Page 13 of Undying Resilience
Oliver groans in acknowledgment that I’m right. “Wren get home okay?”
Rhett exchanges an amused glance with me. “Obviously.”
“Gotta keep her safe,” Oliver mumbles.
The room falls quiet. None of us like that we’re leaving her alone, even with Finn keeping an eye on her. Hell, I don’t like her sleeping at her apartment alone, even though it’s perfectly safe there. But it’s not like we can ask her to move in with us. It hasn’t even been two weeks since we added her to our relationship.
“Fuck.” Oliver sits up, seemingly much more awake than he was seconds ago. “Ludo was watching her. At Evolve that night, when I left her alone for a minute. I didn’t like the way he was looking at her.”
Rhett goes stiff. “What do you mean, he was watching her? How? In what way? And why didn’t you say something before now?”
“I forgot, honestly. He was looking at her like he was...” Oliver hesitates, probably worried about what Rhett’s reaction will be. “He looked interested in her.”
Rhett mutters a few choice words under his breath before he starts pacing. His body is riddled with tension. “I don’t want her anywhere near him.”
“None of us do,” I say.
Shaking his head, Rhett turns to face us. “You know how Ludo can get. He’s fucking sick. And if he has Wren in his sights—no. Just no. We have no idea what could be going through his head. What he wants.”
The three of us lapse into silence. Ludo is known for many things, but some of the more prominent rumors are ones that delve into his darker side. He loves killing—capturing his victims, toying with them, and enjoying their long, slow, helpless deaths. It’s also been said that he’s killed multiple of his romantic partners. Whatever reasons he has for taking up interest in Wren, none of them are good.
“What are you suggesting?” Oliver asks.
“We need to wrap this up quicker than originally planned.”
Another silence. Oliver and I watch Rhett carefully.
We were all heartbroken when Sammy was killed, but of course Rhett took it the hardest. He’s the one who came up with the idea of revenge. Oliver and I are completely on board, but ultimately this is for Rhett. If he wants to change things up, then we’ll follow. As long as he’s thinking straight.
Oliver breaks the silence. “To keep Wren out of danger?”
Rhett nods. “I’ve said in the past that I want to make Ludo suffer. I still do, and I still will. But priorities change. If Ludo has any kind of interest in Wren, I want him to get what he deserves as soon as possible. Sammy will still get her justice. But Wren will be safe, too.”
My mind instantly jumps into planning mode, going through all the possibilities of how we can switch up our current strategy. The idea is to tear down Ludo’s empire, to make him feel as helpless as we felt all those years ago. And then, when he’s at his lowest and he’s suffered enough, we’ll kill him.
“You’re sure you won’t regret it?” Oliver says.
Rhett works his jaw. “No. But I do know that I’ll regret drawing this out if Wren ends up hurt in the process. If she was better trained and we knew she could protect herself, then it would be a different story. But that’s not the case. And I don’t trust Ludo to stay away from her even though he knows she’s with us.”
“Timeline?” I ask.
“Six months max.”
“Fuck, Rhett.”
Our current plan for Ludo’s demise still has two years left. The idea was to draw his pain out for as long as possible. Some of it can be squeezed into a shorter time frame, but not all of it.
“I’m willing to sacrifice certain things,” Rhett says. “Mostly I just want him to feel pain. And then I want him dead.”
“Okay. I can start re-thinking things when we get back from this job. As long as—as long as you’re sure, Rhett. You’ve been waiting a decade. We all have. And once he’s gone, you can’t take it back.”
“I need to know Wren will be safe. And until Ludo is dead, I can’t guarantee that. So yes—I’m fucking positive.”
Oliver lets out a relieved breath. “I wouldn’t mind being able to move on by the end of the year.”
I nod in agreement. We all mourned Sammy’s death when we were teens, but that’s the thing about death. You never truly stop grieving. And while we’re making sure Ludo pays for what he did all those years ago, drawing out the process has been its own special kind of pain.
“Six months,” Oliver murmurs.