot?” she asks.

“He was…”

My hand tightens around my mug.

“He was broken up. He told us that he got caught sneaking into Oliver’s room, and that Ludo punished Oliver for it instead of Elliot. He didn’t elaborate, but he was crying, Aubrey. He said Oliver was in so much pain—that he couldn’t bear to watch it happen again.”

“God,”

Aubrey whispers.

“I’m so sorry, Wren.”

Maggie is sniffing around in the backyard, and I watch her. If I look at Aubrey, I’ll see how worried she is, and then I’ll start crying again. It’s not that Aubrey wouldn’t understand, but I’m just so tired of all the tears.

“I’m worried that Holloway will torture him again before we can save them,”

I mutter.

“Or that he’ll kill them before the meeting. I don’t think I could go on if I lose them.”

“You’ll get them out,”

Aubrey says firmly.

“If there’s one thing I know about Ludo, it’s that he likes to draw the pain of his enemies out. He’s probably enjoying the fact that the guys are terrified. The longer they sit in it, the more scared they’ll be. He knows that.”

“I hope so.”

A gust of wind sends a shiver through me, so I take a slow sip of my coffee. For a few minutes, we sit in silence, watching the sun peek over the trees.

“How’ve things been for you?”

I ask. It’s only been a couple weeks, but I’ve missed Aubrey so much, and I’m curious how her new life has been treating her.

“All right. I love my new apartment. It has a view of the ocean, and I put my writing desk right in front of a window.”

She giggles.

“I’ve been doing more staring out and watching the waves than writing. Might have to move my workspace to a different spot without the view.”

“Have you made any friends?”

“I think so,”

she says.

“My neighbors are really nice. They’re an older couple, and they both love to knit, which I think is adorable.”

“That is,”

I say with a smile.

Aubrey looks like she’s about to go on, but Finn steps onto the back porch, his tablet in his hand. Immediately, Maggie bounds over to us, her tail wagging back and forth.

Pausing, Finn takes a second to scratch behind her ears. When he straightens, his expression is grim.

“We have a problem.”

Dread knots my stomach. No, no, no.

Finn strides over to us before holding out the tablet for us to see. He has the security footage from the guys’ mansion pulled up.

An unfamiliar sedan is parked in the driveway, and a woman is marching up the path to the front door.

“Do you know who that is?”

I ask, absentmindedly petting Maggie.

“Meredith Moore—Oliver’s mom.”

My stomach drops. What if Holloway has men keeping an eye on the place? What if they take her since they can’t get their hands on me?

“I knew this would happen,”

Finn mutters.

“Oliver is close to his family. It’s been too long since she’s heard from him last. You need to contact her before she goes to the police.”

“Me? What the hell am I supposed to say?”

“I’ve only met Meredith once, and she doesn’t like me much, so it can’t be me.”

Finn has already closed the app for the security system and opened up a browser. Within seconds, he has her address pulled up, along with her phone number.

“You need to tell her something.”

“Like what? It can’t be the truth!”

“Think of something. Once she’s off the property, you’re calling her and scheduling a time to meet.”

“To meet? Where?”

At that, Finn pauses. There’s no way he’ll want her coming over here. In his mind, that would mean the farmhouse is forever compromised, and we’d have to move on. There’s his cabin, but I don’t think he’ll want to reveal its location, either.

“It can’t be somewhere public,”

I say. We can’t be too careful.

“But if she’s being followed—”

“I know.”

“Can’t we just talk over the phone?”

“If she freaks out, we need to be able to contain her reaction.”

I blink. Contain her reaction? What the fuck is that supposed to mean? “You’re not talking about killing her, are you?”

“What? Jesus, Wren. No! I’m not killing Oliver’s mother.”

“Okay,”

I say slowly.

“Then what does containing her mean?”

“Potential…”

Finn grimaces.

“Potential kidnapping?”

“Got it. Killing Meredith is off the table, but deeply traumatizing her is still okay.”

My tone is dry as I level him with an annoyed glare.

“Listen, I never said I was perfect, okay? But if she doesn’t believe your cover story and she ends up going to the authorities, we’re all in deep shit, you understand? That adds a level of complications that I’m not sure we can get out of. We have to tread carefully.”

“I suppose the guys told me she’ll do anything for her kids.”

