Page 26 of Stockholm (Angel of Mercy #1)

“I still can’t believe you took this well-thought out plan we’ve worked on for so long and just casually tacked on a kidnapping side-plot because you liked him.” I’m joking, but also not because it’s crazy.

He smirks, turning on the stool to face me fully.

“It’s your fault for bringing me on your surveillance trip.

If I hadn’t seen him walking into the bank in those fucking dress pants he wouldn’t be here right now.

” His smile fades, as he peeks back at Bo.

“I get it was impulsive. But knowing what we know now, I could never regret it, okay? This shit with him and Eric could help turn your girl in our favor, you know. If we decided to tell her.”

I say nothing, stuck on the way he referred to Emma as “my girl.” Only Jesse is aware how deeply I’d followed her, watched her for months.

It went beyond what was necessary. All those days she’d spent alone at the house didn’t exactly get me any more information on Eric.

I’d hated her so much at the time, and yet I’d kept going back over and over.

She had felt me, looking over her shoulder as if she could feel my presence. As if we’d already been bonded somehow.

Fate, or something equally ridiculous .

“That should be Bo’s decision. It’s his story, and you know we never force victims to talk.” I say, though Jesse knows the rules Mercy has for dealing with the victims we save just as well as I do. “It will be good for them both to see each other.”

“Are you worried at all about starting to give her her freedom?”

I ponder that, then shrug. “She believes the police will show up here any minute.” I pin him with an amused expression. “I don’t think she’d get very far if she tried to run, considering she’s got no shoes and a tiny dress against one hundred acres of forest.”

His attempt to look innocent falls flat. “What? I packed her bag with you in mind. I know how much you loved watching her in them.”

A knock at the door interrupts us and Jesse pulls a gun from his back waistband and moves toward it, checking the cameras before undoing the locks and swinging it open. Bo eyes him warily as he does so.

Two of my father’s men walk in, the youngest carrying several grocery bags which he places on the counter. His cropped blonde hair is darkened with sweat, sticking to his neck.

“What’s up, Jesse,” he says, sounding out of breath.

“Landon, why do you look like you ran all the way in from the main road?” Jesse asks, going through the grocery bags.

He snorts, tilting his head back at the man behind him. “This guy had me push him out of a rut on the road in here. Then I had to carry all this shit by myself.”

My father’s right hand man, Patrick, ignores this and spots Bo on the couch, nervously watching the newcomers.

“Any reason your captive is free-roaming the first floor?” Patrick asks me quietly, and I see Bo shove his head back into the novel he’s reading, foot starting to tap. Jesse slips away from the kitchen to sit next to him on the couch.

“He’s Jesse’s plus one,” I explain, shrugging. “Wasn’t even supposed to be here but you know how he is.”

Pat nods, because he does. Basically family to us, he’s been privy to every bit of information the Finch family has shared since my father started the organization as a young man .

“Your dad might not be too pleased about that when he finds out,” he says, watching Jesse rubbing Bo’s leg, who blushes and kicks the hand away.

“He hasn’t come down yet. I’ll talk to him when he does.”

He nods absently, looking at Landon as he unpacks the groceries and puts them in the cupboards. “How’s the girl?”

“We’re breadcrumbing her information to make her turn on Eric.”

“Good,” he says. He might not be blood, but he hates Eric and his circle just as much as we do. “It’s been busy without you and Jesse able to take some of the jobs but this is worth it. Lily is worth it. That fucker has gone too long without paying for what he did.”

I nod, watching Jesse. He’s smiling at Bo, who’s biting a smile of his own. Jesse had been so bitterly angry the last year that seeing his smile has loosened a nervous knot in my chest. Briefly, I’d thought that Lily’s death might trigger his largest spiral, one he might not come back from.

He just needs someone that accepts him in his full intensity, which is admittedly not an easy task. But maybe Bo is the one who could.

Patrick passes along the info on Eric and I absorb everything, committing it to memory. From what he describes we are right on track. Eric’s basically designing his own downfall by working with Bundy, the greediest, morally corrupt man I’ve come across in my line of work.