“Exactly. And I don’t want to deal with babysitting her if she decides to take matters into her own hands.”

“Okay. So I tell her the guys went on a last-minute business trip. That’s normal enough, right?”

“And why wouldn’t he be answering his phone?”

“He lost it?”

Finn shakes his head.

“She’s close with Elliot and Rhett, too. There has to be a reason why they’ve all stopped contacting her suddenly. One that doesn’t set off any alarm bells in her head.”

“Or…?”

“Or we’ll have to contain her.”

“Right,”

I mutter. I don’t like that option.

“What about Maria?”

“Let’s just deal with Meredith first. We can set up a meeting. Does she like hiking?”

“How am I supposed to know?!”

“She likes hiking now.”

He taps away at the tablet before angling the screen toward me. He has a park pulled up.

“You’ll tell her to meet you here on Trail B.”

“Why there?”

“Because we can get to it through the woods out back. If anyone’s watching her or tracking her car, it’ll look like she went on a hike by herself and then went home. Where’s the phone I gave you?”

“I have it here.”

Careful not to spill my coffee, I fish it from my pocket.

“Got it.”

He’s staring at his tablet again, frowning.

“Okay, looks like she’s about to leave. Call her now.”

After exchanging a worried glance with Aubrey, I dial the phone number Finn gives me. Meredith picks up on the first ring.

“Hello?”

“Um… hi. Meredith, I—”

“Who is this?”

“It’s Wren. Oli—”

“Where’s Oliver?”

she asks immediately.

My heart is beating rapidly as I try to keep my voice even.

“We need to talk. Can you meet me?”

“When?”

“Now would be great,”

I say, glancing at Finn, who nods. I tell her where to meet me, praying she won’t find it suspicious that I’m asking her to meet me in the middle of the woods.

“I can be there in forty-five minutes,”

Meredith says.

“Okay, that sounds—”

The line goes dead, and disappointment winds through me. It’s stupid, but I guess I was hoping for her to sound happier that we finally get to meet. Under these circumstances, though, I’m not particularly happy either.

“She’s coming?”

Finn asks.

I nod.

“She sounds angry, but yeah, she’ll meet me.”

“At least she cares enough about Oliver to look for him like this,”

Aubrey says softly.

Finn grunts in response.

“Life is a lot easier when you don’t have all these people who care about you,”

he grumbles, but there’s a strange undercurrent to his voice. Jealousy, maybe?

No, I realize. Longing.

For all his talk about working alone, Finn has adjusted quite well to having me around twenty-four-seven. I’m curious about his past, like if he had siblings or if he had any close friends before the guys, but I don’t ask. This isn’t the time, nor does he seem like the type who opens up easily.

“Get ready to go,”

Finn says.

“The hike will take a while.”

***

I wait in the woods by myself, leaning against a tree and scanning the path for Meredith. Finn is somewhere out of sight. When I asked why he can’t wait with me, he said he doesn’t want to deal with Meredith yelling at him.

Not what I want to hear.

Shifting nervously, I go over what I’m planning on telling her. It’s pretty easy since it doesn’t involve lying at all. Finn will probably kill me, but I’m following my gut on this one. I have to.

Since I haven’t met Meredith, I’m judging her character solely based off what the guys have told me about her. She sounds tough as steel, impossibly determined, and fiercely protective of her children.

It’s what made me land on the decision to tell her the truth. If she understands the whole situation, then she’ll realize she needs to step back and let our plan unfold as-is. It’s the smartest option, and she cares about Oliver, so she won’t want to get in the way and potentially mess things up.

That’s what I’m counting on, anyway.

Whatever issues she has with Finn won’t help things, considering I need her to trust us. I’m hoping that she can trust me, though—or at least trust that the guys trust me.

What if she hates me?

Not what you should be thinking of right now, Wren.

When Meredith comes into view, she’s walking cautiously up the path. Her eyes sweep over the forest before they lock on me, and a chill settles over me.

I thought the first time I met Meredith, she’d smile, and we’d hug, and we’d have some awkward small talk before we got comfortable with each other. But she’s not smiling. Her brows are pulled down, and her lips are pressed together into a thin line.

As she moves toward me with careful steps, my heart rate picks up. Her glare is murderous, and her hand is resting on a gun that’s holstered at her hip.