First we’d take Eric down, then start on all his little fucking henchmen friends.

We had contracts for days on the group of them, seeing as how they’d gotten so deep into trafficking.

Sitting around in their suits and cigars, ordering girls to be brought to them like they’re Kings.

Not thinking anybody would have the guts to want them to pay.

It makes me fucking sick. It makes me sick that someone like that had Emma so tightly in his grip. She was just…too good for that.

Doesn’t matter, she has me now. I might not marry her, but I’ll make her feel better than he ever could .

“This guy,” Patrick starts, eyeing Jesse as he kicks back on the couch, dragging Bo toward him by his ankle. “No sense at all.”

I shrug. “To be honest, I’m not worried. Bo’s got his own reasons to want Eric to go down. Him and Jesse have that in common and it seems to have bonded them. But you know I’m always watching out for him.”

He nods, hitting the counter top with finality. “You got it. We’ve got more stops to hit. Let us know if you need anything and we’ll be out. Come on kid,” he says to Landon, who’d fixed his gaze on Jesse before nodding his head at us and turning to leave.

“That guy was intimidating,” Bo says from the couch, smacking Jesse’s hand away as it creeps up the inside of his leg.

“He’s not so bad, just old school,” Jesse says.

“When I was a kid I used to wait for him to pull in the drive here and hide behind a tree and shoot his tires out with my BB gun.” He rests his head on Bo’s knees, looking up at him with a dreamy smile.

“Good times. He used to chase me down but he was so slow.”

The memory is sour with the reminder of Lily. She’s been right there with us, in the woods here and at the other houses, wreaking havoc. She would toddle behind the cousins, trying to keep up with the mischievousness.

“Emma won’t be a problem, you know. If you let her out. If you give her a little freedom. I promise, she can just stay with me so she’s not all alone. I hate the thought she’s been locked in that room the whole time.”

“That is traditionally how you handle a captive,” I say darkly, eyeing Jesse who simply shrugs.

“I’m not sorry. I didn’t want to sit in that room with him all day either. Fucking depressing,” he says, plucking Bo’s book out of his hand. Bo takes the pillow he’s been resting his head on and swings wildly, smacking Jesse in the back of the head.

His mouth drops open. “Oh, you’ve fucking done it now, B.” In a flash, Bo is under Jesse, who’s pinned him with his hips.

“I said stop calling me that,” Bo says, groaning as Jesse locks him in, his mouth moving to his neck.

“Mm, what about…Bowie? Bowtie?”

Bo rolls his eyes. “Those are kid names.”

“You’re only twenty-seven, little Bo. I could call you Rainbo,” he snickers.

“You could just call me Bo, also,” he says, eyes rolling as Jesse tugs his earlobe into his mouth.

“Okay, Bodhi,” Jesse says, and rolls his hips against Bo, making him shiver.

Briefly, I wonder if I should snag Emma now, so she can see just how normal Bo’s life here is. She’d like that.

I check the camera on my phone and she’s out of the shower, brushing her hair on her bed. She looks lonely.

“I’m getting Emma, don’t fuck on the couch, please. She might need a minute before she witnesses that.”

Jesse growls, rolling his body all the way over Bo’s and pinning him down, taking his mouth with his.

I have to admit they look good together.

Jesse and I have been as close as brothers the majority of my life, and with that has come a lot of joint adventures.

I’ve seen him fuck in the strangest of places, and we’ve hooked up with people at the same time.

We weren’t shy at all, but our families had raised us to be pretty open about sex. It just wasn’t a taboo topic for us.

On the far opposite side of the spectrum, was Emma. After researching her parents extensively, I doubt her parents had ever had an open conversation with her about it. And for some reason, her fucking pig of a husband, treated her like glass.

I’d never looked forward to revenge as much as I am with Eric. Despite what he had done to our family, this is one I can savor. The things I do to make him crazy are going to make me feel so fucking good.

The focus of my entire body and mind is stuck on debasing Emma. To dirty her up, and make her love every second of it.