Does she think I have something to do with Oliver’s disappearance?

You do, I remind myself. This is all your fault.

“Where the hell is my son?”

Meredith demands. She comes to a stop in front of me, and I’m struck by how similar her and Oliver look. He has her eyes, although at the moment, Meredith’s are void of the warmth I’m so used to.

“I…”

My words catch in my throat. God, I miss him.

“You were cryptic enough on the phone,”

she snaps.

“Tell me where Oliver is, and tell me now.”

“He’s gone,”

I whisper. It’s the best I can manage for the moment. I wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of emotions that come with the way I keep seeing Oliver in every move she makes.

At the tears in my eyes, Meredith’s hard glare fades. She opens her mouth, an apology written on her face, but then she shakes her head.

“What do you mean, he’s gone?”

Her voice isn’t as harsh now.

“I need more details.”

Just take a couple deep breaths. It’ll be okay. On some level, I understand that her impatience is due to fear, not hate. She’s worried for her son, just like I am.

“He was… taken,”

I say, trying to gather my thoughts. I planned what I was going to tell her down to the word, but now my thoughts are so scattered.

“And the others?”

she asks, her voice rising with alarm.

“Where are Elliot and Rhett?”

“They were taken, too.”

Digging my fingernails into my palms, I blink back my tears, trying to calm my nerves.

“We’ve been trying to get them back.”

“We?”

Meredith asks.

“Me and Finn.”

She narrows her eyes.

“Is he the cause of all this? I knew he couldn’t be trusted. I knew—”

“It’s my fault,”

I blurt.

“They were taken because of me.”

Shit, shit, shit. I really shouldn’t’ve started off with that. Now she’s gonna want to kill me.

But Meredith just stares at me in shock.

“Your fault? What did you do?”

I swallow.

“I think… I think I should start from the beginning.”

“By all means.”

She crosses her arms, watching me through narrowed eyes.

“When Sammy was killed, the guys couldn’t let it go. Rhett… Rhett especially.”

Meredith’s face falls, but she stays silent.

“It took them a long time to find the man who shot her—a man named Ludo Holloway.”

“They found him?”

she asks, her voice weighed down with years of grief.

“Yes. They’ve been working to get closer to him for some time now, and they’ve been planning his downfall for years.”

Meredith scoffs.

“With what time? They’re so busy with work that they—”

She pauses, realization crossing her features.

“They’re not investment bankers, are they?”

I shake my head.

“It was their cover. They didn’t want to lie to you, I promise, but they didn’t want to worry you.”

“And now?”

“They got caught,”

I say, “and Holloway captured them.”

Despair bleeds onto Meredith’s features. Sammy wasn’t her daughter by blood, but it sounds like they were close. This probably feels like losing another child.

“Who is he? What’ll he do to them?”

“He’s a mob boss—a powerful one. He hasn’t killed them yet, but that’s his eventual plan.”

“And this is all your fault how?” she asks.

“Because I’m the reason they got caught. And now—and now they’re the ones paying for it instead of me.”

Meredith’s jaw clenches, but she doesn’t rip into me the way I’ve been expecting.

“This Ludo Holloway,”

she says.

“Do you know where he’s keeping the boys?”

“I do.”

Her gaze sharpens, her posture straightening. “Where?”

“Wren, don’t.”

Finn steps out from behind a tree.

“You,”

Meredith seethes.

“Were you involved in this?”

“I’m helping to rescue them,”

Finn says irritatedly.

“But no, I had very little to do with their capture. I’m not the bad influence you think I am.”

“You got Oliver hurt!”

“Once! And it wasn’t even that bad.”

Finn turns to me and rolls his eyes.

“Last time I ever try to teach someone how to do a backflip.”

I blink. What? He’s got to be joking. That’s why Meredith doesn’t like him?

“He had to go to the hospital!”

Meredith exclaims.

“Yeah, well, I thought he’d be better at it than he was.”

Meredith bites back her retort, waving a hand at Finn dismissively.

“Whatever. That’s not what matters right now. We need to find them.”

“We already have a plan in place,”

I tell her.

“They’ll be home in a couple days.”

“A couple days? This man wants to kill them!”

“We have reason to believe he won’t yet,”

Finn says.

“The situation is… complicated. We have to move carefully, or there’ll be more collateral damage.”

“But—”

“We have to wait,”

he snaps.

“That’s not negotiable.”

Meredith looks ready to strangle Finn, but instead she takes a deep breath and releases it slowly.

“What can I do to help?”

Crossing his arms, Finn glares down at her.

“We have this under control, and we don’t need someone getting in our way.”

“What, you expect me to stand by and do nothing? My son’s life is at stake!”

“And you’ll be putting it even more at stake by getting involved,”

Finn snaps.

“Let the professionals handle this.”

“The professionals,”

Meredith says flatly.

“What exactly do you do?”

She turns to me.

“And you? Aren’t you a barista?”

“She’s not helping, either,”

Finn says.

“Not more than she already has.”

“Wait, what?”

I turn to him.

“I’m not coming with you?”

“I can’t divert half my attention to keeping you safe,”

he replies apologetically.

“If you were further along in your training, then it’d be a different story, but—”

“No! I can help. At least with getting the money from the storage units. I know I can’t help during the ambush, but you’re going to need a getaway driver. Can’t I—”

“And if someone sees you?”

“I just won’t be seen!”

Finn shakes his head.

“I can handle being the driver.”

Crossing my arms, I glare up at him.

“You know you’ll have to get out of there as soon as possible. You need someone else.”

“If she needs protection, I can provide that,”

Meredith says. She’s standing taller now, her expression confident.

“You?”

Finn spits out.

“Haven’t you worked as a nurse for most of your life?”

“I had a second job in security when Oliver was in high school,”

Meredith replies coolly.

“I can guard Wren while she waits in the car.”

“That sounds like a good option to me,”

I say.

“It’ll be safe and efficient. You know we can’t stick around to get caught by the cops. Not with the amount of gunshots there’ll be.”

Gritting his teeth, Finn glances between the two of us. I’m sure he wasn’t expecting Meredith and I to team up like this, but for the moment, we have a common goal.

And hopefully it’ll make her like me.

Oh my god, Wren. Priorities!

“I’ll think on it,”

he grits out.

“No,”

I say.

“You’re not the only one who gets to make decisions here. Just think, Finn. Three of you are going to be in the unit, and two of you are going to be waiting on the roof of the next building. Once the shots are fired, you’re going to have to move fast. If we’re already in the vehicle, we can drive right up to the unit, you guys can pile in, and we can be out in no time.”

Finn just sighs.

“Based on my limited knowledge of your plan, Wren is right,”

Meredith says.

“My son has been through enough, and so have Elliot and Rhett. I don’t want the police anywhere near them. We need to be long gone by the time they show up.”

Finn is glowering, but it’s not like he can stop us. At least, I hope he doesn’t try to.

“Maybe you should stay with us,”

I blurt, turning to Meredith.

“Just in case Ludo’s men were watching the guys’ house. They tried to kidnap me, and they might do the same to you.”

“I can come pick you up later,”

Finn says, “but we need to make sure no one’s been following you.”

Meredith rolls her eyes.

“I know how to lose a tail. Just tell me what address to head to, and I can be there by tonight.”

“No,”

Finn bites out.

“I’ll come to you. I’m already compromising enough.”

“Fine. But give me an hour or so to pack.”

Meredith turns to me, and my breath catches at the warmth in her eyes.

“I’m sorry I was so short earlier. My children are my world and my first priority.”

“It’s—”

“And that extends to you,”

she continues, reaching out and taking my hand in hers.

“I know you weren’t ready to meet yet, so I’m especially sorry it had to happen like this, but it’s good to finally put a face to your name.”

“You, too,”

I say thickly. Some of the weight on my shoulders dissipates at her smile.

“I’ll see you both soon,”

she says, turning to Finn.

“I’m assuming I don’t need to tell you where I live?”

“I’ll be there in two hours,”

Finn replies.

With a nod, Meredith turns and heads back the way she came.

I slump against the tree again and let out a long, relieved breath. That went better than I hoped it would.

“You could’ve told me you were planning on telling her the truth,”

Finn grits out.

“Would you have tried to stop me?”

He huffs.

“Whatever. Let’s go.”

After giving Meredith one last glance, I turn to follow Finn. My heart feels lighter on our walk back.

Two days. And then they’re home again.